Old Tatar heritage in the Tepekey and Kurmantau sub-dialects of the Tatar language (phonetic and morphological features)

Abstract

During the development of the Tatar literary language some traditional forms, that are characteristic of the Old Tatar literary language had been lost, but they were preserved in sub-dialects and are considered as dialect phenomena. The purpose of the study is to identify features that were characteristic of the Old Tatar literary language and were preserved in the tepekey and kurmantau sub-dialects, but were lost in the Tatar literary language. The main phonetic, grammatical and other features of the studied sub-dialects of the Tatar language were laid down in the ancient Turkic language, the written monuments of which date back to the 5-8th centuries. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time, some phonetic and morphological features of the indicated sub-dialects are considered in a comparative sense with the language of the Old Tatar written monuments, and a greater commonality with the Old Tatar literary language is revealed. As a result of the scientific analysis, we have established that in the Kurmantau and Tepekey sub-dialects of the middle dialect of the Tatar language, phonetic phenomena (ä~i, j~ʒ, etc.) and grammatical forms (affixes of the desired mood -ajïm/-ajïk, forms in -mak/-mäk, constructions -dï + isä, etc.), that actively functioned in the Old Tatar literary language have been preserved.