Karaim
Facts
- Language: Karaim
- Alternate names: Karaite
- Language code: kdr
- Language family: Turkic, Common Turkic, Kipchak, West Kipchak
- Dialects: Crimean Karaim, Halych Karaim, Trakai Karaim.
- Number of speakers: 3
- Vulnerability: Endangered [Read more...]
- Script: Cyrillic Script, Latin Script
More information:
Introduction
The Karaim language is a Turkic language with Hebrew influences. The three main dialects are those of Crimea, Trakai-Vilnius and Lutsk-Halych.
The Karaim Verb
Karaim morphology is suffixing and highly agglutinating. The Karaim language lacks prefixes and uses postpositions.
Sample verb ał 'to take'
| Person | Long Form | Short Form |
|---|---|---|
| Sg.1 | ał-a-myn | ał-a-m |
| Sg.2 | ał-a-syn | ał-a-s |
| Sg.3 | ał-a-dyr | ał-a-d |
| Pl.1 | ał-a-byz | - |
| Pl.2 | ał-a-syz | - |
| Pl.3 | ał-dyr-łar | ał-d-łar ~ ał-dy-łar |
A notable feature of verb conjugation in Karaim is the possibility of abbreviated forms, as shown above.