Editing Bashkirs (section)

==Language==
{{Main|Bashkir language}}

[[Bashkir language]] is a [[Turkic languages|Turkic language]] of the [[Kipchak languages|Kipchak]] group. It has three main dialects: Southern, Eastern and North-Western located in the territory of [[historical Bashkortostan]].

The [[Russian Census (2010)|Russian census of 2010]] recorded 1,152,404 Bashkir speakers in the [[Russian Federation]]. The Bashkir language is native to 1,133,339 Bashkirs (71.7% of the total number of Bashkirs, reporting mother tongue). The [[Tatar language]] was reported as the native tongue of 230,846 Bashkirs (14.6%), and [[Russian language|Russian]] as the native tongue of 216,066 Bashkirs (13.7%). Most Bashkirs are [[Multilingualism|bilingual]] in [[Bashkir language|Bashkir]] and [[Russian language|Russian]].

The first appearance of a "Bashkir" language is dated back to the [[9th century|9th century AD]], in the form of stone inscription using a Runic alphabet, most likely, this alphabet derives from the [[Yenisey|Yenisei]] variant of the [[Old Turkic script|old Turkic runic script]]. This archaic version of a Bashkir language would be more or less a dialect of the proto-Kipchak language, however, since then, the Bashkir language has been through a series of vowel and consonant shifts, which are a result of a common literary history shared with the [[Tatar language|Idel Tatar]] language since the formation of the [[Cumania|Cuman-Kipchak confederation]], when the [[Volga Bulgaria|Oghuric Volga Bulgars]] started to receive [[Kipchaks|Kipchak Turkic]] influence and became the [[Tatars|Idel Tatars]], most likely between the 10th and 11th centuries.

The [[Nogai language|Nogai]] and [[Karachay-Balkar]] languages are most likely the closest-sounding extant languages to the extinct Proto-Kipchak Bashkir language.

From an arc of time of roughly 900 years, the Bashkir language and Idel Tatar language, previously being completely different languages, "melded" into a series of dialects of a common [[Volga Turki|"Volga Kipchak" or "Volga Turki"]] language. The Idel Tatars and Bashkirs are and always were two peoples of completely different origins, cultures and identities, but because of a shared common literary history in an arc of 900 years, the two languages ended up in a common language, spoken in different dialects with features depending on the people which spoke them.

For example, the dialects spoken by Bashkirs, tend to have an accent which mostly resembles other Kipchak languages, like [[Kyrgyz language|Kyrgyz]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], [[Nogai language|Nogai]], [[Karakalpak language|Karakalpak]], and many other languages of the [[Kipchak languages|Kipchak]] sub-group, while the dialects spoken by Idel Tatars, have accents more resembling the original [[Volga Bulgaria|Oghuric Volga-Bulgar language]] spoken before the [[Cumans|Cuman invasion]].

At the start of the 20th century, particularly during the [[Russian Revolution]], [[Bashkortostan]] and [[Tatarstan]] emerged as separate republics, leading to the recognition of Bashkir and Tatar as distinct literary languages. Each was based on the most prominent dialects of the Volga Kipchak language spoken by the Bashkir and [[Kazan Tatar]] peoples.

The Cyrillic alphabet is the official script used to write Bashkir.