Turkic | |
---|---|
Geographic distribution | Eurasia |
Ethnicity | Turkic peoples |
Native speakers | c. 200 million (2020) [1] |
Linguistic classification | One of the world's primary language families |
Proto-language | Proto-Turkic |
Subdivisions | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-5 | trk |
Glottolog | turk1311 |
The distribution of the Turkic languages |
The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 [2] documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic languages originated in a region of East Asia spanning from Mongolia to Northwest China, where Proto-Turkic is thought to have been spoken, [3] from where they expanded to Central Asia and farther west during the first millennium. [4] They are characterized as a dialect continuum. [5]
Turkic languages are spoken by some 200 million people. [1] The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish, spoken mainly in Anatolia and the Balkans; its native speakers account for about 38% of all Turkic speakers, followed by Uzbek. [4]
Characteristic features such as vowel harmony, agglutination, subject-object-verb order, and lack of grammatical gender, are almost universal within the Turkic family. [4] There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility, upon moderate exposure, among the various Oghuz languages, which include Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Chaharmahali Turkic, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish, as well as Oghuz-influenced Crimean Tatar. [6] Other Turkic languages demonstrate varying amounts of mutual intelligibility within their subgroups as well. Although methods of classification vary, the Turkic languages are usually considered to be divided into two branches: Oghur, of which the only surviving member is Chuvash, and Common Turkic, which includes all other Turkic languages.
Turkic languages show many similarities with the Mongolic, Tungusic, Koreanic, and Japonic languages. These similarities have led some linguists (including Talât Tekin) to propose an Altaic language family, though this proposal is widely rejected by historical linguists. [7] [8] Similarities with the Uralic languages even caused these families to be regarded as one for a long time under the Ural-Altaic hypothesis. [9] [10] [11] However, there has not been sufficient evidence to conclude the existence of either of these macrofamilies. The shared characteristics between the languages are attributed presently to extensive prehistoric language contact.
Turkic languages are null-subject languages, have vowel harmony (with the notable exception of Uzbek due to strong Persian-Tajik influence), converbs, extensive agglutination by means of suffixes and postpositions, and lack of grammatical articles, noun classes, and grammatical gender. Subject–object–verb word order is universal within the family. In terms of the level of vowel harmony in the Turkic language family, Tuvan is characterized as almost fully harmonic whereas Uzbek is the least harmonic or not harmonic at all. Taking into account the documented historico-linguistic development of Turkic languages overall, both inscriptional and textual, the family provides over one millennium of documented stages as well as scenarios in the linguistic evolution of vowel harmony which, in turn, demonstrates harmony evolution along a confidently definable trajectory [12] Though vowel harmony is a common characteristic of major language families spoken in Inner Eurasia (Mongolic, Tungusic, Uralic and Turkic), the type of harmony found in them differs from each other, specifically, Uralic and Turkic have a shared type of vowel harmony (called palatal vowel harmony) whereas Mongolic and Tungusic represent a different type.
The homeland of the Turkic peoples and their language is suggested to be somewhere between the Transcaspian steppe and Northeastern Asia (Manchuria), [13] with genetic evidence pointing to the region near South Siberia and Mongolia as the "Inner Asian Homeland" of the Turkic ethnicity. [14] Similarly several linguists, including Juha Janhunen, Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs, suggest that modern-day Mongolia is the homeland of the early Turkic language. [15] Relying on Proto-Turkic lexical items about the climate, topography, flora, fauna, people's modes of subsistence, Turkologist Peter Benjamin Golden locates the Proto-Turkic Urheimat in the southern, taiga-steppe zone of the Sayan-Altay region. [16]
Extensive contact took place between Proto-Turks and Proto-Mongols approximately during the first millennium BC; the shared cultural tradition between the two Eurasian nomadic groups is called the "Turco-Mongol" tradition. The two groups shared a similar religion system, Tengrism, and there exists a multitude of evident loanwords between Turkic languages and Mongolic languages. Although the loans were bidirectional, today Turkic loanwords constitute the largest foreign component in Mongolian vocabulary. [17]
Italian historian and philologist Igor de Rachewiltz noted a significant distinction of the Chuvash language from other Turkic languages. According to him, the Chuvash language does not share certain common characteristics with Turkic languages to such a degree that some scholars consider it an independent Chuvash family similar to Uralic and Turkic languages. Turkic classification of Chuvash was seen as a compromise solution for the classification purposes. [18]
Some lexical and extensive typological similarities between Turkic and the nearby Tungusic and Mongolic families, as well as the Korean and Japonic families has in more recent years been instead attributed to prehistoric contact amongst the group, sometimes referred to as the Northeast Asian sprachbund. A more recent (circa first millennium BC) contact between "core Altaic" (Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic) is distinguished from this, due to the existence of definitive common words that appear to have been mostly borrowed from Turkic into Mongolic, and later from Mongolic into Tungusic, as Turkic borrowings into Mongolic significantly outnumber Mongolic borrowings into Turkic, and Turkic and Tungusic do not share any words that do not also exist in Mongolic.
