Yañalif

Jaŋalif

№	characters	modern Latin Tatar alphabet	modern Cyrillic Tatar alphabet
1	A a	A a	А а
2	B ʙ	B b	Б б
3	C c	Ç ç	Ч ч
4	Ç ç	C c	Җ җ
5	D d	D d	Д д
6	E e	E e	Е е (э)
7	Ə ə	Ä ä	Ә ә
8	F f	F f	Ф ф
9	G g	G g	Г г (гь)
10	Ƣ ƣ	Ğ ğ	Г г (гъ)
11	H h	H h	Һ һ
12	I i	İ i	И и
13	J j	Y y	Й й
14	K k	K k	К к (кь)
15	L l	L l	Л л
16	M m	M m	М м
17	N n	N n	Н н
18	Ŋ ŋ	Ñ ñ	Ң ң
19	O o	O o	О о
20	Ɵ ɵ	Ö ö	Ө ө
21	P p	P p	П п
22	Q q	Q q	К к (къ)
23	R r	R r	Р р
24	S s	S s	С с
25	Ş ş	Ş ş	Ш ш
26	T t	T t	Т т
27	U u	U u	У у
28	V v	W w	В в (в, у)
29	X x	X x	Х х
30	У y	Ü ü	Ү ү
31	Z z	Z z	З з
32	Ƶ ƶ	J j	Ж ж
33	Ь ь	I ı	Ы ы
(34)	'	'	ъ, ь, э

Jaŋalif, Janalif or Yañalif ([jʌŋɑˈlif]; Tatar: new alphabet - jaŋa əlifba/yaña älifba -> jaŋalif/yañalif) was the first Latin writing system was used in the Soviet epoch Tatar language in 1930s.

There were 33 letters in Jaŋalif, 9 for vowels. The apostrophe was used for the glottal stop (həmzə/hämzä) and sometimes was sorted as a letter. Other characters are also in use for foreign names. Small letter B looks as ʙ (to prevent confusion with Ь ь), and the capital letter Y looks as У. The letter Ŋ ŋ has a descender as in Cyrillic letters Щ, Җ, Ң. The letter no. 33 (similar to Zhuang Ƅ) isn't represented in Unicode, but it looks like Cyrillic soft sign (Ь). Capital Ə also looks like Russian Э in some fonts.

History

The earliest example of Kipchak language, the main ancestor of the modern Tatar language, written with Latin characters is the Codex Cumanicus. Those letters could be used for Catholic devotions among Turkic Catholics within the Golden Horde. Nevertheless, culture of Catholic Hordians disappeared and alphabet was lost.

For centuries Tatar language as well as other Turkic languages used modified Arabic alphabet, İske imlâ. The alphabet was far from perfect, both technically and logically (different initial, medium, final and stand-alone forms, no glyphs for short vowels). Because of this some Turkic intelligentsia tended to use Latin, or even Cyrillic alphabet. The first attempts appeared in the mid-19th century among Azerbaijanis. At the same period Russian missionary Ilminski with followers invented the modified Russian alphabet for all peoples of Idel-Ural. Nevertheless some modern alphabets use another glyphs (Ә instead of Ӓ, Ө instead of Ӧ, Ү instead of Ӱ, Җ instead of Ж, Ң instead of Ҥ), the principles of modern Cyrillic alphabets were first invented then. But Ilmiski alphabets were used in for the purpose of Christianization and Muslim Tatars didn't use his alphabet. Ilminski's alphabet is still used among Keräşen Tatars. Interestingly, that this alphabet still uses pre-revolutionary Russian spelling of Orthodox names, using Fita and Ukrainian I.

In the 1908-1909 Tatar poet Säğit Rämiev started to use Latin alphabet in his own works. He offered the use of digraphs: ea for ä, eu for ü, eo for ö, ei for ı. But Arabists turned down his project. In the early 1920s Azerbaijanis invented own Latin alphabet, but Tatarstan Scholars set a little store to this project, preferring to reform the İske imlâ. The simplified Iske imla, known as Yaña imlâ was used in 1920-1927.

But latinization were adopted by the Soviet bosses and the special Central Committee for New Alphabet was established in Moscow. The first project of Tatar-Bashkir Latin alphabet was published at Eşçe (The Worker) gazette in 1924. The pronunciation of the alphabet were similar to English, unlike the following. Specific Bashkir sounds were signed with digraphs. However, those alphabet was declined.

File:Janalif.jpg

Spelling of the final version of Jaŋalif, published in Tatar journal, 1928. Alphabet contains 34 letters and the last is a digraph Ьj.

In 1926 the Congress of Turkologists in Baku recommended to switch all Turkic languages to the Latin alphabet. Since April of 1926 the Jaŋa tatar əlifbasь/Yaña Tatar älifbası (New Tatar alphabet) society started its work at Kazan.

