Crimean Tatar (Qırımtatar tili/Къырымтатар тили)

Crimean Tatar is a member of the Kypchak branch of Turkic languages. There are about 300,000 speakers of this language in Crimea, Central Asia, mainly in Uzbekistan, and also in Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria.

Crimean Tatar (Qırımtatar tili, Qırımtatarca) is also known as Crimean (Qırım tili, Qırımca) or Crimean Turkish (Qırım Türkçesi).

Crimean Tatar has been written with the Perso-Arabic script, the Latin alphabet between 1928 and 1938, the Cyrillic alphabet from 1938 to the 1990s, and the Latin alphabet since then, though the Cyrillic alphabet is still used by some people.

Crimean Tatar alphabets

Arabic alphabet for Crimean Tatar

Latin alphabet for Crimean Tatar (Qırımtatar elifbası)

Cyrillic alphabet for Crimean Tatar (Къырымтатар элифбасы)

Notes

There is vowel harmony in Crimean Tatar: front vowels are e (э/е), i (и), ö (о/ё) and ü (у/ю), and back vowels are a (а), ı (ы), o (о) and u (у).
ий (iy) = [i:] in Arabic and Persian loan words
я/â = [ʲa] in Arabic and Russian loan words
ж, ц and щ are only used in Russian loan words

Sample text in Crimean Tatar

Latin alphabet

Bütün insanlar ür, sayğı ve uquqlar itibarı ile musaviy doğalar. Aqıl ve vicdanğa saipler ve bir-birlerine qarşı ağa-qardaşlıq fikirnen areket etmelidirler.

Cyrillic alphabet

Бутюн инсанлар урь, сайгъы ве укъукълар итибары иле мусавий догъалар. Акъыл ве видждангъа саиплер ве бир-бирлерине къаршы агъа-къардашлыкъ фикирнен арекет этмелидирлер.

Tower of Babel in Crimean Tatar

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)