Turkic languages

Information about Turkic languages

Turkic
Geographic distribution:	Originally from Western China to Siberia and Eastern Europe
Genetic classification:	}}
Subdivisions:	Southwestern (Oghuz Turkic) Northwestern (Kypchak Turkic) Southeastern (Uyghur Turkic) Northeastern (Siberian Turkic) Oghur Turkic Arghu Turkic
Countries and autonomous subdivisions where a Turkic language has official status

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are traditionally considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.^[]^[1]

Turkic languages are spoken by some 180 million people as a native language; and the total number of Turkic speakers is about 200 million, including speakers as a second language. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper, or Anatolian Turkish, the speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers.^[1]

Characteristics

See also: Altaic languages

The characteristic features of the Turkic languages are vowel harmony, extensive agglutination by means of suffixes, and lack of noun classes or grammatical gender. Subject Object Verb word order is universal within the family. All of these distinguishing characteristics are shared with the Mongolic and Tungusic language families, as well as with the Korean language, which are by some linguists considered to be genetically linked with the Turkic languages in the proposed Altaic language family, a language family rejected by some linguists though plainly accepted in the Voegelin & Voegelin classification (1977:18-19).^[2]

History

Distribution of the Altaic languages across Eurasia. The inclusion of Japanese and Korean might be controversial though accepted by most linguists since Voegelin & Voegelin (1977).

See also: Proto-Turkic language

Early written records

The first established records of the Turkic languages are the 8th century 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 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.^[3]

The Codex Cumanicus (12th - 13th centuries) concerning the Northwestern branch is another early linguistic manual, between 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, the parent to today's Chuvash language, are dated to 13th - 14th centuries.

Geographical expansion and development

With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages (c. 6th - 11th centuries), Turkic languages, in the course of just a few centuries, spread across Central Asia, stretching from Siberia (the Sakha Republic) to the Mediterranean (Seljuk Turks). Various elements from the Turkic languages have passed into Hungarian, Persian, Urdu, Russian, Chinese and to a lesser extent, Arabic.^[4]

Classification

Number of native speakers in the Turkic language family

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.^[5] 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) [1] and are mainly based on the development of *d. However, there are still many elements of questioning for which ongoing research has not yet found an adequate solution.

The Turkic languages may uncontroversially be divided into six branches (Johanson 1998) [2]:

Southwestern (Oghuz Turkic)
Northwestern (Kypchak Turkic)
Southeastern (Uyghur Turkic)^[6]
Northeastern (Siberian Turkic)
Oghur Turkic
Arghu Turkic

With less certainty, the Southwestern, Northwestern, Southeastern and Oghur groups may further be summarized as West Turkic, the Northeastern, Kyrgyz-Kypchak and Arghu (Khalaj) groups as East Turkic.^[7]

Geographically and linguistically, the languages of Northwestern, and Southeastern subgroup belong to the central Turkic languages, while the Northeastern and Khalaj languages are the so-called peripheral languages.

Members

The following table is based upon the classification scheme presented by Lars Johanson (1998)^[8]

Proto-Turkic	Southwestern Common Turkic (Oghuz)			Pecheneg (extinct)
		West Oghuz		Ottoman Turkish (extinct), Turkish Gagauz Azerbaijani
		East Oghuz		Turkmen Khorasani Turkic
		South Oghuz		Afshar Dialects of Iran such as Qashqai, Sonqori, Aynallu, etc.
	Northwestern Common Turkic (Kipchak)			Kipchak (extinct)
		West Kipchak		Kumyk Karachay-Balkar Crimean Tatar, Urum^[9] Krymchak Cuman (extinct) Karaim
		North Kipchak (Volga-Ural)		Kazan Tatar Mishar Bashkir West Siberian Tatar^[10]
		South Kipchak (Aralo-Caspian)		Kazakh Karakalpak Kyrgyz^[11] Kipchak Uzbek Nogay
	Southeastern Common Turkic (Uyghur, Chagatai, Karluk)	West		Uzbek Uyghur Taranchi
		East		Eastern Turki dialects of Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, Kerya, Cherchen, Aksu, Kucha, Turfan, etc. Western Yugur (Yellow Uyghur)^[12] Salar^[13] Old Turkic (extinct) Chagatay (extinct) Aini^[14] Lop Ili Turki
	Northeastern Common Turkic (Siberian)	North Siberian		Sakha (Yakut) Dolgan
		South Siberian	Sayan Turkic	Tuvan (Soyot, Uriankhai) Tofa
			Yenisei Turkic	Khakas Fuyü Gïrgïs Shor (Saghay Qaca, Qizil)
			Chulym Turkic	Chulym (Küerik)
			Altai Turkic^[15]	Altay Oirot and dialects such as Tuba, Qumanda, Qu, Teleut, Telengit
	Oghur			Chuvash Khazar (extinct) Turkic Avar (extinct) Bolgar (extinct) Hunnic (extinct)
	Arghu			Khalaj^[16]

