The Tatar language has its own state status, is studied in schools and is constantly heard on the streets, but nevertheless remains unknown to many. And if you still decide to learn the Tatar language, you should learn the main points in learning this language, as well as understand where you need to start.
First, you need to figure out what the Tatar language is. This language belongs to the Turkic, it is spoken all over the world by about seven million people, including the Republic of Tatarstan and various territories abroad. The Tatar language can be found in China and even in Australia!
Why should I learn Tatar?
Before you figure out how to learn the Tatar language, you should understand why you are learning it. Basically, such a step is taken 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 on the territory of the RepublicTatarstan. 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 the language.
Is Tatar difficult?
The Tatar language has rather complex sounds, which, nevertheless, are important to be able to pronounce correctly. When studying absolutely any language, it is worth paying great attention to phonetics, and it is rather complicated in Tatar. As for grammar, it is much simpler than in Russian, so when asked how to learn the Tatar language on your own, you can confidently answer that it is quite possible to do it at home, you just need to control your pronunciation and seek help from native speakers of this language.
How to learn this language by yourself at home?
Now many languages can be learned using only additional materials, the Internet and educational videos. Of course, it’s better to set pronunciation and study with a teacher, but it’s quite possible to do it yourself. Each person perceives information in their own way: someone understands everything to the full extent, making notes, someone perfectly grasps everything by ear, and someone learns grammar rules and pronunciation from training videos.
Other fun ways to make learning easier
How to quickly learn the Tatar language? You need to teach it in such a way that you like this occupation. Try to find interesting language learning methods that you definitely won't get bored with. After all, sitting at a textbook, reading uninteresting texts, cramming words is pretty boring. So, what interesting ways are there to learn Tatar on your own in order to speak it?
Movies and series
Many advise learning English from movies, cartoons and TV shows, so why not do the same with Tatar? Try turning on the TNV channel, where you can find many Hollywood films with Tatar voice acting. And if you want to feel the Tatar language and culture, try to find Tatar-language programs, films or series. If listening and understanding the Tatar language is quite difficult, keep a dictionary near you or even use Russian or Tatar sub titles. More effective, of course, with Tatar ones.
Chat with Tatar friends
Live communication or even online communication is the best and most enjoyable practice of any foreign language. Get yourself a friend who is fluent in Tatar to better understand the culture of this country, customs and - most importantly - 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 Tatar.
Grow your vocabulary
It is very important to constantly memorize new words. Some of them we memorize from books, films or even live communication, others we actively memorize. With an increase in your level, it is worth expanding the vocabulary, the numberused words that you can understand, pronounce, write. Always keep a dictionary at hand, learn words by category - it's better 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 down the Tatar word, on the other - its translation and transcription. Try to sort through the cards as often as possible and repeat some words.
It all depends on motivation
The effectiveness of learning any foreign language depends not only on what textbooks you use, what movies you watch and what words you memorize. All this, no doubt, affects the quality and speed of learning, but there is one important condition under which learning will be most effective. Motivation. Without any purpose, it is impossible to learn a language, because then the classes will be useless, boring and tedious. Find out why you need the Tatar language, whether it brings you pleasure to study it, and only then proceed.
Think about courses or a tutor
Of course, now you know how to learn the Tatar language on your own and quickly, but you should also think about courses or a teacher. This is how the motivation to learn Tatar appears, you work with a person who ideally knows the language, you get help, support and advice. Therefore, we still advise you to think about courses or a teacher, so learning the language will go easier and better.
Useful phrases in Tatar: Russian-Tatar phrasebook
Not recommendedyou learn Tatar from phrasebooks: this is how you learn individual phrases without delving into grammar, phonetics or spelling. Phrasebooks are a great help when traveling when native speakers do not know English or even Russian, but they definitely do not help in an in-depth study of the Tatar language. However, we have put together some phrases for you that can help you. They are slightly lower.
Tatar alphabet
Basically, the Tatar alphabet is made up of Russian letters. The familiar Tatar alphabet, as it is now, has undergone many different changes in the past. Tatar writing used to use both Arabic and Latin letters, but only in 1939 Cyrillic began to be used with the addition of some native Tatar letters. How to learn the Tatar language on your own at home? Start with the alphabet.
As you can see, native Tatar letters are also added here, which are important to know for everyone who decides to learn the Tatar language on their own 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 stop at each letter, the pronunciation and name of which are unfamiliar.
- [ә]. This sound resembles a very soft a in Russian. When pronouncing it, the tip of the tongue is down. If you're learning English, you're probably familiar with this sound. It is in such words as, for example, black - [blæk].
- [ө] is 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 deepened even more. This sound will also be most understandable to those people who study and know English. There exists a similar sound, denoted in transcriptions as ɜː. Remember, for example, the word work [wɜːk]. The Tatar sound ө.
- [ү] - a very soft and deep sound "u" 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 the Tatar sound җ.
- [ң] - is a nasal sound. This is the Russian sound "ng", pronounced in the nose. Similar to the "ing ending" ing in English.
- [һ] - is called a pharyngeal sound. It is formed in the pharynx itself and is pronounced as if aspirated. Russian has an x sound, but Tatar has a softer sound and no distinct guttural sound.
- [a] in the Tatar language, although it has the same designation as in Russian, it is pronounced a little differently. In Tatar, this is a deeper and more "wide" sound.
- Sounds [o], [s], [e] in Tatar sound roughly similar, but more briefly than in Russian.
- [r] denotes two different sounds at once on the basis of 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 r.
sounds about the same.
Basic phrases:greeting, introduction and farewell
It is very important to know how to say hello, say goodbye and address a person in Tatar. How to quickly learn the Tatar language at home? Learn ready-made phrases.
- Hello! - Isanmesez!
- Hello! - Salam!
- Good morning! - Khaerle irtә!
- Good afternoon! - Khärle kön!
- Good evening! - Khäerle kitsch!
- Goodbye! - Sau Bul; Isan Bul!
- See you soon! - Yana ochrashularga kadar!
- Good night! - Tynych Yoki!
- Let me introduce myself, my name is. - Tәk'dir (tanysh) bulyrga rokhsat itegez, min (surname).
- I'm glad to meet you. - Seznen belan tanyshuyma bik shat.
- Yes - Aye.
- No - Yuk.
- Thank you - Rәkhmat.
- Be kind… - Zinhar…
- Sorry, I can't - Yakhshi; Aybat.
- Thanks for the offer, but I don't want to. - Rәkhmat, min telemim.
- 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 the Tatars - Tatar among this people is considered the national language. On the territory of the Russian Federation, the language ranks second in terms of the number of speakers and its prevalence.
- But not only Tatars speak Tatar. There are other peoples who know the Tatar language: Chuvash, Bashkirs, Russians and some other nationalities.
- Tatar during its existence, like many otherslanguages, 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 was an Arabic script, and a Latin script, and Cyrillic, which has been used since 1939. The modern Tatar alphabet is based on the Russian script, the 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, there are no genders in this language: everything here is used in the masculine gender. And here the plural is easily formed and the law of synharmonism operates. This term denotes a phonetic phenomenon in which the character of the following vowels in affixes is transferred to the vowel of the root. A rather complicated concept, which in the process of learning the Tatar language will become more understandable for you.
