Special appreciation to Yusuf B. Gürsey for reviewing this
web page
and providing many valuable remarks and corrections at sci.lang
The Turkiclanguage group
is a closely related phylogenetic cluster of languages further related
tothe Mongolic (and Tungusic) language groups in the first place, and more
distantly, to the tentatively proposed Altaic family in general. Another
correct name for the group could be Bulgaro-Turkic, because
of the early separation of Bulgaric branch from the rest of the Turkic
languages. The homeland of the Proto-Bulgaro-Turkic is still controversial,
whereas the late homeland of Proto-Turkic Proper (outside Bulgaric) was
evidently located near the northwestern forested ridges of the
Altai mountains in southern Siberia, sometime before the beginning
of the common era. This conclusion can be drawn from the following
evidence: (1) the historical distribution of the early Turkic peoples
and the results of backtracking their migration vectors; (2) the location
of the center-of-gravity point of the maximum language diversity;
(3) meticulous glottochronological studies; (4) archaelogical hypotheses.
The glottochronologically determined time depth of the Proto-Turkic
split outside Bulgaric is c. 2400 yrs ago and it seems to be greater
than that of Slavic or Romance (c. 1600 yrs). However, some of the
Turkic languages within the internal branches still retain a great
deal of mutual intelligibility due to their late diversification,
and some may even be regarded as mere dialects of each other, even if they
bear different contemporary names.
On the present classification Turkology is probably one of the oldest branches of historical linguistics, judging from the fact that the earliest sketch of Turkic dialects was drawn c. 1073, long before the first Crusade. There were many
previous attempts to build a consistent classification of the Turkic
languages, the most prominent ones being that of Rémusat (1820), Balbi (1847), Berezin (1848, 1857), Ilminskiy (1861), Vámbéry (1885), Radloff (1882), Katanov (1894), Aristov (1896), Müller (1896), Foy (1903), Korsh (1910), Winkler (1921), Samoylovich (1922), Rahmati (1922), Bogoroditskiy (1934), Ligeti (1934), Batmanov (1947), Räsänen (1949), Malov (1951), Baskakov (1952), Benzing (1959), Menges (1959), Tekin (1980), Johanson (1998), Schoening (1999), Dyachok (2001), Anna Dybo (2006), Mudrak (2002, 2009), ASJP (2009). Whereas most of these were just flimsy attempts, some of them (such as Baskakov's) were part of a lifetime work.
The present taxonomical system was rebuilt nearly from scratch with very little reference to other theoretical publications,
and is not directly based on any previous classification; consequently, it may differ
from earlier works in several aspects.
All the linguistic argumentation and
other theoretical considerations, including a lexicostatistical research
with possible datings, are provided in "The Internal Classification and Migrations of Turkic
Languages", a separate online article.
The present taxonomical description does not address any rare or
obsolete languages for which no lexical data were found, either
because of access difficulties or the complete absence thereof (e.g. "Hunnic"), therefore by no means should
this work be viewed as exhaustive. The present article is mostly focused
on getting all the major subgroups together in the proper
order, something that was particularly hard to accomplish considering
the close proximity of most Turkic sub-branches and their considerable
posterior interaction.
The nine lexemes below were carefully chosen to visually demonstrate maximum
phonological differences across the Turkic languages (unlike the
numbers which simply run from 1 to 10). Font colors tend to mark
phonologically similar lexemes, except the black color that stands
for "unclassified", or gray that marks an "internal lexical
replacement or borrowing". You should not pay much attention
to the colors, these are mostly auxiliary and were used to analyze
the material, and in some cases, were left unchanged or uncorrected.
However, they were not removed afterwards, since they still help to
pick up similar phonetic elements.
Notes on transcription ü, ö as
in Turkish or German; ï is a back vowel, more or less
as Russian <bI> or Turkish <I>; ê is mostly
schwa as in "about", but in some languages may denote
a different sound; N = nasal /ng/; x = kh; sh
as in English; zh as in "treasure"; ð (in
Bashkir) as in "this"; s' (in Chuvash) is a palatalized
/s/, as the Russian "cb" or (to some extent) the Japanese
"sh"; d' is a palatalized /d/, as in Russian or
Altay; J is a sound similar to "j" in "Jack"
or highly palatalized /d/; q/G are voiceless and voiced deep
velars, respectively; *P/B (in Tuvan, Tofa, Proto-Turkic)
is intermediate between /p/ and /b/ as in Mandarin; -D- (in
Old Turkic, intervocal) was probably similar either to the Spanish
intervocal -d- or interdental English /ð/; D- (in Yughur,
Tuvan) is intermediate between /t/ and /d/ as in Mandarin; *S
(in Proto-Turkic) is an unkown consonant, probably a palatalized
/s'/; *R (in Proto-Turkic) is probably, a mixture of /r/
and /z/, a palatalized lateral fricative similar to the one in modern
Khalkha
Mongolian, also cf. a similar trill in Czech; *H is an
intense aspiration or similar; ' above vowels (in Chuvash)
marks stress; the pronunciation of certain other phonemes may in
fact be unconfirmed, unattested or unkown.
A
note on the reconstruction of Proto-Turkic
The reconstruction of a proto-language is more of an art than an exact
science, so all the reconstructions should be taken with a grain of
salt. For this reason, there was some substantial disagreement between
Yusuf Gürsey and me on a number of issues in Proto-Turkic reconstruction,
e.g. the problem of the initial S*- vs. y*, the initial t-/d-, b-/m-
controversy, the final -q in Chuvash, etc. The general idea was mostly
that I defended the linguistic position of Chuvash, Kyrgyz, Khakas
as the main source for reconstruction, viewing them as phonetically
archaic, whereas my opponent defended the position of Old Turkic and
the Oghuz languages.
A
note on the Silk Road and the Central Asian Bridge
One can better understand the classification of Turkic languages
after familiarizing with the geography of the Silk Road and the
concept of the *Central
Asian Bridge. During the Middle Ages, people could not use flying
carpets. Any kind of travel or ethnic migration could only proceed
along narrow, geographically suitable pathways extending between
deserts and mountain ranges and forming a natural, permanent network
of migration routes. In Central Asia, this network became known
as the Silk Road. The Silk Road is often considered merely from
the economic perspective, although it also played a critical military,
cultural, demographic, and linguistic role being an absolutely unique,
vital artery which conveyed and maintained life in Eurasia for many
generations. The Huns, the Turks, the Mongols, the Gipsies, whoever
passed through Central Asia, could only travel along this natural
migratory system; consequently, the distribution and classification
of peoples in Asia is in fact nearly pre-determined by the geographical
structure of these routes and the adjacent geographic areas. That's
especially true of the Turkic, Mongolic, and Iranian peoples who
have lived by and off the Silk Road for most of their time. The
Silk Road was also a streaming jet of genes running in the opposite
directions that brought the Chinese DNA to Central Asia and vice
versa. It also carried plague and other infections, and subsequently
brought tea, paper, compass, gunpowder, and other inventions to
Europe causing it to rise from the Middle Ages into the era of art,
reason, technology, as well as fierce firearm warfare.
Possible
links between Turks and Siberian Sythians: At a deeper chronological
level, since c. 900-700 BC, rich archaeological sites in the region
of the Tian-Shan, Altai and Sayan mountains mark the presence of
the so called "Siberian Scythians" (see Pazyryk
culture) The findings include kurgans, gold, iron weapons, horse
burrials, charriots, petroglyphs, remnants of clothing, carpets,
mummies in permafrost, etc. We suppose herein, that these archaeologically
attested ethnic groups could have formed the basis for the Proto-Turkic
unity, although that is still contoversial. In addition, Chinese
records, anthropological and genetic studies indicate the presence
of "European invaders", as well as an unusually high concentration
of the Proto-Indo-European R1a1 haplogroup in this region.
According to the
present study, the Bulgaric languages apparently branched off from
the Turkic languages at a rather early period of time—c. 1100-500
BC (much earlier than normally cited), though the exact date cannot be calculated with precision due to possible lexicostatistical fluctuations. For
all practical purposes, one should remember that the difference
between Bulgaric and Turkic is considerable, and they should rather
be viewed separately from each other. As we mentioned above, they may also be regarded
as a Bulgaro-Turkic (super)group, but not just mixed up.
Herein, we consistently use the term "Turkic (Proper)"
to refer only to the languages outside Bulgaric.
Bulgar-Khazar
Bulgars were a subgroup
of Turkic nomads that first appeared in the Caucasus c. 350 and then
on the Danube River c. 475. They seem to have given rise to several
medieval kingdoms: (0) a short-lived Old Great Bulgaria (632-671)
founded by Khan Kubrat in the Pontic steppes that gave rise to
the other three affiliate states, ruled by his sons: (1)
Volga Bulgaria(670-1236) along the middle course of the
Volga River, which gave rise to present-day Chuvashia; (2) Danube
Bulgaria (670 -864), which gave rise to present-day Bulgaria;
and finally (3) the Khazar Khagante (650-969) near the Caspian
Sea, famous for its Judaism.
