TheTat alphabet is used for writing in theTat language, which has two main dialects - the northern one, spoken byMountain Jews, and the southern one,spoken by theTats. During its existence, the Tat writing functioned primarily in the northern dialect and at the same time changed its graphic basis several times and was reformed several times. Currently, the writing of the Mountain Jews is inCyrillic alphabets, and the writing of the Muslim Tats is in theLatin alphabet.There are four stages in the history of Tat writing:

• 1870s - 1928 - writing based onHebrew alphabet.
• 1928-1938 - writing based on the Latin alphabet.
• Since 1938 - writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
• Since the beginning of the 1990s, there have been attempts to create a written language on a Latin basis inAzerbaijan.

Until 1928, the Arabic script was used. Subsequently, the Muslim Tat language became practically unwritten. Before the annexation of Transcaucasia to the Russian Empire, the Tats used onlyFarsi as a written language; even the spoken dialect of the Muslim Tats had and still has this name in Absheron. Writing based on the Azerbaijani Latin alphabet is used rarely and sporadically.

The first records ofJudeo-Tat writing date back to the late 1870s and early 1880s, when RabbiYaakov Yitzhaki compiled the first Tat book, “Thesaurus of Judeo-Tat (Juhuri) language of theMountain Jews of the Caucasus.” This book used Hebrew writing, adapted to the needs of Tat phonetics. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Tat script on a Jewish graphic basis became more widely used - books began to be published in it, and in 1915 an attempt was made to publish a newspaper. In 1921, the first primerNew School (Judeo-Tat:Таза школа) was published in this alphabet. In 1927, at the All-Union Conference on cultural work among the Mountain Jews, held in Moscow, it was decided to reflect in writing all the vowel sounds of the Judeo-Tat dialect(א [æ], אַ [a], אָ [о], י [i], ו [v], וּ [u]). However, at that time the process of transitioning the Tat language to the Latin script was beginning, which made the reform irrelevant.^[1]

The Judeo-Tat alphabet based on theHebrew script looked like this:^[2]

In the 1920s, the process ofromanization of scripts was underway in theUSSR. In May 1925, Y. Agarunov compiled the first draft of a Latinized alphabet for Mountain Jews. On May 15–20, 1926, at the regional congress of Mountain Jews inNalchik, it was decided to transfer the Tat writing system to a Latin graphic basis. Since that time, preparatory work on Latinization began in the North Caucasus and Azerbaijan. In 1928, several projects for a new script were submitted to the committee for a new alphabet for consideration. Thus, the project of Z. Yu. Khudainatov included the following letters:А a, B в, V v, G g, D d, H h, Z z, Ӡ ӡ, ħ, I i, J j, K k, X x, L ʟ, M m, N n, S s, Y y, P p, F f, C c, Ç ç, ꜧ, R r, Ş ş, T t, O o, U u, Ú ú, E e.^[3][4]

On April 28–30, 1929, the All-Union Conference of representatives of the Mountain Jewish people were held inBaku. It finally approved the new alphabet for the Judeo-Tat language proposed byBoris Miller. It looked like this:^[5]

A a	B b	C c	Ç ç	D d	Đ đ	E e	Ə ə
F f	G g	Ƣ ƣ	H h	ħ	Ⱨ ⱨ	I i	J j
K k	L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	R r	S s
Ş ş	T t	U u	V v	X x	Y y	Z z

This alphabet was actively used in the field of education, book publishing and the media. In1932, the first standard grammar of the Tat language was published.^[1]

In later editions in Latin, the letterĐ đ is absent, but is present (only in borrowings)E e^[6]

The question of thetransition of the Judeo-Tat language to the Cyrillic alphabet was raised in 1937. The Presidium of the Supreme Council of theDagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic instructed the Institute for the Study of National Cultures of Dagestan to develop this version of the letter. A new version of the alphabet was published on February 15, 1938, in the newspaperDagestankaya Pravda; on July 1, all periodicals were translated into it, and on September 1, teaching the Cyrillic alphabet began in schools.^[7] Later, some changes were made to the alphabet (the letterДж дж was excluded. The letterУӀ уӀ was replaced byУь уь, andХӀ хӀ byХь хь). As a result, the alphabet began to look like this:^[4]

