Bashkir language

Bashkir (UK: /bæʃˈkɪər/,^[2] US: /bɑːʃˈkɪər/;^[3]Bashkir: Башҡортса Bashqortsa, Башҡорт теле Bashqort tele,^[4] or Başqortsa / Başqort tele, [bɑʃˈqort tɘˈlɘ] (listen)) is a Turkic language belonging to the Kipchak branch. It is co-official with Russian in Bashkortostan. It is spoken by approximately 1.4 million native speakers in Russia, as well as in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Estonia and other neighboring post-Soviet states, and among the Bashkir diaspora. It has three dialect groups: Southern, Eastern and Northwestern.

Bashkir
Башҡортса, Башҡорт теле
Bashkir in Cyrillic, Latin, and Arabic scripts
Pronunciation	[bɑʃˈqort tɘˈlɘ] (listen)
Native to	Bashkortostan (Russian Federation)
Region	Volga, Ural region
Ethnicity	Bashkirs
Native speakers	1.2 million (2010-2019)^[1]
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak North Kipchak Bashkir
Early form	Volga Turki
Writing system	Cyrillic (Bashkir alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Bashkortostan (Russia)
Regulated by	Institute of history, language and literature of the Ufa Federal research center the RAS
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ba
ISO 639-2	bak
ISO 639-3	bak
Glottolog	bash1264
Linguasphere	44-AAB-bg
Geographic distribution of Bashkir language in the Russian Empire according to 1897 census
Bashkir is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Speakers

 

Bashkirs in Russia by administrative districts (raions) in 2010

Speakers of Bashkir mostly live in the republic of Bashkortostan (a republic within the Russian Federation). Many speakers also live in Tatarstan, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk and Kurgan Oblasts and other regions of Russia. Minor Bashkir groups also live in Kazakhstan and other countries.

Classification

Bashkir together with Tatar belongs to the Bulgaric (Russian: кыпчакско-булгарская) subgroups of the Kipchak languages. They share the same vocalism and the vowel shifts (see below) that make both languages stand apart from most other Kipchak and Oghuz Turkic languages.

However, Bashkir differs from Tatar in several important ways:

• Bashkir has dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ in the place of Tatar (and other Turkic) /s/ and /z/. Bashkir /θ/ and /ð/, however, cannot begin a word (there are exceptions: ҙур źur 'big', and the particle/conjunction ҙа or ҙә źa or źä). The only other Turkic language with a similar feature is Turkmen. However, in Bashkir /θ/ and /ð/ are two independent phonemes, distinct from /s/ and /z/, whereas in Turkmen [θ] and [ð] are the two main realizations 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/ is turned into /h/. An example of both features can be Tatar сүз süz [syz] and Bashkir һүҙ hüź [hyð], both meaning "word".
• Common Turkic /tʃ/ (Tatar /ɕ/) is turned into Bashkir /s/, e.g., Turkish ağaç [aˈatʃ], Tatar агач aghach [ɑˈʁɑɕ] and Bashkir ағас ağas [ɑˈʁɑs], all meaning "tree".
• The word-initial /ʑ/ in Tatar always corresponds to /j/ in Standard Bashkir, e.g., Tatar җылы zhïlï [ʑɤˈlɤ] and Bashkir йылы yılı [jɤˈlɤ], both meaning "warm". However, the eastern and northern dialects of Bashkir have the /j/ > /ʑ~ʒ/ shift.

The Bashkir orthography is more explicit. /q/ and /ʁ/ are written with their own letters Ҡ ҡ and Ғ ғ, whereas in Tatar they are treated as positional allophones of /k/ and /ɡ/, written К к and Г г.

Labial vowel harmony in Bashkir is written explicitly, e.g. Tatar тормышым tormïshïm and Bashkir тормошом tormoshom, both pronounced [tormoˈʃom], meaning "my life".

Orthography

Main article: Bashkir alphabet

 

Trilingual sign in Ufa Airport in Bashkir, Russian and English

 

Bashkir keyboard layout

After the adoption of Islam, which began in the 10th century and lasted for several centuries, the Bashkirs began to use Turki as a written language. Turki was written in a variant of the Arabic script.

In 1923, a writing system based on the Arabic 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 Arabic alphabet. In 1930 it was replaced with the Unified Turkic Latin Alphabet, which was in turn replaced with an adapted Cyrillic alphabet in 1939.

