Turkic languages

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Turkic
Geographic distribution:	Originally from Western China to Siberia and Eastern Europe
Genetic classification:	Altaic[1] (controversial)  Turkic
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][2]

Turkic languages are spoken by some 180 million people as a native language;^[3] 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.^[2]

[edit] 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).^[4]

[edit] History

Geographical distribution of Turkic-speaking peoples across Eurasia^[5]

Distribution of the Altaic languages across Eurasia. The inclusion of Japanese and Korean, and to a lesser degree the existence of a single Altaic language family, is controversial.

See also: Proto-Turkic language, Turkic peoples, and Turkic migration

[edit] 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.^[6]

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.

[edit] 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.^[7]

This short section requires expansion.

[edit] Classification

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.^[8] 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)^[9] 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):^[10]

1. Southwestern (Oghuz Turkic)
2. Northwestern (Kypchak Turkic)
3. Southeastern (Uyghur Turkic)^[11]
4. Northeastern (Siberian Turkic)
5. Oghur Turkic
6. 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.^[12]

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.

[edit] Members

The following table is based upon the classification scheme presented by Lars Johanson (1998)^[13]

[edit] 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. Also, there may be shifts in the meaning from one language to another, and so the "common meaning" given is approximate. Forms are given in native Latin orthographies unless otherwise noted.

[edit] References

Turkic topics
Turkic languages
Turkish · Ottoman Turkish Afshar  · Aini · Altay  · Azerbaijani West Siberian Tatar · Bashkir  · Bolgar Chagatay  · Chulym  · Chuvash Crimean Tatar  · Cuman · Dolgan Fuyü Gïrgïs  · Gagauz  · Hunnic  · Ili Turki Karachay-Balkar  · Karaim · Karakalpak Kazakh · Khakas  · Khalaj Khazar  · Khorasani Turkic · Kipchak Krymchak · Kyrgyz  · Kumyk Kypchak group  · Nogay · Old Turkic Pecheneg  · Salar  · Sakha Shor  · Kazan Tatar Tofa  · Turkic Avar  · Turkmen  · Tuvan Urum  · Uyghur  · Uzbek
Turkic peoples
Altays  · Azerbaijanis Balkars  · Bashkirs  · Chulyms  · Chuvashs Crimean Tatars  · Cumans  · Dolgans  · Gagauz Iraqi Turkmen  · Karachays  · Crimean Karaites Karakalpaks  · Karapapak  · Kazakhs  · Khakas Khazars  · Kipchaks  · Krymchak  · Kumyks Kyrgyz · Meskhetian Turks  · Mongols Nogais  · Qashqai  · Salar Tatars  · Volga Tatars  · Nağaybäklär Baltic Tatars  · Siberian Tatars  · Lipka Tatars Tofalar  · Turkmens Turks of Turkey  · Turkish Cypriots Tuvans  · Uyghur Uzbeks  · Yakuts  ·
Turkic peoples
Turkics · History · Turkism  · Turanism
List of Turkic states and empires
Azerbaijan · Kazakhstan  · Kyrgyzstan  · Turkmenistan Turkey  · Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Uzbekistan
Autonomous Turkic republics
Bashkortostan  · Chuvashia  · Sakha (Yakutia) Republic Tatarstan · Tuva
Homeland of the Turkic speakers
Göktürks
Turkic studies
Turkology

[edit] Further reading

• Baskakov, N.A. 1962, 1969. Introduction to the study of the Turkic languages. Moscow. (In Russian)
• Boeschoten, Hendrik & Lars Johanson. 2006. Turkic languages in contact. Turcologica, Bd. 61. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3447052120
• Clausen, Gerard. 1972. An etymological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Deny, Jean et al. 1959-1964. Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Johanson, Lars & Éva Agnes Csató (ed.). 1998. The Turkic languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08200-5.
• Johanson, Lars. 1998. "The history of Turkic." In: Johanson & Csató, pp. 81-125.[7]
• Johanson, Lars. 1998. "Turkic languages." In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. CD 98. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, 5 sept. 2007.[8]
• Menges, K. H. 1968. The Turkic languages and peoples: An introduction to Turkic studies. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Öztopçu, Kurtuluş. 1996. Dictionary of the Turkic languages: English, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Uzbek. London: Routledge. ISBN 0415141982
• Samoilovich, A. N. 1922. Some additions to the classification of the Turkish languages. Petrograd.[9]
• Schönig, Claus. 1997-1998. "A new attempt to classify the Turkic languages I-III." Turkic Languages 1:1.117–133, 1:2.262–277, 2:1.130–151.
• Voegelin, C.F. & F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and index of the World's languages. New York: Elsevier.

[edit] See also

• Altaic languages
• Proto-Turkic language
• Old Turkic
• Middle Turkic
• Orkhon script

[edit] External links

• Map of Turkic languages
• Classification of Turkic Languages
• Online Uyghur-English Dictionary
• Turkic languages at the Open Directory Project
• Turkic language vocabulary comparison tool / dictionary

v • d • e Turkic-speaking regions
Federal subjects of Russia shown in italics
Western Turkic  Azerbaijan1  Gagauzia (Moldova)  Kazakhstan  Iran Many localities/ counties/ provinces  Uzbekistan Eastern Turkic  Altai Republic  Tuva  Bashkortostan  Kabardino-Balkaria  Tatarstan  Xinjiang (China)  Khakassia  Chuvashia  Karachay-Cherkessia  Turkey  Kyrgyzstan  Northern Cyprus2  Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan)  Turkmenistan  Sakha Republic
1 Includes the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.    2 Recognized only by Turkey; see Cyprus dispute.