Think Russian is the only language in Russia? Think again! Spanning an area of more than 17 million square kilometers (6.6 million square miles), Russia encompasses a lot more languages than just Russian. The country is filled with republics and autonomous areas home to different ethnic minorities, accounting for roughly 100 to 150 different languages. One of Russia’s indigenous minority languages is Bashkir, spoken in Bashkortostan in the Volga region or Ural region.
Even though Bashkir is the official language of Bashkortostan and the Bashkir people have the sole rights to self-determination in the republic, the language is only spoken by around 23% of the population. Slightly more speak Tatar, the language of another republic to the north, and most speak Russian. However, Russia’s authoritarian rule and the high percentage of ethnic Russians in the republic threaten the vitality of this indigenous language, with Bashkir being rated as a “vulnerable” endangered language by UNESCO. At TranslationServices.com, we support all languages—which is why we’re proud to offer specialized translation services for Bashkir.
Find out the cost of a professional Bashkir translation by requesting a free quote today.
Discover the roots of Russia’s Bashkortostan Republic
Many of Russia’s indigenous languages are completely unrelated to Russian, and such is the case with Bashkir. This Turkic language is instead related to many of the indigenous languages of neighboring republics, such as Tatar in Tatarstan and Chuvash in Chuvashia, as well as Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and, of course, Turkish. Bashkir was historically written in a modified Arabic script, shifting to a Latin-based orthography in 1930 and then to an extended Cyrillic alphabet in 1939, so it may look the same as Russian to the uninitiated.
Turkish languages are famously complicated, known for their vowel harmony and agglutination. They do, however, lack grammatical gender, making them arguably less complicated than Russian. Such is the case with Bashkir, which features six cases that are realized through suffixed inflection on nouns. The exact inflection changes depending on what vowels are used in the word, a feature known as vowel harmony. Bashkir word order is subject-object-verb, with verbs coming at the end of a sentence, and the language has undergone significant influence from Russian, Arabic, and Persian, adopting many loanwords from these languages over the years.
Bashkir translation services are hard to come by because the language does not receive a lot of official support in Russia. However, we’ve put together a professional Bashkir translation team and are proud to offer our services to anyone who needs them.
Connect with Bashkortostan through Bashkir translation services
Most ethnic Bashkirs proudly speak their native language and wish to see it thrive for decades to come. However, Bashkortostan and other republics in Russia are overshadowed by the power of the federal state, and many people outside Russia are completely unaware of Bashkortostan’s existence. Translation from Bashkir can help spread Bashkir literature and culture to the rest of the world, strengthening Bashkortostan’s position on the world stage. Similarly, translation into Bashkir of business content, academic content, and entertainment content strengthens the Bashkir language and helps ensure its survival into the future.
Our Bashkir translators are passionate about both missions, so no matter why you want Bashkir translation services, feel free to reach out and discuss your needs!