The Khazar and Bulgar languages are only poorly attested in historical
records. The Volga and Danube Bulgar languages are known in a few
surviving inscriptions written with Greek and Arabic characters or
Turkic runes. Khazar is only known from an inscription "oqurüm"
(I have read) and the name of the city of Sar-kel (=White House?).
Therefore, the only surviving remnant of Bulgaric languages is modern
Chuvash of Volga Bulgaria.
Modern
Chuvash (1.3 million speakers, most of them bilingual in Russian)
is still spoken in the Chuvash Republic (capital: Cheboksary)
and is believed to be a direct descendant of the language of Volga
Bulgaria (ancient capitals: Bolghar and Bilar,
a large city of 2 miles across). Volga Bulgaria was founded c. 670,
roughly between the modern cities of Kazan and Samara, near the confluence
of the Volga and Kama rivers. Commanding the middle Volga, the state controlled
trade between the northern Europe and Persia, and was similar in this
respect to the Kievan Rus that controlled the Dniepr River. It was
Islamicized in 922 when it was visited by an Arab writer and diplomat
Ibn-Fadlan.
His famous account, btw, inspired a book, whose plot was used in the
The 13th Warrior movie starring Antonio Banderas. Volga Bulgaria
was destroyed during the Tatar-Mongol invasion in 1236. Consequently,
Middle Chuvash had been strongly influenced by Tatar. Today, the "Devil's
Tower" in Yelabuga on the Kama River (fig. left below) is one
of the few standing remnants of this long gone civilization, although
the 13-14th cent. buildings in Bolghar (fig. right below) also preserve
its spirit. In 1552, the Russians seized Kazan further affecting the
Chuvash language and culture. As an example, here's a very lovely
folk song in Chuvash with an English
translation (note certain Slavic features in music and phonology).
In any case, the standalone position of Chuvash among other Turkic
languages is rather indisputable, its lexical core may be seen as
quite archaic, and it can be considered as one of the most valuable
data sources for the purposes of Turkological reconstruction.
Turkic Proper Siberian Turkic
The Siberian (or North) Turkic
languages is a major supertaxon that includes ethnic groups which
mostly stayed to the north of the Tian-Shan-Altai-Sayan mountain
barrier, that precluded their expansion in the southern direction.
This supertaxon can be divided into (1a) the Yakutic subgroup,
whichincludes only Sakha (Yakut) and Dolgan; and (1b)
the Yenisei-Kyrgyz subgroup which includes Tuvan, Tofalar,
Khakassic dialect-languages, and most likely, North and South Altai
dialect-languages. More significantly, the current hypothesis in this
study is that most other mainstream Western Turkic languages are
nothing but a subbranch of the South Altai Turkic, which would
mean that nearly all mainstream western Turkic languages (except the
Southern Turkic branch) technically belong to the Yenisei Kyrgyz
descendants.
However, it should be noted that some of these West Turkic members
have emerged exclusively due to intense interaction and intermingling with the South
Turkic branch, which left profound traces in their lexis and phonology.
Subgroup 1:
Yakutic
The Lena migrants
A group resulting from the Turkic
expansion to Northeast Siberia, along the Lena River (probably
from c. 12-13th century). When we think of Sakha, we should basically
think of the Turkic migration along the Lena river, whose source
lies in the vicinity of Lake Baikal near the East Sayan Mountains.
The glottochronological studies [e.g. Dyachok
(2001) and herein] imply an early separation of Sakha from the main
stem (c. 200 BC). There was a tribal confederation that lived northwest of
Baikal c. 6-10th centuries, known as kurykans (hypothetically,
Old Sakha). Before the Russian arrival,
Sakha had had very intense early contact with the Evenk (=Tungusic)
substratum, noticeable in today's grammar and phonology, and had
also acquired many Mongol (Buriat) lexical borrowings, as well as preserving
many important archaic Turkic features. Sakha seems to be highly
deviant in many respects, having little to do with Tuvan or Khakas.
Generally, there isn't much doubt that the Yakutic subgroup should
be viewed as an important, early-splitting branch of the Turkic
languages.
Sakha warriors (staged)
A village along the Lena
Sakha (Yakut)
(along the Lena)
Sakha (Yakut)
ataq
sulus
kïhïl
kura:naq
sebirdeq
utuy-
muos
bïar
Jie, d'ie
bi:r
ikki
üs
tüört
bies
alta
sette
aGïs
toGus
uon
Yakut
(the usual name in Russian), or "Saxa" (self-appellation)
is spoken along the Lena River in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic
(capital Yakutsk) of Russia, the largest in the world subnational
governing body by area. Though looking big on the map, the region
is in fact covered with dense taiga, and is scarcely populated, while
most life is concentrated along rivers. Historically, the northern
Yakuts were largely hunters, fishermen and reindeer herders, while
the southern Yakuts raised cattle and horses. The city of Yakutsk
(originally Lensky Ostrog) was founded in 1632, when this territory
was annexed by the Russians. Religion: originally, tengreistic shamanism.
C. 460 000 speakers; 70% bilingual in Russian.
Dolgan is the northernmost
offshoot of Sakha, spoken near the Taymyr Peninsula and other extremely
scarcely populated regions of the northern tundra. It exhibits even
more Evenk lexical influence than Sakha. C. 7000 persons (2002), of
which less than 80% are native speakers of Dolgan.
Subgroup 2:
Yenisei Kyrgyz
A Genghis
Khan movie filmed in Tuva and Khakassia (2007)
This subtaxon represents the descendants
of the Yenisei
Kyrgyz, a historically important group of Turkic tribes
attested under various names in the Chinese chronicles between 200-900
AD, and finally disappeared during the 13th century's turmoil of
the Mongol invasions.
The Yenisei Kyrgyz inhabited the Minusink Depression in Khakassia
(Minusinsk is a city near Abakan, the capital of Khakassia), which
is a geographically suitable plain with steppes, lakes, and valleys
located along the upper reaches of the Yenisei river. Protected
by the Altai and Sayan mountains, the Minusink Depression has relatively
mild climate convenient for agriculture, so even cherry orchards
have been grown there since the 19th century.
The Yenisei Kyrgyz seem to have
destroyed the Uyghur Empire in Mongolia and its capital Ordu-Balïq
in 840 AD, which caused the dissipation of the Orkhon Turkic
peoples, and led to the rise of the Yenisei Kyrgyz Kaganate (840-1207).
Ethnographically, the descendants
of the Yenisei Kyrgyz unity seem to inclue Khakas, Shor, but also
Tuvan, some of the Altai , and apparently Kyrgyz of Kyrgyzstan.
All of these peoples seem to share a number of common traditions,
such as nomadic living in yurts, cattle breeding, horse riding,
brightly colored clothing, pointy high hats, tengreistic shamanism,
hawk hunting, etc.
The Khakas, Altai, and Kyrgyz languages seem to be rather archaic,
and contain relatively few old borrowings (except for abundant loanwords
from Russian). Consequently, the Yenisei Kyrgyz descendant may be
seen as very "typically Turkic" in many respects
and may have preserved many Proto-Turkic features in language, culture,
and genetic profile.
The odd ethnological resemblance of Tuvan shamans to the North American
Indians is far from coincidental and may in fact be an indication
of a Paleo-Asiatic (Yeniseian, such as Ket)
substratum, which settled along the middle Yenisei, and which has
been shown to be linguistically related to Na-Dene (see Dene-Yeniseian
superfamily). The genetic studies (conducted since 1997) also demonstrate
high concentration of Native American mtDNA lineages in Tuvans,
Soyots, Khakas, Altayans, and Butyats (I. Zakharov, 2003)
On the meaning of Kyrgyz: (Note:
all ethnonymic remarks are unavoidably hypothetical.) "Kyrgyz"
seems to mean "destroyers, exterminators" or "terror"
in Turkic and Mongolic languages, with an apparent reduplication
of the kyr- root, cf. Tuvan "korgysh", Khakas
"xorGïs", Kyrgyz"korkush" (fear, terror); Kazakh
"qurtu" (exterminate), "qïrqu" (shearing, cutting);
Altai "kïr" (erase)," kïrkïsh" (shearing), Sakha
"kïrgïs" (fight, destroy each other), etc. A less likely
version is that it means "qIrq + iz" (forty + suffix).
"Karagas" (for Tofa(lar))
and may also be just another way to pronounce "Kyrgyz",
as well as the direct retention of this ethnonym among the Fuyu
Kyrgyzes.
Subgroup 2a:
Tuvan-Tofa
The
Yenisei-Kyrgyz migrants to the Sayan Mountains
The Tuvan-Tofa subgroup represents
those ethnic groups that settled deep in the West and East Sayan
mountains. Glottochronologically, these languages seem to have
separated from Proto-Khakas c. 800 AD. They are rather peculiar,
exhibit many archaisms and innovations and, for the most part, cannot
be understood by the Turks of Central Asia. There is also evidence
for the Tungusic influence in the basic vocabulary.
Note that the Tuvan and Tofa(lar) spelling may contain voiced symbols,
e.g. <b>, <d>, <g>, but these just denote the
so called "weak" consonants that are normally pronounced
as unvoiced in the beginning of a word or as semi-voiced in the
intervocal position.
