Bashkir language

Bashkir
Башҡортса, Башҡорт теле
Pronunciation	[bɑʃˈqort tɘˈlɘ] (listen)
Native to	Bashkortostan (Russian Federation)
Region	Volga, Ural region
Ethnicity	Bashkirs
Native speakers	1.4 million (2010 census)
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak North Kipchak Bashkir
Early form	Volga Turki
Writing system	Cyrillic (Bashkir alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Bashkortostan (Russian Federation)
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 (/ˈbɑːʃkɪər, ˈbæʃ-/; Bashkir: Башҡортса Bashqortsa, Башҡорт теле Bashqort 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.

Speakers

Bashkirs in Russia by administrative districts (raions) in 2010

Speakers of Bashkir mostly live in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. 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 both share the same vocalism and the vowel shifts (see below) that make both the 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 dhur 'big', and the particle/conjunction ҙа/ҙә dha/dhä). 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 [hyθ], 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 aghas [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 yïly [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

Trilingual sign in Ufa Airport in Bashkir, Russian and English

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 (Capital)	Cyrillic version (Small)	Pronunciation	Notes
А	а	[ɑ], [a]
Б	б	[b]
В	в	[v], [w]
Ғ	ғ	[ɣ]
Д	д	[d]
Ҙ	ҙ	[ð]
Е	е	[jɪ̞], [ɪ̞], [je], [e]
Ё	ё	[jo]
Ж	ж	[ʒ]
З	з	[z]
И	и	[i]
Й	й	[j]
К	к	[k]
Ҡ	ҡ	[q]
Л	л	[l]
М	м	[m]
Н	н	[n]
Ң	ң	[ŋ]
О	о	[ʊ̞], [o]
Ө	ө	[ø]
П	п	[p]
Р	р	[r]
С	с	[s]
Ҫ	ҫ	[θ]
Т	т	[t]
У	у	[u], [w]
Ү	ү	[y], [w]
Ф	ф	[f]
Х	х	[χ]
Һ	һ	[h]
Ц	ц	[ts]
Ч	ч	[tɕ]
Ш	ш	[ʂ]
Щ	щ	[ɕɕ]
Ъ	ъ	[-]
Ы	ы	[ɯ], [ɨ]
Ь	ь	[ʲ]
Э	э	[ɪ̞], [e]
Ә	ә	[æ]
Ю	ю	[ju]
Я	я	[jɑ], [ja]

Phonology

Vowels

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

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⟩ [ĕ~ɘ̆]	ө ⟨ö⟩ [ø~ɵ]	ы ⟨y⟩ [ɤ̆~ʌ̆]	о ⟨o⟩ [o]
Open	ә ⟨ä⟩ [æ~a]		а ⟨a⟩ [ɑ]

The two mid unrounded vowels are always short, in an unstressed position they are frequently elided, as in кеше keshe [kĕˈʃĕ] > [kʃĕ] 'person', or ҡышы qïshï [qɤ̆ˈʃɤ̆] > [qʃɤ̆] '(his) winter'. Low back /ɑ/ is rounded [ɒ] in the first syllable and after [ɒ], but not in the last, as in бала bala [bɒˈlɑ] 'child', балаларға balalargha [bɒlɒlɒrˈʁɑ] 'to children'. In Russian loans there are also [ɨ], [ɛ], [ɔ] and [ä], written the same as the native vowels: ы, е/э, о, а respectively. The mid vowels may be transcribed as lowered near-high [ɪ̞, ʏ̞, ɯ̞, ʊ̞].

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.)