Vocabulary comparison

The following is a brief comparison cognates among the basic vocabulary across the Turkic language family (about 60 words). Note that empty cells do not imply that a particular language is lacking a word to describe the concept, but rather the word is formed from another stem and is not a cognate with the rest of the words in the row. Forms are given in native Latin orthographies unless otherwise noted.

		Old Turkic	Turkish	Azeri	Turkmen	Tatar	Kazakh	Kyrgyz	Uzbek	Uyghur	Sakha/Yakut	Chuvash
Persons	Father/Ancestor	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ota	Ata;
	Mother	Ana	Anne	Ana	Ene	Ana	Ana	Ene	Ona	Ana		An'n
	Son	O'gul	Oğul	Oğul	Oğul	(O'g)ul	Ul	Uul	O'gil	Oghul	Uol	Yvul
	Man	Er(kek)	Erkek/Adam	Kişi	Erkek	Ir	Er/Erkek	Erkek	Erkak	Er	Er	Ar
	Girl	Kyz	Kız	Qız	Gyz	Kız	Qız	Kız	Qiz	Qiz	Ky:s	Xe'r
	Person	Kiši	Kişi	Adam	Kişi	Keše	Kisi	Kishi	Kishi	Kishi	Kihi
	Bride	Kelin	Gelin	Gəlin	Geli:n	Kilen	Kelin	Kelin	Kelin	Kelin	Kylyn	Kilen
	Mother-in-law		Kaynana	Qaynana	Gayın ene	Kayınana	Qayın ene	Kaynene	Qayın ona	Qeyinana
Body parts	Heart	Jürek	Yürek	Ürək	İürek	Yorak	Jürek	Jürök	Yurak	Yürek	Süreq
	Blood	Qan	Kan	Qan	Ga:n	Kan	Qan	Kan	Qon	Qan	Qa:n	Jon
	Head	Ba?	Bas	Bas	Bas	Ba?	Bas	Bash	Bosh	Bas	Bas	Pu?
	Hair	Qıl	Tüy/Kıl	Tük/Qıl	Qyl	Kıl	Qıl	Kıl	Tuk	Qil	Kıl	Xe'le'r
	Eye	Köz	Göz	Göz	Göz	Küz	Köz	Köz	Ko'z	Köz	Kos	Kör
	Eyelash	Kirpik	Kirpik	Kiprik	Kirpik	Kerfek	Kirpik	Kirpik	Kiprik	Kirpik	Kirbi:	Xurbuk
	Ear	Qulqaq	Kulak	Qulaq	Gulak	Kolak	Qulaq	Kulak	Quloq	Qulaq	Gulka:k	Xo'lga
	Nose	Burun	Burun	Burun	Burun	Boryn	Murın	Murun	Burun	Burun	Murun
	Arm	Qol	Kol	Qol	Gol	Kul	Qol	Kol	Qo'l		Qol	Xol
	Hand	El(ig)	El	Əl	El		Alaqan	Alakan		Qol	Ili:	Ala'
	Finger	Barmak	Parmak	Barmaq	Barmak	Barmak	Barmaq	Barmak	Barmoq	Barmaq
	Fingernail	Tyrnaq	Tırnak	Dırnaq	Dyrnaq	Tyrnak	Tırnaq	Tırnak	Tirnoq	Tirnaq	Tynyraq
	Knee	Tiz	Diz	Diz	Dy:z	Tez	Tize	Tize	Tizza	Tiz	Tüsä?
	Calf	Baltyr	Baldır	Baldır	Baldyr	Baltyr	Baldır	Baldır	Boldyr	Baldir	Ballyr
	Foot	Adaq	Ayak	Ayaq	Aıaq	Ajak	Ayaq	Ayak	Oyoq	Ayaq	Ataq
	Belly	Qaryn	Karın	Qarın	Garyn	Qaryn	Qarın	Karın	Qorin	Qerin	Qaryn	Xyra'm
Animals	Horse	At	At	At	At	At	At	At	Ot	At	At	Ut