The
Karagas were thought to be extinct in the 19th century, yet the Tofalars
in the forests of the East Sayan mountains seem to be their direct
continuation. Only 650 persons, 380 speakers (2002), although the
population is demographically stable. Tengreiistic shamanists and
nomads before the 1930s. Reindeer breeding and hunting in the taiga.
Note that "Karagas" may be just a different way to pronounce "Kyrgyz",
whereas the self-appellation "Tofa" might be akin to the name of the
Tuba River in the Minusinsk Depression (?). Karagas/Tofa(lar) seems
to retain certain archaic features, and may probably be regarded as a
peculiar remnant of the ancient Yenisei Kyrgyz population.
Tuvan
is spoken in the Tuva Republic (the capital city of Kyzyl),
located along the upper Yenisei between the West and East Sayan
Ridges, as well as just across the border in northern Mongolia.
About 200.000 speakers, of
which c. 60% are bilingual in Russian.
Religion: Tibetan Buddhism and still Tengriistic shamanism. Traditionally,
nomads; horse and cattle breeders; sedentary life in towns since the
19-20th century. Tuva was a de jure independent state between 1920
and 1944, when finally fully annexed by the USSR. Geographically,
Tuvans can just be seen as those Yenisei Kyrghyz that migrated a little
further upstream from Khakassia and settled down along the uppermost
reaches of the Yenisei.
Subgroup 2b:
Khakas-Shor-Chulym
The Khakas subgroup includes at
least the following representatives: Standard Khakas (which is mostly
a 20th century creation) and its more true-to-life rural dialect-languages,
including Sagai (the most commonly spoken Khakas dialect),
Kacha, Kyzyl (almost extinct), Koibal, Beltir (extinct),
Mras-Su Shor, Kondom Shor (meaning Shors living along the
Mras and Kondom rivers), Middle Chulym (spoken along the
middle course of the Chulym river), possibly Lower Chulym (acc.
to a local researcher, the last speaker died c. 2010), as well as
(according to Baskakov) possibly even nothern Altai dialects. The
Khakas people had traditionally practiced nomadic herding, agriculture,
hunting, and fishing, but were mostly Russified and culturally westernized
during the course of the 20th century.
All the Khakas peoples seem to be direct descendants of the Yenisei
Kyrgyz (originally known as just "Kyrgyz") who used
to occupy the same region until the Mongol invasion in the beginning
of the 13th century.
The modern ethnonym "Khakas" is an artificial creation
introduced only in 1918, and patterned on the then-supposed European
reading of Chinese chronicles, whose ethnonyms are notoriously difficult
to reconstuct (see Yakhontov, Butananayev (1992)). This word is
still out of use in Khakas communities (except for formal occasions),
with the self-appellation being "Tadar(lar)", as for most
Turkic peoples of the Sayan-Altay region. The latter name has most
likely too been a 17-19th century exonym applied by Russians to
nearly all the Turks.
The reason for the loss of the original generic must be in the long-standing
differentiation of the Yenisei Kyrgyz unity. As noted above, the
present-day Khakas term turns
out to be a generic reference to a group of living and extinct
ethnicities, with Sagai being the most prominent one.
Khakas
is spoken in the Republic of Khakassia (capital: Abakan), annexed
to Russia in 1727. Khakas is rather a collection of dialect-languages
(Sagai (=main), Kacha, Kyzyl (=almost extinct)) originally dispersed
along the upper Yenisei in the Minusinsk Valley, but presently mostly in
rural areas of western Khakassia. Self-appellation: Tadarlar. C. 60.000
speakers, mostly proficient in Russian. Shor (10.000 speakers)
and Middle Chulym (only 40-100 speakers) are small ethnic
groups closely related to Khakassians.
Traditional Khakas wedding
(c. 1915)
Fuyü Gïrgïs
azïh
qïzïl
uzi
ib
bïr
igi
ush
durt
bish
altï
chiti
sigis
doGus
on
Fuyu Kyrgyz is an often omitted
and oddly located, presently nearly extinct variant of Khakas in
northeast China, that recently existed among less than 700-400
passive speakers (now remembered mostly by elderly and to a very
small extent). It's located to the northwest of Harbin along the
Nenjiang river near a town called Fuyü, hence the odd exonym;
the self-appellation is in fact "Gyrgys, xyrgys". The
Fuyü Kyrgyz seem to have been exiled to Dzungaria in 1703-06 and
then expelled again and resettled to China in 1761 after the conquest
of Dzungaria by the Qing Empire. Fuyu Kyrgyz apparently belongs
to the Khakas subtaxon (cf. namir < Khakas nanmïr
"rain"; suG "water"). No description of grammar
is available (only in Mandarin?). Religion: originally shamanism,
then Lamaism. Recently revisited by Butanayev (2005) from Khakassia
and studied by Hu, Zheng-Hua (1982) from China.
Subgroup 2c:
Altay (Turkic)
The
Yenisei-Kyrgyz
migrants
to the Altai Mountains
The Altay (Turkic) subgroup is a complex
assortment of poorly studied dialect-languages with ambiguous classification,
some of which may exhibit proximity to Khakas, while others to the Tian-Shan
Kyrgyz. The peculiarities of the lesser Altay languages are frequently
ignored or underestimated, and little data on them may be available.
The South Altay Turkic subtaxon may include at least the following
languages: (1) Standard Altay or/and Altay-kizhi or
Altay (proper); (2) Teleut (used as standard before
1917; only 2500 persons (1989)); and (3) Telengit (deeper
in the mountains). The North Altay Turkic includes: (1)
Tuba (rather intermediate between North and South); (2) Kumandy
(~1000 speakers); (3) Chalkan or Kuu (850 persons,
all bilingual in Russian); plus an undefined number of dialects.
Generally, Altay (Turkic) seems to be rather intermediate between Khakas and Karluk-Kyrgyz languages. However, much of their lexical basis seems to be of Siberian Turkic stock, therefore, according to the present study, Altay (Turkic) is viewed as part of the western Yenisei Kyrgyz subgroup, closely related to Khakas.
Note that the Altai Republic
(capital: Gorno-Altaysk) and the Altai Krai (administrative
center: Barnaul) are geographically connected but politically different
federal subjects of the Russian Federation that should not be conflated.
Prior to 1948, the Altay languages were confusingly named "Oyrot"
after the subgroup of Mongolic languages due to their interaction
with the Mongol-speaking Dzungarians in the 18th century.
North Altay (Turkic)
Kumandy
ayak;
but
zhagan;
cholbon
kïzïl
kurgak
bür
uyta-; uyïkta
mü:s
pu:r,
bu:r
ük, uk, uu
bir
eki, iki
üch
tört, türt
pish
altï
cheti
segis
togus,
togïs
on,
un
Spoken
by merely 1000 speakers, that live along the Biya river.
The Kumandy
language was described by Baskakov (1972), exhibiting mixed, unstable
results. As other North Altay languages it seem to share many common elements
with Khakas, Chulym, Shor languages, e.g. (1) *S- > ch- in cheti
and n'- as in nimïrtka, cf. Khakas nïmïrxa
"egg"; (2) sug "water, river" as in Khakas,
(3) the archaic -dï-bïs, -dï-vïs in the
past tense, instead of the Wetsern Turkic -d-uk, -d-ïk
According to the census (2002), 310 (15%) Telengits reported not speaking Russian, which is an instance of monologlots survival. For a typical example of Teleut see this clip
A Kumandy fisherman
South Altay (Turkic)
Standard (South) Altay
but, put;
d'ïldïs
qïzïl
qurgak
d'albïraq;
bür, büri,
pür(i)
uyukta-
mü:s
bu:r,
pu:r
üy
bir
eki
üch
tört
besh,
pesh
altï
d'eti
segis
togus
on
The
official written language of the Altai Republic is based on the southern
dialect/language. There are now 65.500 nominal speakers of the Altay
languages (2002), though most of them in fact speak Russian, whereas
the local dialect-languages quickly fall out of use. South Altay subgroup
has word-initial palatalized /d'-/or /dj-/ <*S
South Turkic
Subgroup
3:
Orkhon-Karakhanid
The Orkhon-Karakhanid
languages must have formed before the beginning of the common era,
when part of the Proto-Turkic continuum, following the upper
reaches of the Irtysh river, infiltrated beoynd the Tian-Shan-Altai-Sayan
mountain barrier into the Dzungarian desert, where they must
have separated into two or three branches: (1) the tribes that spread
to the east, circumventing the Mongolian Altai into Mongolian steppes,
formed the Orkhon Old Turkic of the Eastern Göktürk
Kaganate; (2) the tribes that spread to the west into the Taklamakan
and Tarim Basin formed the Kara-Khoja (Old Uyghur) and
Karakhanid, and finally, much later, Khalaj languages;
(3) an indefinite number of tribes could have stayed in the middle
near Dzhungaria, and, potentially, formed the basis of Proto-Yugurs
in Western China, though the latter assumption is poorly supported by evidence.
Only the representatives of the Orkhon-Karakhanid taxon, specifically
the founders of the Göktürk Kaganate, seemed to
have been originally known as Turks (Old Turkic Türük), while other Turkic tribes seem to bear originally different clan names,
such as Kyrgyz, Oghuz, etc.
