# Crimean Tatar language

Crimean Tatar (qırımtatar tili, къырымтатар тили, قریم تاتار تلی), also called Crimean (qırım tili, къырым тили, قریم تلی), is a Kipchak Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should not be confused with Tatar, spoken in Tatarstan and adjacent regions in Russia; the two languages are related, but belong to different subgroups of the Kipchak languages, while maintaining a significant degree of mutual intelligibility. Crimean Tatar has been extensively influenced by nearby Oghuz dialects and is also mutually intelligible with them to varying degrees.
A long-term ban on the study of the Crimean Tatar language following the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet government has led to the fact that at the moment UNESCO ranked the Crimean Tatar language among the languages under serious threat of extinction (severely endangered). However, according to the Institute of Oriental Studies, due to negative situations, the real degree of threat has elevated to critically endangered languages in recent years, which are highly likely to face extinction in the coming generations.
Crimean language is one of the official languages of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine), along with Ukrainian and Russian. It is also one of the state languages of the Republic of Crimea (Russian occupation, considered "temporarily occupied territories" by the Ukrainian government), the other ones being Ukrainian and Russian.

## Number of speakers

Today, more than 260,000 Crimean Tatars live in Crimea. Approximately 120,000 reside in Central Asia (mainly in Uzbekistan), where their ancestors had been deported in 1944 during World War II by the Soviet Union. However, of all these people, mostly the older generations are the only ones still speaking Crimean Tatar. In 2013, the language was estimated to be on the brink of extinction, being taught in only around 15 schools in Crimea.
Turkey has provided support to Ukraine, to aid in bringing the schools teaching in Crimean Tatar to a modern state. An estimated 5 million people of Crimean origin live in Turkey, descendants of those who emigrated in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Smaller Crimean Tatar communities such as (Dobrujan Tatars) are also found in Romania (22,000) and Bulgaria (1,400).
Crimean Tatar is one of the most seriously endangered languages in Europe. Almost all Crimean Tatars are bilingual or multilingual, using the dominant languages of their respective home countries, such as Russian, Turkish, Romanian, Uzbek, Bulgarian or Ukrainian.

## Classification and dialects

The Crimean Tatar language consists of three or four dialects. Among them is also the southern dialect, also known as the coastal dialect (yalıboyu, cenübiy), which is in the Oghuz branch of Turkic languages commonly spoken in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan

## History

The formation period of the Crimean Tatar spoken dialects began with the first Turkic invasions of Crimea by Cumans and Pechenegs and ended during the period of the Crimean Khanate. However, the official written languages of the Crimean Khanate were Chagatai and Ottoman Turkish. After Islamization, Crimean Tatars wrote with an Arabic script.
In 1876, the different Turkic Crimean dialects were made into a uniform written language by Ismail Gasprinski. A preference was given to the Oghuz dialect of the Yalıboylus, in order to not break the link between the Crimeans and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. In 1928, the language was reoriented to the middle dialect spoken by the majority of the people.
In 1928, the alphabet was replaced with the Uniform Turkic Alphabet based on the Latin script. The Uniform Turkic Alphabet was replaced in 1938 by a Cyrillic alphabet. During the 1990s and 2000s, the government of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea under Ukraine encouraged replacing the script with a Latin version again, but the Cyrillic has still been widely used (mainly in published literature, newspapers and education). The current Latin-based Crimean Tatar alphabet is the same as the Turkish alphabet, with two additional characters: Ñ ñ and Q q. In the Russian-annexed "Republic of Crimea" all official communications and education in Crimean Tatar are conducted exclusively in the Cyrillic alphabet.

## Phonology
### Vowels

| | Front | Front | Back | Back |
| | unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded |
| Close | i | y | ɯ | u |
| Mid/Open | e | ø | ɑ | o |
The vowel system of Crimean Tatar is similar to some other Turkic languages. Because high vowels in Crimean Tatar are short and reduced, /i/ and /ɯ/ are realized close to [ɪ], even though they are phonologically distinct.

