Bashkir language

Bashkir
башҡорт теле (башҡортса) başqort tele (başqortsa) باشقۇرت تىُلىُ (باشقۇرتسا) باشقرد تلی (باشقردسا)
Bashkir in Cyrillic, Latin, and Perso-Arabic scripts
Pronunciation	[bɑʂˈqʊ̞rt tɪ̞ˈlɪ̞]
Native to	Bashkortostan, Russia
Region	Volga, Ural
Ethnicity	Bashkirs
Native speakers	750,000 (2020 estimate)
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak Kipchak–Bulgar 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

Bashkir (UK: /bæʃˈkɪər/ bash-KEER, US: /bɑːʃˈkɪər/ bahsh-KEER) or Bashkort (Bashkir: Башҡорт теле, romanized: Başqort tele, [bɑʂˈqʊ̞rt tɪ̞ˈlɪ̞] ) is a Turkic language belonging to the Kipchak branch. It is co-official with Russian in Bashkortostan. It is spoken by around 750,000 native speakers in Russia, as well as in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan 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 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 the United States.

In a recent local media report in Bashkortostan, it was reported that some officials of the republic cannot assemble a document in Bashkir language.

Classification

Bashkir together with Tatar belongs to the Kipchak-Bulgar (Russian: кыпчакско-булгарская) subgroup of the Kipchak languages. These languages have a similar vocabulary by 94.9%, and they not only have common origin, but also a common ancestor in the written language — Volga Turki. 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 – "zur" [ðuɾ] 'big', and the particle/conjunction ҙа – "za" [ða] or ҙә – "zə" [ðæ]. 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) and Bashkir һүҙ (hüz), both meaning "word".
• Common Turkic /tʃ/ (Tatar /ɕ/) is turned into Bashkir /s/, e.g., Turkish ağaç [aˈatʃ], Tatar агач ağaç [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 cılı [ʑɤˈlɤ] and Bashkir йылы – yılı [jɯˈɫɯ], 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 tormışım and Bashkir тормошом – tormoşom, both pronounced [tʊɾ.mʊˈʂʊm], meaning "my life".

Sample text

Cyrillic script	Latin script	Arabic script	IPA transcription
Барлыҡ кешеләр ирекле, дәрәжәләре һәм хоҡуҡтары тигеҙ булып тыуалар. Улар аҡыл һәм выждан эйәһе һәм бер-береһенә ҡарата ҡәрҙәшлек рухында хәрәкәт итергә тейештәр.	Barlıq keşelär irekle, däräjäläre häm xoquqtarı tigeź bulıp tıwalar. Ular aqıl häm vıjdan eyähe häm ber-berehenä qarata qärźäşlek ruxında xäräkät itergä teyeştär.	بارلق كشیلر ایركلی، درجه‌لری هم حقوقتری تیگذ بولوب طوه‌لر. اولر عقل هم وجدان ایه‌هی هم بربریهینه قاراته قارذشلك روحینده حركت ایتورگه تیوشتر.	[bɑrˈɫɯ̞q kɪ̞ʃɪ̞ˈlær irɪ̞kˈlɪ̞ dæræʒælæˈrɪ̞ hæm χʊ̞quqtɑˈrɯ̞ tʲiˈɡɪ̞ð buˈɫɯ̞p tɯ̞wɑˈɫɑr ‖ uˈɫɑr ɑˈqɯ̞ɫ hæm ˌbɪ̞r‿bɪ̞rɪ̞hɪ̞ˈnæ qɑrɑˈtɑ qærðæʃˈlɪ̞k ruχɯ̞nˈdɑ χæræˈkæt itɪ̞rˈgæ tɪ̞jɪ̞ʃˈtær ‖]

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 /ʏ/, 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 of the Bashkir Cyrillic alphabet