In theAzerbaijan SSR in 1938, the Judeo-Tat language was removed from all official spheres of activity - the publication of books, newspapers, and teaching in schools was stopped.Therefore, the alphabet adopted in the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was not used in Azerbaijan. However, instead of it, a separate version of the Tat Cyrillic writing spontaneously arose, which was closer to the Cyrillic version of theAzerbaijani alphabet. At theend of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, it also found some use among the Mountain Jewish who emigrated toIsrael^[4][8]А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ҹ ҹ, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Ҝ ҝ, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, Һ һ, Ћ ћ, Ԧ ԧ, У у, Ф ф, Х х, Ч ч, Ш ш, Ә ә, Ү ү. There are other versions of this alphabet, differing in the order of the letters and the replacement of the letterИ й withЈ ј,^[9] as well as the presence of additional lettersӱ, ы.^[10]

In the 1990s, an alphabet based on Latin was created for the Muslim Tats of Azerbaijan. Severaltextbooks have been published on it:^[11]A a, B b, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, Ә ə, F f, G g, Ğ ğ, H h, X x, I ı, İ i, J j, K k, Q q, L l, M m, N n, O o, Ö ö, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Ü ü, V v, Y y, Z z.

Several scientific publications and dictionaries of the Judeo-Tat language of Azerbaijan sometimes use another version of the Latin alphabet:^[4][12]A a, B b, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, Ә ə, F f, G g, Q q, H h, ħ, Ⱨ ⱨ, İ i, I ı, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, T t, U u, Ü ü, V v, Y y, X x, Z z.

Hebrew alphabet	Latin 1930s	Cyrillic (Dagestan)	Cyrillic (Azerbaijan)	Latin (Azerbaijan)
אַ	A a	А а	А а	A a
בּ	B b	Б б	Б б	B b
'צ	C c	Ч ч	Ч ч	Ç ç
'ז	Ç ç	Ж ж	Ҹ ҹ	C c
ד	D d	Д д	Д д	D d
אי	E e	Е е	Е е	E e
א	Ə ə	Е е, Э э	Ə ə	Ə ə
פ	F f	Ф ф	Ф ф	F f
ג	G g	Г г	Г г	G g
ק	Ƣ ƣ	Гъ гъ	Ғ ғ	Ğ ğ
ה	H h	Гь гь	Һ h	H h
ח	ħ	Хь хь	Ћ ћ	—
ע	Ⱨ ⱨ	ГI гI	Ԧ ԧ	—
אִ	I i	И и	И и	İ i
י	J j	Й й	Ј ј	Y y
כּ	K k	К к	К к	K k
ל	L l	Л л	Л л	L l
מ	M m	М м	М м	M m
נ	N n	Н н	Н н	N n
אָ	O o	О о	О о	O o
פּ	P p	П п	П п	P p
ר	R r	Р р	Р р	R r
ס	S s	С с	С с	S s
ש	Ş ş	Ш ш	Ш ш	Ş ş
ת	T t	Т т	Т т	T t
אוּ	U u	У у	У у	U u
ב	V v	В в	В в	V v
וֹ	Y y	Уь уь	Үү	Ü ü
כ	X x	Х х	Х х	X x
ז	Z z	З з	З з	Z z
-	-	Ё ё	-	-
-	-	Ц ц	-	-
-	-	Щ щ	-	-
-	-	Ъ ъ	-	-
-	-	Ь ь	-	-
-	-	Ю ю	-	-
-	-	Я я	-	-

• Hebrew alphabet
• Latin alphabets
• Cyrillic alphabets
• Caucasian scripts

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Judeo-Tat-language text