The thing that shapes the written literature of a nation, colour it, and makes it powerful is its deep-rooted oral tradition. Likewise, if a nation wishes to shape a written literature that is both unique and bound to its own roots, it must realize the richness of oral literary products. Being one basic feature of Turkish, productivity is reflected on its oral literary products, as well. Many features such as telling a lot with few words, making you think while making you laugh, and teaching by entertaining have all enabled both the oral tradition of Turkish and its written literature – formed in light of this tradition – to shape and continue by evolving. Proverbs and riddles have an important place in Tatar language, which has a rich oral culture. In this dialect, proverb is referred to as ‘mekal’, while riddle is referred to as ‘tabışmak’. This study involves proverbs and riddles from Tatar intellectual Necip Dumavi’s elifba “Möʿallim” which he wrote for teaching reading and writing. This elifba contains several clues about the 20th century Tatar language. Among these, those which were different from today’s Tatar language were identified and analysed. In addition, the elifba’s linguistic characteristics and teaching technique were emphasized in the study. We believe that this study will contribute to the oral tradition of the Tatar language and to enlightenment about the 20th century written language.