Dobrujan Tatar Dialect

Dobrujan Tatar is the Tatar language of Romania. It includes Kipchak dialects, but today there is no longer a sharp distinction between the dialects and it is mostly seen as one language. This language belongs to the Kipchak Turkic languages, specifically to the Kipchak-Nogai group.

Name

In Romania the language is commonly referred to as Tatar. However, some sources also use other names for it, including Romanian Tatar, Dobrujan Tatar, Danube Tatar, Budjak Tatar, Moldovan-Romanian Tatar, Nogai, Nogai-Tatar, Dobrujan Nogai, Budjak Nogai, Crimean Tatar, Dobrujan Crimean Tatar, Authentic Crimean Tatar and Colloquial Crimean Tatar.

Dialects

Traditional classification

The grammar book by University of Bucharest identifies the following dialects:
* Keríş
* Şoñgar
* Tat
* Ğemboylîk
* Ğedísan
* Ğetíşkul

Classification by Oghuz influence

Some sources define the dialects according to their level of influence by Oghuz languages.

# The language with moderate Oghuz influence is spoken by about 70% of Tatars. It is spoken mainly in the south and center of Constanța.
# The language with little Oghuz influence is spoken by about 20% Tatars. It is spoken in Tulcea, near and far north of Constanța, and is the most conservative in preserving Kipchak elements.
# The language with high Oghuz influence is spoken by about 10% of Tatars. It is spoken around the city of Hacıoğlu Pazarcık (Dobrich) and is the closest to Oghuz languages.

Grammar

Literary Tatar

Tatar spoken in Romania has two distinct facets existing, interweaving and forming together the literary Tatar language "edebiy Tatarğa". One of these aspects is the authentic Tatar called "ğalpî Tatarğa" or "ğalpak Tatarğa" and the other is the academic Tatar language called "muwallímatça".The Sounds of Tatar Spoken in Romania: The Golden Khwarezmian Language of the Nine Noble Nations, Taner Murat, Anticus Press, Constanța, 2018, ISBN 978-606-94509-4-9

* Academic Tatar language, means writing and pronouncing Arabic and Persian neologisms - occurring mostly in science, religion, literature, arts or politics - in their original form.

* Authentic Tatar language, means writing and pronouncing words, including those of Arabic and Persian origin, by strictly adapting them to the own phonetic system.

Naturalization

Naturalization is shifting the spelling of academic speech sounds to authentic sounds following the patterns below, where a greater-than
sign indicates that one sound changes to another.

f > p

v > w

v > b

ç > ş

ç > j

h > (skip over)

h > k

h > y

h > w

Orthography

There is a total of 10 letters used to represent determinant sounds of which 9 mark authentic determinant sounds: a, e, i, î, í, o, ó, u, ú while the letter á is used for an academic vowel. The writing system registers authentic consonants with 17 letters:
b, ç, d, g, ğ, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, r, s, ş, t, z and has three signs standing for the academic consonants: f, h, v. There are also two authentic semivowels: y, w. An old authentic Turkic consonant, the sound /ç/ represented by the letter
⟨Ç⟩ is rarely heard because authentic speakers of Tatar spoken in Dobruja spell it /ş/ as letter
⟨Ş⟩. As the written language most often follows the spoken language shifting ⟨Ç⟩ to ⟨Ş⟩, the result is that in Tatar spoken in Romania letter ⟨Ç⟩ and sound /ç/ are often treated as academic.

Status

Education

The Dobrujan Tatar language did get a Latin alphabet in 1956, it was established as a section in University of Bucharest the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures in 1957 and also in 1977 it was disbanded.Secția de Limba tătară
/ref> Most of the teachers who taught at the Tatar language department graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan State University (located in Tatarstan, Russia), specializing in Tatar language and literature. In the communist period, Tatar books were brought from the USSR to teach the Tatar language in Romania, but it failed. Nowadays the Tatar language is taught in some Romanian schools using Tatar language books.Implementation of the Tatar Language in the Schools of Romania
/ref>

Media

There are some Tatar magazines in Romania, as well as novels, dictionaries, poetry books, school books and science books. Some of the dictionaries are printed by the help of UDTTMR.
Tatar learning rubrics called "''Tatarşa üyrenemĭz''" (; "We learn Tatar") and the TV show "''Romanya'dan Tatarlar''" (; "Tatars from Romania") were also broadcast on Romanian television. However, the language is not supported in language keyboards or in language codes.

Official status

The Government of Romania recognises the Tatar community. Fifth of May is the official Tatar Language Day in Romania.Tatar language Day in Romania
/ref>

Nilghuin Ismail describes the situation: "Nowadays the Romanian Tatar language is preserved only as spoken language. Even so in accordance with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in the Recommendation 1201 (1993), on an additional protocol on the rights of national minorities, is stipulated: Every person belonging to a national minority shall have theright to freely use his/her mother tongue in private and in public, both orally and inwriting. This right shall also apply to the use of his/her language in publications andin the audiovisual sector. Despite all these recommendations, in Romania we still do not have literary Tatar language."

See also

*Tatars of Romania
* Dobrujan Tatar alphabet

Notes

Sources

* Vuap-Mocanu, Şukran (1985). Curs practic de limba tătară. Bucureşti: Universitatea din Bucureşti (Romanian)
* Akmolla, Güner (2009). Tatarlar. Constanța, NewLine (Tatar)
* Ibraim, Neriman; Ibram, Nuredin (2014). Din lirica tătarăĭ. Constanța: Imperium (Romanian)
* Ibram, Nuredin (2017). Tătarii din România. Constanța: Muntenia (Romanian)

References

External links

Online Dictionary

Dobrujan Tatar Living Dictionary
''Dobrujan Tatar - Romanian''

Others

crimean-tatar-romania (GitHub)

Curs General de Limba Tătară - Fonetică, Fonologie, Morfologie (1975) de Mamut Enver, Universitatea din București
(Grammar book in Romanian)

{{Languages of Bulgaria

Crimean Tatar language
Crimean Tatar culture

Tatars of Romania
Languages of Romania
Languages of Bulgaria
Languages of Ukraine
Languages of Moldova
Languages of Transnistria
Languages of Turkey
Turkic languages
Kipchak languages