Yaña imlâ alphabet

Yaña imlâ (Tatar: яңа имлә, yaña imlä, ياڭا ئيملە, pronounced [jʌˈŋɑ imˈlʲæ]; lit. 'new orthography') was a modified Arabic script that was in use for the Tatar language between 1920 and 1927. The orthographical reform modified İske imlâ, including abolishing homophonic letters and adding letters for short vowels e, ı, ö, o. Yaña imlâ made use of a "backness sign" ⟨ࢭ⟩ to indicate vowel harmony.

There were some projects that were to simplify Yaña imlâ too. The unique separated Arabic was invented (so as to use typewriters).

As early as in 1924 the first projects of Latin script were introduced and in 1928 the government switched to the Latin Yañalif alphabet.

10 vowels are defined. These occur in pairs, front and back vowels.^[1][2]

Similar to other Turkic languages, Tatar has vowel harmony rules. Tatar orthography has one-dimensional vowel harmony: frontness versus backness. Tatar also has vowel roundedness harmony, but it is not reflected in the orthography.

The vowel Ы ы (I ı) / Э э (E e) is not written if at the beginning or middle of a word and if the resulting consonant cluster is not ambiguous, as in traditional İske imlâ. Hence, تاتار تلىُ татар теле (tatar tle /tatar tele/) instead of تاتار تىُلىُ, برنچىُ беренче (brnçe /berençe/) instead of بىُرىُنچىُ, and ئش эш ('ş /eş/) instead of ئىُش.

Words that historically end in voiced stops keep their voiced spelling, as in traditional İske imlâ. Hence, ئازاد азат (azad /azat/) instead of ئازات, and ࢭبولب булып (_abülb /bulıp/) instead of ࢭبولپ.

The backness sign ⟨ࢭ⟩ (Tatar: калынлык билгесе, قالنلق بیلگىُسىُ,^[3] lit. 'thickness sign', Unicode U+08AD ࢭ ARABIC LETTER LOW ALEF) has a unique role in Tatar, a role not seen in other Arabic scripts. Appearing as a modifier before a word, it indicates that the vowels in the word will be the back vowels:^[4]

• Ы ы (I ı)
• Ый ый (Iy ıy)
• О о (O o)
• У у (U u)

The backness sign ⟨ࢭ⟩ symbolizes that the vowels of the word are articulated in the same part of the mouth as an alef ⟨ا⟩ (the [ɑ] sound): at the back of the mouth.

The hamza plays a similar but inverse role in Kazakh Arabic alphabet, indicating that a word has front vowels.

There are instances where back-vowel words do not need the .

First are words that contain the vowel ئا / ا / ـا А а (A a). This vowel is a back vowel, and the corresponding front vowel ئە / ـە / ە Ә ә (Ä ä) is written with a different letter altogether. It is an unambiguous conclusion that any word containing ئا / ا / ـا А а (A a) is a back-vowel word, while a word containing ئە / ـە / ە Ә ә (Ä ä) is a front-vowel word.

For example, the word йорт (yort "house") is written with the backness sign, as ࢭیۇرت (_ayört), while йортлар (yortlar "houses", plural) is written as یۇرتلار (yörtlar).

The second exception is words that contain the following consonants:

• Г г (G g) (گ)
• Гъ гъ / Ғ ғ (Ğ ğ) (ع)
• К к (K k) (ك)
• Къ къ / Ҡ ҡ (Q q) (ق)

Under the rules of Tatar phonology, the consonants Г г (G g) (گ) and К к (K k) (ك) can only be accompanied by front vowels. Thus, there won't be any words containing these consonants that would need the backness sign. In contrast, the consonants Гъ гъ / Ғ ғ (Ğ ğ) (ع) and Къ къ / Ҡ ҡ (Q q) (ق) can only be accompanied by back vowels. This means that they themselves act as indicators that vowels in a word are back vowels, thus eliminating a need for the backness sign. For example, the word җылы (cılı "warm", adjective), is written as ࢭجلىُ (_acle), whereas a derived word, such as җылылык (cılılıq "warmth; heat", noun), is written as جللق (cllq).

Pursuant to these rules, suffixes are formed in pairs too. For example, words with back vowels take the suffixes -лык (ـلق) ~ -дык (ـدق) ~ -тык (ـتق), and words with front vowels take the suffixes -лек (ـ‫لك‬) ~ -дек (ـدك) ~ -тек (ـتك).

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

• Tatar alphabet
• Tatar language

• "Arabic alphabet". Tatar Encyclopaedia (in Tatar). Kazan: The Republic of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences. Institution of the Tatar Encyclopaedia. 2002.