Pronunciation [miʃær tatar] Ethnicity Mishar Tatars | ||
Region Mordovia, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Tatarstan, Orenburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Chuvashia, Bashkortostan, Samara, Volgograd, Saratov Language family TurkicCommon TurkicKipchakKipchak–BulgarTatarMishar Tatar | ||
Mishar Tatar or Misher Tatar, also Western Tatar (мишәр Mişär, мишәр татар Mişär Tatar, көнбатыш татар könbatış tatar) is a dialect of Tatar spoken by Mishar Tatars mainly located at Penza, Ulyanovsk, Orenburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Volgograd, Saratov oblasts of Russia and in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, and Mordovia of Russian Federation and Finland.
Some linguists think that Mishar Tatar is belonging to Kypchak-Cuman group of languages rather than to Kypchak-Bulgar.
This is the dialect spoken by the Tatar minority of Finland. The origins of Tatar community living in Finland rest upon the merchants coming from Volga‐Ural region of Russia in 1860s and most of the people in this community came from Sergach Mishar Tatar villages in the province of Nizhny Novgorod. The success of the first Tatar migrations caused other villagers to migrate to Finland.
Dialects
Mishar Tatar dialects (сөйләшлер) are according to Makhmutova two (Ch and Ts) or according to Gabdulkhay Akhatov three (Ch, Ts, and mixed) groups.
In the Western (Mişär) dialect Ç is pronounced [tʃ] (southern or Lambir Mişärs) and as [ts] (northern Mişärs or Nizhgars). C is pronounced [dʒ]. There are no differences between v and w, q and k, g and ğ in the Mişär dialect. The Cyrillic alphabet doesn't have special letters for q, ğ and w, so Mişär speakers have no difficulty reading Tatar written in Cyrillic.
Classification of Mishar Tatar dialects: