SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN BASHKIR FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD BASHKIR Рәхим итегеҙ. LEARN MORE ABOUT [ræˈχim ˌitɛˈgɛð] /Ră-khēm ētĕgĕth/ AND THEIR LANGUAGE Welcome. 1. Bashkir population is estimated to Хәйерле иртә. Минең исемем ... about 2,000,000, and can be found throughout [ˌχæjɛrˈlɛ irˈtæ miˈnɛŋ ˌisɛˈmɛm....] Eurasian and Central . Bashkir is spoken /Khă-yĕrlĕ ērtă. Mēnĕng ēsĕmĕm …/ natively in and , specifically in the Bashkorostan of Russia, but Good morning. My name is … you can also find small groups of Bashkir Хәйерле кис. / Тыныс йоҡо. speakers in other Central Asian countries, such [ˌχæjɛrˈlɛ kis] / [tɨˈnɨs joˈqo] as . /Khă-yĕrlĕ kēs./ /Tĭnĭs yōkō./ 2. member of the Turkic , Good evening. / Good night. Bashkir shares many structural similarities to Танышыуыбыҙға шатмын. languages such as Turkish (agglutinative, SOV [ˌtɑnɨʃɨˈu•ɨbɨðˌɣɑ ʃɑtˈmɨn] structure, etc) and also uses many loanwords /Tanĭshĭ-ū-ĭbĭth- shatmĭn./ from Russian, , and Persian languages. Nice to meet you. 3. When the Bashkir republic was granted Эштәр нисек? Яҡшы. autonomy in February 1919, it became the [ɛʃˈtær niˈsɛk jɑqˈʃɨ] first autonomous republic within the Russian /ĕsh-tăr nēsĕk? Yak-shĭ./ Republic. How are you doing? ’m fine. 4. The Bashkirs still practice an ancient art of Һеҙ инглизсә һөйләшәһегеҙме? wild bee-keeping in remote villages in the [hɛð ˌiŋlizˈsæ ˌhøɪlæʃæˈhɛgɛðˌmɛ] mountains. /Hĕth ēnglēzsă hoylăshă-hĕgĕthmĕ?/ 5. The Bashkirs are skilled horsemen and even Do you speak English? have a horse breed named for them. Bashkir Мин аңламайым. horses are a breed formed in the steppes of [min ˌɑŋlɑˈmɑɪ•jɨm] the that are typically used as /Mēn anglama-yĭm./ a draft and utility horse and as a producer of I don’t understand. milk and meat. Зинһар. / Рәхмәт. [zinˈhɑp] / [ræχˈmæt] ABOUT US The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region /Zēn-hap./ /Răkh-măt./ (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for You have a beautiful home. learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian languages. Һау булығыҙ. For more information, go to celcar.indiana.edu. [hɑy ˈbulɨˌɣɨð] /Haū būlĭ-ghĭth./ 238 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, Good bye. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 Phone: (812) 856-1230 -mail : [email protected] Center for Languages of the Special thanks goes to Kristina Uvarova, Michael Marsh-Soloway, and Website: https://celcar.indiana.edu Professor Lilia Travisano for their contributions to this pamphlet. Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) WHO ARE THE BASHKIR PEOPLE Similar to other Altaic languages, Bashkir uses Mongolian style a subject-object-verb word order and is an . And their AND WHERE DO THEY LIVE? , where one root word ancient method The Bashkir people are an ethnic group living has multiple suffixes added to indicate discrete of wild-hive throughout Eurasia and Central Asia, most grammatical functions. And like many other beekeeping is still prominently in Central Asian languages, Bashkir features vowel being practiced the harmony, wherein the vowel quality of a vowel today with a Republic of Russia. in a word directly affects the vowel quality of the population of Historically, Baskhirs other vowels within the word. Another feature rare Burzyan come from Turkic of Bashkir is the use of postpositions, so instead honeybees near the caves of the Shulgan-Tash descent and are of saying “on the table” like in English, a Bashkir region in the Burzyansky District of the southern indigenous to both speaker would say the equivalent of table on. Ural mountains. sides of the Ural The majority of Bashkir people identify mountain region, themselves as Sunni Muslim. commonly living near the , , , WHAT DO THE BASHKIR USE? and rivers in Western Russia. Today, the Bashkir is written using the Bashkir alphabet Bashkirs use a lot of honey, obviously as a result Bashkir population is estimated to be about (Башҡорт әлифбаһы), which is a modified of their bee-keeping practices. Additionally, two 2,000,000 with approximately 1,500,000 version of the Russian of the most famous Bashkir dishes are öyrä, a million living in Russia, 17,000 living in Cyrillic alphabet. kind of gruel, and qorot, a kind of cheese. And Kazakhstan, 4,000 living in Uzbekistan, and Historically, Bashkirs the national drink of Bashkir is a sort of mead 4,000 in . wrote in the Chagatay called hitabalé, made from a fermented honey. language (a shared Bashkir communities tend to be very self- WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS BASHKIR? literary language in sufficient. In fact, the only grocery shops Central Asian until available in most villages store only those Bashkir belongs to the Altaic group of the twentieth century) products which villagers cannot make languages, which includes which was written in themselves, such as flour, sugar, and some languages such as Turkish, an , but in 1923, another Arabic- clothing, etc. Mongolian, and arguably based was developed specifically Additionally, like many Central Asian cultures, Korean and Japanese. Altaic for the . This system was Bashkir has national epics, Ural-batyr and languages have historically replaced by a Latin-based writing system in Akbuzat, that have been handed down from been spoken across areas of 1930, before eventually being replaced 8 years generation to generation and tell tales of heroic Asia and Eastern , later by the Cyrillic-based Bashkir alphabet still characters winning over evil forces. and are named after the used today. Altai Mountains in Central Asia. Bashkir belongs to the Kypchak branch of WHAT IS BASHKIR CULTURE LIKE? the Turkic language family, which includes other Central Asian languages such as Kazakh and Traditionally, Bashkirs practiced agriculture; Kyrgyz. But more specifically, Baskir belongs to their staples being cattle-rearing and bee- the -Bolgar language group, along with keeping. Bashkirs typically herded their cattle in its most closely related language, Tatar. Bashkir the Ural mountains and the surrounding steppes has three main : Eastern, Southern, and and have been known to erect both Turkic and North-western.