Bashkir andTatar belong to the Kipchak-Bulgar (Russian:кыпчакско-булгарская) subgroup of theKipchak languages. These languages have a similar vocabulary by 94.9%,[7] and have not only a common origin but also a common ancestor in written language—Volga Turki. But Bashkir differs from Tatar in several important ways:
Bashkir has dental fricatives/θ/ and/ð/ in the place of Turkic/t/,/d/,/s/ and/z/. For example, Turkishdost and Bashkirдуҫ (duś), Turkishadım and Bashkirаҙым (aźım), Turkishusta and Bashkirоҫта (ośta), or Turkishuzun and Bashkirоҙон (oźon). Bashkir/θ/ and/ð/ cannot begin a word (with exceptions:ҙур (źur)[ðuɾ]'big', and the particle/conjunctionҙа (źa)[ða] orҙә (źä)[ðæ]). The only other Turkic language with a similar feature isTurkmen. But in Bashkir,/θ/ and/ð/ are two independent phonemes, distinct from/s/ and/z/, whereas in Turkmen [θ] and [ð] are the two mainrealizations of the common Turkic/s/ and/z/. In other words, there are no/s/ and/z/ phonemes in Turkmen, unlike Bashkir, which has both/s/ and/z/ and/θ/ and/ð/.
The word-initial and morpheme-initial/s/ turns into/h/. An example of both features is Tatarсүз (süz) and Bashkirһүҙ (hüź), both meaning "word".
Common Turkic/tʃ/ (Tatar/ɕ/) turns into Bashkir/s/, e.g., Turkishağaç[aˈatʃ], Tatarагач (ağaç)[ɑˈʁɑɕ], and Bashkirағас (ağas)[ɑˈʁɑs], all meaning "tree".
The word-initial/ʑ/ in Tatar always corresponds to/j/ in Standard Bashkir, e.g., Tatarҗылы (cılı)[ʑɤˈlɤ] and Bashkirйылы (yılı)[jɯˈɫɯ], both meaning "warm". But the eastern and northern dialects of Bashkir have the/j/ > /ʑ~ʒ/ shift.
Bashkir orthography is more explicit./q/ and/ʁ/ are written with their own letters,Ҡ ҡ andҒ ғ, whereas in Tatar they are treated as positional allophones of/k/ and/ɡ/, writtenК к andГ г.
Labialvowel harmony in Bashkir is written explicitly, e.g., Tatarтормышым (tormışım) and Bashkirтормошом (tormoşom, both pronounced[tʊɾ.mʊˈʂʊm], meaning "my life".[8]
Trilingual sign inUfa Airport in Bashkir, Russian and EnglishBashkir keyboard layout
After the adoption ofIslam, whichbegan in the 10th century and lasted for several centuries, the Bashkirs began to useTurki as a written language. Turki was written in a variant of theArabic script.
In 1923, a writing system based on theArabic script was specifically created for the Bashkir language. At the same time, the Bashkir literary language was created, moving away from the older written Turkic influences. At first, it used a modified Arabicalphabet. In 1930 it was replaced with theUnified Turkic Latin Alphabet, which was in turn replaced with an adaptedCyrillic alphabet in 1939.
Occurs only in the first syllable. In most other contexts, especially in open syllables, it is an underlying /ij/, for example in words like ти [tij]/[tɪj]. Hence why the suffixes use the /ð/ consonant following this vowel, unlike /l/ after other vowels: тиҙәр (tiźär) /tijˈðær/, but not тиләр (tilär).
These two letters are used for/w/ phoneme when they are written after a back or front vowel respectively. As the vowel phoneme, they can only occur in the first syllable. Therefore if these letters are not in the first syllable, they occur after a vowel and are pronounced as /w/.
Only occurs in back vowel contexts (except loanwords). Indicates aglottal stop if placed after a vowel, acts as a syllable separator if placed after a consonant.
Only occurs in front vowel contexts (except loanwords). Indicates aglottal stop if placed after a vowel, acts as a syllable separator if placed after a consonant.
Historically, the Proto-Turkic mid vowels haveraised from mid to high, whereas the Proto-Turkic high vowels have become the Bashkir reduced mid series. (The same shifts have also happened inTatar.)[12][8] However, in most dialects of Bashkir, this shift is not as prominent as in Tatar.
^¹ The phonemes/f/,/v/,/ʔ/ are found only in loanwords, and, in the case of/ʔ/, in a few native onomatopoeic words.
^²[β] is anintervocal allophone of[b], and it is distinct from[w].[ɴ] is an allophone of[ŋ] in back vowel contexts.[c] and[ɟ] occur as allophones of[k] and[g] before[e], and both occur only in front vowel contexts.
/θ,ð/ are dental[θ,ð], and/ɾ/ is apical alveolar[ɾ]. The exact place of articulation of the other dental/alveolar consonants is unclear.
The form of the plural suffix is heavily dependent on the letter which comes immediately before it. When it's a consonant, there is a four-way distinction between "л" (l), "т" (t), "ҙ" (ź) and "д" (d); The vowel's distinction is two-way between "а" (after back vowels "а" (a), "ы" (ı), "о" (o), "у" (u)) and "ә" (after front vowels "ә" (ə), "е" (e), "и" (i), "ө" (ö), "ү" (ü)). Some nouns are also less likely to be used with their plural forms such as "һыу" (hıw, "water") or "ҡом" (qom, "sand").[8]
suffix consonant
-лар, -ләр
after all vowels except for и (iy)
баҡса (baqsa), "garden"
Pl.: баҡсалар (baqsalar)
сәскә (säskä), "flower"
Pl.: сәскәләр (säskälär)
-тар, -тәр
mostly after hard consonants – б (b), д (d), г (g), ф (f), х (x), һ (h), к (k), ҡ (q), п (p), с (s), ш (ş), ҫ (ś), т (t)
дуҫ (duś), "friend"
Pl.: дуҫтар (duśtar)
төҫ (töś), "colour"
Pl.: төҫтәр (töśtär)
-ҙар, -ҙәр
after approximants and some others – ҙ (ź), и (iy), р (r), у/ү (w), й (y)
тау (taw), "mountain"
Pl.: тауҙар (tawźar)
өй (öy), "house"
Pl.: өйҙәр (öyźär)
-дар, -дәр
after nasals and some others – ж (j), л (l), м (m), н (n), ң (ñ), з (z)
^abcdefghTuysin, B.; Shafikov, K.; Khanov, I. (2022). "1".Башкирский Язык [Bashkir Language] (in Russian). Ufa: Bashkirsiy Gosudarstvennyy Universitet RB.
^Poppe, Nicholas N. (1964).Bashkir Manual. Research and Studies in Uralic and Altaic Languages. Vol. 36. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University.LCCN63-64521.OCLC1147723720.
^Кейекбаев, Ж.Ғ. (1958).Башҡорт теленең фонетикаһы [Bashkir language phonology] (in Bashkir). Өфө: Башҡортостан Китап Нәшриәте.