It is hypothesized herein that the whole supertaxon of the West
Turkic languages have formed as a result of the spread and direct
influence of the migrants from the Göktürk Empire,
somewhat similarly to the formation of the Romance languages after the fall
of Rome, which affected the substrate Yenisei Kyrgyz languages,
finally leading to the formation of new subgroups.
The Turks that moved to Mongolia
The Göktürk Kaganate descendants
Orkhon (East Göktürk-Uyghur) Old Turkic
Orkhon
Old Turkic
adaq
yultuz
qïzïl
quruG
yapurGaq
uDï-
müñüz
baGïr
eb
bir
iki,
eki
üch
tört
besh
altï
yeti
säkiz
toquz
on
Long
before the spread of the Mongols, there existed a Eurasian Empire
centered in Mongolia that was nearly as great and as powerful as that
of Genghis Khan. It is known as the Göktürk
Kaganate (552-744 AD), and it controlled the Silk Road as
far west as the Black Sea. European historians rarely mention this
state, probably because the Göktürks (Blue or Celestial Turks) have
not reached western Europe directly. Still, their influence on Central
Asia was profound. The Eastern Kaganate (capital: Ordu-Balïq
with the population of 100.000) had been centered in the sacred and
fertileOrkhon
Valley. Curiously, Genghis Khan's capital Karakorum was
afterwards located in the very same place: only 10 miles away from
the Ordu-Balïq ruins, probably because, just like the Turkic
peoples, the Mongols believed in the divine force emanating from the
Orkhon Valley and mythical Mount Ötüken. The Western Kaganate,
which existed until 659, was ruled from a Silk Road outpost city Suyab
in today's Kyrgyzstan. The Göktürk Empire was overrun first by the
Chinese (659-681), and then by the Uyghurs [not to confuse with the
present-day ones] who founded the Uyghur Kaganate (744-840). However,
these seem to be changes rather in the ruling dynasties, not language
or culture. Finally, after a period of political decline, Ordu-Balïq
and other eastern cities were razed by the Yenisei Kyrgyz in 840,
which probably affected the spread of the South Turkic languages pushing
them to the west. The Gökturks and Uyghurs used the Old Turkic (Okhon-Yenisei)
runiform alphabetic script
(attested since the 720s). It was carved on stone obelisks thus preserving
the Old Turkic language in detail.
From
a Genghis Khan film (2007)
The ruins of Ordu-Balïq
Orkhon River
(Mongolia)
The Turks that moved
to the Tarim Basin
Karakhanid-Karakhoja
Karakhanid
aðaq
yulduz
qïzïl
quruG
yapurGa:q
uðï-
müNüz
baGïr
ev, äv
bi:r
ekki
üch
tö:rt
be:sh
altï
yeti,
yetti
säkkiz,
sekkiz
toqu:z
o:n
After
the downfall of the Gökturk (Uyghur) Khanate (840 AD)
or earlier, some of its inhabitants quickly migrated westward along
the Silk Road setting up: (1) a confederation of decentralized Buddhist
states called Kara-Khoja (Kocho) (capital: Beshbalïk)
in the Tarim Basin oases, with its Turfan language (also known as
Old Uyghur and "türk uyGur tili"), and (2) the
Kara-Khanid
Khanate(845-1212) located further west in the Tian
Shan Mountains. The first capital of the Karakhanid Khanate was established
in the city of Balasagun
(3 miles across at the time) located near Lake Issyk-Kul (present-day
Kyrgyzstan) in the very same region as the Western Turkic Kaganate
with its capital Suyab; then the capital was moved to Kashgar (in
the Tarim Basin). The Kara-Khanid Khanate was converted to Islam in
934. Karakhanid and Old Uyghur languages were eventually displaced
by Chagatai after the 13th century.
We should also mention
Mahmud al-Kashgari (c. 1029-1102?), the first Arabic Turkologist
(a son of a city mayor related to the Karakhanid dynasty) born near
Kashgar, who in 1072-74 wrote the first comprehensive 700-page dictionary
of the Turkic language, the Diwan Lughat al-Turk (Arabic: "Compendium
of the dialects of the Turks"), a very, very professional and
illustrative work of its time.
[Figs: left to right: (1) A decoration with swastikas; (2) Burana
Tower, Balasagun; (3) Aisha Bibi Mausoleum, Taraz, Kazakhstan; (4)
Mausoleum in Uzgen,
western Kyrgyzstan; (5) a Karakhanid Minaret, Bukhara (1127)].
Khalaj
(not to be confused with a Northwest Iranian language of the same
name) is a poorly classified Turkic language in wesetern Iran near
Tehran (42 000 speakers, bilingual in Farsi), which is famous for
several unusual features, such as an initial h-, intervocal -d-, and
long vowels. Khalaj had been mentioned in a legend by Mahmud al-Kashgari,
and was studied by Doerfer (1978), who nearly went to the extent of
viewing Khalaj as one of the most basic and early-separated Turkic
languages. Herein, Khalaj is tentatively classified as one of the
early offshoots of the Karakhanid expansion, which is supported by
(1) the post-Karakhanid sonorization pattern; (2) the presence of
intervocalic -D- (as in "aDaq") in Orkhon-Kharakhanid; (3) the lack
of profound historical changes glottochronologically consistent with
earlier separation, etc. Khalaj has also been strongly influenced by Azeri or other Seljuk-Oghuz, as well as a local Arabic and Iranian adstratum.
Economy: agriculture, nomadic sheep breeding.
Subgroup 4:
Yugur-Salar
The Turks that migrated
to West China
The Ganzhou Kingdom descendants
The exact linguistic
origins of Proto-Yugur are difficult to determine, however, most
features either point to the Orkhon-Karakhanid subgroup (such as
the retention of ir- in the verbal copula) or set Proto-Yugur
completely apart from the rest of the Turkic Proper languages, making it
a separate major branch. Both Yugur and Salar have similar verbal
paradigms with largely absent personal conjugation
and a system of similar innovative tenses, which clearly indicates
their common descent, considering such grammatical features are rarely borrowed.
Strong lexical and phono-semantical changes, especially in Yugur
Yugur
(West) Yugur
azaq
yuldïs
Gïzïl
quruG
lahpzhïq < Mong.
uzu-
moNïs
BaGïr
yü
bïr
pïr
shigï
shïkï
ush
dört
dürt
türt
bes
ahldy
yidy, yeti,
tshïtï
saGïs
doGïs
on,
un
A
small ethnic group, which migrated into southwestern
China (Sunan Yugur Autonomous County) after c. 850 AD probably
from Uyghur oases by moving along the Silk Road to avoid Islamization.
There, on the outskirts of China, they established a prosperous Ganzhou
Kingdom (870-1036 A.D) with the capital near present-day Zhangye
and the Silk Road based economy. The exact classification of Yugur
is unclear but it seems to be a "mixed" language based
on an ancient Turkic substratum with the Mandarin-Mongolic-Tibetan
adstratum. Weak/strong consonants; aspiration (marked herein as /'/); loss
of conjugation; many loanwords; the ire copula. Only c. 4500
speakers remaining (2000). Religion: Tibetan Buddism, traces of shamanism.
The Oilyg Yugurs are nomadic cattle breeders in the steppes, the Taglyg
– in the mountains. The Yugurs like to wear their traditional
red hats. Self-appellation: Sarïg Yogïr (Yellow
Uyghur). Not to be confused: (1) with the Mongolized Shera-Yugurs,
or Eastern Yugurs (c. 2800 speakers) , who, btw, wear a different
hat style; (2) with the Yughu (the Sinicized Yugurs losing their ethnic
roots).
Note that
"b", "g", "d", and "p", "t",
"k" are pronounced as in Mandarin: /p/ slightly voiced and
/p'/ pre- or postaspirated.
Note the usual names for this language: (West) Yugur
in English, sarï-yugurski in Russian, Sarï Uygurca
in Turkish.
Yellow Uighur (?)
pêr
per
îshke
ïshqï
ush
wïsh
tört
t'ört
pes
pes
altï
a'ltï
yekhtî
yïtï
saqïs
sa:qïs
toqus
toqïs
on
"Yellow
Uighur" is not usually mentioned as a separate language, yet some
sources (Tenishev, 1966) cite contradictory data; these inconsistencies
could be due to dialectical splitting or even the existence of another
Yugur language (or at least a dialect), which would be quite natural considering the ancient
status of this subgroup.
A language of controversial classification. According to their legends,
the Salars are said to have moved into western China (Xunhua
Salar Autonomous County, near the location of the Yughurs) from Samarqand
(or Khorasan, an Iran province) in 1370, apparently during the rise
of Tamerlan, obviously traveling along the Silk Road. Traditionally
they were thought to be "Oghuz", but the absence of any
Oghuz-Seljuk innovations, striking linguistic mutations, grammatical
similarity to Yugur (including the loss of conjugation), and strong
Chinese influence (e.g. native numbers no longer in use, phonology,
sporadic use of "shï" as copula, etc ) clearly
contradict this grouping. Unsurprisingly, there is also some Chagatai-Uyghur
influence. By no means should Salar be mindlessly viewed as just "Oghuz",
as it seems to be a result of crealized transition of the local
Middle Yugur speakers to an early Chagatai with strong Chinese
and probably even some Dongxiang and Tibetan influence. Religion: Islam.