Turkic languages also show some Chinese loanwords that point to early contact during the time of Proto-Turkic. [19]
The first established records of the Turkic languages are the eighth century AD Orkhon inscriptions by the Göktürks, recording the Old Turkic language, which were discovered in 1889 in the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia. The Compendium of the Turkic Dialects ( Divânü Lügati't-Türk ), written during the 11th century AD by Kaşgarlı Mahmud of the Kara-Khanid Khanate, constitutes an early linguistic treatment of the family. The Compendium is the first comprehensive dictionary of the Turkic languages and also includes the first known map of the Turkic speakers' geographical distribution. It mainly pertains to the Southwestern branch of the family. [20]
The Codex Cumanicus (12th–13th centuries AD) concerning the Northwestern branch is another early linguistic manual, between the Kipchak language and Latin, used by the Catholic missionaries sent to the Western Cumans inhabiting a region corresponding to present-day Hungary and Romania. The earliest records of the language spoken by Volga Bulgars, debatably the parent or a distant relative of Chuvash language, are dated to the 13th–14th centuries AD. [21] [22]
With the Turkic expansion during the Early Middle Ages (c. 6th–11th centuries AD), Turkic languages, in the course of just a few centuries, spread across Central Asia, from Siberia to the Mediterranean. Various terminologies from the Turkic languages have passed into Persian, Urdu, Ukrainian, Russian, [23] Chinese, Mongolian, Hungarian and to a lesser extent, Arabic. [24] [ verification needed ]
The geographical distribution of Turkic-speaking peoples across Eurasia since the Ottoman era ranges from the North-East of Siberia to Turkey in the West. [25] (See picture in the box on the right above.)
For centuries, the Turkic-speaking peoples have migrated extensively and intermingled continuously, and their languages have been influenced mutually and through contact with the surrounding languages, especially the Iranian, Slavic, and Mongolic languages. [26]
This has obscured the historical developments within each language and/or language group, and as a result, there exist several systems to classify the Turkic languages. The modern genetic classification schemes for Turkic are still largely indebted to Samoilovich (1922).[ citation needed ]
The Turkic languages may be divided into six branches: [27]
In this classification, Oghur Turkic is also referred to as Lir-Turkic, and the other branches are subsumed under the title of Shaz-Turkic or Common Turkic. It is not clear when these two major types of Turkic can be assumed to have diverged. [28]
With less certainty, the Southwestern, Northwestern, Southeastern and Oghur groups may further be summarized as West Turkic, the Northeastern, Kyrgyz-Kipchak, and Arghu (Khalaj) groups as East Turkic. [29]
Geographically and linguistically, the languages of the Northwestern and Southeastern subgroups belong to the central Turkic languages, while the Northeastern and Khalaj languages are the so-called peripheral languages.[ citation needed ]
Hruschka, et al. (2014) [30] use computational phylogenetic methods to calculate a tree of Turkic based on phonological sound changes.
The following isoglosses are traditionally used in the classification of the Turkic languages: [31] [27]
Additional isoglosses include:
*In the standard Istanbul dialect of Turkish, the ğ in dağ and dağlı is not realized as a consonant, but as a slight lengthening of the preceding vowel.
The following table is based mainly upon the classification scheme presented by Lars Johanson. [34] [35]
The following is a brief comparison of cognates among the basic vocabulary across the Turkic language family (about 60 words). Despite being cognates, some of the words may denote a different meaning.
Empty cells do not necessarily imply that a particular language is lacking a word to describe the concept, but rather that the word for the concept in that language may be formed from another stem and is not cognate with the other words in the row or that a loanword is used in its place.
Also, there may be shifts in the meaning from one language to another, and so the "Common meaning" given is only approximate. In some cases, the form given is found only in some dialects of the language, or a loanword is much more common (e.g. in Turkish, the preferred word for "fire" is the Persian-derived ateş, whereas the native od is dead). Forms are given in native Latin orthographies unless otherwise noted.
