About the Tat language

Tat belongs to Indo-European family, Indo-Iranian branch, South-West subgroup of Iranian group.

Where the speakers live

In Russia Tats (Northern Tats) live mainly in towns of the North Caucasus: in Daghestan — in the cities of Derbent, Makhachkala, Buinaksk, Kizliar, Khasaviurt; in Kabardino-Balkaria in the city of Nalchik; in North Osetia — in Mozdok; in Chechnia — in the city of Groznyi.

Southern Tats live in Azerbaijan. They make dense communities in the Apsheron peninsula (villages Balakhany, Surakhany and others), in the North-East of Azerbaijan (in the villages of Vartashen, Lakhidzh, Matrasa, Konakhkent, Afrudzha, Chichi, Gendab, Dagkushchu, Divichi, Siazan, Kilyazi and in the city of Kuba).

A relatively big Tat community lives in Moscow.

 

Tat language

The Tat language is an Iranian language spoken by the Tat ethnic group in Azerbaijan and Russia.

There is also a Jewish language called Judeo-Tat that is derived from the Tat language.

Some sources like Gholamhossein Mosahab's The Persian Encyclopedia use the term Azari/Azeri to refer, not to Azerbaijani, but to the Tati language which was spoken in the region before the spread of Turkic languages (see Ancient Azari language), and is now only spoken by different rural communities in Iranian Azerbaijan (such as villages in Harzanabad area, villages around Khalkhal and Ardebil, and also in Zanjan and Qazvin area) and the Republic of Azerbaijan. There are serious supporters and opponents of the theory. This theory was originally suggested by Ahmad Kasravi in modern times, an ethnic Azerbaijani and a native of Iran. Some of the people who disagree with Kasravi's theory prefer not to call themselves or their language Azeri or Azari because of the relation to the theory. Common usage of the terms in the English language is against this distinction.