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Tat | |
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zuhun tati, зугьун тати | |
Native to | Azerbaijan, Dagestan (Russia) |
Region | Caucasus |
Ethnicity | Tats, Armeno-Tats |
Native speakers | 34,000 excluding Judeo-Tat (2011–2020 census) [1] |
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Official status | |
Official language in | Russia |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | ttt |
Glottolog | cauc1242 Caucasian Tat musl1236 Muslim Tat |
Linguasphere | 58-AAC-g |
Tat, also known as Caucasian Persian, [4] Tat/Tati Persian, [5] [6] or Caucasian Tat, [4] is a Southwestern Iranian language closely related to, [7] but not fully mutually intelligible [8] with Persian and spoken by the Tats in Azerbaijan and Russia. There is also an Iranian language called Judeo-Tat spoken by Mountain Jews.
The Tats are an indigenous Iranian people in the Caucasus [9] [10] who trace their origin to the Sassanid-period migrants from Iran (ca. fifth century AD). [11]
Tat is endangered, [12] [13] classified as "severely endangered" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. [14] Most scholars divide Tat into two general varieties: Jewish and Muslim, with religious differences correlating with linguistic differences. [15]
Another, almost extinct, variety of Tat is spoken by Christians of Armenian origin, who are called Armeno-Tats.
Vladimir Minorsky mentions in the first edition of Encyclopaedia of Islam that like most Persian dialects, Tati is not very regular in its characteristics, and occupies a position between modern Persian and the Caspian dialects. [16] According to him, The Great Russian Encyclopedia of 1901 gives the number of Tati speakers in 1901 as 135,000. [16] In the 1930s, Minorsky estimated the number of Tati speakers to be 90,000 and the decrease to be the result of gradual Turkicization. [16]
According to the 1989 Soviet census, 30,000 Tats lived in the Soviet Union, of which 10,000 were in Azerbaijan. [15] Not all likely speak Tati, and this does not include the more rural locations that were not reached by the census. It is vital to stress that the Tats are one of the most assimilated of Azerbaijan’s ethnic groups. This is particularly true for urban Tats. All of this makes it difficult to identify the true number of the Tat ethnic group. [18]
The adults in most of the mountain and foothill communities reported they use Tat as their main language of interaction. They speak Tat with each other, but speak Azerbaijani with their children so that they will learn the language before beginning school. If the wife in the family is non-Tat speaking, however, the family is most likely to use Azerbaijani in the home. In the villages of Lahıc and Zǝyvǝ, women who marry in are reported to learn Tat. [15]
Research has demonstrated that the word “Tat” does not have an ethnic origin. This is the term the Turks used to denote the settled Iranian-speaking population of Azerbaijan. This is proven by the names some groups of the Tat population have given themselves. For example, the residents of the Apsheron settlements of Balakhany and Surakhany call themselves Pars, and those of the settlement of Lagich in the Ismailly district the Lohudj. It must be mentioned that in the 19th century, cattle herders called the seasonal workers from southern Azerbaijan Tat, although they were ethnic Turks. [18]
The town of Mǝlhǝm is largely Tat. Mǝlhǝm lies 6 km north of Şamaxı town on the A12 road. An estimated 1,500 residents live in Mǝlhǝm, a number higher than five years ago. The increase in population is primarily due to an increase in birth rate. According to the mayor, while approximately 10–15% of residents go to Baku to study or work, most return. Ethnically, the village is made up entirely of Tats, with the exception of a handful of ethnic Azerbaijani brides. [15]
The following information is of the dialect of Apsheron: [19]
Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | ( c ) | k | ||
voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | |||
Affricate | voiceless | tʃ | |||||
voiced | dʒ | ||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | x | h | |
voiced | v | z | ( ʒ ) | ɣ | |||
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Trill | r | ||||||
Approximant | l | j |
Front | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|
High | i | y | u |
Mid | e | œ | o |
Low | æ | ɑ |
Tat was not written until 1935. Efforts are being made at preservation. "Since 1996, the Azerbaijani government has provided money for the development of minority languages, including Tat. Haciyev (personal communication) reports that Tat classes have been started in several schools in the Quba region using an alphabet based on the current Azerbaijani Latin alphabet." [15]
English | Tat | Zaza | Kurmanji | Persian | Tajik |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
big | kələ | gırd, pil | girs, mezin, kale | bozorg, kalân | kalon |
blood | xun | goni | xûn, xwîn | xun | xun |
bread | nun | nân, non | nân | nân | non |
bride | ərüs | veyve | bûk | arus | arūs |
cat | pişik, nazu | pısing | pisîk, kitik, pişîle | gorbe | pishik, gurba |
