Krymchaks
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (1,200-1,500 (est)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Ukraine
|
406 (2001) |
 Russia
|
90 (2010) |
| Languages | |
| Russian, Krymchak | |
| Religion | |
| Orthodox Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Crimean Karaites Crimean Tatars, Pontic Greeks | |
The Krymchaks (Krymchak: sg. кърымчах - qrımçax, pl. кърымчахлар - qrımçaxlar) are Jewish ethno-religious communities of Crimea derived from Turkic-speaking adherents of Orthodox Judaism. They have historically lived in close proximity to the Crimean Karaites, also Turkic but who follow Karaite Judaism.
At first krymchak was a Russian descriptive used to differentiate them from their Ashkenazi Jewish coreligionists, as well as other Jewish communities in the former Russian Empire such as the Georgian Jews, but in the second half of the 19th century this name was adopted by the Krymchaks themselves. Before this their self-designation was "Срель балалары" (Srel balalary) - literally "Children of Israel". The Crimean Tatars referred to them as zuluflı çufutlar ("Jews with pe'ot") to distinguish them from the Karaites, who were called zulufsız çufutlar ("Jews without pe'ot").
The Krymchaks speak a modified form of the Crimean Tatar language, called the Krymchak language. It is the Jewish patois, or ethnolect of Crimean Tatar, which is a Kypchak Turkic language. Krimchak is not a distinct language, but only one constituent of Crimean Tatar. Before the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Krimchaks were at least bilingual: they spoke the Krimchak ethnolect and at the same time mostly used Hebrew for their religious life and for written communication. The Krimchaks adhered to their Turkic patois up to World War II, but later began to lose their linguistic identity. Now they are making efforts to revive their language. Many of the linguistic characteristics of the Krimchak language could be found in the Crimean Tatar language. In addition, it contains numerous Hebrew and Aramaic loan-words and was traditionally written in Hebrew characters (now it is written in Cyrillic script).
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