| Krymchak | |
|---|---|
| кърымчах тыльы | |
 | |
| Native to | Crimea,Israel,Turkey |
| Ethnicity | 1,800Krymchaks (2007)[1] |
Native speakers | 200 (2007)[1] |
| Cyrillic alphabet,Latin script,Hebrew script | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | jct |
| Glottolog | krym1236 |
| ELP | Krymchak |
| Linguasphere | part of44-AAB-a |
Krymchak (/ˈkrɪmtʃæk/KRIM-chak;кърымчах тыльы,Qrımçah tılyı; also called Judeo-Crimean Tatar, Krimchak, Chagatai, Dzhagatay) is amoribundTurkic language spoken inCrimea by theKrymchak people. The Krymchak community was composed ofJewish immigrants who arrived from all over Europe and Asia and who continuously added to the Krymchak population. The Krymchak language, as well as culture and daily life, was similar toCrimean Tatar, the peninsula's majority population, with the addition of a significantHebrew influence.
Like mostJewish languages, it contains manyHebrewloanwords. Before theSoviet era, it was written usingHebrew characters. In theSoviet Union in the 1930s, it was written with theUniform Turkic Alphabet (a variant of theLatin script), likeCrimean Tatar andKaraim. Now it is written in theCyrillic script.
Over the 20th century the language has disappeared and been replaced byRussian, with approximately 70% of the population perishing inthe Holocaust.[4] When in May 1944 almost all Crimean Tatars were deported toSoviet Uzbekistan, many speakers of Krymchak were among them, and some remained in Uzbekistan.
Nowadays, the language is almostextinct. According to the Ukrainian census of 2001, fewer than 785 Krymchak people remain inCrimea. One estimate[which?] supposes that of the approximately 1500-2000 Krymchaks living worldwide, mostly inIsrael, Crimea, Russia and theUnited States, only 5-7 are native speakers.[citation needed]
Krymchak is within theTurkic language family. It has alternatively been considered as a separate language or as anethnolect of Coastal/Middle Crimean Tatar,[5] along withCrimean Karaite.Glottochronological reckoning evidenced that thesesubdialects became distinct from Crimean Tatar around 600-800 AD. Krymchak and Karaite became distinguishable around 1200–1300.[6]
The Krymchak community formed over hundreds of years as Jews from all overEurope andAsia immigrated to theCrimean peninsula.[5] A Greek-speaking Jewish community had resided on the peninsula from 100 BC,[7] and other Jewish peoples settled there over time as well.[8] The Krymchak community originated during theMiddle Ages, grew intensely in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, became a unified group in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and continued to grow until the nineteenth century. This growth occurred continuously as Jewish emigrants arrived from theMediterranean,Eastern Europe, theCaucasus,Persia, and many other regions. The study of Krymchaksurnames affirms that their community formed slowly and was composed from elements of different origins.[9][5]
Like other Jewish groups in the Crimea, Krymchak culture, everyday life, and language had strongCrimean Tatar influences. The Crimean Tatar language became dominant between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for political reasons, it being the language of the Crimean peninsula's Tatar political majority. Tatar was thecommon language used between different ethnic groups residing on the peninsula, and it also became the common language between the different Jewish groups living in the Crimea.[9]
Although Krymchak is often considered by modern linguists to be anethnolect of Crimean Tatar, and for hundreds of years Krymchaks themselves considered Crimean Tatar to be their language, Krymchak has at times been labeled a unique language. For political reasons, another Crimean Jewish community, theKaraites, claimed that Krymchaks spoke a separate language. Additionally, during the time of the Soviet Union, the Krymchaks themselves claimed to have a language distinct from Crimean Tatar because association with the Tatars would have been dangerous.[5] In their translation of a Krymchak storybook, linguists Marcel Erdal and Iala Ianbay found that Krymchak was different enough from Crimean Tatar to warrant a separate name and study.[10]
The general switch from Krymchak to Russian began after theRussian Revolution and intensified in the 1930s. In 1897, 35% of Krymchak men and 10% of women spoke Russian. In 1926, the majority of Krymchaks considered Crimean Tatar as theirnative language, however the youth attending Russian schools preferred to speak the Russian language, though they usually spoke incorrectly. Neither did they have a firm command of the Krymchak language.[9]
In 1959, 189 Krymchaks considered Crimean Tatar as their native language. This number should have been higher, however by this time there was ambiguity about the Kymchakethnic identity and confusion about the language's name.[9]
In 1989 only a few elders could speak Krymchak, while a significant amount of the intermediate generation could speak it somewhat. The younger generation had no knowledge of it.[9]Viktoriya Baginskaya was one of the last speakers of the living Krymchak language.
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1783 | 800 |
| 1844 | 1300 |
| 1879 | 2900 |
| 1897 | 3500 |
| 1913 | 7000 |
| 1926 | 6400 |
| 1941 | 8000 |
| 1945 | 2500 |
| 1959 | 1500-2000 |
| 1979 | 1800-2000 |
A 2007 estimate supposes 1,200-1,500 Krymchaks live worldwide, mainly in Israel, Russia, Crimea, and the US. Of these, only 5-7 can speak the language.[5]
Krymchak was spoken in the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine. In 1783, when Russia conquered Crimea, most Krymchaks lived in the town ofKarasubazar (now Bilohirsk). This continued to be their population center untilWorld War II, though beginning in the 1880s many migrated toSimferopol. Around 1913 about 1,500 Krymchaks lived in Simferopol. A community-conducted census in 1913 shows they also lived inKerch,Theodosia, andSevastopol.[9] There was also a small community inPalestine.[9]
Their population began to decline in the twentieth century, beginning with the Russian civil war and ensuingfamine.