cry (v) | girəstən | bermayen | girîn | geristan | giryonidan, giristan |
dark | târîk, tariki | târi | târî | târik | torik |
brother | birar | bıra | bra, brat, brâr | barâdar | barodar, dodar, aka, uka |
father | piyər | pi, pêr | bav, bab | pedar | padar, dada/dado |
mother | may, dədə | may, dadî | dayik, dade | mâdar | modar, ona |
day | ruz | roce, roje, roze | roj | ruz | rūz |
night | şöü | şew, şü | şev | šab | shab |
donkey | xər | her | ker | xar | xar |
egg | xaykərg | hak | hêk | toxm, xaye | tuxm |
eye | çüm | çım | çav,çüm | češm | chashm |
fear (v) | tərsirən | tersayen | tirsîn | tarsidan | tarsidan |
fire | âtaş | âdır | âgir | âtaš | otash, olov |
God | Xuda | Homa, Huma, Oma, Heq | Xweda, Xudê, Xwedê, Yazdân | Xodâ | Xudo, Yazdon, Ezid |
good | xub, xas | hewl, rınd, weş | baş, rind | xub | naghz, xub, xush |
plant (n) | güyo | vaş | gîya, çêre, giya | giyâh | giyoh |
house (n) | xunə | keye | xanî | xâne | xona |
language | zuhun | zıwan, zon | ziman | zabân | zabon, lafz |
moon | ma | aşme | meh, heyv, mang | mâh | moh |
place (n) | cə, cigə | ca | cih, geh, ce | jâ | jo |
The prominence of the Tati language is directly related to migration. Additionally, most Tats in Azerbaijan live in the Apsheron zone, as well as the following districts: Khyzy, Divichi and Guba. The Tat people have been dispersed in northeast Azerbaijan. By their origin, the Tats are direct descendants of the Iranian-speaking population that migrated back in the era of the Sassanids to the Caspian coastal regions of Azerbaijan. Most of the Tats in Azerbaijan live in the Apsheron zone and the districts of Khyzy, Divichi, Guba and some others. [18]
Coexistence between Tats and Azerbaijanis have combined much of the two cultures. Azerbaijani has largely overtaken Tati, which has also sparked a takeover in the ethnic consciousness of the Tats. The Tats and Azerbaijanis have gained much in common both industrially and culturally and in everyday life from their centuries of co-existence. Here a significant role has been played by the Azerbaijani language, which since the 19th century has been virtually the second native tongue for the Tats. The wide use of Azerbaijani, though, has imposed some constraints on the Tat language, which had become the general language in rural areas. Significant changes have taken place in the ethnic consciousness of the Tats. Many of them consider themselves to be Azerbaijani and have largely lost the Tat language. [18]
Azerbaijan has approached its linguistic policies in an interesting way. These policies include education in Tat. The development of a fundamentally new linguistic policy that reflected the country's ethnic minorities, again, which would have included the Tat people, is described by Latifa Mammadova as the following: "In the early post-Soviet years, Azerbaijan’s authorities faced the challenge of developing a fundamentally new concept of ethnic and linguistic policies, one that would be tactful toward the country’s ethnic minorities and mindful of the sensitivities of each. They started by elaborating a law on the protection of rights and freedoms of the country’s ethnic minorities in the area of culture. This document guaranteed fundamental rights for minority groups and individuals, including the right to receive education and publish press in their mother tongue. It also proclaimed some universal values of multicultural society, such as equality, partnership, tolerance, solidarity, and justice." [20]
Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi or Parsi, is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties, respectively Iranian Persian, Dari Persian, and Tajiki Persian. It is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan, as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran. It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet, a derivative of the Arabic script, and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet, a derivative of the Cyrillic script.
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
Iran's population increased dramatically during the later half of the 20th century, reaching about 80 million by 2016. As of 2022, Iran's population is around 86.5 million. In recent years, however, Iran's birth rate has dropped significantly. Studies project that Iran's rate of population growth will continue to slow until it stabilises above 100 million by 2050. Half of Iran's population was under 35 years old in 2012.
Azerbaijani or Azeri, also referred to as Azeri Turkic, is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch. It is spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people, who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan, where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken, and in the Azerbaijan region of Iran, where the South Azerbaijani variety is spoken. North Azerbaijani has official status in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan, but South Azerbaijani does not have official status in Iran, where the majority of Azerbaijani people live. Azerbaijani is also spoken to lesser varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities, primarily in Europe and North America.
