Last Updated: 2020-07-02
Background
Language Family: Turkic / Common Turkic / Kipchak / North Kipchak / Tatar
- Although this language is usually simply called Tatar, it is sometimes also known as Kazan Tatar or Volga Tatar, in order to differentiate it from the Crimean Tatar and Siberian Tatar languages.
- Tatar is spoken in Russia, specifically in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and the Bashkortostan and Tatarstan republics.
Phonology
Consonants
- Bilabial and labiodental consonants are non-contrastive in Turkic languages (Baitchura 1975, 244), so /f/ could theoretically also be /ɸ/. Comrie (1997) explicitly describes this consonant as bilabial (p. 901), but he diverges from a general consensus of using /f/. I have opted for the labiodental /f/ in the phonemic inventory below.
- /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ should not be replaced with affricates (Comrie 1997, 902).
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Alveolo-Palatal
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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops
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p b
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t d
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k ɡ
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ʔ
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Fricatives
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f
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s z
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ʃ ʒ
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ɕ ʑ
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x
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h
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ŋ
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Trills
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r
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Approximants
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w
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l
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j
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless, whereas those on the right are voiced.
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Vowels
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i y
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ɯ u
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Mid
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e ø
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ɤ o
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Low
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a
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ɑ
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are unrounded, whereas those on the right are rounded.
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Alphabet
- Tatar can be represented by both the Cyrillc and Latin scripts. However, the Latin alphabet was made illegal by the Tatarstani government (Wertheim 2012, 75). I have chosen to include both alphabets below as well as both rulesets.
Cyrillic
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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Comment
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а
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/ɑ/
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ә
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/a/
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some authors prefer to use /æ/
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б
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/b/
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в
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/w/
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/v/ in Russian loanwords
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г
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/ɡ/
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д
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/d/
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е
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/e/; /je/
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/je/: word-initially (Poppe 1963, 20)
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ё
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/o/; /jo/
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/jo/: word-initially (only appears in Russian loanwords)
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ж
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/ʒ/
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only appears in Russian loanwords
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җ
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/ʑ/
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з
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/z/
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и
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/i/
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й
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/j/
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к
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/k/
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л
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/l/
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м
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/m/
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н
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/n/
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ң
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/ŋ/
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о
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/o/
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ө
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/ø/
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п
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/p/
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р
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/r/
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с
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/s/
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т
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/t/
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у
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/u/
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ү
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/y/
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ф
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/f/
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х
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/x/
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һ
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/h/
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ц
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/ts/
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only appears in Russian loanwords
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ч
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/ɕ/
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ш
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/ʃ/
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щ
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/ʃɕ/
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only appears in Russian loanwords
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ъ
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/ʔ/
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indicates phonetic backing of associated vowels
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ы
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/ɤ/
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ь
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/ʔ/
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indicates phonetic fronting of associated vowels
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э
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/e/
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ю
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/ɯ/
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phonemic status is controversial; some writers prefer /ju/ or /jy/
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я
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/jɑ/
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Latin
- The capital of ⟨i⟩ is ⟨İ⟩ and the capital of ⟨ı⟩ is ⟨I⟩.
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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Comment
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a
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/ɑ/
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ä
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/a/
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b
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/b/
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c
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/ʑ/
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ç
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/ɕ/
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d
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/d/
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e
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/e/
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f
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/f/
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g
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/ɡ/
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ğ
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/ɡ/
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h
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/h/
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i
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/i/
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ı
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/ɤ/
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j
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/ʒ/
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k
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/k/
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l
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/l/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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ñ
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/ŋ/
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o
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/o/
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ö
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/ø/
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p
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/p/
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q
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/k/
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r
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/r/
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s
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/s/
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ş
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/ʃ/
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t
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/t/
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u
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/u/
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ü
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/y/
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v
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/w/
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w
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/w/
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x
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/x/
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y
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/j/
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z
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/z/
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’
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/ʔ/
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Digraph
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ts
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/ts/
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only appears in loanwords
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şç
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/ʃɕ/
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only appears in loanwords
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yu
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/ɯ/
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ya
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/ja/
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Syllable Structure
- Syllables in Tatar follow the order of (C)V(C)(C) (Comrie 1997, 905–6). However, such structures could also be described as CV(C)(C), since syllables without an initial consonant only occur word-initially and are phonetically introduced by a [ʔ].
Lenition Rules
- Stem-final voiceless labial stops become voiced when followed by a vowel (Poppe 1963, 18).
- Stem-final voiceless dorsal stops become voiced intervocalically (ibid.).
Misc. Rules
- Velar stops adjacent to back vowels become backed (Poppe 1963, 10–11).
- /k/ goes to [q].
- /ɡ/ is said to go to [ʁ]; however it is often indicated as [ɣ]. Because it is a “post-velar” sound that acts as a farther-back contrast to /ɡ/, I felt that [ʁ] more accurately described the character of the phoneme.
- /l/ becomes velarized in the presence of back vowels (Poppe 1963, 11).
- /w/ is realized as a fricative word-initially (Comrie 1997, 902).
- Velar/uvular contrasts (/k/ vs. /q/ and /g/ vs. /ʁ/) occur only in words of Arabic or Persian origin (Comrie 1997, 901).
- Voiced consonants become voiceless word-finally (Poppe 1963, 18).
- Stem-final dental stops devoice when followed by a vowel.
- Palatal harmony in consonants: velar stops occur in the context of front vowels, while their uvular counterparts occur in the context of back vowels (Comrie 1997, 904–5).
- Palatal harmony in vowels: if a word’s first vowel is front, all the subsequent vowels must also be front; likewise, if a word’s first vowel is back then all subsequent vowels must be back (Comrie 1997, 903).
- Voicing assimilation occurs in clusters of obstruents, defaulting to voiceless (Comrie 1997, 980).
References
Baitchura, Uzbek. 1975. “The Sound Structure of the Turkic Languages in Connection with That of the Finno-Ugric Ones: (An Instrumental-Phonetic and Phonologic Investigation): Part Ii: The Turkic Consonantism.” Central Asiatic Journal, no. 4: 241–63.
Comrie, Bernard. 1997. “Tatar (Volga Tatar, Kazan Tatar) Phonology.” In Phonologies of Asia and Africa, edited by Daniels, Peter T. and Kaye, Alan S., 899–911. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
Poppe, Nicholas. 1963. “1. Phonology.” In Tatar Manual: Descriptive Grammar and Texts with a Tatar-English Glossary, 8–28. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Publication.
Wertheim, Suzanne. 2012. “Orthography as Social Action.” In, edited by Alexandra Jaffe, Jannis Androutsopoulos, Mark Sebba, and Sally Johnson, 65–102. de Gruyter Mouton.