Nogai language

Nogai (also Nogay or Nogai Tatar), is a Turkic language spoken in southwestern Russia. Three distinct dialects are recognized: Qara-Nogay (Black or Northern Nogay), spoken in Dagestan; Nogai Proper, in Stavropol; and Aqnogay (White or Western Nogay), by the Kuban River, its tributaries in Karachay-Cherkessia, and in the Mineralnye Vody District. Qara-Nogay and Nogai Proper are very close linguistically, while Aqnogay shows more differences.

Nogai is generally classified into the Kipchak–Nogay branch of Kipchak Turkic. This family also includes Crimean Tatar, Karakalpak in Uzbekistan, Kazakh in Kazakhstan, and Kirgiz in Kyrgyzstan.

History

The Nogai, descended from the peoples of the Golden Horde, take their name and that of their language from the grandson of Genghis Khan, Nogai Khan, who ruled the nomadic people west of the Danube toward the end of the 13th century. They then settled along the Black Sea coast of present-day Ukraine.

Originally, the Nogai written language was based on the Arabic alphabet. In 1928, the Latin alphabet was introduced. This orthographic system was compiled by the Nogay academic A. Dzhanibekov (Canibek), following principles adopted for all Turkic languages.

In 1938, a transition to the Russian alphabet began. The orthography based on the Latin alphabet had allegedly been an impediment to learning Russian.

The expulsion of the Nogai from Ukraine in the nineteenth century separated Nogai speakers into several geographically isolated groups. Some...
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