### Consonants

| | Labial | Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Dental/ Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Post- alveolar | Velar | Velar | Uvular |
| Nasal | | m | | n | | | | ŋ | |
| Stop | p | b | t | d | t͡ʃ | d͡ʒ | k | ɡ | q |
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | | x | ɣ | |
| Trill | | | | r | | | | | |
| Approximants | | | | l | | j | | | |
In addition to these phonemes, Crimean also displays marginal phonemes that occur in borrowed words, especially palatalized consonants.
The southern (coastal) dialect substitutes /x/ for /q/, e.g. standard qara 'black', southern xara. At the same time the southern and some central dialects preserve glottal /h/ which is pronounced /x/ in the standard language. The northern dialect on the contrary lacks /x/ and /f/, substituting /q/ for /x/ and /p/ for /f/. The northern /v/ is usually [w], often in the place of /ɣ/, compare standard dağ and northern taw 'mountain' (also in other Oghuz and Kipchak languages, such as Azerbaijani: dağ and Kazakh: taw).
/k/ and /ɡ/ are usually fronted, close to [c] and [ɟ].

## Grammar

The grammar of Crimean Tatar, like all Turkic languages, is agglutinating, with the exclusive use of suffixing to express grammatical categories. Generally, suffixes are attached to the ends of word stems, although derivational morphology makes uses of compounding as well. Overall, the grammatical structure of the language is similar to that of other West Kipchak varieties. Crimean Tatar is a pro-drop language with a generally SOV word order.

### Morphophonology

Crimean Tatar, like most Turkic languages, features pervasive vowel harmony, which results in sound changes when suffixes are added to verb or noun stems. Essentially, the vowel in a suffix undergoes assimilation to agree in certain categories with the vowel in the stem. The two main types of assimilation that characterize this agreement in Crimean Tatar morphophonology are backness harmony and rounding harmony.
Using the transliteration system in Kavitskaya (2010), non-high vowels undergoing backness harmony vary between [a] and [e], and are represented as A. High vowels that undergo both backness and rounding harmony alternate between [i], [y], [ɪ] and [u] and are represented as I. High vowels in suffixes that are never rounded and alternate between [i] and [ɪ] are represented as Y, whereas high vowels in suffixes that are always round and alternate between [u] and [y] are represented as U.
Some consonants undergo similar harmonizing changes depending on whether the preceding segment is voiced or voiceless, or whether the segment demonstrates backness harmony. Consonants that alternate between [k], [q], [g] and [ɣ] are represented as K, alternating [k] and [g] as G, alternating [t] and [d] by D, and alternating [tʃ] and [dʒ] as Ç.
Thus, the suffix -şAr could be rendered as "şar" or "şer" depending on the vowel in the morpheme preceding it.

