Yaña imlâ alphabet

Yaña imlâ
Yaña imlâ;
Script type	Alphabet with some elements of an abjad
Time period	1920 to 1928
Languages	Tatar, Bashkir
Related scripts
Parent systems	Arabic alphabet Persian alphabet Chagatay alphabet İske imlâ Yaña imlâ; ; ; ;
	This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Tatar book from 1925 written in the Yaña imlâ showing use of "Arabic Letter Low Alef" to designate vowel harmony

Yaña imlâ (Yaña imlâ: ياڭا ئيملە‎, Tatar: Яңа имлә, Yaña imlä, pronounced [jʌˈŋɑ imˈlæ], lit. "New orthography") was a modified variant of Arabic script that was in use for the Tatar language between 1920 and 1927. The orthographical reform modified İske imlâ, abolishing excess Arabic letters, adding letters for short vowels e, ı, ö, o. Yaña imlâ made use of "Arabic Letter Low Alef" ⟨ࢭ⟩ to indicate vowel harmony. Arguably, Yaña imlâ had as its goal the accommodation of the alphabet to the actual Tatar pronunciation.

There were some projects that were to simplify Yaña imlâ too. The unique separated Arabic was invented (so as to use typewriters). Separated Arabic was even incorporated in the early flag of Tatar ASSR, though it was not in real use.

As early as in 1924 the first projects of Latin script were introduced and in 1928 alphabet was switched to the Latin Yañalif alphabet.

Vowels

In Tatar Arabic alphabet, 10 vowels are defined. These occur in pairs, front and back vowels.^[1]^[2]

		Rounded		Unrounded
		Close	Open	Close		Open
Back	Arabic	ࢭئو / ࢭـو‎	ࢭئۇ / ࢭـۇ‎‎	ࢭئيـ / ࢭیـ / ࢭی‎‎	ࢭئـ / ࢭـىُـ/ ࢭىُ‎	ئا / ا / ‍ـا‎
	Cyrillic (Latin)	У у (U u)	О о (O o)	Ый ый (Iy ıy)	Ы ы (I ı)	А а (A a)
	IPA	[u]	[o]	[ɯj]	[ɯ]	[ɑ]
Front	Arabic	ئو / ـو‎	ئۇ / ـۇ‎	ئيـ / یـ / ی‎	ئـ / ـىُـ/ ىُ‎	ئە / ـە / ە‎
	Cyrillic (Latin)	Ү ү (Ü ü)	Ө ө (Ö ö)	И и (İ i)	Э э (E e)	Ә ә (Ä ä)
	IPA	[y]	[œ]	[i]	[e]	[æ~a]

Similar to other Turkic languages, Tatar has vowel harmony rules. Tatar orthography has one-dimensional vowel harmony rules, front versus back vowels. There does exist vowel roundedness harmony in Tatar, but it is not reflected in Orthography.

Use of low alef

low alef ⟨ ࢭ‎ ⟩ has a unique role in Tatar, a role not seen in other Arabic scripts. Tatar Arabic script makes use of U+08AD ࢭ ARABIC LETTER LOW ALEF, and it can only ever come at the beginning of words. It never comes in the middle or end of words. low alef doesn't represent any sound in Tatar. Instead, it indicates that the vowels in the word will be the following back vowels:^[3]

Ы ы (I ı)
Ый ый (Iy ıy)
О о (O o)
У у (U u)

The logic essentially is that low alef indicates that the vowels of the word are articulated in the same part of the mouth as an [ɑ] sound, which is written with an alif ⟨ ئا / ا‎ ⟩, i.e. at back of the mouth.

Hamza plays a similar but inverse role in Kazakh Arabic Alphabet, marking that vowels in a word will be front vowels.

There are exceptions in Tatar orthography, meaning words that will have back vowels, but won't have low alef written for them. First are words that contain the vowel alef А а (A a) (shown in Arabic Script as ئا / ا / ـا). This vowel is a back vowel, and its corresponding front vowel pair is written with a different letter altogether. Thus, it is an unambiguous conclusion that any word containing alef, will have all its other vowels as back vowels too. Thus, the low alef will be redundant, and so it's not written.

For example, the word йорт (yort), meaning "house", is written with low alef, as ࢭیۇرت . But in its plural form, йортлар (yortlar is written as یۇرتلار.

Inversely, words that contain the vowel Ә ә (Ä ä) (shown in Arabic Script as ئە / ـە / ە) are unambiguously words in which all vowels will be front vowels.

The second exception, is words that contain the following consonants:

Г г (G g) (گ)
Гъ гъ / Ғ ғ (Ğ ğ) (ع)
К к (K k) (ك)
Къ къ / Ҡ ҡ (Q q) (ق)

As per Tatar phonology, the letters Г г (G g) (گ) and К к (K k) (ك) can only be accompanied by front vowels. Thus there won't be any words containing these consonants that would need low alef. In contrast, the letters Гъ гъ / Ғ ғ (Ğ ğ) (ع) and Къ къ / Ҡ ҡ (Q q) (ق) can only be accompanied by back vowels. This means that they themselves act as indicators that vowels in a word are back vowels, thus eliminating a need for low alef. For example, the word җылы (cılı), meaning "warm", is written as ࢭجىُلىُ, whereas, a derived word, such as җылылык / cılılıq, meaning "heat", is written as جىُلىُلىُق.

Pursuant to these rules, suffixes are formed in pairs too. For example words with back vowels take suffixes -лык (‑لىُق) / -дык (‑دىُق) / -тык (‑تىُق), and words with front vowels, take suffixes -лек (‫‑لىُك‬) / -дек (‫‑دىُك‬) / -тек (‫‑تىُك‬).