Since July 3 1927, Tatarstan officials declared Jaŋalif as the official script of the Tatar language, replacing the Yanga imla script. The first variant of Jaŋalif (acutes-Jaŋalif ) is shown below. There weren't separate letters for K and Q (realized as K) and for G and Ğ (realized as G), V and W (realized as W). Ş (sh) looked like Cyrillic letter Ш (she). C and Ç were realized as in Turkish and modern Tatar Latin alphabet and later were transposed in final version of Jaŋalif.

In 1928 Jaŋalif was finally reformed (the table is shown before) and was in active usage for 12 years. Some sources claim, that alphabet had 34 letters, but the last was a digraph Ьj, used for corresponding Tatar diphthong. Another sources state, that the 34th letter was an apostrophe. They also give another sorting of the alphabet. (Ə after A, Ь after E)

After the introduction of Jaŋalif the most of the books, which were printed in Arabic alphabet were withdrawn from the libraries.

1924-07-18 alphabet

№	characters	final version of Jaŋalif	modern Latin Tatar alphabet and Romanization of Bashkir	modern Cyrillic Tatar alphabet + some Bashkir Cyrillic	Notes
1	A a	A a	A a	А а
2	B b	B ʙ	B b	Б б	like in modern alphabet
3	C c	C c	Ç ç	Ч ч	like in Jaŋalif
4	Ç ç	Ş ş	Ş ş	Ш ш	unique variant
5	D d	D d	D d	Д д
6	Dh dh	Đ đ	Ź ź	Ҙ ҙ	like in today transliteration of Bashkir
7	E e	Ə ə	Ä ä	Ә ә	like in Turkish-style transliteration
8	F f	F f	F f	Ф ф
9	G g	G g	G g	Г г (гь)
10	Ĝ ĝ	Ƣ ƣ	Ğ ğ	Г г (гъ)	similar to modern alphabet
11	H h	H h	H h	Һ һ
12	I i	I i	İ i	И и	like in Jaŋalif
13	J j	Ç ç	C c	Җ җ	like in English-style transliteration
14	K k	K k	K k	К к (кь)
15	L l	L l	L l	Л л
16	M m	M m	M m	М м
17	N n	N n	N n	Н н
18	Ŋ ŋ	Ŋ ŋ	Ñ ñ	Ң ң	like in Jaŋalif
19	O o	O o	O o	О о
20	Ö ö	Ɵ ɵ	Ö ö	Ө ө	like in modern alphabet
21	P p	P p	P p	П п
22	Q q	Q q	Q q	К к (къ)
23	R r	R r	R r	Р р
24	S s	S s	S s	С с
25	T t	T t	T t	Т т
26	Th th	Ť ŧ	Ś ś	Ҫ ҫ	like in today transliteration of Bashkir
27	U u	U u	U u	У у
28	Ü ü	У y	Ü ü	Ү ү	like in modern alphabet
29	W w	V v	W w	В в (в, у)	like in modern alphabet
30	V v	V v	V v	В в (в)	like in modern alphabet
31	X x	X x	X x	Х х
32	Y y	Ьj ьj	Í í (ıy)	ый	unique variant; also Arabic used one letter for this diphthong
33	Z z	Z z	Z z	З з
34	Ƶ ƶ	Ƶ ƶ	J j	Ж ж	like in Jaŋalif
35	Ə ə	Ь ь	I ı	Ы ы	unique variant
36	Э э	E e	E e	Е е (э)	like in Cyrillic

Decline

File:Crimea propaganda.gif

Nazists used Latin and Arabic for propaganda in Crimea, totally ignoring Cyrillic. Crimean Tatars also used Jaŋalif in that period.

In 1939 the Stalinist government prohibited Jaŋalif, although it remained in use until January 1940. Jaŋalif also was used in Nazi gazettes for prisoners of war and propaganda until WW2 ended. However, the alphabet served until 1950s, because the most of schoolbooks were printed before the WW2. Some Tatar diasporas also used Jaŋalif outside of Soviet Union, for example, Tatar bureau of Radio Free Europe.

It should be noted, that for 12 years of usage the Latin alphabet, Arabic alphabet (and not only Yaña imlâ, but İske imlâ too) also was used. So, one of the Musa Cälil's Moabit Notebooks was written in Jaŋalif, but one was written in Arabic letters. Both notebook were written in German prison, after the 1939, the year when Cyrillic alphabet was established.

