16th edition

US$ 100.00

Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Europe > Russian Federation (Europe) > Tatar

Tatar

A language of Russian Federation (Europe)

ISO 639-3: tat

Population	5,350,000 in Russian Federation (2002 census). 24,668 Kreshen (Kryashen) Tatars, who are traditionally Russian Orthodox. Population total all countries: 6,496,600.
Region	Tatarstan and Bashkortostan Republics; St. Petersburg and Moscow to eastern Siberia. Also in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkey (Europe), Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United States, Uzbekistan.
Language map	European Russia
Alternate names	Tartar
Dialects	Middle Tatar (Kazan), Western Tatar (Misher), Eastern Tatar (Siberian Tatar). Eastern Tatar is divided into 3: Tobol-Irtysh, Baraba, and Tom. Tobol-Irtysh is divided into 5: Tyumen, Tobol, Zabolotny, Tevriz, and Tara (Tumasheva). Mixed dialects are: Astrakhan, Kasimov, Tepter, and Ural (Poppe). 43,000 Astrakhan have assimilated to the Middle dialect. Kasim (5,000) is between Middle and Western Tatar. Tepter (300,000) is reportedly between the Tatar and Bashkort [bak] languages.
Classification	Altaic, Turkic, Western, Uralian
Language use	In the Republic of Tatarstan it is the official language, along with Russian, and it is taught in primary and secondary schools. Also used by the Karatai (different from Karata [kpt]), ethnically Erzya people who speak Tatar. All domains. All ages. Positive attitude. Many bilingual in Russian.
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: High. Magazines. Newspapers. Radio programs. TV. Dictionary. Grammar. NT: 2001 (Tatar), 2005 (Kreshen).
Writing system	Cyrillic script. Latin script.
Comments	Different from Crimean Tatar (Crimean Turkish [crh]). SOV. Muslim (Sunni), Christian.

Also spoken in:

China

Language name	Tatar
Population	800 in China (1999 Z. Chen), decreasing. Ethnic population: 4,890 (2000 census).
Region	North Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Yining (Ghulja, Kulja), Qvqek, and Ürümqi.
Language map	China
Alternate names	Tartar, Tata’er
Language use	Used for oral tradition, songs. Older adults. Written Uyghur [uig] and Kazakh [kaz] are used as literary languages; nearly all use them.
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: 90%.
Comments	Classified as Tatar nationality. Some nationality members speak only Kazakh. Speech in different areas is influenced by Uyghur and Kazakh. Traders; craftsmen; agriculturalists. Muslim (Sunni).

Turkey (Europe)

Language name	Tatar
Region	Istanbul, perhaps elsewhere.
Comments	Muslim.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

Clifton, John M. 2002. "Alphabets of ten Turkic languages."

Clifton, John M. and Deborah A. Clifton, editors. 2002. Comments on discourse structures in ten Turkic languages.

Desnitsky, Andre and others. 2002. "Comments on Tatar discourse structure."

Greed, Teija. 2002. "The overt expression of subject in Tatar narrative texts."