Crimean Tatar dialects
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The Crimean Tatar language consists of three dialects. The standard language is written in the middle dialect (bağçasaray, orta yolaq), which is part of the Kipchak-Cuman sub-branch. There is also the southern dialect, also known as the coastal dialect (yalıboyu, cenübiy), which is in the Oghuz sub-branch, and the northern dialect, also known as the Nogai dialect (noğay, çöl, şimaliy), which is in the Kipchak-Nogai sub-branch.
Crimean Tatar has a unique position among the Turkic languages, because its three "dialects" belong to three different (sub)groups of Turkic.[citation needed] This makes the classification of Crimean Tatar as a whole difficult.
The middle dialect is spoken in the Crimean Mountains by the sedentary Tat Tatars (should not be confused with the Tat people which speak an Iranic language). Because its speakers comprise a relative majority of Crimean Tatar speakers, the written language is based on the middle dialect.
Standard Crimean Tatar and its middle dialect are classified as a language of the Cuman (Russian: кыпчакско-половецкая) subgroup of the Kipchak languages and the closest relatives are Karachay-Balkar, Karaim, Krymchak, Kumyk, Urum and extinct Cuman. The middle dialect, although thought to be of Kipchak-Cuman origin, combines elements of both Cuman and Oghuz languages.
The Cuman language arrived in Crimea with the first Turkic invasions of Crimea by Cumans and Pechenegs in the 11th Century. The Cuman language as it developed in Crimea is thought to have been the lingua franca of the Crimean Khanate.
