Crimean Tatar alphabet

An example of Crimean Tatar Arabic script.

Crimean Tatars used the Arabic script from 16th century to 1928 when it was replaced with the Latin alphabet based on Yañalif. The Crimean variant contained a couple of modified Arabic letters.

¹ — The letter ﻙ (kef) was often used in place of ﮒ and ﯓ.

An example of Crimean Tatar Latin alphabet of 1920s. In modern orthography: «KÖYLİ VE SU ANASI: Bir köyli baltasını özenge tüşürgen, su kenarında oturub qayğısından ağlamağa başlağan edi. Su anası bunı işitdi, köylini acidi ve sudan altın bir balta çıkarıb „bu seniñmi?“ deb soradı.» In Cyrillic: «КЁЙЛИ ВЕ СУ АНАСЫ: Бир кёйли балтасыны озенге тюшюрген, су кенарында отуруб къайгъысындан агъламагъа башлагъан эди. Су анасы буны ишитди, кёйлини аджиди ве судан алтын бир балта чыкарыб „бу сенинъми?“ деб сорады.»

In 1928, during latinisation in the Soviet Union the Crimean Tatar Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin alphabet based on the Yañalif script. This alphabet contained a number of differences from the modern variant. Particularly, in letters Ь ь, Ƣ ƣ, N̡ ᶇ, Ɵ ɵ, X x, Ƶ ƶ, I i instead of modern  â, Ğ ğ, I ı, İ i, Ñ ñ, Ö ö, and Ü ü.

"Welcome to Crimea" (Qırımğa hoş keldiñiz!) written in Crimean Tatar Cyrillic, airport bus, Simferopol International Airport

Cyrillic for Crimean Tatar was introduced in 1938 as part of Cyrillization of languages in Soviet Union. It is based on Russian alphabet with no special letters. From 1938 to 1990s, that was the only alphabet used for Crimean Tatar.

*Гъ (ğ), къ (q), нъ (ñ) and дж (c) are separate letters of the alphabet (digraphs).

Crimean Tatar Latin script on the table in Bakhchisaray.

Modern Latin alphabet for Crimean Tatar was introduced in 1990s. It is based on Turkish alphabet with three special letters — Q, Ñ, Â. Its official use in Crimea was accepted in 1997 by Crimean Parliament. In 2021 it was approved by the government of Ukraine, to be adopted in education by September 2025.[1]

*Ââ is not recognized as separate letter. It is used to show softness of a consonant followed by Aa.

1. Crimean Tatars in Dobruja use also Ĭĭ and Ww letters. Ĭ ĭ letter is for [ɪ] and the W w letter is for [w] sound. Crimean Tatars in Crimea use the İ i letter for two sounds [ɪ] and [i], the letter V v is also two sounds [w] and [v], but in Dobrudja has every letter one sound, İ i is [i] and V v is [v].