The modern alphabet used by Bashkir is based on the Russian alphabet, with the addition of the following letters: Ә ә /æ/, Ө ө /ø/, Ү ү [y], Ғ ғ /ʁ/, Ҡ ҡ /q/, Ң ң /ŋ/, Ҙ ҙ /ð/, Ҫ ҫ /θ/, Һ һ /h/.

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Ғ ғ	Д д	Ҙ ҙ	Е е	Ё ё
Ж ж	З з	И и	Й й	К к	Ҡ ҡ	Л л	М м	Н н
Ң ң	О о	Ө ө	П п	Р р	С с	Ҫ ҫ	Т т	У у
Ү ү	Ф ф	Х х	Һ һ	Ц ц	Ч ч	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ
Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ә ә	Ю ю	Я я

Letters and symbols of the Bashkir Cyrillic alphabet

Cyrillic version	Pronunciation	Notes
Аа	[ɑ̜], [ä]	"A" is usually pronounced as [ɑ̜] in all syllables except last, in last syllable it is pronounced as [ä].
Бб	[b], [β]	[β] is the intervocal allophone.
Вв	[v], [w]	[v] in Russian loanwords, [w] in Arabic and Persian loanwords.
Гг	[g]
Ғғ	[ʁ]
Дд	[d]
Ҙҙ	[ð]
Ее	[jɪ̞], [ɪ̞]	The letter is iotated at the beginning of a word, after a vowel or after a soft or hard sign.
Ёё	[jo]	Only used in Russian loanwords.
Жж	[ʐ̟]	Only occurs in loanwords and onomatopoeia.
Зз	[z]
Ии	[i]
Йй	[j]
Кк	[k]
Ҡҡ	[q]
Лл	[ɭ̺], [ɫ]	In front vowel contexts occurs as apical [ɭ̺], in back vowel contexts occurs as [ɫ].
Мм	[m]
Нн	[n]
Ңң	[ŋ], [ɴ]	In front vowel contexts occurs as [ŋ], in back vowel contexts occurs as [ɴ].
Оо	[ʊ̞]
Өө	[ø]
Пп	[p]
Рр	[r̺]
Сс	[s]
Ҫҫ	[θ]
Тт	[t]
Уу	[u], [w]
Үү	[ʏ], [ɥ]
Фф	[f]
Хх	[χ]
Һһ	[h]
Цц	[ts]
Чч	[tɕ]
Шш	[ʂ̟]	Only occurs in loanwords and onomatopoeia.
Щщ	[ɕː]
Ъъ	[ʔ]	Indicates the glottal stop in back vowel contexts, if placed after a vowel.
Ыы	[ɯ], [ɨ]
Ьь	[ʔ]	Indicates the glottal stop in front vowel contexts, if placed after a vowel.
Ээ	[ɪ̞]
Әә	[æ]
Юю	[ju]
Яя	[jɑ], [ja]

Phonology

Vowels

Bashkir has nine native vowels, and three or four loaned vowels (mainly in Russian loanwords).^[5]

Phonetically, the native vowels are approximately thus (with the Cyrillic letter followed by the usual Latin romanization in angle brackets):

	Front		Back
	Spread	Rounded	Spread	Rounded
Close	и ⟨i⟩ [i]	ү ⟨ü⟩ [y~ʉ]		у ⟨u⟩ [u]
Mid	э, е ⟨e⟩ [ɪ̞~ɘ]	ө ⟨ö⟩ [ʏ̞~ø̝]	ы ⟨ı⟩ [ɯ̞~ɤ]	о ⟨o⟩ [ʊ̞~o]
Open	ә ⟨ä⟩ [æ]		а ⟨a⟩ [ɑ]

In Russian loans there are also [ɨ], [ɛ], [ɔ] and [ä], written the same as the native vowels: ы, е/э, о, а respectively.^[5]

The mid vowels may be transcribed as lowered near-high [ɪ̞, ʏ̞, ɯ̞, ʊ̞], and the close front or close central rounded vowel [y~ʉ] may be transcribed as near-close near-front [ʏ].^{[citation needed]}

In certain situations, such as monosyllabic words, the close front or close central rounded vowel is pronounced as [u], but the surrounding consonants are pronounced as their front vowel environment counterparts. For example: күл (kül) — [kul], ҡул (qul) — [quɫ]

Historical shifts

Historically, the Old Turkic mid vowels have raised from mid to high, whereas the Old Turkic high vowels have become the Bashkir reduced mid series. (The same shifts have also happened in Tatar.)^[6]