Common meaning | Proto-Turkic | Old Turkic | Turkish | Azerbaijani | Karakhanid | Qashqai | Turkmen | Tatar | Karaim | Bashkir | Kazakh | Kyrgyz | Uzbek | Uyghur | Sakha/Yakut | Chuvash | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Relationship | father, ancestor | *ata, *kaŋ | ata, apa, qaŋ | baba, ata | baba, ata | apa, ata | bowa/ata | ata | ata, atay [g] | ata | ata, atay [h] | ata | ata | ota | ata [i] | ağa [j] | atte, aśu, aşşĕ [k] |
mother | *ana, *ög | ana, ög | ana, anne | ana | ana, ene | ana/nänä | ene | ana, äni [l] | ana | ana, inä(y)/asay [m] | ana | ene, ana [n] | ona, acha | ana [o] | iỹe [p] | anne, annü, amăşĕ [q] | |
son | *ogul | oɣul | oğul | oğul | oɣul, ohul | oğul | ogul | ul [r] | uvul | ul | ul [s] | uul [t] | oʻgʻil | oghul [u] | uol [v] | ıvăl, ul [w] | |
man | *ēr, *érkek | er | erkek | ər/erkək | erkek | kiši | erkek | ir [x] | ėr | ir, irkäk [y] | er, erkek [z] | er, erkek [aa] | erkak | er [ab] | er [ac] | ar/arśın [ad] | |
girl | *kï̄ŕ | qïz | kız | qız | qɨz | qïz/qez | gyz | qız [ae] | qɨz | qıð [af] | qyz [ag] | qız | qiz | qiz [ah] | kııs [ai] | hĕr [aj] | |
person | *kiĺi, *yạlaŋuk | kiši, yalaŋuq | kişi | kişi | kiši | kişi | keşe [ak] | kiši | keşe | kisi [al] | kişi [am] | kishi | kishi [an] | kihi [ao] | śın [ap] | ||
bride | *gélin | kelin | gelin | gəlin | qalɨŋ | gälin | gelin | kilen [aq] | kelin | kilen | kelin [ar] | kelin [as] | kelin | kelin [at] | kiyiit [au] | kin [av] | |
mother-in-law | kaynana | qaynana | qäynänä | gaýyn ene | qayın ana [aw] | qäynä [ax] | qaıyn ene [ay] | qaynene [az] | qaynona | qeyinana [ba] | huńama [bb] | ||||||
Body parts | heart | *yürek | yürek | yürek | ürək | jürek | iräg/üräg | ýürek | yöräk [bc] | üriak, jürek | yöräk | jürek [bd] | cürök [be] | yurak | yürek | sürex [bf] | çĕre [bg] |
blood | *kiān | qan | kan | qan | qan | qan | gan | qan [bh] | qan | qan [bi] | qan [bj] | qan | qon | qan | xaan [bk] | yun | |
head | *baĺč | baš | baş | baş | baš | baš | baş | baş | baš | baş | bas | baş | bosh | bash | bas | puś/poś | |
hair | *s(i)ač, *kïl | sač, qïl | saç, kıl | saç, qıl | sač, qɨl | tik/qel | saç, gyl | çäç, qıl | čač, sač, qɨl | säs, qıl | shash, qyl | çaç, qıl | soch, qil | sach, qil | battax, kıl | śüś, hul | |
eye | *göŕ | köz | göz | göz | köz | gez/göz | göz | küz | kioź, goz | küð | köz | köz | koʻz | köz | xarax, kös | kuś/koś | |
eyelash | *kirpik | kirpik | kirpik | kirpik | kirpik | kirpig | kirpik | kerfek | kirpik | kerpek | kirpik | kirpik | kiprik | kirpik | kılaman, kirbii | hărpăk | |
ear | *kulkak | qulqaq | kulak | qulaq | qulaq, qulqaq, qulxaq, qulɣaq | qulaq | gulak | qolaq | qulax | qolaq | qulaq | qulaq | quloq | qulaq | kulgaax | hălha | |
nose | *burun | burun | burun | burun | burun | burn | burun | borın | burun | moron | muryn | murun | burun | burun | murun, munnu | murun | |
arm | *kol | qol | kol | qol | qol | qol | gol | qul | kol | qul | qol | qol | qoʻl | qol | хol | hul | |
hand | *el-ig | elig | el | əl | elig | äl | el | alaqan | alaqan | ilik | ilik | ilii | ală | ||||
