The Tatar language has its own state status, is studied in schools and constantly sounds on the streets, but nevertheless remains unknown to many. And if you still decide to learn the Tatar language, it is worthwhile to find out the main points in learning this language, and also to understand where you need to start.
First, you need to understand what the Tatar language is. This language belongs to the Turkic language, it is spoken around the world by about seven million people, including the Republic of Tatarstan and various territories abroad. Tatar language can be found in China and even in Australia!
Why do you need to learn the Tatar language?
Before you figure out how to learn the Tatar language, it is worthwhile to understand why you are learning it. Basically, such a step is decided by people who are of Tatar origin, but do not know the language, and consider it their duty to inherit it, so to speak, from their ancestors. Another category of people includes Russians and other peoples living in the Republic of Tatarstan. In this case, learning Tatar is quite simple, because they actually live in a language environment and there are a lot of opportunities to learn a language.
Is Tatar a difficult language?
The Tatar language has rather complex sounds, which are nevertheless important to be able to pronounce correctly. When studying absolutely any language, it is worth paying great attention to phonetics, and it is quite complicated in Tatar. As for the grammar, it is much simpler than in Russian, so the question of how to learn the Tatar language on your own can be confidently answered that it is possible to do this at home, you only need to control your pronunciation and seek help from native speakers of this language.
How to learn this language yourself at home?
Now many languages can be learned using only additional materials, the Internet and training videos. Of course, it is better to set the pronunciation and study with the teacher, but you can do it yourself. Each person perceives information in his own way: someone understands everything to the full extent, making notes, someone perfectly grasps everything by ear, and someone learns the rules of grammar and pronunciation from educational videos.
Other interesting ways to make learning easier
How to quickly learn the Tatar language? You need to learn it so that you enjoy this activity. Try to find interesting methods of learning languages that you definitely won't get bored with. After all, sitting at the textbook, reading uninteresting texts, cramming words is quite boring. So, what are some interesting ways to learn the Tatar language on your own in order to speak it?
Films and TV shows
Many are advised to learn English from films, cartoons and TV shows, so why not do the same with Tatar? Try to include the TNV channel, where you can find many Hollywood films with Tatar voice acting. And if you want to feel exactly the Tatar language and culture, try to find exactly the Tatar-language programs, films or series. If listening to and understanding the Tatar language is quite difficult, keep a dictionary next to you or even use Russian or Tatar subtitles. More effective, of course, with the Tatar.
Communication with Tatar friends
Live communication or even network communication is the best and most pleasant practice of any foreign language. Make yourself a friend who is fluent in the Tatar language in order to better penetrate the culture of this country, customs and - most importantly - the language. You not only practice the language you are learning, but also make interesting acquaintances, talk and have a good time with a new friend. Now you know how easy it is to learn the Tatar language.
Replenish your vocabulary
It is very important to constantly learn new words. We memorize some of them from books, films, or even live communication, others actively memorize. With increasing your level, it’s worth expanding the vocabulary, the number of used words that you can understand, pronounce, write. Always keep a dictionary on hand, learn words by category - it’s best to remember. Try the following interesting method: make cards - small pieces of paper, stickers and notes. On one side of the card it is worth writing the Tatar word, on the other - its translation and transcription. Try to sort through cards and repeat some words as often as possible.
It all depends on motivation.
The effectiveness of learning any foreign language depends not only on what textbooks you use, what films you watch and what words you memorize. All this, undoubtedly, affects the quality and speed of the study, but there is one important condition under which the study will be most effective. Motivation. Without any purpose it is impossible to learn a language, because then the classes will be useless, boring and tiring. Understand why you need the Tatar language, does it bring you pleasure to learn it, and only then proceed.
Think about courses or tutoring
Of course, you now know how to learn the Tatar language yourself and quickly, but you should also think about courses or a teacher. So there is a motivation to learn Tatar, you work with a person who ideally knows the language, get help, support and advice. Therefore, we still advise you to think about courses or a teacher, so learning a language will be easier and better.
Useful phrases in Tatar: Russian-Tatar phrasebook
We do not advise you to learn Tatar from phrasebooks: this is how you study individual phrases without delving into grammar, phonetics or spelling. Phrasebooks help a lot when traveling, when native speakers don’t know English or even Russian, but they certainly don’t help in advanced study of the Tatar language. However, we have put together some phrases for you that may help you. They are a little lower.
