tat ISO 639
татар теле (tatar tele), татарча (tatarça) Autonyms
Tatar
Visualizations
A language of Russian Federation
- ISO 639
- tat
- Alternate Names
- Tartar
- Autonym
- татар теле (tatar tele), татарча (tatarça)
- Population
- 4,280,000 in Russian Federation (2010 census). Population may include L2 speakers. Ethnic population: 5,310,000 (2010 census). Total users in all countries: 5,315,550.
- Location
- Bashkortostan republic, Tatarstan republic, Moscow city, and Saint Petersburg.
- Language Maps
- China, Western Russian Federation
- Language Status
- 2 (Provincial). Statutory provincial language in Tatarstan Republic (1992, Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan, Article 8).
- Classification
- Turkic, Western, Uralian
- Dialects
- Middle Tatar (Kazan, Kazan Tatar), Western Tatar (Mishari, Misher). 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 (L1 speakers) have shifted to the Middle dialect. Kasim (5,000 L1 speakers) is between Middle and Western Tatar. Tepter (300,000 L1 speakers) is reportedly between the Tatar and Bashkort [bak] languages. Lexical similarity: 54% with Chuvash [chv]; 55% with Yakut [sah]; 56% with Tuvan [tyv]; 59% with Turkish [tur]; 64% with North Azerbaijani [azj]; 65% with Turkmen [tuk]; 67% with Khakas [kjh]; 68% with Southern Altai [alt]; 70% with Northern Uzbek [uzn]; 72% with Uyghur [uig]; 75% with Karachay-Balkar [kjh]; 80% with Kazakh [kaz] and Kyrgyz [kir]; 94% with Bashkort [bak].
- Typology
- SOV; case-marking (6 cases); verb affixes mark person, number; passives; tense; causatives; 21 consonant and 12 vowel phonemes; non-tonal; stress on final syllable; vowel harmony; evidentiality.
- Language Use
- Also used by the Karatai (different from Karata [kpt]), ethnically Erzya people who speak Tatar. All domains. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Also use Russian [rus]. Used as L2 by Bashkort [bak], Eastern Yiddish [ydd].
- Language Development
- Literacy rate in L2: High. Taught as subject in primary and secondary schools. Taught as subject in tertiary schools. Literature. Newspapers. Periodicals. Radio. TV. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 2016.
- Writing
- Arabic script, Naskh variant [Arab], used prior to 1928. Cyrillic script [Cyrl]. Latin script [Latn].
- Other Comments
- Different from Crimean Tatar (Crimean Turkish [crh]) and Siberian Tatar [sty]. Muslim, Christian.
- Language Resources
- OLAC resources in and about Tatar
Also Spoken in
- Location
- Baku district and scattered throughout the country.
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Azerbaijan
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
24,100 in Azerbaijan (2011 UNSD).
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Belarus
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
12,000 in Belarus.
- Location
- Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: Qvqek, Ürümqi, and Yining (Ghulja, Kulja).
- Language Status
- 8a (Moribund)
- Language Use
- Oral tradition, songs. Older adults only. Most shifted to Kazakh [kaz], as a literary language. Most shifted to Uyghur [uig], as a trade language.
- Language Development
- Literacy rate in L2: 98% literate in any language (2000 census, Tatar nationality).
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. Some speak only Kazakh. Speech in different areas is influenced by Uyghur and Kazakh. Muslim. View other languages of China
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
800 in China (1999 C. Zongzhen), decreasing. Ethnic population: 3,560 (2010 census).
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Georgia
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
3,400 in Georgia (Leclerc 2015).
- Location
- Scattered, mostly northeast.
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Kyrgyzstan
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
20,900 in Kyrgyzstan (2009 census). Ethnic population: 31,400 (2009 census).
- Location
- Scattered.
- Language Status
- 5 (Dispersed)
- Language Development
- Found in minority schools.
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Kazakhstan
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
104,000 in Kazakhstan (2009 census). Ethnic population: 204,000 (2009 census).
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Latvia
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
2,850 in Latvia (2018).
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Romania
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
17,700 in Romania (2011 census). Ethnic population: 20,300 (2011 census).
- Location
- Kuhistoni Badakhshon region: scattered.
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Tajikistan
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
4,200 in Tajikistan (2012 UNSD). Ethnic population: 107,000 (2017).
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Turkmenistan
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
81,000 in Turkmenistan (Leclerc 2019b), based on ethnicity.
- Location
- Istanbul.
- Language Status
- 5 (Dispersed)
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. Muslim. View other languages of Turkey
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
28,700 in Turkey (2019).
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Ukraine
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
25,800 in Ukraine (2001 census). Ethnic population: 73,300 (2001 census).
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of United States
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
7,000 in United States.
- Language Status
- Unestablished
- Other Comments
- Non-indigenous. View other languages of Uzbekistan
Language Name
Tatar
User Population
702,000 in Uzbekistan (2017). Ethnic population: 479,000 (2017).
