#karaim

[bobemajses]

Praying in the Karaite synagogue in Hasköy (Istanbul), Turkey, 1984

[unhonestlymirror]

Video by @/wanderingbaltic

[gwendolynlerman]

Languages of the world

Karaim (karaj tili/къарай тили)

Basic facts

Number of native speakers: 80

Recognized minority language: Poland, Russia, Ukraine

Also spoken: Lithuania

Script: Latin, 31 letters/Cyrillic, 39 letters

Grammatical cases: 7

Linguistic typology: agglutinative, SVO

Language family: Turkic, Common Turkic, Kipchak, Kypchak-Cuman

Number of dialects: 2 main groups

History

17th-20th century - the Hebrew script is used

1920-1930 - the Latin alphabet is used exclusively

Writing system and pronunciation

These are the letters that make up the Latin script: a b c ch č d d’ dž e ė f g h i y j k l m n o ö p r s š t u ü v z ž.

These are the letters that make up the Cyrillic script: а б в г гъ д дж е ж з и й к къ л м н нъ о ӧ п р с т у ӱ ф х хъ ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я.

The letters -е-, -ю-, and -я- are only used after -л- to indicate palatalization, while -ж- and -ц- are only used in Russian loanwords.

Grammar

Nouns have two numbers (singular and plural) and seven cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, locative, and instrumental).

There are no prefixes, but postpositions are used.

Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood, person, and number. A notable feature of Karaim is the possibility of abbreviated verb forms.

Dialects

There are two main dialect groups: Eastern and Western. Eastern Karaim includes Crimean Karaim, which is now extinct. Western Karaim includes Trakai-Vilnius and Lutsk-Halich. Both dialects differ in phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary.

[bobemajses]

Prayer at the Karaite synagogue, Ashdod, 1985.

[bobemajses]

Old photographs of Jewish women II

1. Kurdistan; 2. Volhynia region, Ukraine; 3. Yemen; 4. Bukhara, Uzbekistan; 5. Algeria; 6. Crimea; 7. Cracow, Poland; 8. Thessaloniki, Greece; 9. Bulgaria

[bobemajses]

Karaite kenesa (synagogue) in Vilnius, Lithuania built in 1921.

The Lithuanian Karaites or Karaim are the smallest historic ethnic community in Vilnius, with just 150 or so remaining members of a unique Turkic-Jewish people. They settled in the region together with Muslim Tatars in the 14th century, praying in Hebrew and adhering to the Torah, but not to the Jewish rabbinical tradition. Having originated in 8th century Iraq and Iran and further developed in Eastern Europe, Lithuanian Karaism blended in many Christian, Tengri and (especially) Islamic practices. Other traditions, such as some holidays, are unique to Karaism.

[bobemajses]

Hasköy Karaite Synagogue (Kenesa), Istanbul, 1984

[gwendolynlerman]

Writing systems

Cyrillic (Кириллица)

The Cyrillic script is in honor of Saint Cyril, a Byzantine missionary who, along with his brother, Saint Methodius, created the Glagolitic alphabet in 863. Modern Cyrillic alphabets are descended from the Early Cyrillic script, which was created by two of their disciples in the 9th century in the First Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Tsar Simeon I the Great.

The Early Cyrillic script was based on the Greek uncial script, with ligatures and additional letters from the Glagolitic script for sounds not used in Greek.

Notable features

Script type: alphabet

Writing direction: left-to-right in horizontal lines

Number of characters: 29 common letters (22 consonants + 7 vowels). Most languages use more letters, which may be additional letters (26 possible letters) or ligatures (19).

Languages: Abaza, Abkhaz, Adyghe, Aghul, Akhvakh, Altai, Alyutor, Andi, Archi, Avar, Azerbaijani, Bagvalal, Balkar, Bashkir, Belarusian, Bezhta, Botlikh, Bulgarian, Buryat, Central Siberian Yupik, Chamalal, Chechen, Chelkan, Chukchi, Chuvash, Crimean Tatar, Dargwa, Dolgan, Dungan, Enets, Erzya, Even, Evenki, Gagauz, Godoberi, Hinukh, Hunzib, Ingush, Interslavic, Itelmen, Judeo-Tat, Kabardian, Kalmyk, Karaim, Karakalpak, Karata, Kazakh, Ket, Khakas, Khanty, Khinalug, Khwarshi, Kildin Sámi, Komi, Koryak, Krymchak, Kubachi, Kumyk, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Lak, Lezgian, Macedonian, Mansi, Mari, Moksha, Moldovan, Mongolian, Montenegrin, Nanai, Nenets, Nganasan, Nivkh, Nogai, Old Church Slavonic, Ossetian, Pontic Greek, Russian, Rutul, Selkup, Serbian, Shor, Shughni, Soyot, Tabasaran, Tajik, Talysh, Tat, Tatar, Tindi, Tofa, Tsakhur, Tsez, Turkmen, Tuvan, Udege, Udi, Udmurt, Uilta, Ukrainian, Ulch, Urum, Uyghur, Uzbek, Votic, Wakhi, Yaghnobi, Yakut, Yazghulami, and Yukaghir (110)

The cursive handwritten forms of many letters are very different from their upright forms.

Iotation—a form of palatalization that occurs when a consonant comes into contact with a vowel preceded by /j/—was indicated by ligatures formed with the letter і: ꙗ, ѥ, ю (ligature of і and оу), ѩ, and ѭ. Ы is the ligature of ъ and і.

Modern Cyrillic alphabet

Non-Slavic letters