Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society Volume 6, No. 1 (2020) by Julie Fedor

Author:Julie Fedor [Gergana, Fedor, Julie; Makarychev, Andrey; Umland, Andreas; Dimova,]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ibidem Press
Published: 2020-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

Use of the Crimean Tatar Language among Crimean Tatar IDPs

Crimean Tatar is a Turkic language with three main dialects based on the geography of the peninsula: northern, middle, and southern. The written language has oscillated between Latin, Cyrillic, or Arabic script over the centuries, reflecting shifts in the approach of the state to the Muslim and Turkic peoples of the peninsula. After centuries in which the Arabic script predominated, in the early Soviet period a Latin-based script called Yanalif (“new alphabet”) was launched, receiving official recognition in 1928 (Kamusella 2014: 274). Yet only ten years later, under the conditions of Stalinist ethnic policy, the script of the written Crimean Tatar language (and all Turkic languages of the Soviet Union) became Cyrillic (ibid.).

Stalin’s deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 had drastic linguistic as well as demographic consequences, with the language largely retreating into the home (Uehling 2004: 46). After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, however, the Crimean Tatar language received legal protection under the 1998 Constitution of Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Konstitutsiia Avtonomnoi Respubliki Krym 1998). In this period, the Latin-based alphabet gradually became more dominant. Since the annexation of Crimea, however, the situation has shifted once more. De-facto Russian authorities have made Crimean Tatar an official language of the peninsula, alongside Russian and Ukrainian, but “on the foundation of the Cyrillic script” (Zakon Respubliki Krym 2017). Meanwhile, on mainland Ukraine, the Crimean Tatar language is relayed in Latin script, and this divergence is expected to continue into the future.

The confused standardization of the Crimean Tatar language reflects its variable usage among the Crimean Tatar population itself. Indeed, among my respondents, a knowledge of the Crimean Tatar language was contingent on a variety of factors: age; family residence in Crimea (either in a predominantly Russian-speaking or Crimean Tatar-speaking village, town, or city); family language practice; and the presence of older generations in the contemporary household.

This last factor was crucial. Knowledge of the Crimean Tatar language among my respondents was strongly related to the presence of family members born before Stalin’s 1944 deportation in the home. Respondents who a) moved to Crimea from exile in Central Asia upon or after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and b) had in their circle elderly relatives who spoke Crimean Tatar as their native language indicated that they either could speak Crimean Tatar fluently or had a basic knowledge of the language. Families that repatriated to Crimea in the 1990s without members of the pre-deportation generation, however, tended to have very limited or no knowledge of the language. As one respondent noted,

[Before the 2014 annexation] we lived in Crimea with our grandmother and grandfather. For the most part they did not know Russian. Lessons were in Russian at school but [we spoke] Crimean Tatar at home. I’m very grateful to my grandparents for that. (F, 43, Kyiv, NGO leader)

Individual family choices around language use naturally played a significant role in language socialization. As one respondent explained,

My mom is a Crimean Tatar language

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