Cyrillic version	Pronunciation	Notes
Аа	[ɑ], [a]	"A" is usually pronounced as [ɑ] in all syllables except last, in last syllable it is pronounced as [a].
Бб	[b], [β]	[β] is the intervocal allophone.
Вв	[v], [w]	[v] in Russian loanwords, [w] in Arabic and Persian loanwords.
Гг	[ɡ]
Ғғ	[ʁ]
Дд	[d]
Ҙҙ	[ð]
Ее	[jɪ], [ɪ]	The letter is iotated at the beginning of a word, after a vowel or after a soft or hard sign.
Ёё	[jɔ]	Only used in Russian loanwords.
Жж	[ʐ]	Only occurs in loanwords and onomatopoeia.
Зз	[z]
Ии	[i], [ij]	Occurs only in the first syllable. In most other contexts, especially in open syllables, it is an underlying /ij/, for example in words like ти [tij]/[tɪj]. Hence why the suffixes use the /ð/ consonant following this vowel, unlike /l/ after other vowels: тиҙәр (tiźär) /tijˈðær/, but not тиләр (tilär).
Йй	[j]
Кк	[k]
Ҡҡ	[q]
Лл	[l], [ɫ]	In front vowel contexts occurs as apical [l], 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	[ʊ]
Өө	[ø], [y]	Shifts to [y] in vicinity of [j]: өйҙә (öyźä) [yjˈðä]
Пп	[p]
Рр	/r/, [ɾ]	[ɾ] is the intervocal allophone.
Сс	[s]
Ҫҫ	[θ]
Тт	[t]
Уу	[u], [w]	These two letters are used for /w/ phoneme when they are written after a back or front vowel respectively. As the vowel phoneme, they can only occur in the first syllable. Therefore if these letters are not in the first syllable, they occur after a vowel and are pronounced as /w/.
Үү	[ʏ], [w]
Фф	[ɸ]
Хх	[χ]
Һһ	[h]
Цц	[ts]
Чч	[tɕ]
Шш	[ʂ]
Щщ	[ɕː]	Only occurs in loanwords.
Ъъ	[ʔ]	Only occurs in back vowel contexts (except loanwords). Indicates a glottal stop if placed after a vowel, acts as a syllable separator if placed after a consonant.
Ыы	[ɯ]
Ьь	[ʔ]	Only occurs in front vowel contexts (except loanwords). Indicates a glottal stop if placed after a vowel, acts as a syllable separator if placed after a consonant.
Ээ	[ɪ]
Әә	[æ]
Юю	[ju]
Яя	[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
	Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	и ⟨i⟩ [ɪ]	ү ⟨ü⟩ [y~ʉ]	ы ⟨ı⟩ [ɯ]	у ⟨u⟩ [ʊ]
Mid	э, е ⟨e⟩ [e~ɘ]	ө ⟨ö⟩ [ø̝~ɵ]		о ⟨o⟩ [o~ɤ]
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.

Historical shifts

Historically, the Proto-Turkic mid vowels have raised from mid to high, whereas the Proto-Turkic high vowels have become the Bashkir reduced mid series. (The same shifts have also happened in Tatar.) However, in most dialects of Bashkir, this shift is not as prominent as in Tatar.

Vowel	Common Turkic	Tatar	Bashkir	Gloss
*e /ɛ/	*et	it	it /it/	'meat'
*ö /œ/	*söz	süz	hüź /hʏð/	'word'
*o /ɔ/	*sol	sul	hul /huɫ/	'left'
*i /i/	*it	et	et /ɪt/	'dog'
*ï /ɤ/	*qïz	qız	qıź /qɯð/	'girl'
*u /u/	*qum	qom	qom /qʊm/	'sand'
*ü /y/	*kül	köl	köl /køl/	'ash'

Consonants

The consonants of Bashkir

		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	ç ⟨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 [e], and both occur only in front vowel contexts.

• /θ, ð/ are dental [θ, ð], and /ɾ/ is apical alveolar [ɾ]. 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.

Russian			Arabic			Persian
in Bashkir	Etymology	Translation	in Bashkir	Etymology	Translation	in Bashkir	Etymology	Translation
минут (minut)	from "минута" (minuta)	minute	ваҡыт (vaqıt)	from "وَقْت" (waqt)	time	дуç (duś)	from "دوست" (dost)	friend
өçтәл (öśtəl)	from "стол" (stol)	table, desk	вәғәҙә (vəğəźə)	from "وَعْدَ" (waʿda)	promise	һәр (hər)	from "هر" (har)	every
сыр (sır)	from "сыр" (syr)	cheese	йәннәт (yənnət)	from "جَنَّة" (janna)	paradise	көмбәҙ (kömbəź)	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" (ə), "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
-лар, -ләр	after all vowels except for и (iy)	баҡса (baqsa), "garden" Pl.: баҡсалар (baqsalar)	сәскә (səskə), "flower" Pl.: сәскәләр (səskələr)
-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), ç (ś), т (t)	дуç (duś), "friend" Pl.: дуçтар (duśtar)	төç (töś), "colour" Pl.: төçтәр (töśtәr)
-ҙар, -ҙәр	after approximants and some others – ҙ (ź), и (iy), р (r), у/ү (w), й (y)	тау (taw), "mountain" Pl.: тауҙар (tawźar )	өй (öy), "house" Pl.: өйҙәр (öyźәr )
-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 (köndər)

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 (telgə), "(to) the language"
	-кә			төшкә (töşkə), "(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 (teldə), "in the language"
	-ла		-ҙа	башта (başta), "in the head"
Ablative	-нән	"н" (n), "д" (d), "т" (t) and "ҙ" (ź)	-ҙән	телдән (teldən), "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 nimə	мин min	һин hin	ул ul	беҙ beź	һеҙ heź	улар ular
Genitive	кемдең kemdeñ	нимәнең niməneñ	минең mineñ	һинең hineñ	уның unıñ	беҙҙең beźźeñ	һеҙҙең heźźeñ	уларҙың ularźıñ
Dative	кемгә kemgə	нимәгә niməgə	миңә miñə	һиңә hiñə	уға uğa	беҙгә beźgə	һеҙгә heźgə	уларға ularğa
Accusative	кемде kemde	нимәне niməne	мине mine	һине hine	уны unı	беҙҙе beźźe	һеҙҙе heźźe	уларҙы ularźı
Locative	кемдә kemdə	нимәлә nimələ	миндә mində	һиндә hində	унда unda	беҙҙә beźźə	һеҙҙә heźźə	уларҙа ularźa
Ablative	кемдән kemdən	нимәнән nimənən	минән minən	һинән hinən	унан unan	беҙҙән beźźən	һеҙҙән heźźən	уларҙан ularźan

Demonstrative pronouns

Case	Singular				Plural
	this		that		these		those
Nominative	был bıl	ошо oşo	шул şul	теге tege	былар bılar	ошолар oşolar	шулар şular	тегеләр tegelər
Genitive	бының bınıñ	ошоноң oşonoñ	шуның şunıñ	тегенең tegeneñ	быларҙың bılarźıñ	ошоларҙың oşolarźıñ	шуларҙың şularźıñ	тегеләрҙең tegelərźeñ
Dative	быға bığa	ошоға oşoğa	шуға şuğa	тегегә tegegə	быларға bılarğa	ошоларға oşolarğa	шуларға şularğa	тегеләргә tegelərgə
Accusative	быны bını	ошоно oşono	шуны şunı	тегене tegene	быларҙы bılarźı	ошоларҙы oşolarźı	шуларҙы şularźı	тегеләрҙе tegelərźe
Locative	бында bında	ошонда oşonda	шунда şunda	тегендә tegendə	быларҙа bılarźa	ошоларҙа oşolarźa	шуларҙа şularźa	тегеләрҙә tegelərźə
Ablative	бынан bınan	ошонан oşonan	шунан şunan	тегенән tegenən	быларҙан bılarźan	ошоларҙан oşolarźan	шуларҙан şularźan	тегеләрҙән tegelərźən

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 Archived 3 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine
• 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