Vowel	Old Turkic	Tatar	Bashkir	Gloss
*e	*et	it	ит (it)	'meat'
*ö	*söz	süz	һүҙ (hüź) [hʏð]	'word'
*o	*sol	sul	һул (hul)	'left'
*i	*it	et	эт (et)	'dog'
*ï	*qyz	qëz [qɤ̆z]	ҡыҙ (qıź) [qɯ̞ð]	'girl'
*u	*qum	qom	ҡом (qom)	'sand'
*ü	*kül	köl	көл (köl)	'ash'

Consonants

The consonants of Bashkir^[5]

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar/ Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals		м ⟨m⟩ /m/		н ⟨n⟩ /n/			ң ⟨ñ⟩ /ŋ/	ң ⟨ñ⟩ [ɴ]^²
Plosives	Voiceless	п ⟨p⟩ /p/		т ⟨t⟩ /t/		к ⟨k⟩ [c]^²	к ⟨k⟩ /k/	ҡ ⟨q⟩ /q/	ь/ъ ⟨’⟩ /ʔ/^¹
	Voiced	б ⟨b⟩ /b/		д ⟨d⟩ /d/		г ⟨g⟩ [ɟ]^²	г ⟨g⟩ /ɡ/
Fricatives	Voiceless		ф ⟨f⟩ /f/^¹	ҫ ⟨ś⟩ /θ/	с ⟨s⟩ /s/	ш ⟨ş⟩ /ʃ/		х ⟨x⟩ /χ/	һ ⟨h⟩ /h/
	Voiced	б ⟨b⟩ [β]^²	в ⟨v⟩ /v/^¹	ҙ ⟨ź⟩ /ð/	з ⟨z⟩ /z/	ж ⟨j⟩ /ʒ/		ғ ⟨ğ⟩ /ʁ/
Trill					р ⟨r⟩ /r/
Approximants					л ⟨l⟩ /l/	й ⟨y⟩ /j/	у/ү/в ⟨w⟩ /w~ɥ/

Notes

^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 an intervocal 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 /i/ and /ø/, and both occur only in front vowel contexts.

• /θ, ð/ are dental [θ, ð], and /r/ is apical alveolar [r̺]. The exact place of articulation of the other dental/alveolar consonants is unclear.

Grammar

A member of the Turkic language family, Bashkir is an agglutinative, SOV language.^[5][7] A large part of the Bashkir vocabulary has Turkic roots; and there are many loan words in Bashkir from Russian, Arabic and Persian sources.

Russian			Arabic			Persian
in Bashkir	Etymology	Translation	in Bashkir	Etymology	Translation	in Bashkir	Etymology	Translation
минут (minut)	from "минута" (minuta)	minute	ваҡыт (waqıt)	from "وَقْت" (waqt)	time	дуҫ (duś)	from "دوست" (dost)	friend
өҫтәл (öśtäl)	from "стол" (stol)	table, desk	вәғәҙә (väğäźä)	from "وَحْدَة" (wa‘da)	promise	һәр (här)	from "هر" (har)	every
сыр (sır)	from "сыр" (syr)	cheese	йәннәт (yännät)	from "جَنَّة" (janna)	paradise	көмбәҙ (kömbäź)	from "گنبد" (gonbad)	cupola

Plurality

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" (ä), "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").

suffix consonant	preceding letters	"а" column	"ә" column
		back vowels	front vowels
-лар, -ләр	after all vowels except for и (i)	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 (i), р (r), у (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)	һан (han), "number" Pl.: һандар (handar)	көн (kön), "day" Pl.: көндәр (köndär)

Declension table

	suffix	consonant alteration (see the "plurality" table)	after the plural suffix	examples
Nominative
Genitive	-нең	"н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź)	-ҙең	телдең (teldeñ), "the language's"
	-ның		-ҙың	баштың (baştıñ), "the head's"
	-ноң		-ҙың	тоҙҙоң (toźźoñ), "the salt's"
	-нөң		-ҙең	төштөң (töştöñ), "the dream's"
Dative	-гә		-гә	телгә (telgä), "(to) the language"
	-кә			төшкә (töşkä), "(to) the dream"
	-ға		-ға	тоҙға (toźğa), "(to) the salt"
	-ҡа			башҡа (başqa), "(to) the head"
Accusative	-не	"н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź)	-ҙе	телде (telde), "the language"
	-ны		-ҙы	башты (baştı), "the head"
	-но		-ҙы	тоҙҙо (toźźo), "the salt"
	-нө		-ҙе	төштө (töştö), "the dream"
Locative	-лә	"л" (l), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź)	-ҙә	телдә (teldä), "in the language"
	-ла		-ҙа	башта (başta), "in the head"
Ablative	-нән	"н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź)	-ҙән	телдән (teldän), "from the language"
	-нан		-ҙан	баштан (baştan), "from the head"