"Acutes"- Jaŋalif

№	characters	final version of Jaŋalif	Yaña imlâ, stand-alone form	modern Latin Tatar alphabet and Romanization of Bashkir	modern Cyrillic Tatar alphabet + some Bashkir Cyrillic	Notes
1	A a	A a	ﯪ	A a	А а
2	B b	B ʙ	ﺏ	B b	Б б	like in modern alphabet
3	C c	Ç ç	ﺝ	C c	Җ җ	like in modern alphabet
4	Ç ç	C c	ﭺ	Ç ç	Ч ч	like in modern alphabet
5	D d	D d	ﺩ	D d	Д д
6	E e	E e	ﺋ	E e	Е е (э)	like in modern alphabet
7	É é	Ь ь	ﺋ,	I ı	Ы ы	unique variant, acute as a sign of "hard" vowel
8	Э ә	Ə ə	ﻪﺋ	Ä ä	Ә ә	like in Jaŋalif, but original capitalization
9	F f	F f	ﻑ	F f	Ф ф
10	G g	G g, Ƣ ƣ	ﮒ, ﻉ	G g, Ğ ğ	Г г	one letter for two phonemes, as in Cyrillic
11	H h	H h	ﻩ	H h	Һ һ
12	I i	I i	ﻴﺋ	İ i	И и	like in Jaŋalif
13	J j	J j	ﻯ	Y y	Й й	like in Jaŋalif
14	K k	K k, Q q	ﮎ, ﻕ	K k, Q q	К к	one letter for two phonemes, as in Cyrillic
15	L l	L l	ﻝ	L l	Л л
16	M m	M m	ﻡ	M m	М м
17	N n	N n	ﻥ	N n	Н н
18	N, n,	Ŋ ŋ	ﯓ	Ñ ñ	Ң ң	like in Jaŋalif
19	O o	O o	ﯰ,	O o	О о
20	Ó ó	Ɵ ɵ	ﯰ	Ö ö	Ө ө	unique variant, acute as a sign of "soft" vowel
21	P p	P p	ﭖ	P p	П п
22	R r	R r	ﺭ	R r	Р р
23	S s	S s	ﺱ	S s	С с
24	T t	T t	ﺕ	T t	Т т
25	U u	U u	ﯮ,	U u	У у
26	V v	Y y	ﯮ	Ü ü	Ү ү	unique variant, V is used for "hard" vowel
27	X x	X x	ﺡ	X x	Х х
28	Y y	Ьj ьj	ﻴﺋ,	Í í (ıy)	ый	inherited from Tatar-Bashkir alphabet project
29	Z z	Z z	ﺯ	Z z	З з
30	Ƶ ƶ	Ƶ ƶ	ﮊ	J j	Ж ж	like in Jaŋalif
31	Ш ш	Ş ş	ﺵ	Ş ş	Ш ш	unique variant, like in Cyrillic
32	W w	V v	ﻭ	W w, V v	В в	one letter for two phonemes, as in Cyrillic, but [v] is found only in Russian loanwords

Cyrillization

File:Janalif in Russian.jpg

Spelling of Jaŋalif, published in Russian

In 1930s Turkey became one of the numerous potential enemies of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless Atatürk's alphabet was differ than Jaŋalif, for Soviet bosses Latin alphabet was a symbol of outer bourgeois world. In 1939 Cyrillization of USSR was initiated. As by Stalin's statement, Russian people is the leader of socialistic peoples, so all peoples of the country should know Russian and tend to be assimilated with Russians. As was said, alphabet was switched to Cyrillic "by labor's request".

There are also several projects of Cyrillization. Ilminski's alphabet was already forgotten and it couldn't be used, due it's religious origin. As early as in 1938 professor M. Fazlullin introduced adaptation of Russian alphabet for Tatar language, without any additional characters. Specific Tatar letters should be signed with the digraphs, consisting of similar Russian letters and letter Ъ.

In 1939 Qorbangaliev and Ramazanov offered own projects that planned to use additional Cyrillic characters. Letters Ө, Ә, Ү, Һ were inherited from Jaŋalif, but Җ and Ң were invented by analogy with Щ and Ц. Гъ and Къ should be used to designate Ğ and Q. By this project "ğädät" ("custom") was spelled as "гъәдәт", "qar" as "къар". In Ramazanov's project W (Jaŋalif V) was marked by В before the vowel, and У, Ү in the end of syllable. Jaŋalif: vaq - вак; tav - тау; dəv - дәү. In May 5 1939 this project was established as official by the Supreme Soviet of TASSR. Surprisingly, "Tatar society disagreed to this project" and during 1940 July conference Cyrillic alphabet was finally standardized. January 10 1941 this project was passed. According to this version, "ğädät" was spelled as "гадәт", "qar" as "кар". The principles were following: if га/го/гу/гы/ка/ко/ку/кы/ is followed by "soft syllable", containing "ә, е, ө, и, ү" or soft sign "ь", they are spelled as ğä/ğö/ğü/ğe/qä/qö/qü/qe, in other cases as ğa/ğo/ğu/ğı/qa/qo/qu/qı. гә/гө/гү/ге/кә/кө/кү/ке are spelled as gä/gö/gü/ge/kä/kö/kü/ke. Similar practice were applied for е, ю, я, that could be spelled as ye, yü, yä and as yı, yu, ya. Examples: канәгать - qänäğät (satisfied); ел - yıl (year); ямь - yäm (charm). So, in Tatar Cyrillic soft sing hasn't sense of iotation, as in Russian, but a sense of vowel harmony. Unlike modern Russian, some words can end with ъ, to sing a "hard g after the "soft vowel", as in балигъ - baliğ (of the full legal age).