About 70% of the Krymchak community died during World War II.[5] Between December 1941 and July 1942 Krymchaks, and many other Jews and other civilians, were killed throughout the Crimean peninsula by the GermanEinsatzgruppen. When German soldiers reached the towns in which Jewish communities resided, they murdered them en masse.[9][4] After the war, the remaining Krymchak population dispersed from the Crimean peninsula.
By 1942 about one hundred Krymchak families lived in the United States, most inNew York City, and they quickly integrated into the Jewish community there.[9]
In 1979, it was estimated that 1,000 Krymchaks lived in Ukraine, 600 in Russia, 200 in Georgia, and 200 in Uzbekistan. In 1974 only two Krymchak men were still living in Belogorsk, formerly Karasubazar, the community's historic center.[9]
Krymchak is designated as anindigenous language in Ukraine.[4][11]
Though itself considered a dialect of Crimean Tatar, Krymchak differed geographically depending on the dialect of the surrounding Tatar population.[12]
Krymchak employs the fivevowelsa o u ı e. Their phonology contains only short vowels. They do not distinguish between front and backlabial vowels, such as o / ö and u / ü.[13]
Speakers intone words differently than speakers of Crimean Tatar.[6] Krymchak pronunciation of Hebrew also differs from its traditional pronunciation, which was used by CrimeanKaraites, another Judeo-Crimean community.[14]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | и ӱ | ы | у |
| Mid | э | ö o | |
| Low | a |
Krymchak contains a significant amount of borrowed words from Hebrew. As much as 5% of vocabulary is Hebrew.[9] One study of various Krymchak texts also shows borrowed vocabulary fromOghuz andKypchak. Later texts show strong Russian influence, while earlier texts have manyArabic andPersian borrowings, where the use of Arabic or Persian lends a lofty style.[6]
| Krymchak | Turkish | English |
|---|---|---|
| kılıç | kılıç | sword |
| arıslan | arslan | lion |
| yaka | yaka | collar |
| yulduz | yıldız | star |
| yaş | yaş | age |
| yol | yol | road |
| kalkan | kalkan | shield |
| yanhı | yeni | new |
| yel | yel | wind |
| tülkü | tilki | fox |
| sıçan | sıçan | mouse |
| i̇mırtha | yumurta | egg |
| taş | taş | stone |
| altın | altın | gold |
| tengiz | deniz | sea |
| kumuş | gümüş | silver |
| ögüz | öküz | ox |
| koy | koyun | sheep |
| suv | su | water |
| at | at | horse |
| agaç | ağaç | tree |
| yeşil | yeşil | green |
Krymchak was written using theHebrew alphabet. Over time new characters were created to represent sounds found in Crimean Tatar.[13] Due to the discontinuation of literature written in Krymchak in 1936, it slowly made its way into the realm of non-written languages. Instead, the Krymchaks began utilizing the Russian Cyrillic alphabet (table 2).[15]
| A a | B ʙ | C c | Ç ç | D d | E e | F f | G g |
| H h | I i | J j | Ь ь | K k | Q q | Ƣ ƣ | L l |
| M m | N n | Ꞑ ꞑ | O o | Ɵ ɵ | P p | R r | S s |
| Ş ş | T t | U u | Y y | V v | Z z | Ƶ ƶ |
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Гъ гъ | Д д | Е е | З з |
| И и | Й й | К к | Къ къ | Л л | М м | Н н | Нъ нъ |
| О о | Ӧ ӧ | П п | Р р | С с | Т т | У у | Ӱ ӱ |
| Ф ф | Х х | Ч ч | Чъ чъ | Ш ш | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э |
The Krymchak alphabet can be found onOmniglot.
Булут
Bulut
къап-къара,
qap-qara,
сэн
sän
нэге
näge
давранайсынъ?
davranaysıñ?
Булут къап-къара, сэн нэге давранайсынъ?
Bulut qap-qara, sän näge davranaysıñ?
The last one of clouds of scattered a tempest,
Нэге
Näge
ачылгъан
açılğan
кӧклерде
kӧklerde
долашайсынъ?
dolaşaysıñ?
Нэге ачылгъан кӧклерде долашайсынъ?
Näge açılğan kӧklerde dolaşaysıñ?
Just single you're flying in azure, the prettiest,
Нэге
Näge
къарартайсынъ
qarartaysıñ
ярых
yarıh
кӱнлерны?
künlernı?
Нэге къарартайсынъ ярых кӱнлерны?
Näge qarartaysıñ yarıh künlernı?
Just single you're bringing the sorrowful shade,
Нэге
Näge
йыгълатайсынъ
yığlataysıñ
частлы
çastlı
аваны?..
avanı?..
Нэге йыгълатайсынъ частлы аваны?..
Näge yığlataysıñ çastlı avanı?..
Just single you're saddening day that is glad.[16]
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