C. 100.000 ethnic Salars, but the language is now mostly spoken only
by the elder. A lovely traditional song in Salar
Subgroup 5
West Turkic Languages
The rest of the Turkic Proper languages
seem to have emerged from a single major West Turkicsupertaxon
that included: (5a) the Karluk-Kyrgyz-Kazakh subgroup with
such significant representatives as Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and Uzbek, Uyghur;
(5b) the Kimak-Kypchak subgroup, which include all the languages
and dialects closely related to Tatar (such as Bashkir, northern
Crimean Tatar, Nogai, Kumyk, and Karachay-Balkar); (5c)the
Oghuz-Seljuk subgroup, which include Turkmen (Oghuz), in the
first place, and to a lesser extent, Azeri, Turkish, Gagauz and
other Seljuk languages.
The West
Turkic supertaxon must have originally formed along the upper Irtysh
River as the result of interaction between the Proto-Altay (in
other words, western Yenisei Kyrgyz) substratum and the Göktürk
superstratum (in other words, probably and apparently, Orkhon-Yenisei Old Turkic from Mongolia) somewhere between 500-700 AD, most likely due to
the expansion of the West Gökürk Kaganate. As these subgroups
afterward further migrated in the western direction, they formed a vast majority
of the West Turkic languages described below.
Subgroup 5a:
Karluk-Kyrgyz-Kazakh
The
Karluks and Kygyzes that migrated toward the Tian-Shan
The Karluk Confederation descendants
The Kimak-Karluk descendants, that
had migrated to the Tian Shan, formed the Karluk
Confederation (766 –840), a medieval state located in Zheti-Su
(Jeti-Su) (the Seven Waters), a historical region between the Tian
Shan and Lake Balkhash near the present-day Kyrgyzstan. Originally,
the Karluks were probably a clan from the Altai Mountains (or essentially,
western Yenisei Kyrgyz) that c. 665 had migrated towards the Irtysh
River, finally reaching the Western Turkic Kaganate (c. 550-650)
by c. 700 AD.
After the famous Battle of Talas in 751, when the Chinese
forces were defeated by the Arabs, the Karluks were able to occupy
Suyab, the capital of the Western Gökturk Kaganate, in 766,
and accordingly gained control over the northern part of the Silk
Road and the Zheti-Su region. The Karluks were partly converted
to Islam c. 780. In 840, the Karluk Kaganate was subdued by a second
migration wave of the Yenisei Kyrgyz (from the Altai?), further
increasing their cultural influence in the region. By 940, the country
was captured by the Karakhanids. A Turkic tribe named "Kirkiz"
from the Tian Shan region was first mentioned at least as early
as 1072 by Makhmud al-Kashgari.
The current lexicostatistical study demonstrates that Kyrgyz
and Kazakh are extremely close (circa 95% in Swadesh-200), probably
even constituting a single dialectical continuum. The only difference
is that Kazakh, which occupies the vast steppe of Kazakhstan and
which must have separated from the Karluk stem in the Jeti-Su region after
the 14-15th centuries, seems to have been strongly affected by the
Tatar languages of the Golden Horde, whereas the Kyrgyz language
of Kyrgyzstan, isolated in the Tian Shan mountains, remained slightly
more "pure" and retained more archaisms of Altay-Siberian
type (or Altay borrowings). For certain technical purposes,
Kyrgyz and Kazakh may essentially be regarded as one single language
(though there are inevitable differences in grammar and phonology,
and native speakers would protest against this view).
Note that there is little evidence relating Nogai, a Kimak language,
directly to Kazakh (as in some classifications), and the few shared
phenomena in these languages should be attributed to a secondary
contact occuring near the Ural
(Yaik) River as a result of trade and military activity (also
see Nogai). However, Kazakh speakers find Nogai relatively intelligible, and even argue against this view.
Moreover, note that there is good phonological correspondence between
Kyrgyz and Altay, including some common isolexemes (such as, Kyrgyz
but (leg), chong (big), cf. Altay but, d'a:n);
as a result, Kyrgyz speakers seem to find Standard Altay rather
intelligible.
Generally speaking, at least in the recent historical past, the West Turkic languages seem to have formed something of a continuum with many secondary linguistic seams, so to rephrase the old quote, if you ride from the Altai to Kazan in each town on your way there was a dialect only slightly different from the previous one.
Kyrgyzstan (capital: Bishkek) is a small mountainous country in the Tian Shan near Lake Issyk-Kul, formed along the northeastern part of the Silk Road. The legendary history of the Kyrgyz people, including battles against Kitays and Kalmyks, is described in the Epic of Manas, an extremely long, orally transmitted poem first mentioned in the 16th century and written down in
1885. Kyrgyzstan was integrated into Russia in 1876, but eventually
became independent in 1991. Youngsters often no longer
speak Russian, which is good for the sociolinguistical status of the Kyrgyz language. C. 4 million speakers. Known as "Kara-Kyrgyz" in Russian sources before 1920s.
Kazakhstan (capital: Astana;
prominent city: Almaty in the Tian Shan) is just that giant
spot on the map of Central Asia. Despite its large size, most of
Kazakstan's land is semidesert continental steppe. It was occupied
by the Kazakh nomads between the 15-19th centuries. Historically,
the Kazakhs seem to be just those Kyrgyz nomads that spread beyond
their original Jeti-Su ("Seven Rivers") homeland near
the Tian-Shan in the 15th cent. and whose language was accordingly
affected by the Tatar-Kypchak-Noghai dialects of the Golden Horde.
Since the 1820s, Russians
in Kazakhstan began to use this territory for coal mining, agriculture,
nuclear tests, and launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Kazakhstan
became independent in 1990, emerging as a huge Central Asian power
with rapidly growing economy and relatively high level of urbanization.
The Kazakhs were named "Kaisak-Kyrgyz" or "Kazak-Kyrgyz" between
the 1730s and 1920s (the self-appellation was Kazakh) [Melioranskiy,
1894]. They also understand Kyrgyz to a very considerable extent.
Cf. an old Kazakh saying, "Kazakh and Kyrgyz are one kin, but
who in the world made Sart? (=a Chagatai city dweller, trader, an
Uzbek)." (/qazaq qyrGyz bir tuGan, sart shirkindi kim tuGan/)
C. 12 mln speakers. The "Jalgan ay" Kazakh song
and its version
2 (by Asemkhan) from Xinjiang with a nice eastern accent with
no trace of Russian
Karakalpak (from the
autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan; capital:
Nukus) is almost (but not quite) a dialect of Kazakh located near the southwestern
coasts of the Aral Sea, which has now shrunk and almost disappeared
causing terrible deterioration in the region. Karakalpak exhibits
even more Nogai-Kypchak influence than Kazakh. The ethnonym literally means "black hats" (= brave warriors).
The
Chagatays that crossed the Tian-Shan into the Tarim Basin
Somewhere during the turmoil of the
Mongol invasion in the 13-14th century, the late Karluks and other
speakers of Kyrgyz-Kazakh subgrouping seem to have spread over the
Tian Shan into the Karakhanid Khanate largely displacing the Karakhanid
language and intermingling with it, thus creating the medieval
Chagatai language, and then finally and consequently,
the modern Uzbek and Uyghur. As a result, the present-day
Kazakh and Kyrgyz are very close to Uzbek and Uyghur, sharing with
them about 90% of lexemes in the 200-word Swadesh list.
The patchwork of Central Asian
languages gets particularly complex at this point. Chagatai is essentially
Middle Uzbek-Uyghur, and an indirect continuation of Karakhanid.
Originally, it was the language of the Chagatai
Khanate (c. 1230-1700) established by the Mongols to replace
the Karakhanid dynasty—Chagatai Khan was the second
son of Genghis Khan. At their greatest extent, the Chaghatai Khanate
domains spread from the Irtysh River in Siberia down to Ghazni in
Afghanistan, and from Transoxana to the Tarim Basin. The period
of classical Chagatai literature starts with the publication of
Navai's
[Nah-vah-EE] (1441-1501) poetry. Then, Chagatai lived its heyday
during the Timurid
Empire. As a result, between
1400 and 1920, the Chagatai language became a common, sophisticated
Central Asian koine with its local variations (the latter are often known as
Türki)written with the Perso-Arabic alphabet. The Arabic script
created difficulties with interpretation but provided laxness for
dialectical deviations and cross-cultural usage. Unsurprisingly, Uzbek,
which is in fact the modern-day Chagatai, is still the most widely
spoken Turkic language apart from Turkish and Azeri.
As mentioned above, Chagatai was probably a Karluk (=TianShan Kyrgyz) language
strongly affected by the Karakhanid substratum. The number of
Persian loanwords in Chagataiis particularly high
due two widespread Turkic-Persian bilingualism. The rise of Chagatai is very similar
to the rise of Middle English from Danish and Anglo-Saxon interference
with multiple French-Latin borrowings. Finally, the four different medieval cultures (Karakhanid, Karluk,
Persian, and Arabic) mixed and blended, creating the "creolized"
Uzbek and Uygur languages and dialects of today with their distinct local flavor,
as well as the strong recent Russian or Chinese influence.