Declension of pronouns

	Interrogative pronouns		Personal pronouns
Case	who	what	Singular			Plural
			I	you (thou)	he, she, it	we	you	they
Nominative	кем kem	нимә nimä	мин min	һин hin	ул ul	беҙ bedh	һеҙ hedh	улар ular
Genitive	кемдең kemdeng	нимәнең nimäneng	минең mineng	һинең hineng	уның unyng	беҙҙең bedhdheng	һеҙҙең hedhdheng	уларҙың ulardhïng
Dative	кемгә kemgä	нимәгә nimägä	миңә mingä	һиңә hingä	уға ugha	беҙгә bedhgä	һеҙгә hedhgä	уларға ulargha
Accusative	кемде kemde	нимәне nimäne	мине mine	һине hine	уны unı	беҙҙе bedhdhe	һеҙҙе hedhdhe	уларҙы ulardhï
Locative	кемдә kemdä	нимәлә nimälä	миндә mindä	һиндә hindä	унда unda	беҙҙә bedhdhä	һеҙҙә hedhdhä	уларҙа ulardha
Ablative	кемдән kemdän	нимәнән nimänän	минән minän	һинән hinän	унан unan	беҙҙән bedhdhän	һеҙҙән hedhdhän	уларҙан ulardhan

Demonstrative pronouns

Case	Singular				Plural
	this		that		these		those
Nominative	был byl	ошо osho	шул shul	теге tege	былар bylar	ошолар osholar	шулар shular	тегеләр tegelär
Genitive	бының bynyng	ошоноң oshonong	шуның shunyng	тегенең tegeneng	быларҙың bylardhıng	ошоларҙың osholardhïng	шуларҙың shulardhïng	тегеләрҙең tegelärdheng
Dative	быға bygha	ошоға oshogha	шуға shugha	тегегә tegegä	быларға bylargha	ошоларға osholargha	шуларға shulargha	тегеләргә tegelärgä
Accusative	быны byny	ошоно oshona	шуны shuny	тегене tegene	быларҙы bylardhy	ошоларҙы osholardhy	шуларҙы shulardhy	тегеләрҙе tegelärdhe
Locative	бында bynda	ошонда oshonda	шунда shunda	тегендә tegenda	быларҙа bylardha	ошоларҙа osholardha	шуларҙа shulardha	тегеләрҙә tegelärdhä
Ablative	бынан bynan	ошонан oshonan	шунан shunan	тегенән tegenän	быларҙан bylardhan	ошоларҙан osholardhan	шуларҙан shulardhan	тегеләрҙән tegelärdhän

References

1. Bashkir at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
2. Longman, J.C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3 ed.). Pearson Education ESL. ISBN 978-1405881173.
3. "Bashkir". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
4. Bashkir
5. Berta, Árpád (1998). "Tatar and Bashkir". In Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á. (eds.). The Turkic languages. Routledge. pp. 283–300. ISBN 9780415082006.
6. Johanson, Lars (1998). "The History of Turkic". In Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á. (eds.). The Turkic languages. Routledge. p. 92. ISBN 9780415082006.
7. "Overview of the Bashkir Language". Learn the Bashkir Language & Culture. Transparent Language. Retrieved 4 November 2011.

Further reading

• Poppe, Nicholas (1997) [1964]. Bashkir Manual. Routledge. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-7007-0836-9.
• Грамматика современного башкирского литературного языка (in Russian). Москва: Наука. 1981.
• Дмитриев, Н. К. (1948). Грамматика башкирского языка (in Russian). Из-во АН СССР.

External links

 

Bashkir edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

For a list of words relating to Bashkir language, see the Bashkir language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

 

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Bashkir phrasebook.

• National Corpus of the Bashkir language
• Machine fund of the Bashkir language
• Spoken corpus of Bashkir (Rakhmetovo and Baimovo) 2020-08-10 at the Wayback Machine