Vowel	Old Turkic	Tatar	Bashkir	Gloss
*e	*et	it	it	'meat'
*ö	*söz	süz	hüdh [hyð]	'word'
*o	*sol	sul	hul	'left'
*i	*it	et	et	'dog'
*ï	*qyz	qëz [qɤ̆z]	qëź [qɤ̆θ]	'girl'
*u	*qum	qom	qom	'sand'
*ü	*kül	köl	köl	'ash'

Consonants

The consonants of Bashkir

		Labial	Labio- velar	Dental	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals		м ⟨m⟩ /m/		н ⟨n⟩ /n/			ң ⟨ng⟩ /ŋ/
Plosives	Voiceless	п ⟨p⟩ /p/		т ⟨t⟩ /t/		к ⟨k⟩ /c/	к ⟨k⟩ /k/	ҡ ⟨q⟩ /q/	ь/ъ ⟨’⟩ /ʔ/
	Voiced	б ⟨b⟩ /b/		д ⟨d⟩ /d/		г ⟨g⟩ /ɟ/	г ⟨g⟩ /ɡ/
Affricates	Voiceless			ц ⟨ts⟩ /ts/		ч ⟨ç⟩ /tɕ/
Fricatives	Voiceless	ф ⟨f⟩ /f/		ҫ ⟨ś⟩ /θ/				х ⟨kh⟩ /χ/	һ ⟨h⟩ /h/
	Voiced	в ⟨v⟩ /v/		ҙ ⟨ź⟩ /ð/				ғ ⟨gh⟩ /ʁ/
Sibilants	Voiceless			с ⟨s⟩ /s/	ш ⟨sh⟩ /ʃ/
	Voiced			з ⟨z⟩ /z/	ж ⟨zh⟩ /ʒ/
Trill				р ⟨r⟩ /r/
Approximants			у/ү/в ⟨w⟩ /w~ɥ/	л ⟨l⟩ /l/		й ⟨y⟩ /j/

Notes

^* The phonemes /f/, /v/, /ts/, /tɕ/, /k/, /ɡ/, /ʔ/ are found only in loanwords, and, in the case of /ʔ/, in a few native onomatopoeic words.

• /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. A large part of the Bashkir vocabulary has Turkic roots; and there are many loan words in Bashkir from Russian, Arabic and Persian sources.

Declension of nouns

	Case	father	mother	child	dog	cat
Singular	Nominative	атай atay	әсәй äsäy	бала bala	эт et	бесәй besäy
	Genitive	атайҙың ataydhïng	әсәйҙең äsäydheng	баланың balanïng	эттең etteng	бесәйҙең besäydheng
	Dative	атайға ataygha	әсәйгә äsäygä	балаға balagha	эткә etkä	бесәйгә besäygä
	Accusative	атайҙы ataydhï	әсәйҙе äsäydhe	баланы balanï	этте ette	бесәйҙе besäydhe
	Locative	атайҙа ataydha	әсәйҙә äsäydhä	балала balala	эттә että	бесәйҙә besäydhä
	Ablative	атайҙан ataydhan	әсәйҙән äsäydhän	баланан balanan	эттән ettän	бесәйҙән besäydhän
Plural	Nominative	атайҙар ataydhar	әсәйҙәр äsäydhär	балалар balalar	эттәр ettär	бесәйҙәр besäydhär
	Genitive	атайҙарҙың ataydhardhıng	әсәйҙәрҙең äsäydhärdheng	балаларҙың balalardhïng	эттәрҙең ettärdheng	бесәйҙәрҙең besäydhärdheng
	Dative	атайҙарға ataydhargha	әсәйҙәргә äsäydhärgä	балаларға balalargha	эттәргә ettärgä	бесәйҙәргә besäydhärgä
	Accusative	атайҙарҙы ataydhardhï	әсәйҙәрҙе äsäydhärdhe	балаларҙы balalardhï	эттәрҙе ettärdhe	бесәйҙәрҙе besäydhärdhe
	Locative	атайҙарҙа ataydhardha	әсәйҙәрҙә äsäydhärdhä	балаларҙа balalardha	эттәрҙә ettärdhä	бесәйҙәрҙә besäydhärdhä
	Ablative	атайҙарҙан ataydhardhan	әсәйҙәрҙән äsäydhärdhän	балаларҙан balalardhan	эттәрҙән ettärdhän	бесәйҙәрҙән besäydhärdhän

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

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

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