İQTElif

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İQTElif (in ASCII: IQTElif) stands for İdíl-Ural-Qırım Tatar Elifbası (where elifba is the Tatar word for alphabet). It is the phonetically-and-pragmatically-optimal Latin-based alphabet for Idíl-Ural (Qazan) Tatar, that ensures similar orthography with Crimean Tatar, and other kindred languages.

There would probably be no need to name an alphabet or orthography, if there weren't multiple variants involved. In the presence of multiple Latin alphabet variants for Qazan Tatar, İQTElif represents the following alphabet[1]:

Aa Bb Cc Çç Dd Ee Ff Gg Ğğ Hh Iı İi Íí Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Ññ Oo Öö Pp Qq Rr Ss Şş Tt Uu Üü Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

Contents

[edit] Premises

This alphabet is based on the following general guidelines:

  1. Latin alphabet should use conventional symbols to the utmost extent possible;
  2. It should correctly represent phonetic peculiarities of the language, possibly being subject to pragmatic considerations only;
  3. Latin-based Tatar alphabet should maximally reflect the closeness to other major Turkic languages, which the language naturally has.

[edit] Pronunciation

Letter Number Latin Character Name in Latin Name in Cyrillic IPA Transcription
1 A a A А ɑ, ʌ
2 B b Be Бэ b
3 C c Ce Җэ ʓ
4 Ç ç Çe Чэ ʆ, ʧ
5 D d De Дэ d
6 E e E Ә (we Awrupalı alınmalardağı (ozon, açıq) Ee) æ,ə
7 F f Ef Эф f
8 G g Ge Ге g
9 Ğ ğ Ğe Гъэ ɣ
10 H h He Һэ h
11 I ı I Ы ɯ
12 İ i İ И i
13 Í í Í E (qısqa, yabıq Tatar awazı) í (pronounced a bit more back than i)
14 J j Je Жэ ʒ, ʤ
15 K k Ke Ке k
16 L l El Эль l
17 M m Em Эм m
18 N n En Эн n
19 Ñ ñ Eñ Эң ŋ
20 O o O О o, o:
21 Ö ö Ö Ө œ
22 P p Pe Пэ p
23 Q q Qu Къу q
24 R r Er Эр r
25 S s Es Эс s
26 Ş ş Eş Эш ʃ
27 T t Te Тэ t
28 U u U У u
29 Ü ü Ü Ү y
30 V v Ve Вэ v
31 W w We Уэ w
32 X x İxs Иxс x
34 Y y Ye Йэ j
35 Z z Zet Зет z
  ' hemze Һәмзә ء

İQTElif foresees preservation of letters Ee in Western loan words, because they represent an entirely different vowel in comparison to İdíl-Ural Tatar vowel Íí (which since last century's 2 alphabet reforms, admittedly for mostly political reasons, was represented by letters Ee). E.g., modemneríbízníñ (English: of our modems).

The vowels represented in İQTElif as Ee and Íí are the most frequently used vowels in Tatar, and thus which letters are used to represent them is a matter of utmost importance.

[edit] Consistency with Crimean Tatar, and other kindred languages

This alphabet is consistent with Crimean Tatar Latin alphabet in terms of orthography (the only differences are the use of Vv instead of Ww, Hh instead of Xx, and İi instead of Íí in Crimean Tatar, given that letters Ww, Xx, and Íí are not used in the official Crimean Tatar alphabet). Thus, it reflects the natural closeness of languages, and their shared heritage.

İsmail Gaspıralı's famous phrase, as an example:

Qazan Tatar Crimean Tatar
Tílde, fikírde, íşte bírlík. Tilde, fikirde, işte birlik.

This is illustrative of similar orthographic consistency, though to a variable degree, with other major Turkic languages.

[edit] Differences from Latin alphabet that has been outlawed

There are several letters in this alphabet that are different from those that were to be made official by Tatarstani authorities:

İQTElif

 Was to be made official[2], but outlawed Cyrillic correspondence
Ee Əə Əə
Íí Ee Ee
Ññ Ŋŋ Ңң
Öö Ɵɵ Өө

This reflects the premise of using conventional characters.

[edit] Tatar vowels

The following table attempts to represent the back-to-front phonetic continuum for Qazan Tatar vowels, being more strict in terms of letter choice. Although Qazan Tatar front vowel pair of vowel Aa is somewhat less open than Finnish Ä ä, or its equivalent vowel in English, it is nonetheless closer to Ä ä, than to E e, based on usage in other languages.


Front İ i Ö ö Ü ü
central-to-front Ä ä Í í
Central
central-to-back
Back A a I ı O o U u

As we can see, there is no vowel corresponding to Western vowel E e in Qazan Tatar. This vowel falls on a different dimension of phonetic continuum, Narrow-Wide, and would fall between İ i and Ä ä, being closer to the latter.

However, letter Ää here is redesignated as Ee in İQTElif due to the following reasons:

