Turkic languages Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The subject of this Grammar is the Tatar literary language of the late 20th century as used in public offices in Tatarstan, in educational institutions, in belles-lettres, theater, radio, scientific and scholarly works, media publications, etc. However, since the Tatar language - especially the literary language - has since the turn of the 20th century undergone considerable changes both in grammar and vocabulary, it was considered necessary to include also such grammatical forms and constructions as well as certain individual words belonging to various parts of speech (postpositions, participles, conjunctions, pronouns, etc.) which, with rare exceptions, are no longer used in the present literary language but are essential for the understanding of the Tatar classics and any other publications belonging to the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries and representing an important part of Tatar literature.
Furthermore, some grammatical forms and expressions which actually belong to the vernacular but have found their way also into the literary language have also been included in the grammar.
The grammar consists of four parts: Phonology/Orthography, Morphology, two Indexes and an Appendix. A complete, separate treatment of Tatar syntax was beyond the scope of this work, but notes and explanations of syntax have been included throughout,
wherever it appeared necessary or appropriate for the study and better understanding of the use of individual grammatical forms and constructions. All grammatical and syntactical forms discussed in this grammar are illustrated by an ample number of examples. To achieve a linguistic presentation as diverse and as extensive as possible in vocabulary, syntax and style, the examples have been selected from a wide range of literary works - novels, novellas, stage plays, short stories, fairy tales, travelogues, etc. - written by distinguished Tatar authors, as well as from nonfictional publications, articles, etc. Furthermore, examples have been chosen from history books, journals (including
a teacher's journal), periodicals, from Tatar-Russian phrase books and even from cookbooks. Some examples have been taken from poetry, from the daily press, dictionaries, Tatar school books and grammars. Except for some short examples used generally to illustrate
lexical and grammatical patterns, such as the formation of words, moods, tenses, etc., each example is followed by an indication of its source.
All Tatar examples are accompanied by English translations. Translations follow the Tatar original as closely as possible. Where, for reasons of differences in language structure, a close translation was not possible, a literal translation has often been added in parentheses to better reveal the grammatical structure and the real meaning of the Tatar. Furthermore, where necessary or desirable for the easier understanding of an example taken out of context, some explanatory background information has been furnished after the English translation. Also, throughout this grammar, many notes and observations have been included, often with examples, to give additional information on grammatical forms, language
usage, style, etc.