finger | *erŋek, *biarŋak | erŋek | parmak | barmaq | barmaq | burmaq | barmaq | barmaq | barmax | barmaq | barmaq | barmaq | barmoq | barmaq | tarbaq | pürne/porńa | |
fingernail | *dïrŋak | tïrŋaq | tırnak | dırnaq | tɨrŋaq | dïrnaq | dyrnak | tırnaq | tɨrnax | tırnaq | tyrnaq | tırmaq | tirnoq | tirnaq | tıngıraq | çĕrne | |
knee | *dīŕ, *dǖŕ | tiz | diz | diz | tizle- (to press with one's knees) | diz | dyz | tez | tɨz | teð | tize | tize | tizza | tiz | tobuk | çĕrśi, çĕrkuśśi | |
calf | *baltïr | baltïr | baldır | baldır | baldɨr | ballïr | baldyr | baltır | baldɨr | baltır | baltyr | baltır | boldir | baldir | ballır | pıl | |
foot | *(h)adak | adaq | ayak | ayaq | aδaq | ayaq | aýak | ayaq | ajax | ayaq | aıaq | but, ayaq | oyoq, adoq | ayaq | ataq | ura | |
belly | *kạrïn | qarïn | karın | qarın | qarɨn | qarn | garyn | qarın | qarɨn | qarın | qaryn | qarın | qorin | qerin | xarın | hırăm | |
Animals | horse | *(h)at | at | at | at | at | at | at | at | at | at | at | at | ot | at | at | ut/ot |
cattle | *dabar | ingek, tabar | inek, davar, sığır | inək, sığır | ingek, ingen; tavar | seğer | sygyr | sıyır | sɨjɨr | hıyır | siyr | uy, sıyır, inek | sigir, inak | siyir | ınax | ĕne | |
dog | *ït, *köpek | ït | it, köpek | it | ɨt | kepäg | it | et | it´ | et | ıt | it, köbök | it | it | ıt | yıtă | |
fish | *bālïk | balïq | balık | balıq | balɨq | balïq | balyk | balıq | balɨx | balıq | balyq | balıq | baliq | beliq | balık | pulă | |
louse | *bït | bit | bit | bit | bit | bit | bit | bet | bit | bet | bıt | bit | bit | bit | bıt | pıytă/puťă | |
Other nouns | house | *eb, *bark | eb, barq | ev, bark | ev | ev | äv | öý | öy | üy, üv | öy | üı | üy | uy | öy | śurt | |
tent | *otag, *gerekü | otaɣ, kerekü | çadır, otağ | çadır; otaq | otaɣ, kerekü | čador | çadyr; otag | çatır | oda | satır | shatyr; otau | çatır, otoo, otoq | chodir; oʻtoq | chadir; otaq | otuu | çatăr | |
way | *yōl | yol | yol | yol | jol | yol | ýol | yul | jol | yul | jol | col | yoʻl | yol | suol | śul | |
bridge | *köprüg | köprüg | köprü | körpü | köprüg | köpri | küper | kiopriu | küper | köpir | köpürö | koʻprik | kövrük | kürpe | kĕper | ||
arrow | *ok | oq | ok | ox | oq | ox/tir | ok | uq | oq | uq | oq | oq | oʻq | oq | ox | uhă | |
fire | *ōt | ōt | od, ateş (Pers.) | od | ot | ot | ot | ut | ot | ut | ot | ot | oʻt | ot | uot | vut/vot | |
ash | *kül | kül | kül | kül | kül | kil/kül | kül | köl | kul | köl | kül | kül | kul | kül | kül | kĕl | |
water | *sub, *sïb | sub | su | su | suv | su | suw | su | su | hıw | su | suu | suv | su | uu | şıv/şu | |
ship, boat | *gḗmi | kemi | gemi | gəmi | kemi | gämi | köymä | gemi | kämä | keme | keme | kema | keme | kimĕ | |||
lake | *kȫl | köl | göl | göl | köl | göl/gel | köl | kül | giol´ | kül | köl | köl | koʻl | köl | küöl | külĕ | |
sun/day | *güneĺ, *gün | kün | güneş, gün | günəş, gün | kün, qujaš | gin/gün | gün | qoyaş, kön | kujaš | qoyaş, kön | kün | kün | quyosh, kun | quyash, kün | kün | hĕvel, kun | |
cloud | *bulït | bulut | bulut | bulud | bulut | bulut | bulut | bolıt | bulut | bolot | bult | bulut | bulut | bulut | bılıt | pĕlĕt | |
star | *yultuŕ | yultuz | yıldız | ulduz | julduz | ulluz | ýyldyz | yoldız | julduz | yondoð | juldyz | cıldız | yulduz | yultuz | sulus | śăltăr | |