### Verbs

Crimean Tatar verbal morphology is fairly complex, inflecting for tense, number, person, aspect, mood and voice. Verbs are conjugated according to the following paradigm:
       [STEM] + [reflexive] + [causative] + [passive] + [negation] + [tense/aspect/mood] + [person/number]
It is possible, albeit rare, for a single verb to contain all of these possible components, as in:
Мен
Men
I
ювундырылмадым.
yuvundırılmadım.
wash-REFL-CAUS-PASS-NEG-PAST-1SG
Мен ювундырылмадым.
Men yuvundırılmadım.
I wash-REFL-CAUS-PASS-NEG-PAST-1SG
"I was not forced to wash myself."
For the most part, each type of suffix would only appear once in any given word, although it is possible in some circumstances for causative suffixes to double up.
Infinitive verbs take the -mAK suffix and can be negated by the addition of the suffix -mA between the verb stem and the infinitive suffix, creating verb constructions that do not easily mirror English.
яшамакъ
yaşamaq
яшамакъ
yaşamaq
"to live"
яшамамакъ
yaşamamaq
яшамамакъ
yaşamamaq
"not to live"
Verb derivation
Novel verb stems are derived chiefly by applying a verbalizing suffix to a noun or adjective, as demonstrated in the following examples:
тишле
tişle
tooth-VB
тишле
tişle
tooth-VB
"bite"
къарар
qarar
black-VB
къарар
qarar
black-VB
"become black"
кечик
keçik
late-VB
кечик
keçik
late-VB
"be late"
Bare verb stems can also be compounded with noun stems to create new verbs, as in:
чекеле
çekele
pull-carry-VB
чекеле
çekele
pull-carry-VB
"to overhaul"
Person markers
There are two types of person markers for finite verbs, pronominal and possessive. Depending on tense and mood, verbs will take one or the other set of endings.
       Pronominal SingularPlural 1st Person -(I)m -mIz 2nd Person -sIñ -sI(ñI)z 3rd Person Ø -(lAr)
          Possessive SingularPlural 1st Person -(I)m -mIz 2nd Person -sIñ -sI(ñI)z 3rd Person Ø -(lAr)
Grammatical person is not marked in third person singular, and the marker is optional in third person plural. As shown above, these markers come as the last element in the broader verb complex.
Tense and aspect markers
Grammatical tense and aspect are expressed in combination by the addition of various markers to the verb stem. Some of these markers match with pronominal person markers, while others take possessive person markers. Each tense/aspect has an associated negation marker; most of these are -mA but there is some variation.
       MarkerNegationPerson MarkerExample General Present -A/y-mAypronominalalam ("I take") Present Progressive -mAKtA-mApronominalyazmaqtamız ("We are writing.") Future/Present -Ar/Ir-mAzpronominalbağırırım ("I will yell.") Categorical Future -cAK-mAypronominalalacağım ("I will [probably] take") General Past -DY-mApossessiveQırımğa keldik ("We returned to Crimea.") Evidential Past -KAn-mApronominalbergenler ("they [apparently] gave") Conditional -sA-mApossessivealsam ("if I take")
A separate set of compound tenses are formed by adding the past tense copula edi- to the derived forms listed above.
       Formed WithNegationExample Habitual Past Future/Present-mAzalır edim ("I often used to take") Compound Past General Present-A/yala edik ("we were taking") Pluperfect Evidential Past-mAalğan edim ("I had taken") Counterfactual Past Categorical Future-mAyazacaq edim ("I would have written") Progressive Past Progressive-mAKetmekte edim. ("I kept going.") Past Conditional Conditional-mAalsa edim ("if I had taken")
Mood
