Contents

Bashkir alphabet

History[edit]

Early period[edit]

Until the mid-19th century, Bashkir speakers wrote in the Old Bashkir literary language using the Arabic script. Many works of Bashkir literature were written in Old Bashkir, including Bashkir shezhere ("Genealogies of the Bashkir People"), Batyrsha's Letter to Empress Elizaveta, the orders of Salawat Yulayev, as well as works from the poets A. Kargaly, Tadgetdin Yalsigul Al-Bashkordi, H. Salikhov, Gali Sokoroy, Miftahetdin Akmulla, and Mukhametsalim Umetbaev. The influence of spoken Bashkir is noticeable in many works from the period.^[1][2]

The first attempts to create a writing system that fully represented the Bashkir language began in the middle of the 19th century, with writers attempting to adapt the Cyrillic alphabet. One such proponent was turkologist and linguist Nikolay Ilminsky, in his work Introductory Reading in the Turkish-Tatar Language Course.^[3]

In 1869, Russian linguist Mirsalikh Bekchurin published the first guide to Bashkir grammar in the book An Initial Guide to the Study of Arabic, Persian and Tatar Languages with the Adverbs of Bukhara, Bashkirs, Kyrgyz and Residents of Turkestan.^[4] The first Cyrillic Bashkir introductory book was published by Vasily Katarinsky in Orenburg in 1892, with his proposed alphabet excluding the letters ё, й, ѳ, and ѵ from the contemporaneous Cyrillic alphabet and including the additional characters of Ä, г̇, ҥ, Ö, ӳ. Another primer was prepared at the end of the 19th century by Nikolaï Katanov ^[de] using the umlaut (ӓ – / ә /, ӧ – / ө /, ӟ – / ҙ /, к̈ – / ҡ /, ӱ – / и /, etc.), however this work was never published.^[4]

In 1907, Alexander Bessonov published The Primer for the Bashkirs. This publication proposed that alphabet included all the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet of the time, except for ё and й, and added the characters ä, г̣, д̣ ^[fr], ҥ, ö, с̣ ^[fr], and ӱ. Five years later, Mstislav Kulaev (Mukhametkhan Kulaev) published The Basics of Onomatopoeia and the Alphabet for Bashkirs (reprinted in 1919), again making use of the Cyrillic alphabet in conjunction with new characters.^[5][6]

Arabic alphabet[edit]

In July 1921, the 2nd All-Bashkir Congress of Soviets decided to create their own script for Bashkir as the state language of the Bashkir ASSR. In December 1922, the Congress formed a commission for the development of a new official alphabet and spelling at the ASSR's Academic Center of the People's Commissariat of Education.

The commission adapted the Arabic alphabet to the needs of Bashkir phonology. The commission excluded some letters and normalized the spelling of vowels. The new writing system used a hamza (ﺀ) above vowels at the beginning of words. For those letters that represented both a consonant and a vowel, a stress sign (a vertical line) would be placed under the letter (ٸٖول – ул (he), ٸول – үл (die)).^[7]

The officially-approved alphabet contained the following letters: ي ھ ۋ و ن م ل ڭ گ ك ق ف ﻉ ش س ژ ز ر ﺫ د ﺡ ﺝ ث ﺕ پ ب for consonants, and ئ ي ۇ و ﻪ ا for vowels. In March 1924, minor changes were made concerning the representation of the sounds / s / and / e / at the beginning of a word. The Arabic-based alphabet remained in use until 1930.