ground, earth | *toprak | topraq | toprak | torpaq | topraq | torpaq | toprak | tufraq | topraq, toprax | tupraq | topyraq | topuraq | tuproq | tupraq | toburax | tăpra | |
hilltop | *tepö, *töpö | töpü | tepe | təpə | tepe | depe | tübä | tebe | tübä | töbe | döbö, töbö | tepa | töpe | töbö | tüpĕ | ||
tree/wood | *ïgač | ïɣač | ağaç | ağac | jɨɣač | ağaĵ | agaç | ağaç | ahač | ağas | ağash | baq, daraq, cığaç | yogʻoch | yahach | mas | yıvăś | |
god (Tengri) | *teŋri, *taŋrï | teŋri, burqan | tanrı | tanrı | teŋri | tarï/Allah/Xoda | taňry | täñre | Tieńri | täñre | täŋiri | teñir | tangri | tengri | tangara | tură/toră | |
sky | *teŋri, *kȫk | kök, teŋri | gök | göy | kök | gey/göy | gök | kük | kök | kük | kök | kök | koʻk | kök | küöx | kăvak/koak | |
Adjectives | long | *uŕïn | uzun | uzun | uzun | uzun | uzun | uzyn | ozın | uzun | oðon | uzyn | uzun | uzun | uzun | uhun | vărăm |
new | *yaŋï, *yeŋi | yaŋï | yeni | yeni | jaŋɨ | yeŋi | ýaňy | yaña | jɨŋgɨ | yañı | jaña | cañı | yangi | yengi | saña | śĕnĕ | |
fat | *semiŕ | semiz | semiz, şişman | səmiz | semiz | semiz | simez | semiz | himeð | semiz | semiz | semiz | semiz | emis | samăr | ||
full | *dōlï | tolu | dolu | dolu | tolu | dolu | doly | tulı | tolɨ | tulı | toly | toluq, tolu, toluu, tolo | toʻla | toluq | toloru | tulli | |
white | *āk, *ürüŋ | āq, ürüŋ | ak, beyaz (Ar.) | ağ | aq | aq | ak | aq | aq | aq | aq | aq | oq | aq | ürüñ (үрүҥ) | şură | |
black | *kara | qara | kara, siyah (Pers.) | qara | qara | qärä | gara | qara | qara | qara | qara | qara | qora | qara | xara | hura, hora | |
red | *kïŕïl | qïzïl | kızıl, kırmızı (Ar.) | qızıl | qɨzɨl | qïzïl | gyzyl | qızıl | qɨzɨl | qıðıl | qyzyl | qızıl | qizil | qizil | kıhıl | hĕrlĕ | |
Numbers | 1 | *bīr | bir | bir | bir | bir | bir | bir | ber | bir, bɨr | ber | bir | bir | bir | bir | biir | pĕrre |
2 | *éki | eki | iki | iki | ẹki | ikki | iki | ike | eky | ike | eki | eki | ikki | ikki | ikki | ikkĕ | |
3 | *üč | üč | üç | üç | üč | uǰ, u̇č | üç | öč | üć | ös | üş | üč | uch/u̇č | üch/üç | üs | viśśĕ, viśĕ, viś | |
4 | *dȫrt | tört | dört | dörd | tört | derd/dörd | dört | dürt | dört | dürt | tört | tört | toʻrt | tört | tüört | tăvattă | |
5 | *bēĺ(k) | béš | beş | beş | béš | bäş | beş | beš | biš | bes | beş | besh/beş | besh/beş | bies | pillĕk | ||
6 | *altï | altï | altı | altı | altï | altï | alty (altï) | altï | altï | altï | alty | altı | olti (ålti) | altä | alta | ult, ultă, ulttă | |
7 | *yéti | yeti | yedi | yeddi | jeti | yeddi | ýedi | cide | jedi | yete | jeti | ceti | yetti | yetti | sette | śiççe | |
8 | *sekiŕ | säkiz | sekiz | səkkiz | sek(k)iz, sik(k)iz | sӓkkiz | sekiz | sigez | sekiz | higeð | segiz | segiz | säkkiz | säkkiz | aɣïs | sakkăr, sakăr | |
9 | *tokuŕ | toquz | dokuz | doqquz | toquz | doġġuz | dokuz | tugïz | toɣuz | tuɣïð | toğyz | toğuz | to’qqiz | toqquz | toɣus | tăxxăr, tăxăr | |
10 | *ōn | on | on | on | on | on | on | un | on | un | on | on | oʻn | on | uon | vunnă, vună, vun | |