The imperative is formed using a specific set of person markers, and negated using -mA. In second person imperatives, only the bare verb stem is used. A first person imperative expresses an "I/we should do X" sentiment, whereas third person expresses "let him/her do X," as shown below with unut ("to forget"):
       SingularPlural 1st Person -(A)yIm-(A)yIK 2nd Person Ø-IñIz 3rd Person -sIn-sInlAr
Унутайым.
Unutayım
Унутайым.
Unutayım
"I should have to forget."
Унут!
Unut!
Унут!
Unut!
"Forget!"
Унутсын.
Unutsın.
Унутсын.
Unutsın.
"Let him/her forget."
Other moods are constructed similarly to tense/aspect forms.
       MarkerNegationPerson MarkerExample Optative -KAy(dI)-mAypronominalAytqaydım ("I wish I had spoken.") Obligative -mAlY-mApossessiveAytmalım ("I have to speak.")
Voice
Grammatical voice is expressed by the addition of suffixes which come in sequence before negation, tense, aspect, mood and person markers. There are several causative suffixes which vary depending on the ending of the verb stem.
       Voice MarkerExample Passive -(I)laşal ("be eaten") Reflexive -(I)nboğul ("drown oneself") Reciprocal -(I)ştapış ("find each other")
          Causative MarkerAdded ToExample -tpolysyllabic stems ending in vowelişlet ("force to work") -Itstems ending in -rk, -lk, -kqorqut ("to scare [someone]") -Irmonosyllabic stems ending in -t, -ç, -şuçur ("allow to fly away") -Armonosyllabic stemsqopar ("break off [something]") -DIrmmost remaining stemstöktür ("force to spill")
Participles
Past, future and present participles are formed by the addition of suffixes and are negated in the same way as other verbs.
       MarkerNegation Past -KAn-mA Future -cAK-mAy Present -r-mAz
язылгъан
yazılğan
write-PTCP.PAST
мектюп
mektüp
letter
язылгъан мектюп
yazılğan mektüp
write-PTCP.PAST letter
"written letter"
сынаджакъ
sınacaq
break-PTCP.FUT
араба
araba
cart
сынаджакъ араба
sınacaq araba
break-PTCP.FUT cart
"cart that will break"
янар
yanar
burn-PTCP.PRES
дагъ
dağ
forest
янар дагъ
yanar dağ
burn-PTCP.PRES forest
"burning forest"
Copula
The copula ol ("to be, become, exist") is generally expressed as a predicate suffix in the present tense, closely resembling the pronominal person endings, as displayed below. The third person endings are frequently deleted in colloquial speech. The copula’s past tense form, edi, is suppletive. Future tense copular forms are constructed by the addition of the categorical future suffix -cAK.
       SingularPlural 1st Person -(I)m-mIz 2nd Person -sIñ-sI(ñI)z 3rd Perso (-dır)(-dır)
VB:Verbalizing Suffix
Мен
Men
I
оджам.
ocam.
teacher-COP.1SG
Мен оджам.
Men ocam.
I teacher-COP.1SG
"I am a teacher."
Мен
Men
I
оджа
oca
teacher
эдим.
edim.
COP.PAST.1SG
Мен оджа эдим.
Men oca edim.
I teacher COP.PAST.1SG
"I was a teacher."
Мен
Men
I
оджа
oca
teacher
oладжагъым.
olacağım.
COP.FUT.1SG
Мен оджа oладжагъым.
Men oca olacağım.
I teacher COP.FUT.1SG
"I will be a teacher."
Converbs
Converbs, a characteristic of many Turkic languages, express sequential or dependent action. Present tense converbs are formed by the addition of the suffixes -A (used after consonants) and -y (used after vowels). In past tense, converbs take the suffix -Ip. Thus:
Acaн
Asan
Asan
эвгe
evge
house-DAT
кeлип
kelip
come-CVB.PAST
эвни
evni
house-ACC
темизледи.
temizledi.
clean-VB-PAST
Acaн эвгe кeлип эвни темизледи.
Asan evge kelip evni temizledi.
Asan house-DAT come-CVB.PAST house-ACC clean-VB-PAST
"Asan came home and cleaned the house."

