Abstract
273 SUMMARY The Beshkir language is one of the Turkic languages and belongs to the north-western branch (sa-called Kipchak branch) of Turkic language family. The Bashkirs call themselves Başkort and their language Başkort Tele. Bashleirt Turkic is spoken by almost two million people living in the Republic of Bashkirtistan as well as Talaristan, Özbekistan, Kazakistan and Tacikistan. The name Bashkir has been mentioned in different ways as pronunciations like Başkırd-Başkort; (Ibn Fadlan, X th cen.) Başgır, (Mes'ûdî, Xth cen.) Becgurd, (Balhida, Xth cen.) Başkurt-Başgurd, (idrîsî, XII th cen.) Bascurt, (ibn Sa'îde, XIII th cen.) Başgurt. Also Kaşgarlı Mahmud mentional the name Başkurt as a tribe's in his famous Dîvânu Lugati't-Türk. Now, the literasy or standard language is based on the mountain dialect with some elements of the stepe dialect. The bashkirs use the Cyrillic alphabet (with some additional letters) since 1938. The Bashkir literary language appeared only affter the ploclamation of the Bashkir Republic in the 1920's. Before that, the Bashkirs used the Tatar Literary language and the Arabic alphabet. Bashkir is close to Volga Tatar and differs from the latter mainly in phonology and morphophonemics. The bashkir Cyrilhic alphabet is also different from the Tatar Cyrillic alphabet This deereases the mutual understanding of Tatars and Bashkirs.