20 | *yẹgirmi | yigirmi/yégirmi | yirmi | iyirmi | yigirmi, yigirme | igirmi, iyirmi | yigrimi | yegerme | yigirmi | yegerme | jiyirma | cıyırma | yigirmä | yigirmä | süürbe | śirĕm | |
30 | *otuŕ | otuz | otuz | otuz | otuz | ottiz | otuz (otuð) | otuz | otuz | utïð | otyz | otuz | o’ttiz | ottuz | otut | vătăr | |
40 | *kïrk | qïrq | kırk | qırx | qïrq | ġèrḫ (ɢərx) | kyrk (kïrk) | qırq (qïrq) | kïrx | qïrq | qyryq | qırq | qirq | qirq | tüört uon | xĕrĕx | |
50 | *ellig | älig | elli | ǝlli (älli) | el(l)ig | älli, ẹlli | elli | ille | elu | elüü | |||||||
60 | *altmïĺ | altmïš | altmış | altmış (altmïš) | altmïš | altmïš | altmyş (altmïš) | altmïš | altïmïš | altïmïš | alpys | altımış | oltmish (åltmiš) | altmiš | alta uon | ultmăl | |
70 | *yẹtmiĺ | yētmiš/s | yetmiş | yetmiş | yetmiš | yetmiš | ýetmiş (yetmiš) | ǰitmeš | yetmiš/s | yetmeš | jetpis | cetimiş | yetmiš | yätmiš | sette uon | śitmĕl | |
80 | *sekiŕ ōn | säkiz on | seksen | sǝksǝn (säksän) | seksün | sӓɣsen | segsen | seksen | seksen, seksan | hikhen | seksen | seksen | sakson (säksån) | säksän | aɣïs uon | sakăr vun(ă) | |
90 | *dokuŕ ōn | toquz on | doksan | doxsan | toqsan | togsan | tuksan | toksan, toxsan | tukhan | toqsan | toqson | to'qson (tȯksån) | toqsan | toɣus uon | tăxăr vun(ă), tăxăr vunnă | ||
100 | *yǖŕ | yüz | yüz | yüz | jüz | iz/yüz | ýüz | yöz | jiz, juz, jüz | yöð | jüz | cüz | yuz | yüz | süüs | śĕr | |
1000 | *bïŋ | bïŋ | bin | min | miŋ, men | min | müň (müŋ) | meŋ | min, bin | meŋ | myñ | miñ | ming (miŋ) | miŋ | tïhïïnča | pin | |
Common meaning | Proto-Turkic | Old Turkic | Turkish | Azerbaijani | Karakhanid | Qashqai | Turkmen | Tatar | Karaim | Bashkir | Kazakh | Kyrgyz | Uzbek | Uyghur | Sakha/Yakut | Chuvash |
Azerbaijani "ǝ" and "ä": IPA /æ/
Azerbaijani "q": IPA /g/, word-final "q": IPA /x/
Turkish and Azerbaijani "ı", Karakhanid "ɨ", Turkmen "y", and Sakha "ï": IPA /ɯ/
Turkmen "ň", Karakhanid "ŋ": IPA /ŋ/
Turkish and Azerbaijani "y",Turkmen "ý" and "j" in other languages: IPA /j/
All "ş" and "š" letters: IPA /ʃ/
All "ç" and "č" letters: IPA /t͡ʃ/
Kyrgyz "c": IPA /d͡ʒ/
Kazakh "j": IPA /ʒ/
The Turkic language family is currently regarded as one of the world's primary language families. [10] Turkic is one of the main members of the controversial Altaic language family, but Altaic currently lacks support from a majority of linguists. None of the theories linking Turkic languages to other families have a wide degree of acceptance at present. Shared features with languages grouped together as Altaic have been interpreted by most mainstream linguists to be the result of a sprachbund. [54]
The possibility of a genetic relation between Turkic and Korean, independently from Altaic, is suggested by some linguists. [55] [56] [57] The linguist Kabak (2004) of the University of Würzburg states that Turkic and Korean share similar phonology as well as morphology. Li Yong-Sŏng (2014) [56] suggest that there are several cognates between Turkic and Old Korean. He states that these supposed cognates can be useful to reconstruct the early Turkic language. According to him, words related to nature, earth and ruling but especially to the sky and stars seem to be cognates.