Latin alphabet[edit]

The Bashkir ASSR Academic Center began discussing Latinisation in June 1924 and drafted a Bashkir alphabet using the Latin script later that year.^[8] That draft was later modified according to the following suggestions:^[5]

In June 1927, the All-Union Committee of the New Turkic alphabet approved a single alphabet for the Turkic peoples of the USSR; Yañalif. The Bashkir Latinized alphabet was again revised to align with this standard, and on 6 July 1930, the Central Executive Committee of the Bashkir ASSR officially approved the new revision. In May 1933, at the conference of the Bashkir Scientific Research Institute of Language and Literature, the letter Ç ç was removed. The digraph ьj was similarly eliminated in 1938. Following these reforms, the Bashkir Latinized alphabet existed as follows:^[7]

Cyrillic alphabet[edit]

Historical and current alphabets[edit]

Compiled by:^[7][5]

Cyrillic (1940-present)	Latin (1930-1940)	Latin (1924 project)[9]	Kulayev's alphabet	Arabic
А а	A a	A a	А а	ا
Б б	B ʙ	B b	Б б	ب
В в	V v	V v	–	ۋ
		W w	–	و
Г г	G g	G g	Г г	گ
Ғ ғ	Ƣ ƣ	Ĝ ĝ		غ
Д д	D d	D d	Д д	د
Ҙ ҙ	Đ đ	Dh dh		ذ
Е е, Э э	E e	Э э	Ь ь,	ئ
Ё ё	–	–	–	–
Ж ж	Ƶ ƶ	Ƶ ƶ	Ж ж	ژ
-дж-	Ç ç (before 1933)	J j	–	ج
З з	Z z	Z z	З з	ز
И и	I i	I i	И и	ي
Й й	J j	–	Ј ј	ى
К к	K k	K k	К к	ک
Ҡ ҡ	Q q	Q q	Һ һ	ق
Л л	L l	L l	Л л	ل
М м	M m	M m	М м	م
Н н	N n	N n	Н н	ن
Ң ң	Ꞑ ꞑ	Ꞑ ꞑ	Ҥ ҥ	ڴ
О о	O o	O o		ۇ
Ө ө	Ө ө	Ö ö		ۇ
П п	P p	P p	П п	پ
Р р	R r	R r	Р р	ر
С с	S s	S s	С с	س
Ҫ ҫ		Th th		ث
Т т	T t	T t	Т т	ت
У у	U u	U u	У у	و
Ү ү	Y y	Ü ü		و
Ф ф	F f	F f	Ф ф	ف
Х х	X x	X x	Х х	ح
Һ һ	H h	H h		ھ
Ц ц	–	–	–	–
Ч ч	C c	C c	–	چ
Ш ш	Ş ş	Ç ç	Ш ш	ش
Щ щ	–	–	–	–
–	Ьj ьj (before 1939)	Y y	–	ي
Ъ ъ	–	–	–	–
Ы ы	Ь ь	Ә ә	Ъ ъ	ئ
Ь ь	–	–	–	–
Ә ә	Ә ә	E e		ە
Ю ю	–	–	–	–
Я я	–	–	–	–

Sample of the scripts[edit]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Barlıq

кешеләр

keşelər

ирекле,

irekle,

дәрәжәләре

dərəjələre

һәм

həm

хоҡуҡтары

xoquqtarı

тигеҙ

tigeź

булып

bulıp

тыуалар.

tıwalar.

Улар

Ular

аҡыл

aqıl

һәм

həm

выждан

vıjdan

эйәһе

eyəhe

һәм

həm

бер-береһенә

ber-berehenə

ҡарата

qarata

ҡәрҙәшлек

qərźəşlek

рухында

ruxında

хәрәкәт

xərəkət

итергә

itergə

тейештәр.

teyeştər.

Барлыҡ кешеләр ирекле, дәрәжәләре һәм хоҡуҡтары тигеҙ булып тыуалар. Улар аҡыл һәм выждан эйәһе һәм бер-береһенә ҡарата ҡәрҙәшлек рухында хәрәкәт итергә тейештәр.

Barlıq keşelər irekle, dərəjələre həm xoquqtarı tigeź bulıp tıwalar. Ular aqıl həm vıjdan eyəhe həm ber-berehenə qarata qərźəşlek ruxında xərəkət itergə teyeştər.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

References[edit]