### Nouns

Crimean Tatar noun stems take suffixes which express grammatical number, case and possession. As in all other Turkic languages, there is no grammatical gender in Crimean Tatar. Nouns are declined according to the following paradigm:
       [STEM] + [number] + [possession] + [case]
Noun derivation
Noun stems are derived in a number of ways. Most commonly, a bare noun stem can take a denominal suffix which alters its basic meaning. Similarly, a bare verb stem can take a deverbal suffix that converts it into a noun. There are many such denominal and deverbal suffixes in Crimean Tatar; some common suffixes are shown below:
Denominal :
| Marker | Meaning | Example | Gloss |
| -dAş | belonging to group | yaşdaş ("of same age") | age-SUF |
| -kir | association/inclination | işkir ("hard worker") | work-SUF |
| -lIK | abstraction | dostluq ("friendship") | friend-SUF |
| -şınas | performer of act | tilşınas ("linguist") | tongue-SUF |
| -ÇI | performer of act | arabaçı ("driver") | cart-SUF |
| -çYK | diminutive | buzçıq ("piece of ice") | ice-SUF |
    Deverbal MarkerMeaningExampleGloss -mAresult of actionaşıqma ("a hurry")hurry-SUF -KIinstrument of actionbilgi ("knowledge")know-SUF -KIçutility of actiontutquç ("holder, handle")hold-SUF -Igeneral noun formationölü ("dead man")die-SUF -(I)kgeneral noun formationkürek ("shovel")scoop-SUF -(U)vgeneral noun formationquruv ("building")build-SUF
Noun stems can also be reduplicated, which lends a more generalized meaning. The last method of noun derivation is through the compounding of two noun stems. Thus:
къартоп-мaртоп
qartop-martop
potato-REDUP
къартоп-мaртоп
qartop-martop
potato-REDUP
"potatoes and the like"
aнa-бaбa
ana-baba
mother-father
aнa-бaбa
ana-baba
mother-father
"parents"
Number
Nouns are pluralized by the addition of the suffix -lAr to the noun stem. The vowel in this plural suffix agrees phonetically with the final vowel in the stem.
aрaбалар
arabalar
car-PL
aрaбалар
arabalar
car-PL
"cars"
Use of the plural can also express respect, as in:
Oсмановлар
Osmanovlar
кельди.
keldi.
Oсмановлар кельди.
Osmanovlar keldi.
"Osmanov came."
Possession
Possession is expressed through person-specific suffixing. As with the plural suffix, possession suffixes harmonize with the preceding vowel in regular ways.
       SingularPlural 1st Person -(I)m-(I)mIz 2nd Person -(I)ñ-(I)ñIz 3rd Person -s(I)-(lar)-(s)I
балам
balam
child-1SG.POSS-NOM
балам
balam
child-1SG.POSS-NOM
"my child"
баланъ
balañ
child-2SG.POSS-NOM
баланъ
balañ
child-2SG.POSS-NOM
"your child"
баласы
balası
child-3SG.POSS-NOM
баласы
balası
child-3SG.POSS-NOM
"his/her child"
Case
Crimean Tatar has six grammatical cases. The nominative case is unmarked, and the remaining cases are expressed through suffixing. These suffixes come last in a fully declined noun.
       SuffixExample with bala ("child") Nominative Øbala ("the child" [subject]) Accusative -nYbalanı ("the child" [direct object]) Genitive -nYñbalanıñ ("of the child") Dative -KAbalağa ("to the child") Locative -DAbalada ("at the child") Ablative -Danbaladan ("away from the child")

### Pronouns

Like nouns, pronouns are inflected for number, person and case but not for gender.
       Singular Plural 1st2nd3rd 1st2nd3rd Nominative mensenobizsizolar Accusative menisenionıbiznisizniolarnı Genitive menimseniñonıñbizimsiziñolarnıñ Dative mañasañaoñabizgesizgeolarǧa Locative mendesendeondabizdesizdeolarda Ablative mendensendenondanbizdensizdenolardan
The second person plural pronoun can be used to denote formality or respect, even if its referent is a single person.
There are two roots, öz- and kendi-, that express reflexivity. Of the two, kendi- is more common in the southern dialect, but both are used throughout the entire area in which Crimean Tatar is spoken.
Possessive pronouns are formed by adding the suffix -ki to the genitive form of a personal pronoun, as in:
       SingularPlural 1st Person menimkibizimki 2nd Person seniñkisiziñki 3rd Person onıñkiolarnıñki

### Adjectives

Adjectives in Crimean Tatar precede the nouns they modify. They do not show agreement, and as such do not take any of the case, person or possession suffixes.
Adjectives can be derived by the addition of certain suffixes to a noun or verb stem.
SUF:adjectival suffix
кескин
keskin
cut-SUF
кескин
keskin
cut-SUF
"sharp"
кюндеки
kündeki
day-SUF
кюндеки
kündeki
day-SUF
"daily"
Къырымлы
Qırımlı
Crimea-SUF
Къырымлы
Qırımlı
Crimea-SUF
"Crimean"
The comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are expressed, respectively, by the suffix -ÇA and the particle eñ, as in the following examples:
узунджур
uzuncur
узунджур
uzuncur
"hotter"
энъ
eñ
балабан
balaban
энъ балабан
eñ balaban
"biggest"
An idiomatic superlative form using episi ("all") in the ablative case is also possible.
О
O
she
эписинден
episinden
all-POSS-ABL
татлы
tatlı
sweet
бакълава
baqlava
baklava
пишире.
pişire.
boil-CAUS-PRES
О эписинден татлы бакълава пишире.
O episinden tatlı baqlava pişire.
she all-POSS-ABL sweet baklava boil-CAUS-PRES
"She cooks the sweetest baklava."