Lezgins are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group native predominantly to southern Dagestan, a republic of Russia, and northeastern Azerbaijan, and speak the Lezgin language. Their social structure is firmly based on equality and deference to individuality. Lezgin society is structured around djamaat and has traditionally been egalitarian and organised around many autonomous local clans, called syhils (сихилар).
Mountain Jews or Caucasus Jews, also known as Juhuro,Juvuro,Juhuri,Juwuri, Juhurim,Kavkazi Jews or Gorsky Jews, are Jews of the eastern and northern Caucasus, mainly Azerbaijan, and various republics in the Russian Federation: Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria. The Mountain Jews comprise Persian-speaking Jewry along with the Jews of Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. The Mountain Jews are the descendants of Persian Jews from Iran, and fall within the Mizrachi category of Jews. Mountain Jews took shape as a community after Qajar Iran ceded the areas in which they lived to the Russian Empire as part of the Treaty of Gulistan of 1813.
The Tat people are an Iranian people presently living within Azerbaijan and Russia. The Tats are part of the indigenous peoples of Iranian origin in the Caucasus.
The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Azerbaijanis, Azeris, or Azerbaijani Turks are a Turkic ethnic group living mainly in the Azerbaijan region of northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan. They are predominantly Shia Muslims. They comprise the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the second-largest ethnic group in neighboring Iran and Georgia. They speak the Azerbaijani language, belonging to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages.
Dagestan, officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Federal District. The republic is the southernmost tip of Russia, sharing land borders with the countries of Azerbaijan and Georgia to the south and southwest, the Russian republics of Chechnya and Kalmykia to the west and north, and with Stavropol Krai to the northwest. Makhachkala is the republic's capital and largest city; other major cities are Derbent, Kizlyar, Izberbash, Kaspiysk, and Buynaksk.
Judeo-Tat or Juhuri is a Judeo-Persian dialect of the Tat language historically spoken by the Mountain Jews, primarily in Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and today in Israel. It belongs to the southwestern group of the Iranian division of the Indo-European languages with heavy influence from the Hebrew language. In the era of Soviet historiography, the Mountain Jews were mistakenly considered to be related to the Muslim Tats of Azerbaijan. However, they do not share a common linguistic heritage, as the Mountain Jews kept their native language, while the Muslim Tats eventually adopted Persian. The words Juvuri and Juvuro translate as "Jewish" and "Jews".
The peoples of the Caucasus, or Caucasians, are a diverse group comprising more than 50 ethnic groups throughout the Caucasus.
Talysh is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan by around 500,000-800,000 people. Talysh language is closely related to the Tati language. It includes many dialects usually divided into three main clusters: Northern, Central (Iran) and Southern (Iran). Talysh is partially, but not fully, intelligible with Persian. Talysh is classified as "vulnerable" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
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The Western Iranian languages or Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranian languages, attested from the time of Old Persian and Median.
The Azerbaijani people are a Turkic ethnic group of mixed ethnic origins, primarily the indigenous peoples of eastern Transcaucasia, the Medians, an ancient Iranian people, and the Oghuz Turkic tribes that began migrating to Azerbaijan in the 11th century CE. Modern Azerbaijanis are the second most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic peoples after Anatolian Turks and speak North Azerbaijani and/or South Azerbaijani. Both languages also have dialects, with 21 North Azerbaijani dialects and 11 South Azerbaijani dialects.
Lahıc is a village and municipality on the southern slopes of Greater Caucasus within the Ismailli Rayon of Azerbaijan. Population is approximately 860 people who speak the Tat language, also known as Tati Persian, a Southwestern Iranian language spoken by the Tats of Azerbaijan and Russia.
The Tati language is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken by the Tat people of Iran which is closely related to other languages such as Talysh, Zaza, Mazandarani and Gilaki.
Iranian Russians or Persian Russians are Iranians in the Russian Federation, and are Russian citizens or permanent residents of (partial) Iranian national background.
Tat - are Iranian-speaking people who live in Azerbaijan and Russia. They profess Islam - Shiite and Sunni directions. The Sunni Tats mainly live in the Guba and Shabran regions of Azerbaijan and also in Dagestan (Russia) they inhabit villages to the west of the city of Derbent. Also, the Tats live in Georgia - Gombori.
The Northwestern outpost of Persian is Caucasian Tat Persian (...)