  • Letter Ää, just as in case of Azerbaijani and Turkish, would have led to overcrowded writing and difficulties in perception of the written material. The following example is quite representative of the frequent usage of this vowel in Tatar language: “mädäniyätíbízgä hälakät kilä”. Azerbaijani language preferred to deal with this problem by adopting letter Əə instead of phonetically correct Ää. However, letter Əə is absolutely not conventional, namely it is not used in other Latin alphabets. Consequently, just as letters Ŋŋ and Ɵɵ, it is an impediment for languages use on the web (although less so today), and especially in handheld devices. In addition, it will prevent correct representation of Tatar words and names in international sources. There is no advantage that letter Əə would ensure. At the same time, there is another letter, Ee, that has the following advantages:
  • Tatar language, as well as Bashqurt, but as opposed to Uzbek, does not have a vowel that could be designated by letter Ee, being strict diacritically. So, it is logical to use letter Ee to designate vowel Ää since a Latin alphabet naturally has letter Ee, it is conventional on keyboards and easier to write. At the same time vowel Ee is the closest to vowel Ää in the phonetic continuum.
  • Using letter Ee for vowel Ää, as well as letter Íí, ensures naturally available consistency with all other major Turkic languages. Thus, pair of letters Ee and Íí might help to some extent widen the sphere of usage of the language from present 2 mln. speakers to about 150 mln.
  • 4) Slight misrepresentation of vowel Ää as Ee is much less misrepresentative than that of vowel Íí with letter Ee, which is taking place now in Cyrillic, and by inheritance is encountered fairly frequently in Latin transliterations. The latter is worth of F (or, in 5-digit Soviet system, 2) in a college course. On the phonetic cube, vowel Ee is actually in a different area of the cube (in the wide (open) range of the continuum). Vowel Ee pairs up with Ää, and definitely not with Iı. On the other hand, vowel Ää has been represented with letter Ee in Turkish for over 75 years and there is no criticism in this respect. In fact, Turkish is the most thriving of Turkic languages.

Thus the final phonetic continuum cube reflected by İQTElif is as follows[3]: Image:tt-vowels-iqtelif.png

Here the formal advantage of letter Ää has been discarded in favor of multiple practical advantages of letter Ee. Thus, letter Ee represents the vowel denoted in IPA as æ. In this cube, letter é is given as a reference to show the position of the vowel frequently encountered in Western loan words. Éé is not a part of İQTElif, although it would not violate any of İQTElif’s premises to incorporate it as part of the alphabet. The main reason why İQTElif is not including a letter like é as part of the alphabet is because it would be entirely specific to loan words. Thus, in a way it would be foreign to İdíl-Ural Tatar.

Letter Ee in Western terms used in Tatar is supposed to be preserved in Latin alphabet. Pronunciation may be adjusted to Tatar vowel Ää, or, alternatively, stay the same. Examples: İnternet, sistem, element etc.

The alternative of not changing the pronunciation of such loan words is also acceptable, because this is already the case for Oo encountered in loan words, which is pronounced much wider (more open), than İdíl-Ural Tatar Oo. For instance, Oo in Western loan word “ozon” is pronounced very differently from Oo in İdíl-Ural Tatar word "on”.

While it might be tempting to assign a letter to the top left corner in this cube, there is currently no such vowel registered, be it in Tatar or another language.

This cube reflects the following continua:

Back-Front
Back: Aa Iı Oo Uu
central-to-back
Central
central-to-front: Ee Íí
Front: İi Öö Üü


Narrow-Wide
Narrow: Iı Uu Üü Íí İi
Wide: Aa Oo Öö Ee


Smooth-Rounded
Smooth: Aa Iı Ee İi Íí
Rounded: Oo Uu Öö Üü

It also reflects the closeness of İdíl-Ural Tatar's Oo to Uu and that of Öö to Üü.

[edit] Reflection of naturally available consistency with major Turkic languages

The extent of consistency ensured can be seen in the following tables which show several simple phrases meaning “of our old literatures” and “of our states”/”of our motherlands”. The meaninglessness of the phrases does not impede the illustrative effect.


Tatar Uzbek Kazakh* Kyrgyz*
İskí edebiyatlarıbıznıñ Eski adabiyotlorimizning Eski ädebiyattarıbızdıñ İski adebiyatlarıbıznıñ
Memleketleríbízníñ Mamlakatlorimizning Mamleketteribizdiñ Mamleketleribizniñ
  • Very likely projections of the future official Latin alphabets that are yet to be accepted.
Tatar Turkish Azerbaijani Turkmen
Dewletleríbízníñ Devletlerimizin Dəwlətlərimiziñ Döwletlerimizniñ

[edit] Orthography

Every vowel pronounced is reflected in writing. E.g., tuwa, cömhüriyet, cıyılış. Letters â, î, û, are optional. They can be used in Arabic or other loan words, but can be simplified into their base letters by omitting diacritic (similar to how this is practiced in Turkish at present). E.g., imlâ, imla (orthography), xoquqî, xoquqi (juridical).

[edit] Keyboard support

All of the letters involved are supported in Turkish keyboard layouts, with the exception of Íí, and Ññ. In the absence of a special keyboard layout, as a work-around on Windows Alt+161 (where digits are entered using the numpad) can be used to type í, and Alt+164 can be used for ñ. In a fully configured keyboard layout, letter í is positioned as Jj, with Jj being available as AltGr+í (i.e., right-Alt+í), and letter ñ is positioned as AltGr+n. The reason for j and ñ being made available through AltGr is their rare usage in the language.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Latin Elifbası: Zaman Talebí we Zaruriyet. Şehri Qazan, 04/06/1994.
  2. ^ Tatarstan Republic Law No. 2352 of 09/15/99
  3. ^ Tahsin Banguğolu. Türkçenin Grameri. Türk Dil Kurumu. ISBN 975160268-8. (The Tatar vowels cube is inspired by a reference to a similar cube for Turkish language used by a famous European Turkologist, Jean Deny, and presented in this book as Deny'nin Kübü, i.e. Deny's Cube (e.g., see pages 36-37 in 3rd edition); Vowel represented by Ee is presented in this book at the intersection of the front and wide (open) edges (and é is also shown on the front edge itself), but is shown in Tatar vowels cube somewhat lower based on the IPA). The book also mentions that vowel represented by é is found in Old and Middle (time-wise) Turkish (Turkic), and is still encountered in the first syllable of some words in some Anatolian dialects, although it is not a part of the alphabet.)

[edit] External links

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