Also, note that Uyghur and Uzbek (and their dialects) are still
very close lexically (95% in Swadesh-200).
The Republic of Uzbekistan (capital
Tashkent)
is mostly desert territory with life historically concentrated only
in the fertile Fergana
Valleyand southern oases of arable land along the Zeravshan
River known as Sogdiana,
including such prominent, large, ancient cities as Khujand
(founded by Alexander the Great in 329 BC), Bukhara
(since 500 BC) and Samarkand
(since 700 BC). The Arabic name for the region was "Mawarannahr",
meaning "beyond the river" (=the Oxus, hence also Transoxana).
It was settled by the Karluks and Oghuzes in the north, and the
Karakhanids in the south. The invasion of the Karakhanid Khanate
by the Karluk armies, led by the Mongols in 1219, estbalished the Chagatai
Ulus and introduced the Chagatai language. Timur/
Tamerlane, who was born near Samarqand, conquered much of
Central Asia, founded the Timurid
dynasty (1370-1585), and was famous for his brutality. In 1501-10,
the region was conquered by the Kipchaks. Presently, Uzbek is a
robust, significant Central Asian language with 24.7 million
speakers and several dialects. The loss of vowel harmony. The Uzbeks used
to be known as "Sarts" (townspeople) before 1924, and
historically they can be viewed as speakers of the western dialect of modern
Chagatai. [Fig. left to right: (1) Chai-khana (tea house) visitors
(an early color photo, c. 1911!); (2) downtown Samarqand; (3) a
pilaf dish (4)
The Emir of Bukhara (1911!); (5) Uzbeks as excellent market traders
(present-day).]
Uyghur is an eastern descendant
of Chagatai, spoken in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
of China (capital: Urumchi) along the edges of the Taklamakan
Desert. The Silk Road here has always been ethnic running water,
and Chagatai was blended into an earlier 9th century's Kara-Khoja
Old Uyghur, as well as Persian and Chinese adstrata. Long vowels
(karGa > ka:Ga "crow"); the dropping of the syllable
final -r. Before 1920s, all Chagatai-speaking Muslims in the region
were known under different names, such as Kashgar (in the west);
Moghols (the ruling class), Sarts (merchants and townspeople), Taranchis
(farmers), etc, whereas the designation of "Uyghurs" was artificially
created only in 1921. C. 9 million speakers. [Figs.:
Kashgar; women at the mosque]
Both Uyghur and Uzbek are languages with pronounced dialectical differentiation.
Particulalry, Uyghur seems to embrace several closely related dialect-languages,
such as eastern Ili; Lop (Luobu, Lobnor, Lopnur); central dialect
(Turfan, Kashgar); southernKhotan (Hotan); a special
position belongs to Äynu.
Subgroup 5b:
Kimak-Kypchak
The Kimak Kaganate descendants
The Kimak-Kipchaks, which included
Kimaks Proper ( = Kimeks, Yemeks, Imeks), Tatars,
Kipchaks and other poorly attested tribes, occupied the vast
Eurasian steppe from the Altai Mountains to the Black Sea.
These peoples now speak "Tatar-like" languages, as opposed,
for instance, to Oghuz-Seljuk languages, who conquered the territory
of the Byzantine Empire and Persia mostly to the south of the Tian-Shan/Pamir/Caucasus
mountain system and who now speak "Turkish-like" languages.
The Kimak-Kypchak and Oghuz-Seljuk languages are not mutually intelligible
(c. 75-80% in Swadesh-200 and no more than 30% in real speech),
therefore learning, say, Kazan Tatar is not sufficient to understand
Turkish and vice versa. However, they still share a significant
number of common features, which demonstrate their common origins.
On the other hand, the Kimak-Kypchak languages still display a very
considerable amount of mutual intelligibility among themselves,
as well as with Kazak and Kyrgyz languages (over 90% similarity
in Swadesh-200), but mostly due to the lexical archaicness of the
latter.
Typical features shared by the Kimak languages include: (1) the
partial loss of *S- as in Kazan Tatar "yoldïz"; Nogai
"yuldïz"; Bashkir "yondoð" (star); (2) the presence
of an intervocal -w- as in "awuz" (mouth); (3) a /t/ :
/l/ correspondence, as in Kazan Tatar "yoqla-"; Nogai
"uykla-"; Bashkir "yoqla-" (to sleep), as opposed
to Kyrgyz "ukta-", etc.
It's plausible to assume that all of the Kimak-Kypchak languages
are in fact descendants of theKimak
Kaganate(743-1210),
a great pastoral nomadic tengreistic formation in the area of the
Irtysh River, which, as the legend says, incorporated seven
tribes (clans)— Kimek (Imak, Imek, Yemek), Tatar, Kypchak,Bayandur, Imi, Lanikaz, and Ajlad— hence the expression The
snake has seven heads cited by Mahmud al-Kashgari. This Kaganate
was part of the Göktürk-Uyghur Empire, hence the shared innovations
with Oghuz. The population of the Kaganate was semi-settled and
quite urbanized, with over a dozen cities scattred along the Irtysh
river, such asImak(iya) near present-day Pavlodar,
or Tamim near Lake Balkhash. These cities had markets and
temples; their inhabitants used the runic Orkhon script writing.
This Kimak civilization is now rarely mentioned by historians, albeit
it was an influential cultural and political formation in Southwest
Siberia that should not be forgotten.
Sometime during the era of the Göktürk Khagante (550-840), the nomadic
Kimak tribes began drifting westward, and soon reached the southern
Urals, the Aral Sea, and the Volga (called "Itil"
in Turkic, probably orginally from Bulgaric), where they were first
mentioned by the Arabs c. 750 and vividly described by Ibn-Fadlan
in 922 as "the land of Bashkirs". By 1068, the Kypchak
tribes began to migrate further into the fecund Pontic pastures
robbing the Kievan Rus towns. Here, they became known as "Polovtsians"
to Kievan Russians and "Cumans" to Byzantines,
Arabs and Hungarians, although the self-appellation was still "Kypchak".
During the 12-14th centuries, this westernmost Kypchak dialect was
recorded along the Black Sea coast in a medieval textbook called
Codex
Cumanicus.
Moreover, it seems that the infamous Tataro-Mongol invasion of the
Kievan Rus was technically nothing but a series of attacks of the
Tatar mercenaries or allies directed from the Golden
Horde (1240-1440) (capital:Sarai
Batu (Berqe)on the Volga), a predominantly Kypchak-Tatar
Khanate ruled by a nominally Mongol elite (Islamicized only in the
14th century). In the 15th century, this Golden Horde Empire broke
up into several important khanates, including the Khanate of
Kazan (hence Kazan Tatars), Khanate of Crimea (hence
Crimean Tatars), Khanate of Astrakhan (hence Astrakhan Tatars),
Qasim Khanate (hence Mishar Tatars), and Uzbek Khanate (hence the
modern name of Uzbeks). This diversification process of the Golden
Horde led to the formation of modern Kypchak-Tatar language-dialects.
Polovtsian statues
near Izyum, Ukraine
The name Tatar (whence Chinese "da-da")
was first attested in 732 in a Kül-Tegin monument; it's also mentioned
in al-Kashgari's work (1072), but finally became a frequent misnomer,
especially because of the further association with the Greek Tartarus
by European historians. The Russian exonym "Tatary" (Latin
"Tartari") was ambiguously applied to all the Turkic speaking
population of the Tsarist 19th century Russia, even in Azerbaijan,
and is now largely avoided by Turkologists, except for Kazan
Tatars, and to a lesser extent, Sibir Tatars. What was once
known as Tatars
may in fact be various Kypchak-Kimak ethnicities scattered all over
Eastern Europe and Western Siberia, of which Kazan Tatars are the
largest and the most influential one. (Actually, Kazan Tatars used
the self-appellation "Bolgars" and "Kazans"
until the late 19th century.) During the Soviet period many of these
Kypchak-Kimak ethnic communities were taught Kazan Tatar as a common
standard, and their languages may now be contaminated by it.
During the reign of the Ivan the Terrible, the Russians defeated
the Tatars and moved eastward beyond the Urals, where they attacked
another Kypchak-Kimak state, the tengriistic Khanate
of Sibir (1495-1582) (capital Qashlyk, near present-day
Tobolsk) located on the Ob and Irtysh Rivers. This task was accomplished
by Yermak,
a Cossak leader, sometimes depicted in the Russian history
as something of a Siberian Columbus. Curiously, Irmak means
"river" or yermek "to scorn" in
Turkish, which implies that Yermak too might have been of Tukic
origin.
The Kimaks-Kipchaks-Tatars left large geographical traces on the
map (e.g. the whole giant Ponto-Kazakhstan steppe was once known
as Cumania, or Desht-i-Qipchaq, or Kypchak steppe, or Polovtsian
Land, etc); they are also remembered through their stone statues
that were very typical of their culture.
