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Yaña imlâ (Tatar:яңа имлә,yaña imlä,ياڭا ئيملە,pronounced[jʌˈŋɑimˈlʲæ];lit. 'new orthography') was a modifiedArabic script that was in use for theTatar language between 1920 and 1927. The orthographical reform modifiedİske imlâ, including abolishing homophonic letters and adding letters for short vowelse, ı, ö, o. Yaña imlâ made use of a "low alef"⟨ࢭ⟩ to indicatevowel harmony.

There were some projects that were to simplify Yaña imlâ too. The uniqueseparated Arabic was invented (so as to use typewriters).^{[citation needed]}

As early as in 1924 the first projects of Latin script were introduced and in 1928 the government switched to the LatinYañalif alphabet.

10 vowels are defined. These occur in pairs, front and back vowels.^[1][2]

Similar to other Turkic languages, Tatar hasvowel harmony rules. Tatar orthography has one-dimensional vowel harmony: frontness versus backness. Tatar also has vowel roundedness harmony, but it is not reflected in the orthography.

The vowelЫ ы (I ı) /Э э (E e) is not written if at the beginning or middle of a word and if the resulting consonant cluster is not ambiguous, as in traditionalİske imlâ. Hence,تاتار تلىُтатар теле (tatar tle /tatar tele/) instead ofتاتار تىُلىُ,برنچىُберенче (brnçe /berençe/) instead ofبىُرىُنچىُ, andئشэш ('ş /eş/) instead ofئىُش.

Words that historically end in voiced stops keep their voiced spelling, as in traditionalİske imlâ. Hence,ئازادазат (azad /azat/) instead ofئازات, andࢭبولبбулып (_abülb /bulıp/) instead ofࢭبولپ.

Low alef⟨ࢭ⟩ (Tatar:калынлык билгесе,قالىُنلىُق بیلگسىُ, "backness sign", UnicodeU+08AD ࢭARABIC LETTER LOW ALEF) has a unique role in Tatar, a role not seen in other Arabic scripts. Appearing as a modifier before a word, it indicates that the vowels in the word will be theback vowels:^[3]

• Ы ы (I ı)
• Ый ый (Iy ıy)
• О о (O o)
• У у (U u)

The low alef⟨ࢭ⟩ symbolizes that the vowels of the word are articulated in the same part of the mouth as an alef⟨ا⟩ (the[ɑ] sound): at the back of the mouth.

Thehamza plays a similar but inverse role inKazakhArabic alphabet, indicating that a word hasfront vowels.

There are instances where back-vowel words do not need low alef.

First are words that contain the vowelئا / ا / ـاА а (A a). This vowel is a back vowel, and the corresponding front vowelئە / ـە / ەӘ ә (Ä ä) is written with a different letter altogether. It is an unambiguous conclusion that any word containingئا / ا / ـاА а (A a) is a back-vowel word, while a word containingئە / ـە / ەӘ ә (Ä ä) is a front-vowel word.

For example, the wordйорт (yort "house") is written with low alef, asࢭیۇرت (_ayört), whileйортлар (yortlar "houses", plural) is written asیۇرتلار (yörtlar).

The second exception is words that contain the following consonants:

• Г г (G g) (گ)
• Гъ гъ / Ғ ғ (Ğ ğ) (ع)
• К к (K k) (ك)
• Къ къ / Ҡ ҡ (Q q) (ق)

Under the rules of Tatar phonology, the consonantsГ г (G g) (گ) andК к (K k) (ك) can only be accompanied byfront vowels. Thus, there won't be any words containing these consonants that would need low alef. In contrast, the consonantsГъ гъ / Ғ ғ (Ğ ğ) (ع) andКъ къ / Ҡ ҡ (Q q) (ق) can only be accompanied byback vowels. This means that they themselves act as indicators that vowels in a word areback vowels, thus eliminating a need for low alef. For example, the wordҗылы (cılı "warm", adjective), is written asࢭجلىُ (_acle), whereas, a derived word, such asҗылылык (cılılıq "warmth; heat", noun), is written asجللق (cllq).

Pursuant to these rules, suffixes are formed in pairs too. For example, words withback vowels take the suffixes-лык (ـلىُق) ~-дык (ـدىُق) ~-тык (ـتىُق), and words withfront vowels take the suffixes-лек (ـ‫لىُك‬) ~-дек (ـدىُك) ~-тек (ـتىُك).

This article or sectionpossibly contains originalsynthesis. Source material shouldverifiably mention andrelate to the main topic. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page.(May 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights:

• Tatar alphabet
• Tatar language

This article includes alist of references,related reading, orexternal links,but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline citations. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(September 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• "Arabic alphabet".Tatar Encyclopaedia (in Tatar).Kazan: TheRepublic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.

• Arabic alphabets
• Tatar language
• Alphabets used by Turkic languages
• Writing systems introduced in the 1920s
• 1920 introductions

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