The linguist Choi [57] suggested already in 1996 a close relationship between Turkic and Korean regardless of any Altaic connections:
In addition, the fact that the morphological elements are not easily borrowed between languages, added to the fact that the common morphological elements between Korean and Turkic are not less numerous than between Turkic and other Altaic languages, strengthens the possibility that there is a close genetic affinity between Korean and Turkic.
— Choi Han-Woo, A Comparative Study of Korean and Turkic (Hoseo University)
Many historians also point out a close non-linguistic relationship between Turkic peoples and Koreans. [58] Especially close were the relations between the Göktürks and Goguryeo. [59]
Some linguists suggested a relation to Uralic languages, especially to the Ugric languages. This view is rejected and seen as obsolete by mainstream linguists. Similarities are because of language contact and borrowings mostly from Turkic into Ugric languages. Stachowski (2015) states that any relation between Turkic and Uralic must be a contact one. [60]
The Altaic languages consist of the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families, with some linguists including the Koreanic and Japonic families. These languages share agglutinative morphology, head-final word order and some vocabulary. The once-popular theory attributing these similarities to a common ancestry has long been rejected by most comparative linguists in favor of language contact, although it continues to be supported by a small but stable scholarly minority. Like the Uralic language family, which is named after the Ural Mountains, the group is named after the Altai mountain range in the center of Asia. The core grouping of Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic is sometimes called "Micro-Altaic", with the expanded group including Koreanic and Japonic labelled as "Macro-Altaic" or "Transeurasian".
Ural-Altaic, Uralo-Altaic, Uraltaic, or Turanic is a linguistic convergence zone and abandoned language-family proposal uniting the Uralic and the Altaic languages. It is now generally agreed that even the Altaic languages do not share a common descent: the similarities between Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic are better explained by diffusion and borrowing. Just as in Altaic, the internal structure of the Uralic family has been debated since the family was first proposed. Doubts about the validity of most or all of the proposed higher-order Uralic branchings are becoming more common. The term continues to be used for the central Eurasian typological, grammatical and lexical convergence zone.
The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this language family, Mongolian, is the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia and the Mongol residents of Inner Mongolia, with an estimated 5.7+ million speakers.
Tatar is a Turkic language spoken by the Volga Tatars mainly located in modern Tatarstan, as well as Siberia and Crimea.
The Tungusic languages form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered. There are approximately 75,000 native speakers of the dozen living languages of the Tungusic language family. The term "Tungusic" is from an exonym for the Evenk people (Ewenki) used by the Yakuts ("tongus").
Bashkir or Bashkort is a Turkic language belonging to the Kipchak branch. It is co-official with Russian in Bashkortostan. It is spoken by around 750,000 native speakers in Russia, as well as in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other neighboring post-Soviet states, and among the Bashkir diaspora. It has three dialect groups: Southern, Eastern and Northwestern.
Volga Bulgaria or Volga–Kama Bulgaria was a historical Bulgar state that existed between the 9th and 13th centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama River, in what is now European Russia. Volga Bulgaria was a multi-ethnic state with large numbers of Bulgars, Finno-Ugrians, Varangians, and East Slavs. Its strategic position allowed it to create a local trade monopoly with Norse, Cumans, and Pannonian Avars.
The Chuvash people are a Turkic ethnic group, a branch of the Ogurs, inhabiting an area stretching from the Idel-Ural (Volga-Ural) region to Siberia.
Bulgar is an extinct Oghur Turkic language spoken by the Bulgars.
Chuvash is a Turkic language spoken in European Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages, one of the two principal branches of the Turkic family.
Nogai also known as Noğay, Noghay, Nogay, or Nogai Tatar, is a Turkic language spoken in Southeastern European Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. It is the ancestral language of the Nogais. As a member of the Kipchak branch, it is closely related to Kazakh, Karakalpak and Crimean Tatar. In 2014 the first Nogai novel was published, written in the Latin alphabet.
The Onoghurs, Onoğurs, or Oğurs were a group of Turkic nomadic equestrians who flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region between 5th and 7th century, and spoke an Oghuric language.