All Russian words are written as in Russian and should be pronounced with Russian pronunciation.

Cyrillic alphabet (1940)

№	characters	Fazlullin's alphabet	Ilminski's alphabet	Jaŋalif	Modern Latin	Notes
1	А а	А а	А а	A a	A a
2	Б б	Б б	Б б	B ʙ	B b
3	В в	В в	В в	V v	W w, V v	[v] in Russian words, [w] in Tatar words
4	Г г	Г г	Г г	G g, Ƣ ƣ	G g, Ğ ğ
5	Д д	Д д	Д д	D d	D d
6	Е е	Е е	Е е	E e, Je, Jь	E e, ye, yı
7	Ё ё	Е е		Jo	Yo	only in Russian loanwords
8	Ж ж	Ж ж	Ж ж	Ƶ ƶ	J j
9	З з	З з	З з	Z z	Z z
10	И и	И и	И и	I i	İ i
11	Й й	Й й	Й й	J j	Y y
12	К к	К к	К к	K k, Q q	K k, Q q
13	Л л	Л л	Л л	L l	L l
14	М м	М м	М м	M m	M m
15	Н н	Н н	Н н	N n	N n
16	О о	О о	О о	O o	O o
17	П п	П п	П п	P p	P p
18	Р р	Р р	Р р	R r	R r
19	С с	С с	С с	S s	S s
20	Т т	Т т	Т т	T t	T t
21	У у	У у	У у	U u	U u
22	Ф ф	Ф ф	Ф ф	F f	F f
23	Х х	Х х	Х х	X x	X x
24	Ц ц	Ц ц	Ц ц	Ts	Ts	only in Russian loanwords
25	Ч ч	Ч ч	Ч ч	C c	Ç ç
26	Ш ш	Ш ш	Ш ш	Ş ş	Ş ş
27	Щ щ	Щ щ	Щ щ	Şc	Şç	only in Russian loanwords
28	Ъ ъ	Ъ ъ	Ъ ъ
29	Ы ы	Ы ы	Ы ы	Ь ь	I ı
30	Ь ь	Ь ь	Ь ь
31	Э э	Э э	Э э	E e	E e
32	Ю ю	Ю ю	Ю ю	Ju/Jy	Yu/Yü
33	Я я	Я я	Я я	Ja/Jə	Ya/Yä
34	Ә ә	Аъ аъ	Ӓ ӓ (Я я)	Ә ә	Ä ä
35	Ө ө	Оъ оъ	Ӧ ӧ	Ө ө	Ö ö
36	Ү ү	Уъ уъ	Ӱ ӱ (Ю ю)	Y y	Ü ü
37	Җ җ	Жъ жъ	Ж ж	Ç ç	C c
38	Ң ң	Нъ нъ	Ҥ ҥ	Ŋ ŋ	Ñ ñ
39	Һ һ	Хъ хъ	Х х	H h	H h

Cyrillic Ь-like letter, in some fonts also looks like Ƅ, and is not currently represented in Unicode. Only some Tatar fonts use this glyph.

In 1955, 1958, 1959 and 1989 some people tried to initiate the reform of Cyrillic alphabet, as to add letters Қ, Ғ and Ў, to sign sounds [q], [ɣ] (ğ) and [w] and make Tatar spelling WYSIWYS. Some offered to use V instead of Ў. In 1990s those attempts failed, because at that period many Tatarstan statesmen wanted to restore the Jaŋalif.

А Ә Б В [Ў] Г [Ғ] Д Е (Ё) Ж Җ З И Й К [Қ] Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

[] letters that should be added in 1989. However, Tatar Parliament resorted Cyrillic alphabet in January 1997.

А Ә Б В Г Д Е (Ё) Ж Җ З И Й К Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Һ Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

Restoring of Jaŋalif

N-descender, a variant of Ŋ, that was used in Jaŋalif and is not currently represented in Unicode. Only some Tatar fonts use this glyph at the position of Ñ.

In the 1990s some wanted to restore Jaŋalif, or Jaŋalif+W, as being corresponding to modern Tatar phonetics. But technical problems, such as font problems and the disuse of Uniform Turkic alphabet among other peoples forced to use "Turkish-based alphabet". In 2000 that alphabet was adopted by Tatarstan government, but in 2002 it was abolished by Russian Federation.

See also

• Tatar alphabet
• Tatar language
• Uniform Turkic Alphabet