Tatar alphabet
Basically, the Tatar alphabet is created from Russian letters. The familiar Tatar alphabet, as it is now, has undergone many different changes in the past. In the Tatar script, both Arabic and Latin letters were used before, but only in 1939 the Cyrillic alphabet began to be used with the addition of some original Tatar letters. How to learn Tatar on your own at home? Start with the alphabet.
As you can see, the original Tatar letters are also added here, which is important for everyone who decides to learn the Tatar language independently and quickly. There are exactly 39 letters in the Tatar alphabet.
You see a completely new alphabet in front of you, in which there are also unfamiliar letters. Let's first try to focus on each letter, the pronunciation and name of which are unfamiliar.
- [ә]. This sound reminds very soft and in Russian. When pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue is at the bottom. If you study English, you are probably familiar with this sound. It is in such words as, for example, black - [blæk].
- [ө] - a rather complicated sound for a Russian-speaking person. We advise you to listen to the audio recording of this sound in order to understand the sound. Say the word "maple" - this vowel will sound about the same, only it needs to be further deepened. This sound will also be most understood by those people who study and know English. There exists a similar sound, denoted in transcriptions as ɜː. Recall, for example, the word work [wɜːk]. The Tatar sound ө sounds approximately the same.
- [ү] - a very soft and in-depth sound "y" in Russian.
- [җ] - an approximate sound is found in English and looks like dʒ. Pronounced like j You need to make this sound as soft as possible, and you will get a Tatar sound җ.
- [ң] - is a nasal sound. This is the Russian sound "ng" pronounced in the nose. It looks like an ingot ending in English.
- [һ] - called pharyngeal sound. It is formed in the throat itself and is pronounced as if aspirated. In Russian there is a sound x, but in Tatar it is softer and without a clear guttural sound.
- [a] in the Tatar language, although it has the same designation as in Russian, it is pronounced a little differently. In Tatar it is an in-depth and wider sound.
- The sounds [o], [s], [e] in the Tatar language sound approximately similar, but more briefly than in Russian.
- [g] means two different sounds at once based on sonority. The deaf version is quite familiar to a Russian-speaking person, it is similar to the case when a person burrs and cannot fully pronounce the letter p.
Key phrases: greeting, meeting and farewell
It is very important to know how to say hello, say goodbye and turn to a person in Tatar. How to quickly learn the Tatar language at home? Memorize ready-made phrases.
- Hello! - Isnmeses!
- Hello! - Sulam!
- Good morning! - Herle Irt!
- Good afternoon! - Herleon!
- Good evening! - Herle Kitsch!
- Bye! - Sau bul; Isun Bul!
- See you soon! - Yaa ochrashularga kadәr!
- Goodnight! - Tynoch yoki!
- Let me introduce myself, my name is. - Tәkadir (tanysh) bulyrga rөkhsәt itegez, min (last name).
- I am pleased to meet you. - The season is white tanyshuyma bik shat.
- Yes - ye.
- No - Yuk.
- Thanks - Rәkhmәt.
- Kindly ... - Zinһar ...
- Sorry, I can’t - Yahshi; Әә.
- Thanks for the offer, but I do not want. - Rәhmәt, min telmim.
- Sorry - Gafu itegez.
Interesting facts about this language
- The Tatar language is one of the state languages in the republic along with Russian and belongs to the Turkic languages. It is spoken by Tatars - the Tatar of this people is considered the national language. On the territory of the Russian Federation, the language takes the second place in the number of speakers and in its prevalence.
- But not only Tatars speak Tatar. There are other peoples who know the Tatar language: Chuvashs, Bashkirs, Russians and some other nationalities.
- Tatar during its existence, like many other languages, has undergone a number of changes. It was formed from many other languages, but mainly the Tatar language was influenced by various groups of Finno-Ugric languages.
- The writing of the Tatar language is divided into three groups. There existed both Arabic script, and Latin script, and Cyrillic, which has been used since 1939. The modern Tatar alphabet is based on Russian graphics, a decree on the adoption of a new alphabet for the Tatar-speaking people was adopted in 1939.
- The Tatar language has a number of amazing features. For example, in this language there are no childbirths: everything here is used in masculine gender. And here the plural is easily formed and the law of syngarmonism is in effect. This term refers to a phonetic phenomenon in which the root vowels convey the character of the following vowels in affixes. A rather complicated concept, which in the process of learning the Tatar language will become more understandable for you.