### Postpositions

Crimean Tatar uses postpositions. Each postposition governs a specific case, either dative, genitive or ablative. Some common postpositions are shown below:
       PostpositionEnglishCase' qadaruntilDAT tabatowardsDAT zarfındaduringGEN ilewithGEN içünforGEN soñafterABL sebepdue toABL

## Writing systems

Crimean Tatar is written in either the Cyrillic or Latin alphabets, both modified to the specific needs of Crimean Tatar, and either used respective to where the language is used.
Historically, the Arabic script was used from the sixteenth century. In the Soviet Union, it was replaced by a Latin alphabet based on Yañalif in 1928, and by a Cyrillic alphabet in 1938.
After Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Cyrillic became the sole script allowed in Russian occupied Crimea because according to the Constitutional Court of Russia decision made in 2004, all languages of Russia must use Cyrillic. However there are some contradictions to the decision: virtually all Finnic languages, including distantly-related Skolt Sámi, spoken in Russia, however, currently use the Latin script as their sister languages Finnish and Estonian do, despite the historical existence of Karelian Cyrillic alphabet.
In 1992, a Latin alphabet based on Common Turkic Alphabet was adopted by the decision of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People, which was formally supported by the Supreme Council of Crimea in 1997 but never implemented officially on practical level. However, in 2021, the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine has announced it begins the implementation of the decision, with vice premier Oleksii Reznikov supporting the transition by stating that Latin corresponds better to Turkic phonetics. The ministry revealed it plans to finish the transition to Latin by 2025, which was supported by the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. The alphabet is co-developed by A. Yu. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies, Potebnia Institute of Linguistics, Institute of Philology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University.

### Arabic alphabet

Crimean Tatars used Arabic script from the 16th century to 1928.
| Contextual forms | Contextual forms | Contextual forms | Contextual forms | Name | Modern Latin form |
| Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial | Name | Modern Latin form |
| ﺍ | ﺎ | — | — | elif | a, â |
| ﺀ | — | — | — | hemze | - |
| ﺏ | ﺐ | ﺒ | ﺑ | be | b, p (word-ending) |
| ﭖ | ﭗ | ﭙ | ﭘ | pe | p |
| ﺕ | ﺖ | ﺘ | ﺗ | te | t |
| ﺙ | ﺚ | ﺜ | ﺛ | se | s |
| ﺝ | ﺞ | ﺠ | ﺟ | cim | c |
| ﭺ | ﭻ | ﭽ | ﭼ | çim | ç |
| ﺡ | ﺢ | ﺤ | ﺣ | ha | - |
| ﺥ | ﺦ | ﺨ | ﺧ | hı | h |
| ﺩ | ﺪ | — | — | dal | d |
| ﺫ | ﺬ | — | — | zel | z |
| ﺭ | ﺮ | — | — | re | r |
| ﺯ | ﺰ | — | — | ze | z |
| ﮊ | ﮋ | — | — | je | j |
| ﺱ | ﺲ | ﺴ | ﺳ | sin | s |
| ﺵ | ﺶ | ﺸ | ﺷ | şin | ş |
| ﺹ | ﺺ | ﺼ | ﺻ | sad | s |
| ﺽ | ﺾ | ﻀ | ﺿ | dad | d, z |
| ﻁ | ﻂ | ﻄ | ﻃ | tı | t |
| ﻅ | ﻆ | ﻈ | ﻇ | zı | z |
| ﻉ | ﻊ | ﻌ | ﻋ | ayn | - |
| ﻍ | ﻎ | ﻐ | ﻏ | ğayn | ğ |
| ﻑ | ﻒ | ﻔ | ﻓ | fe | f |
| ﻕ | ﻖ | ﻘ | ﻗ | qaf | q |
| ﻙ | ﻚ | ﻜ | ﻛ | kef (kef-i arabiy) | k (g, ñ) $^1$ |
| ﮒ | ﮓ | ﮕ | ﮔ | gef (kef-i farsiy) | g |
| ﯓ | ﯔ | ﯖ | ﯕ | nef (kef-i nuniy, sağır kef) | ñ |
| ﻝ | ﻞ | ﻠ | ﻟ | lâm | l |
| ﻡ | ﻢ | ﻤ | ﻣ | mim | m |
| ﻥ | ﻦ | ﻨ | ﻧ | nun | n |
| ﻭ | ﻮ | — | — | vav | v, o, ö, u, ü |
| ﻩ | ﻪ | ﻬ | ﻫ | he | -, e, a |
| ﻻ | ﻼ | — | — | lâm-elif | la, lâ |
| ﻯ | ﻰ | ﻴ | ﻳ | ye | y, ı, i |
Note:
* The letter ﻙ (kef) is often used in place of ﮒ and ﯓ.