The
battlefield of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsians (Cumans)
in 1185, painting by Viktor Vasnetsov
––
The
siege of Moscow by Mongol Khan Tokhtamysh in 1382
––
The
conquest of the Sibir Khanate by Yermak in 1582,
painting by Vasily Surikov
The Kimak-Kipchaks that stayed near the Irtysh River
Siberian Kimak
Baraba
bir
pir
iki
äki
üts
öch
tört
päsh
pêsh
bêsh
altï
yädi,
yêdi
säGiz,
segiz
toGïs
toGiz
on
un
Baraba
Tatars is one of the several groups of Siberian Tatars
in southwestern Siberia. They inhabit Novosibirsk Oblast between the
Irtysh and Ob rivers, mainly along the Om River (hence, the name of
the city of Omsk, founded in 1716) and in the adjacent Baraba Steppe
(probably from *Parama < *Parma "Don't go"). The Baraba were attested
by 1595. They are often seen as descending from the Khanate
of Sibir (1495-1582), but may just as well be direct descendants
of the Kimak
Kha(ga)nate (743-1210). The Baraba has been a settled, non-nomadic
ethnic group that lived in wooden homes. Religion: originally shamanism;
then Islamicized. Less than 8000 persons, but few actual native speakers.
Note the phonological influence of the Khakas subgroup, especially
Chulym (as in üts : üts "three"). The language may
have been contaminated by Kazan Tatar during the Soviet period.
In addition to Baraba, there exist other small Siberian Kimak-Tatar
ethnicities, such as Tomsk Tatars and Tobol-IrtyshTatars.
The
Kimak-Kipchaks that spread to the Great Steppe
The Kazan Tatar language emerged inside the Kazan Khanate (1438-1552),
a state that formed when the Mongol army (probably along with Tatar
soldiers) attacked
and destroyed Volga Bulgaria in 1232-36, possibly causing intense
Chuvash-Bulgar emigration. The Kazan Khanate was later conquered
by the troops of Ivan the Terrible in 1552 and became part of Russia
(in fact, the famous Saint
Basil's Cathedral on Red Square was built to commemorate the capture
of Kazan); it is now the Republic of Tatarstan (capital: Kazan).
Note the presence of the archaic *S-, which is preserved before- i-
(hence "Jir" earth, "Jil" wind), but changed to y- before other vowels
("yafraq" leaf, " yul" road, "yïlan" snake, "yörek" heart);
J- in the latter position may also appear in some Tatar dialects. The
Tatar participation in the Mongol invasion is still remembered in
the Russian language culture (cf. sayings: "An uninvited guest is
worse than a Tatar"; "Mamai/the Tatars went over it" as about raising
havoc; "the Tataro-Mongol Yoke", etc), consequently the Tatar language
and its dialects seems to, unfortunately enough, have a rather low social status. Religion:
Sunni Islam. Over 5 million speakers, >70-90% bilingual in Russian.
Historical autonyms: "Bolgar", "Kazanlï",
"Misher", "Nugai", etc.
The
Kazan Kremlin today as if 500 years ago; The Qolsharif Mosque (inaugurated
in 2005) (above) is the largest mosque in Russia
Bashkir
is spoken in the Republic of Bashkortostan (capital: Ufa)
in the southern Ural Mountains. Essentially, it'sa sort of Urals variety of Kazan Tatar with 96% of matches in Swadesh-200.
Note some of the shared phonological innovations: Tat. tugïz,
Bash. tughïð; dürt < *dört; un < *on. The deviant Bashkir
phonology (ch > s, s > h, z > ð) is sometimes explained by
the absorption of a Ugric substratum. Nomadic animal husbandry until
the 18th cent.. Religion: Islam since the 950s, now mostly atheic.
1.3 million speakers, 80% bilingual in Russian.
Bashkir horsemen (staged)
This photo: c.1910
Curiously, Bashkirs might at least partly descend from the Proto-Hungarians
(Magyars) of the Hungaria
Magna and other closely-related Ugric tribes. Proto-Hungarians
were mentioned as still speaking Hungarian c. 1235, but were apparently
linguistically assimilated by the Tatars during the expansion of the
Golden Horde, which seems to date the emergence of the Bashkir dialect
to after the 14th century. However, the ethnonym "Bashkïrt"
by itself had existed much earlier and was first mentioned c. 840
in the Arab sources, so there is some historical discrepancy. Between
1220-1234 the Bashkirs were fighting the Mongols, preventing their
expansion to the west, but voluntary joined the Moscovy in 1557.
Listen to Kiler
keshe, kemder bar "Someone's coming, someone's there
(at the gate)" with views of typical Uralic landscape.
The
Crimean Khanate(1441-1783) with the capital of Bakhchisaray
("Garden Palace") (rightmost figure) was a Kypchak post-Golden-Horde
state situated in the Crimean Peninsula and the Pontic steppes. The
khanate maintained massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire making
raids into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. Only the
northern Crimean dialects can be viewed as Crimean Tatar proper,
and should not to be confused with Crimean Turkish in the south.
Presently, Crimean Tatar in the north (the Kipchaks) has been mixed
up with Crimean Turkish (the Oghuzes/Seljuks) in the south in a attempt
to build "a mutually intelligible" literary language. However, the
actual dialectical situation is more complicated. Although the pure
dialects may still survive in vivo, not enough field work on them
has been done. Crimean Tatars are also famous for being resettled
and persecuted by Stalin as "Nazi collaborators".
C. 260.000 persons in Crimea, 170.000 elsewhere.
Crimean
Karaites are a rather odd and presently very small branch of Crimean
Kipchaks that includes adherents of Karaite Judaism; essentially,
they seem to be descendants of a Kipchakicized Jewish sect. Originally,
they were centered only in the Crimean Peninsula, but then were partly
relocated as captives to Lithuania in 1392. Presently, only c. 600
persons in Crimea (2002), 257 in Lithuania (1997), c. 1000 in other
countries.
The Nogays (Nogais) (90.000) and Kumyks (500.000 speakers) are two ethnic groups
occupying the steppe along the northwestern coast of the Caspian Sea
in northern Dagestan. The name Nogai is derived from Nogai Khan, a
Mongol-Kypchak general. The Nogays are the remnants of the Nogai
Horde (c. 1392-1639), a loose nomadic confederation that was
centered in Saray-Juk near the Ural
(Yaik) River delta and along the southern Volga, and are probably
also partly related to the Astrakhan
Khanate (1466-1556) defeated by Ivan the Terrible. They were
attacked by the Dzungarians (= Kalmyks) from Mongolia and then forcibly resettled by Russians in the 18-19th cent. There is some notable Kazakh
influence in Nogai (cf. Ng. yapïrak : Kz. zhapïraq;
sh > s, ch > sh). The precise origins of Kumyks are less
clear. Also, watch the Nogai Dombyra song with subtitles and a bloody battle from the Mongol movie (2007)
Karaites
Nogai (light blue), Kumyk
(dark blue)
Karachay-Balkar (North
Caucasus)
Karachay
ayaq
Julduz
qïzïl
qurGaq
chapraq
Juqla-
müyüz
bawur
üy
bir
eki
üch
tört
besh
altï
Jeti
segiz
toGuz
on
Karachay-Balkar
is spoken in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic (capital: Cherkessk)
and the Kabardino-Balkar Republic (capital: Nalchik) that were
created rather artificially in 1922. The other two ethnic groups of
these republics (the Cherkeses and Kabardins) are of unrelated North
Caucasian origin (but related to each other). The Karachay-Balkars
have been present in the Caucasus at least since the Mongol invasion
c. 1220s, having probably settled there a few centuries earlier, when
the Kipchaks (Cuman-Polovtsians) were moving into the Pontic steppes.
Non-nomadic population; Islamicized only by 18-19th c. In 1943, they
have been forcibly resettled to Kazakhstan by Stalin, which led to
mass starvation, but returned after 1957. Karachay-Balkar has a few
Kabardino-Cherkes borrowings in the basic vocabularly and Caucasian
phonology. There are two dialects, which among other features, differ
in the pronunciation of *S as follows: /J-/, /ch-/ [Karachaylï
+ Balkar Taulu dialetcs (< from /tau/ "mountain") ] and
/dz-, z-/, /ts-/ [the Malqarlï dialect of Balkars]. C. 300.000
speakers (~80% bilingual in Russian).
A modern tower in Kabardino-Balkaria
Modern photo
This photo c. 1910
Subgroup 5c:
Oghuz-Seljuk
The
Western Turks that migrated to the Aral-Caspian region
The
Oghuz-Seljuk subgroup, which includes languages closely related
to Turkish, has traditionally been known as just Oghuz. It
may be distinguished at least by: (1) a specific voicing pattern (tört
> dört; yetti > yedi); (2) the m > b trend (müNüz
> *büNüz > buynuz; Azeri "men"
> Turkish "ben"); (3) the loss of -G (*quruG
> Guru) and -G- (-Gan > -an, -Ga > -a as in suffixes);
(4) the tendency to form the -yor-/yar- present tense as in
Turkish bil-iyor-um (I know); (5) the use of the verb i-
with the -mïsh past
participle as a predicate particle to form the audative mood, etc.
