Chinese Tatars

Chinese Tatars

Total population
5,000 (2000 est.)
Regions with significant populations
China: Xinjiang
Languages
Tatar, Mandarin
Religion
Predominantly Islam, Orthodox Christian

Islam in China
History History Tang Dynasty • Song Dynasty Yuan Dynasty • Ming Dynasty Qing Dynasty • Dungan revolts (1862-1877, 1895-1896) Panthay rebellion • 1911-Present
Major figures Chang Yuchun • Hu Dahai • Mu Ying • Lan Yu • Yeheidie'erding Hui Liangyu • Ma Bufang Zheng He • Liu Zhi Haji Noor • Yusuf Ma Dexin Ma Hualong
Culture Cuisine • Martial arts Chinese mosques • Sini Islamic Association of China
Cities/Regions Hong Kong • Kashgar • Linxia Ningxia • Taiwan • Xinjiang
Groups Hui • Uyhgurs Kazakhs • Dongxiang Kyrgyz • Salar Bonan • Tajiks Uzbeks • Tatars Utsul • Tibetans
v · d · e

The Chinese Tatars (simplified Chinese: 塔塔尔族; traditional Chinese: 塔塔爾族; pinyin: Tǎtǎěrzú; Tatar language: Кытай татарлары) form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

Their ancestors are Volga Tatar tradesmen who settled mostly in Xinjiang.

The number of Chinese Tatars is close to 5000 as of 2000, and they live mainly in the cities of Aletai, Changji, Yili, Ürümqi, Tacheng and other places in Xinjiang.

Chinese Tatars speak an archaic variant of the Tatar language, free from 20th-century loanwords and use Arabic variant of the Tatar alphabet, declined in USSR in 1930s. Being surrounded by speakers of other Turkic languages, Chinese Tatar partially reverses the Tatar high vowel inversion. They do not have a writing system.^[1]

See also

• Xabib Yunic
• Burhan Shahidi
• Volga Tatars
• Tatars

References

1. ^ Minglang Zhou (2003). Multilingualism in China: the politics of writing reforms for minority languages, 1949-2002. Volume 89 of Contributions to the sociology of language (illustrated ed.). Published Walter de Gruyter. p. 183. ISBN 3110178966. http://books.google.com/books?id=joE5ZASNCGYC&pg=PA149&dq=kirgiz+arabic+script+shares+the+major&hl=en&ei=cDMlTbuPLsKblgePg8XHAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=provide%20chinese%20tatar%20communities%20not%20have%20writing%20systems&f=false. Retrieved 2011-01-01. 

• Paul and Bernice Noll's Window on the World - List of ethnic groups in China and their population sizes