	Cattle	Siyir	Sığır/Mal	Mal-qara	Sygyr	Sıyer	Sïır	Sıyır (Southern)	Sigir	Siyir
	Dog	Yt	İt	İt	It	Et	Ït	It	It	It	Yt	Jyda
	Fish	Balyq	Balık	Balıq	Balyk	Balyq	Balıq	Balık	Baliq	Beliq	Balyk	Pola'
	Louse	Bit	Bit	Bit	Bit	Bet	Bït	Bit	Bit	Pit	Byt	Pyjda
Other nouns	House	Ev	Ev	Ev	Öı	Öy	Üy	Üy	Uy	Öy		Av
	Tent	Otag	Otağ/Çadır	Çadır	Otaq/Chadyr		Otaw	Çatır	Otoq/Chodir	Otaq	Otu:
	Way	Yol	Yol	Yol	Yo:l	Yul	Jol	Jol	Yo'l	Yol	Suol	Sol
	Bridge	Köprüq	Köprü	Körpü	Köpri	Küpar	Köpir	Köpürö	Ko'prik	Kövrük	Kürpe
	Arrow	Oq	Ok	Ox	Ok	Uk	Oq	Ok	O'q	Oq	O?	Ugu
	Fire	Ot	Od	Od	Ot	Ut	Ot	Ot	O't	Ot	Uot	Vot
	Ash	Kül	Kül	Kül	Kül	Köl	Kül	Kül	Kul	Kül	Kül	Kö'l
	Water	Suv	Su	Su	Suw	Syw	Sw	Suu	Suv	Su	Ui	Syv
	Ship	Kemi	Gemi	Gəmi	Gämi	Kimä	Keme	Keme	Kema	keme		Kim
	Lake	Köl	Göl	Göl	Köl	Kül	Köl	Köl	Ko'l	Köl	Küöl
	Sun/Day	Küne?	Güneş/Gün	Günəş/Gün	Gün	Koja?	Kün	Kün	Quyosh/Kun	Kün	Kün	Xövel
	Cloud	Bulut	Bulut	Bulud	Bulut	Bolyt	Bult	Bulut	Bulut	Bulut	Bylyt	Pelet
	Star	Yulduz	Yıldız	Ulduz	İyldyz	Yoldyz	Juldız	Jıldız	Yulduz	Yultuz	Sulus	Soldor
	Earth	Topraq	Toprak	Torpaq	Toprak	Tufrak	Topıraq	Topurak	Tuproq	Tupraq	Tobura?	To'pra
	Hilltop	Töpü	Tepe	Təp?	Depe	Tübä	Töbe	Töbö	Tepa	Töpe	Töbö	Tübe'
	Tree	Yağac	Ağaç	Ağac	Agaç	Agaç	Ağas	Darak	Daraht	Dereh
	God	Tenri	Tanri	Tanri	Taňry		Täñiri	Teñir	Tangri	Tengri	Tanara	Tura
	Sky	Kök	Gök	Göy	Gök	Kük	Kök	Kök	Ko'k	Kök	Küöq	Kovak
Adjectives	Long	Uzun	Uzun	Uzun	Uzyn	Ozyn	Uzın	Uzun	Uzun	Uzun	Uhun	Vorom
	New	Yany	Yeni	Yeni	Yany	Yana	Jaña	Jañi	Yangi	Yengi	Sana	Sene
	Fat	Semiz	Semiz	Kök/Piyli	Semiz	Simyz	Semiz	Semiz	Semiz	Semiz	Emis	Samar
	Full	Tolu	Dolu	Dolu	Do:ly	Tuly	Toli	Tolo	To'la	Toluq	Toloru	Tolli
	White	Aq	Ak	Ag	Ak	Ak	Aq	Ak	Oq	Aq
	Black	Qara	Kara	Qara	Gara	Kara	Qara	Kara	Qora	Qara	Xara	Xora
	Red	Qyzyl	Kızıl	Qızıl	Gyzyl	Kyzyl	Qızıl	Kızıl	Qizil	Qizil	Kyhyl	Xerle
Numbers	1	Bir	Bir	Bir	Bir	Ber	Bir	Bir	Bir	Bir	Bi:r	Perre
	2	Eki	İki	İki	Iki	İke	Eki	Eki	Ikki	Ikki	Ikki	Ikke'
	4	Tört	Dört	Dörd	Dö:rt	Dürt	Tört	Tört	To'rt	Töt	Tüört
	7	Yeti	Yedi	Yeddi	Yedi	Yide	Jeti	Jeti	Yetti	Yättä	Sette
	10	On	On	On	O:n	U	On	On	O'n	On	Uon	Vonu
	100	Yüz	Yüz	Yüz	Yü:z	Yüz	Jüz	Jüz	Yuz	Yüz	Sü:s	Ser
		Old Turkic	Turkish	Azeri	Turkmen	Tatar	Kazakh	Kyrgyz	Uzbek	Uyghur	Sakha/Yakut	Chuvash

