Kazan and Tartar Language

[dezelina.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone,

I don't think this is an appropriate post for this forum, but  you have all been very helpful to me, and I thought maybe some users would be able to answer my question.  I am going to Kazan this summer, and I  heard that many people speak the Tartar language there.  How similar is it to Russian?  Does anyone know where I can find a good English site explaining the language?  I tried several online searches, but haven't found anything too great.  Also, if anyone has any recommendations on what to do and see in Kazan, you can send me a private message.  I posted this on the travel forum, and it appears that non one knows anything about Kazan or the tartar language!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Comments

[alon_68]

The stuff about "for easier typewriting" and something like this is always purely artificial excuses. The actual reason was then to stop the influence of the traditional Muslim leaders to the the population. Similarly, the unsuccessful attempt to switch to the Latin script was intended to stress the independence from the Russian influence. The last one was eventually interrupted by the Russian federal authorities that issued the law prohibiting such switches for the local minorities languages.

[kart.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of that episode in Gravity's Rainbow

Most distressing of all is the power struggle he has somehow been suckered into with one Igor Blobadjian, a party representative on the prestigious G Committee. Blobadjian is fanatically attempting to steal Ƣ's from Tchitcherine's Committee, and change them to G's, using loan-words as an entering wedge. In the sunlit, sweltering commissary the two men sneer at each other across trays of zapekanka and Georgian fruit soup.

There is a crisis over which kind of g to use in the word "stenography." There is a lot of emotional attachment to the word around here. Tchitcherine one morning finds all the pencils in his conference room have mysteriously vanished. In revenge, he and Radnichny sneak in Blobadjian's conference room next night with hacksaws, files and torches, and reform the alphabet on his typewriter. It is some fun in the morning. Blobadjian runs around in a prolonged screaming fit. Tchitcherine's in conference, meeting's called to order, CRASH! two dozen linguists and bureaucrats go toppling over on their ass. Noise echoes for full two minutes. Tchitcherine, on his ass, notes that pieces of chair leg all around the table have been sawed off, reattached with wax and varnished over again. A professional job, all right. Could Radnichny be a double agent? The time for lighthearted practical jokes is past. Tchitcherine must go it alone.