Some of these features were mentioned even as early as 1072 by Mahmud
al-Kashgari as part of his short description of the Oghuz language,
which indicates that by the beginning of the second millenium Karakhanid
and Oghuz were consistently different dialect-languages with a noteable
temporal separation.
Oghuz (Turkmenistan)
Oghuz
ayaq
äv
*bir
*iki
*üch
*dört
*besh
*altï
*Jedi
*sekiz
*dokuz
*on
The ethnonym Oghuz goes back
to a personal name of a legendary progenitor, described in multiple
versions of the oral Oghuz-nama(The Oghuz-Khan Narratives),
first witten down probably by the end of the 13th century by Rashid
al-Din. [The name itself may presumably have meant öqüz "bull,
ox" implying strength]. The earliest known Oghuzes were the
tribal confederations of the 6th century located near the Orkhon
Göktürks (=Türüks) (and subjugated by them), and regarded
at the time as different from Türük, Tatar and Kïrgïz people. The
ethnonym was first attested as Altï Oghuz (The Six Oghuz)
in a Yenisei inscription, and then mentioned again as the Toquz
Oghuz (The Nine Oghuz), Sekkiz Oghuz (The Eight Oghuz)
in the Orkhon writings of Mongolia, and as the Üch Oghuz
(The Three Oghuz) near Kyrgyzstan. By 775, the Oghuzes are found
near Talas in Sogdiana, so we may assume they have arrived there
as part of mass migrations to the Western Gökturk Kaganate. Apparently,
they eventually travelled along the Syrdarya (Yaxartes) River towards
its delta in the Aral Sea where they formed the Transoxanian
Oghuz confederation with its capital Yangi Kent and a
ruler titled yabgu (=prince), eventually expanding as far as the
Caspian Sea. Here in the Transoxanian steppes, they were witnessed
by many Arab visitors, including a vivid description by Ibn-Fadlan
in 922. Mahmud
al-Kashgari (1072) mentioned several Oghuz cities, some of which
have been re-discovered by archaeologists; he also claimed that
"Turkmen" and "Oghuz" meant essentially the
same, which implies that modern-day Turkmens are direct descendants
of the Oghuzes. The Oghuz dialect-language of the 11th century
is documented in Al-Kashgari's writings mostly as unconnected words
and phrases. In the course of the 12th century, the Transoxanian
Oghuzes migrated or dissipated due to the Kypchak expansion to the
west, possibly producing the Pecheneg
raids into the Kievan Rus, but the origins of the latter ethnic
group are controversial.
Juvara,
remnants of an Oghuz city discovered near the Aral Sea in 2008
Turkmenistan (capital Ashgabad, built from a village
only in 1918) is in fact a thin strip of arable land between the Karakum
("Black Sand") Desert and the Kopet-Dag mountain range inhabited by
the Turkmen nomads (Türkmeler)–originally this name applied
to all Islamicized Turks–at least since the period of the Seljuk
Empire (1037-1077). When Russia
took control of Turkmenistan in the 1880s, the Transcaspian Railway
was built along the path of the Silk Road. In 1948, Ashgabad was destroyed
by an earthquake. In the 1950s, the Qaraqum Channel, the largest in
the world irrigation system, was established diverting the waters
of the Amu Darya towards Ashgabat thus contributing to the collapse
of the Aral Sea. C. 7 mln Turkmens, of which 2 mln live in
Afghanistan and Iran.
A Turkmen bride
Ashgabad Trade Center
Turkmens: man and wife,
c. 1905
Seljuk Monument
A Turkmen girl
The Arch of Independence, Ashgabad
Oil & Gas Ministry
Choban
A Turkmen village in
Afghanistan
Seljuk Sultan Sanjar
Mausoleum, 1157 AD, Merv
Turkmen carpets
The
Turks that migrated to Iran and Anatolia
The Seljuk Empire descendants
Seljuk
The
Great
Seljuk Empire(1037-1077) was founded by the Seljuk Dynasty,
which goes back to its legendary hero Seljuk (c. 931-1038),
whose clan split off from the Oghuz confederation c. 985 and traveled
from the Aral Sea region southward along the Syr-Darya River, where
it converted to Islam. Under
Seljuk's grandson Togrul Beg, the Seljuks migrated into eastern
Persia and by 1055 expanded their control all the way to Baghdad.
In 1071, they won the important
Battle of Manzikert, which neutralized Byzantine and led to
the foundation of the Turkic Sultanate
of Rum (1077-1307) in Anatolia.
Artist's
impression of the Battle of Manzikert (1071)
Seljuk
(Oghuz) archer
The
Entry of Mahomet II into Constantinople (1453), painting by Benjamin
Constant (1876)
The
advance of the Turks caused the Byzantine emperors to desperately
seek protection in Europe thus initiating the Crusades. It should
be stressed that the first Crusaders did not fight against Muslims,
they were rather fighting against the Turkic threat from the East.
The Seljuk language of this and later period, known as Old Anatolian
Turkish, is written in Arabic script. The Turkish (Ottoman)
Empire begins to rise by 1300, and to flourish with the capture
of Constantinople in 1453, the year marking the collapse of
the Byzantine Empire. The Turkish language from the 16th to 20th century
is called Ottoman Turkish.
Turkish, Azeri and other Seljuk
languages are not mutually intelligable with the Turkic languages
of the Great Steppe and the former Soviet Union and China, there are
too many differences, especially as one moves beyond Turkmenistan
into Kazakhstan and further east.
The Qashakai
have traditionally been nomadic pastoralists who lived around Shiraz
in southern Iran and who probably arrived there with the Seljuk invasion.
Presently, mostly settled households. Over 1-1.5 million persons.
Renowned for their magnificent pile carpets and other woven wool products.
As with the Turkmens, many ancient customs may still be observed.
[Fig (1) a Qashkai wedding (2) Qashkai nomads].
The
Azerbaijanis (Azeris) are those linguistic descendants of the Oghuz-Seljuk
tribes that conquered Persia by 1055 but did not migrate to Anatolia.
They gradually Turkified the northwestern Persian and southern Caucasian
population near the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea. After a series
of Russo-Persian wars (1812, 1826-28) Iran lost some of its northern
territories to Russia, which finally became independent in 1991 as
the Republic of Azerbaijan (capital Baku). The north
Iranian provinces also bear similar names (East Azerbaijan, West
Azerbaijan), akin to the name of Atropates, a satrap who ruled
this region of ancient Persia. Azerbaijani differs to some extent
from Turkish (88% in Swadesh-200), though both languages are still
largely mutually intelligible. Religion: Shi'a Islam. Speakers:
7.5 million Azeris in Azerbaijan + c. 15-20 million in
Iran, though most of them now speak Russian or Persian as their 2nd
language.
Ottoman
Empire (c.1299-1922) was named after Osman I (1258-1326) who
extended the frontiers of Seljuk settlement towards the edge of the
Byzantine Empire, although Constantinople, its capital, would finally
be captured by the Turks only in 1453. Slave trade and low
literacy rate were part of the Turkish (Ottoman) society for centuries.
The Ottoman Empire entered WWI through the Ottoman-German Alliance
in 1914, and was ultimately defeated. The occupation of Istanbul and
Izmir by the Allies promoted the establishment of the Turkish national
movement under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who is seen as a crucial
historical figure and the founder of the Republic of Turkey
(capital Ankara). An admirer of the Enlightenment, he sought
to transform the anachronistic Ottoman Empire into a modern, democratic,
secular nation-state. A Latin alphabet instead of the Arabic Ottoman
script was introduced to increase literacy, and the Turkish language
reform was initiated to exclude Arabic, French, and Persian borrowings.
The language
reform succeeded in excluding several thousand words, replacing
them with sometimes contrived neologisms, as well as contributing
to the absorption of a considerable amount of new western lexical borrowings.
Speakers: c. 70 million. [Figs.: views of Istanbul, except
left below: Izmir]
South
Crimean
Tatar
ayag,
ayaq,
ayax
yïldïz
qïzïl,
xïzïl
quru,
xuru
yapraq,
yaprax
yuqla-,
yuxla-
boynuz
qara,
xara
Jiger
ev
bir
eki
u:ch
dört
besh
altï
yedi
sekiz
doquz
on
The
Turkish migration to the Crimean Khanate during the 15-18th c., when
it was nominally subject to the Ottoman rule (1478-1774), led to the
formation of the southern dialect of Crimean Tartar that could
also be called "Crimean Turkish". Presently, almost dissolved
and intermingled with the northen Crimean Tartar of Kypchak origin.
Gagauz
is the westernmost Turkic language spoken mostly in Gagauzia,
a small Autonomous Territorial Unit (since 1994) in Moldova,
between Romania and Ukraine. Gagauzia includes only 2 towns and 27
villages. The Gagauz moved to this region from Bulgaria after the
Russo-Turkish war (1806-1812); their origins in Bulgaria are poorly
understood. Presumably, they may have been the followers of the Anatolian
Seljuk Sultan Kaykaus II (1236-1276). They settled in Dobruja and
gradually converted to Orthodox Christianity. C. 250.000 persons.