References

1. ^ Katzner, Kenneth (March 2002). Languages of the World, Third Edition. Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd.. ISBN 978-0415250047.
2. ^ Voegelin, C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and index of the World's languages. New York: Elsevier.
3. ^ Soucek, Svat (March 2000). A History of Inner Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521651691.
4. ^ Findley, Carter V. (October 2004). The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517726-6.
5. ^ Johanson, Lars (2001). "Discoveries on the Turkic linguistic map" (PDF). Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. Retrieved on 2007-03-18.
6. ^ This branch is also referred to as Uyghuric to distinguish the branch from one of its members, Uyghur.
7. ^ Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Language Family Trees - Turkic (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-03-18. The reliablity of Ethnologue lies mainly in its statistics whereas its framework for the internal classification of Turkic is still based largely on Baskakov (1962) and the collective work in Deny et al. (1959-1964). A more up to date alternative to classifying these languages on internal camparative grounds is to be found in the work of Johanson and his co-workers.
8. ^ Lars Johanson (1998) The History of Turkic. In Lars Johanson & Éva Ágnes Csató (eds) The Turkic Languages. London, New York: Routledge, 81-125. [3]
9. ^ Crimean Tatar and Urum are historically Kypchak languages, but have been heavily influenced by Oghuz languages.
10. ^ Tura, Baraba, Tomsk, Tümen, Ishim, Irtysh, Tobol, Tara, etc. are partly of different origin (Johanson 1998) [4]
11. ^ Of Altai Turkic origin, but recently closer to Kazakh (Johanson 1998) [5]
12. ^ Deviating. Probably of South Siberian origin (Johanson 1998) [6]
13. ^ Deviating. Historically developed from Southwestern (Oghuz) (Johanson 1998) [7]
14. ^ Aini is a mixed language with Uyghuric grammar and Persian vocabulary, and is spoken exclusively by adult men, almost as a cryptolect.
15. ^ Some dialects are close to Kirghiz (Johanson 1998) [8]
16. ^ Khalaj is surrounded by Oghuz languages, but exhibits a number of features that classify it as non-Oghuz.

