Karachay-Balkar facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Karachay-Balkar
къарачай-малкъар тил таулу тил
Native to	North Caucasus
Region	Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay–Cherkessia, Turkey
Ethnicity	Karachays, Balkars
Native speakers	310,000 in Russia  (2010 census)
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak Kipchak–Cuman [ru] Karachay-Balkar
Dialects	Karachay Balkar
Writing system	Cyrillic Latin in diaspora
Official status
Official language in	Kabardino-Balkaria (Russia) Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

A version of the Koran in the Karachay-Balkar language.

Karachay-Balkar (Къарачай-Малкъар тил, Qaraçay-Malqar til) is a Turkic language. It is also sometimes called Mountain Turkic (Таулу тил, Tawlu til). This language is spoken by two groups of people, the Karachays and the Balkars.

Most speakers live in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay–Cherkessia in European Russia. You can also find people who speak Karachay-Balkar in Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey. The language has two main ways of speaking, called dialects. These are the Karachay-Baksan-Chegem dialect and the Malkar dialect. The main difference is how certain sounds are pronounced. The written form of the language today is based on the Karachay-Baksan-Chegem dialect. Karachay-Balkar is very similar to the Kumyk language.

How Karachay-Balkar is Written

For a long time, the Karachay-Balkar language was written using the Arabic alphabet. This was until 1924. We still have old handwritten books and poems from that time, like those by the Balkar poet Kazim Mechiev. The first printed books in Karachay-Balkar came out in the early 1900s.

After the October Revolution in Russia, there was a big change. The Soviet government wanted to use the Latin alphabet for many languages. So, Karachay and Balkar teachers created a new alphabet using Latin letters. But in the 1930s, the government changed its mind. They decided that languages in the USSR should use the Cyrillic alphabet instead. Because of this, a new alphabet based on Cyrillic letters was officially adopted in 1937–1938.

The Karachay-Balkar Alphabet

Today, the Karachay-Balkar language mostly uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Below is a table showing the letters used in the modern Karachay-Balkar Cyrillic alphabet. Each letter also shows its sound.

• The letter Ф ф is not found in words that originally come from Karachay-Balkar.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, people often write ж instead of дж. In Karachay-Cherkessia, they write нъ instead of нг. Sometimes, especially in older books, you might see the letter у́ or ў for a specific sound.

Here is the Karachay-Balkar Latin alphabet that was used for a short time:

Comparing Alphabets Over Time

The Karachay-Balkar language has used different alphabets throughout its history. This table shows how letters from the Arabic, Latin, and different Cyrillic alphabets compare to each other. It helps us see how the writing system changed over the years.

Arabic (1920–1924)	Latin (1924–1938)	Cyrillic (1961–1964)	Cyrillic (1937–1961), (1964–present)
ا	A a	А а	А а
ب	B в	Б б	Б б
و	V v	В в	В в
گ	G g	Г г	Г г
غ	Ƣ ƣ	Ғ ғ	Гъ гъ
د	D d	Д д	Д д
ە	E e	Е е	Е е
ۆ	Ө ө	Ө ө, Ё ё	Ё ё
ژ	Ƶ ƶ	Ж ж	Ж ж
ج	Ç ç	Җ җ	Дж дж (Ж ж)
ز	Z z	З з	З з
ي	I i	И и	И и
ي	J j	Й й	Й й
ك, ک	K k	К к	К к
ق	Q q	Қ қ	Къ къ
ل	L l	Л л	Л л
م	M m	М м	М м
ن	N n	Н н	Н н
ڭ, ݣ	Ꞑ ꞑ	Ң ң	Нг нг (Нъ нъ)
وٓ	O o	О о	О о
پ	P p	П п	П п
ر	R r	Р р	Р р
س	S s	С с	С с
ت	T t	Т т	Т т
و	U u	У у	У у
و	W w	Ў ў	У у (Ў ў, У́ у́)
ف	F f	Ф ф	Ф ф
خ	X x	Х х	Х х
ح	H h	Һ һ	-
—	S̷ s̷	Ц ц	Ц ц
چ	C c	Ч ч	Ч ч
ش	Ş ş	Ш ш	Ш ш
—	—	Щ щ	Щ щ
—	—	ъ	ъ
ىٕ		Ы ы	Ы ы
—	—	ь	ь
ئە, اە	E e	Э э	Э э
ۉ	Y y	Ү ү, Ю ю	Ю ю
-	-	Я я	Я я

An Example of the Language

Here is Article 1 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written in Karachay-Balkar. It shows how the language looks in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, along with its English translation. This article talks about how all people are born free and equal.

Numbers in Karachay-Balkar

Learning numbers is a fun way to start understanding a new language. Here are some basic numbers in Karachay-Balkar. You can also see how they compare to two related languages, Kumyk and Nogay.

Words from Other Languages

Like many languages, Karachay-Balkar has borrowed words from other languages. It has many words that come from Ossetian, Kabardian, Arabic, and Persian. This shows how different cultures and languages have connected over time.

See also

In Spanish: Idioma karachái-bálkaro para niños