Old Siberian Turkic, generally known as East Old Turkic and often shortened to Old Turkic, was a Siberian Turkic language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia. It was first discovered in inscriptions originating from the Second Turkic Khaganate, and later the Uyghur Khaganate, making it the earliest attested Common Turkic language. In terms of the datability of extant written sources, the period of Old Turkic can be dated from slightly before 720 AD to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Old Turkic can generally be split into two dialects, the earlier Orkhon Turkic and the later Old Uyghur. There is a difference of opinion among linguists with regard to the Karakhanid language, some classify it as another dialect of East Old Turkic, while others prefer to include Karakhanid among Middle Turkic languages; nonetheless, Karakhanid is very close to Old Uyghur. East Old Turkic and West Old Turkic together comprise the Old Turkic proper, though West Old Turkic is generally unattested and is mostly reconstructed through words loaned through Hungarian. East Old Turkic is the oldest attested member of the Siberian Turkic branch of Turkic languages, and several of its now-archaic grammatical as well as lexical features are extant in the modern Yellow Uyghur, Lop Nur Uyghur and Khalaj ; Khalaj, for instance, has (surprisingly) retained a considerable number of archaic Old Turkic words despite forming a language island within Central Iran and being heavily influenced by Persian. Old Uyghur is not a direct ancestor of the modern Uyghur language, but rather the Western Yugur language; the contemporaneous ancestor of Modern Uyghur was the Chagatai literary language.
The Kipchak languages are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 30 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanning from Ukraine to China. Some of the most widely spoken languages in this group are Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tatar.
Proto-Turkic is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Turkic languages that was spoken by the Proto-Turks before their divergence into the various Turkic peoples. Proto-Turkic separated into Oghur (western) and Common Turkic (eastern) branches. Candidates for the proto-Turkic homeland range from western Central Asia to Manchuria, with most scholars agreeing that it lay in the eastern part of the Central Asian steppe, while one author has postulated that Proto-Turkic originated 2,500 years ago in East Asia.
The Oghuric, Onoguric or Oguric languages are a branch of the Turkic language family. The only extant member of the group is the Chuvash language. The first to branch off from the Turkic family, the Oghuric languages show significant divergence from other Turkic languages, which all share a later common ancestor. Languages from this family were spoken in some nomadic tribal confederations, such as those of the Onogurs or Ogurs, Bulgars and Khazars.
The Siberian Turkic or Northeastern Common Turkic languages, are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family. The following table is based upon the classification scheme presented by Lars Johanson (1998). All languages of the branch combined have approximately 670,000 native and second language speakers, with most widely spoken members being Yakut, Tuvan, Northern Altai and Khakas. Despite their usual English name, two major Turkic languages spoken in Siberia, Siberian Tatar and Southern Altai, are not classified as Siberian Turkic, but are rather part of the Kipchak subgroup. Many of these languages have a Yeniseian substratum.
Common Turkic, or Shaz Turkic, is a taxon in some classifications of the Turkic languages that includes all of them except the Oghuric languages.
Yakut, also known as Yakutian, Sakha, Saqa or Saxa, is a Turkic language belonging to Siberian Turkic branch and spoken by around 450,000 native speakers, primarily the ethnic Yakuts and one of the official languages of Sakha (Yakutia), a federal republic in the Russian Federation.
The origin and early dispersal history of the Turkic peoples is disputed, with candidates for their ancient homeland ranging from the Transcaspian steppe to Manchuria in Northeast Asia,
Thus, our study provides the first genetic evidence supporting one of the previously hypothesized IAHs to be near Mongolia and South Siberia.
Another Turkic people in the Volga area are the Chuvash, who, like the Tatars, regard themselves as descendants of the Volga Bulghars in the historical and cultural sense. It is clear that Chuvash belongs to the Oghur branch of Turkic, as the language of the Volga Bulghars did, but no direct evidence for diachronic development between the two has been established. As there were several distinct Oghur languages in the Middle Ages, Volga Bulghar could represent one of these and Chuvash another.
Modern Chuvash is the only descendant language of the Ogur branch.The ancestors of its speakers left the Khazar Empire in the 8th century and migrated to the region at the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers, where they founded the Volga Bulgarian Empire in the 10th century. In the central Volga region three Volga Bulgarian dialects developed, and Chuvash is the descendant of the 3rd dialect of Volga Bulgarian (Agyagási 2019: 160–183). Sources refer to it as a separate language beginning with 1508