### Latin alphabet

Â â is not considered to be a separate letter. Usually it represents the near-open front unrounded vowel, /æ/.
| a | b | c | ç | d | e | f | g | ğ | h | ı | i (ĭ) | j | k | l | m | n | ñ | o | ö | p | q | r | s | ş | t | u | ü | v (w) | y | z |
| [a] | [b] | [dʒ] | [tʃ] | [d] | [e] | [f] | [ɡ] | [ɣ] | [x] | [ɯ] | [i], [ɪ] | [ʒ] | [k] | [l] | [m] | [n] | [ŋ] | [o] | [ø] | [p] | [q] | [r] | [s] | [ʃ] | [t] | [u] | [y] | [v], [w] | [j] | [z] |

### Cyrillic alphabet

| а | б | в | г | гъ | д | е | ё | ж | з | и | й | к | къ | л | м | н | нъ | о | п | р | с | т | у | ф | х | ц | ч | дж | ш | щ | ъ | ы | ь | э | ю | я |
| [a] | [b] | [v], [w] | [ɡ] | [ɣ] | [d] | [ɛ], [jɛ] | [ø], [jø], [jo], [ʲo] | [ʒ] | [z] | [i], [ɪ] | [j] | [k] | [q] | [l], [ɫ] | [m] | [n] | [ŋ] | [o], [ø] | [p] | [r] | [s] | [t] | [u], [y] | [f] | [x] | [ts] | [tʃ] | [dʒ] | [ʃ] | [ʃtʃ] | [(.j)] | [ɯ] | [ʲ] | [ɛ] | [y], [jy], [ju], [ʲu] | [ʲa], [ja] |
The digraphs гъ, къ, нъ and дж are separate letters.

## Sample

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1:
Bütün insanlar serbestlik, menlik ve uquqlarda musaviy olıp dünyağa keleler. Olar aqıl ve vicdan saibidirler ve biri-birilerinen qardaşçasına munasebette bulunmalıdırlar.

## Legal status

The Crimean peninsula is internationally recognized as territory of Ukraine, but since the 2014 annexation by the Russian Federation is de facto administered as part of the Russian Federation.
According to Russian law, by the April 2014 constitution of the Republic of Crimea and the 2017 Crimean language law, the Crimean Tatar language is a state language in Crimea alongside Russian and Ukrainian, while Russian is the state language of the Russian Federation, the language of interethnic communication, and required in public postings in the conduct of elections and referendums.
In Ukrainian law, according to the constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as published in Russian by its Verkhovna Rada, Russian and Crimean Tatar languages enjoy a "protected" (Russian: обеспечивается ... защита) status; every citizen is entitled, at his request (ходатайство), to receive government documents, such as "passport, birth certificate and others" in Crimean Tatar; but Russian is the language of interethnic communication and to be used in public life. According to the constitution of Ukraine, Ukrainian is the state language. Recognition of Russian and Crimean Tatar was a matter of political and legal debate.
Before the Sürgünlik, the 18 May 1944 deportation by the Soviet Union of Crimean Tatars to internal exile in Uzbek SSR, Crimean Tatar had an official language status in the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

## Media

The first Crimean Tatar newspaper was Terciman published in 1883-1918 by Ismail Gasprinsky. Some other Crimean Tatar media include: ATR, Qırım Aqiqat, Qırım, Meydan, Qırım Alemi, Avdet, Yañı Dünya, Yıldız.