External links

• • [ e] Altaic languages
Turkic languages • Mongolic languages • Tungusic languages • Japonic languages* • Korean language*
Notes: *Japonic and Korean are not generally recognized as belonging to the Altaic language family. A hypothetical language family that would include both the Japonic languages and Korean is sometimes referred to as the Buyeo language family.

• • [ e] Turkic languages
Oghur	Bulgar† \| Chuvash \| Hunnic† \| Khazar† \| Turkic Avar†
Uyghur	Old Turkic† \| Aini\| Chagatay† \| Ili Turki \| Lop \| Uyghur \| Uzbek
Kypchak	Baraba \| Bashkir \| Crimean Tatar \| Cuman† \| Karachay-Balkar \| Karaim \| Karakalpak \| Kazakh \| Kipchak† \| Krymchak \| Kumyk \| Nogai \| Old Tatar† \| Tatar \| Urum \| Altay \| Kyrgyz
Oghuz	Afshar \| Azerbaijani \| Crimean Tatar \| Gagauz \| Khorasani Turkish \| Ottoman Turkish† \| Pecheneg† \| Qashqai \| Salar \| Turkish \| Turkmen \| Urum
Arghu	Khalaj
Northeastern	Chulym \| Dolgan \| Fuy Grgs \| Khakas \| Northern Altay \| Shor \| Tofa \| Tuvan \| Western Yugur \| Sakha/Yakut
Notes: Listed in more than one group, Mixed language, Disputed, †Extinct

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• • [ e]

Turkic-speaking nations and autonomous entities with an official Turkic language

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China (Traditional Chinese:
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Siberia (Russian: Сиби́рь, Sibir); is a vast region on the eastern and North-Eastern part of the Russian Federation constituting almost all of Northern Asia and comprising a large part of the
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A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language. As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics.
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Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family, are spoken by more than 90 million people in an area spanning from the Balkans to China.

Linguistic Features

The Oghuz languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together.
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Kypchak languages (also known as the Kipchak, Qypchaq, or Northeastern Turkic languages), are a major branch of the Turkic language family spoken by more than 12 million people in an area spanning from Lithuania to China.
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Oghur languages (also known as Oghur, Oghuric, or Oghur-Turkic), are a separate branch of the Turkic language family.

Subgrouping

A tentative subgrouping results in the following list of languages:

Khazar
Eurasian Avar, or Turkic Avar

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Khalaj is a language spoken primarily in Iran and Afghanistan. It belongs to the Turkic family of languages. There were approximately 42,000 speakers of this language as of 2000.
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Mediterranean is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia. It covers an approximate area of 2.
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China (Traditional Chinese:
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Altaic is a proposed language family that includes 66 languages [1] spoken by about 348 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and northeast Asia.^[1]
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A second language (L2) is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue (L1). Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas.
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Turkish (Türkçe, ] (help info )
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Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on what vowels may be found near each other.
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An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view.
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suffix — a form of affix — follows the morpheme to which it attaches. Suffixes can be inflectional or derivational.

An inflectional suffix is sometimes called a desinence.
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In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly
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In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once.
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In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV) is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence appear or usually appear in that order. If English were SOV, then "Sam oranges ate" would be an ordinary sentence.
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Mongolic languages are a group of thirteen languages spoken in Central Asia. Some linguists propose the grouping of Mongolic with Turkic (of which Turkish is a member) and Tungusic as Altaic languages, but this hypothesis is not universally agreed upon.
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Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus languages) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. Although it is a very debated subject, many linguists consider them to be part of the Altaic language phylum, which, if it actually exists as a genetic entity, also includes the
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Korean}}}
Writing system: Exclusive use of Hangul (N. & S. Korea), mix of Hangul and Hanja (S. Korea), or Cyrillic alphabet (lesser used in Goryeomal)
Official status
Official language of: North Korea
South Korea
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The Proto-Turkic language is the proto-language of the family of Turkic languages that predates the separation of the Turkic peoples in the course of the Turkic expansion from ca. the 4th century AD.
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The 8th century is the period from 701 to 800 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era.

Overview

During this century the Middle East, the coast of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula comes rapidly under Islamic Arab domination.
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