Letters

Zamanälif	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial	Jaꞑalif	Modern Cyrillic	Notes
Aa	ئا‎	ـا‎	ا‎	ئا‎	Aa	Аа
Ää	ئە‎	ـە‎	ـە‎	ئە‎	Әə	Әә
Bb	ب‎	ـب‎	ـبـ‎	بـ‎	Вʙ	Бб
Pp	پ‎	ـپ‎	ـپـ‎	پـ‎	Pp	Пп
Tt	ت‎	ـت‎	ـتـ‎	تـ‎	Tt	Тт
Cc	ج‎	ـج‎	ـجـ‎	جـ‎	Çç	Җҗ
Çç	چ‎	ـچ‎	ـچـ‎	چـ‎	Cc	Чч
Xx	ح‎	ـح‎	ـحـ‎	حـ‎	Xx	Хх
Dd	د‎	ـد‎	ـد‎	د‎	Dd	Дд
Rr	ر‎	ـر‎	ـر‎	ر‎	Rr	Рр
Zz	ز‎	ـز‎	ـز‎	ز‎	Zz	Зз
Jj	ژ‎	ـژ‎	ـژ‎	ژ‎	Ƶƶ	Жж
Ss	س‎	ـس‎	ـسـ‎	سـ‎	Ss	Сс
Şş	ش‎	ـش‎	ـشـ‎	شـ‎	Şş	Шш
Ğğ	ع‎	ـع‎	ـعـ‎	عـ‎	Ƣƣ	Гъ гъ	Alternative Cyrillic: Ғғ
Ff	ف‎	ـف‎	ـفـ‎	فـ‎	Ff	Фф
Qq	ق‎	ـق‎	ـقـ‎	قـ‎	Qq	Къ къ	Alternative Cyrillic: Ққ & Ҡҡ
Kk	ک‎	ـک‎	ـکـ‎	کـ‎	Kk	Кк
Gg	گ‎	ـگ‎	ـگـ‎	گـ‎	Gg	Гг
Ññ	ڭ‎	ـڭ‎	ـڭـ‎	ڭـ‎	Ŋŋ	Ңң
Ll	ل‎	ـل‎	ـلـ‎	لـ‎	Ll	Лл
Mm	م‎	ـم‎	ـمـ‎	مـ‎	Mm	Мм
Nn	ن‎	ـن‎	ـنـ‎	نـ‎	Nn	Нн
Ww	و‎	ـو‎	ـو‎	و‎	Vv	Вв	Alternative Cyrillic: Ўў
Uu, Üü	ئو‎	ـو‎	ـو‎	ئو‎	Uu, Yy	Уу, Үү	ࢭئو‎ for u ئو‎ for Üü
Oo, Öö	ئۇ‎	ـۇ‎	ـۇ‎	ئۇ‎	Oo, Өɵ	Оо, Өө	ࢭئۇ‎ for Oo ئۇ‎ for Öö
Yy	ی‎	ـى‎	ـیـ‎	یـ‎	Jj	Йй
Iı, Ee	ىُ‎	ـىُ‎	ـىُـ‎	ئىُـ‎	Ьь, Ee	Ыы, Ее	ࢭئـ‎ for Iı ئـ‎ for Ee
Iy ıy, İi	ئی‎	ـى‎	ـیـ‎	ئیـ‎	Іi, ьj	Ии, ый	ࢭئی‎ for Iy ıy ئی‎ for İi
Hh	ه‎	ـه‎	ـهـ‎	هـ‎	Hh	Һһ	Alternative Cyrillic: Ҳҳ

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

İske imlâ	Cyrillic	Latin (Zamanälif)	English translation
بارلىُق كىُشىُلەر دە ئازات هەم ئوز ئابرویلارىُِ هەم حۇقوقلارىُ یاعىُننان تیڭ بولىُپ توالار. ئالارعا ئاقىُل هەم وۇجدان بیرىُلگەن هەم بىُر-بىُرسىُنە قاراتا توعاننارچا مۇناسەبەتتە بولىُرعا تیىُشلەر.	Барлык кешеләр дә азат һәм үз абруйлары һәм хокуклары ягыннан тиң булып туалар. Аларга акыл һәм вөҗдан бирелгән һәм бер-берсенә карата туганнарча мөнасәбәттә булырга тиешләр.	Barlıq keşelär dä azat häm üz abruyları häm xoquqları yağınnan tiñ bulıp tualar. Alarğa aqıl häm wöcdan birelgän häm ber-bersenä qarata tuğannarça mönasäbättä bulırğa tieşlär.	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.

Sources

^ Harrison, K. David; Kaun, Abigail R. (2003). "Vowels and Vowel Harmony in Namangan Tatar". In Holisky, Dee Ann; Tuite, Kevin (eds.). Current Trends in Caucasian, East European and Inner Asian Linguistics. John Benjamins. pp. 194–198. ISBN 9789027275257.
^ Berta, Árpád (1998). "Tatar and Bashkir". In Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á. (eds.). The Turkic languages. Routledge. pp. 283–300.
^ Yevlampiev, Ilya; Pentzlin, Karl; Joomagueldinov, Nurlan (20 May 2011). Revised Proposal to encode Arabic characters used for Bashkir, Belarusian, Crimean Tatar, and Tatar languages (PDF).

"Arabic alphabet". Tatar Encyclopaedia (in Tatar). Kazan: The Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.