The Nogai Language Is a Cognate of the Kazakh Language
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Section 6. Linguistics Matbek Nursulu Kurmanbekkyzy, Al-Farabi KazNU, Almaty, Kazakhstan, Senior Teacher, Candidate of Philological Science Umіrbekova Roza Kaldybekovna, Docent, Candidate of Philological Science Kasymova Zhanat Perdebekovna, Teacher E-mail: [email protected] The nogai language is a cognate of the Kazakh language Abstract: The article considers the history and development of the literary language of the Nogais, one of the indig- enous Turkic nations who inhabit the Russian Federation, some areas of CIS and foreign countries and its status during historical stages. The article analyzes the usage areas and social and community function of the modern Nogai literary language. It reveals the fact that the Nogai language is related to the Kazakh and Karakalpak languages and moreover these nations’ literatures have the same roots, and ancient akyns’ (poets) poetry is common to the three nations. Keywords: Nogai, Turkic language, alphabet, lexis, dialect, state, literary language, research. The Nogai language is the mother tongue of the During the Soviet Union the Nogais weren’t permitted to Nogais — the indigenous Eurasian nation who inhabit have their own country and the status of autonomy. Astrakhan district, Republic of Dagestan, Republic of A significant part of Nogai people inhabit the Nogai Karachay-Cherkessia, Stavropol Territory, Tumensk steppe which was administratively divided into three areas district, Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation. such as Dagestan, Chechen-Ingush and Stavropol in 1957. In the countries of CIS, to be exactly, in Kazakhstan, Researchers divide Russian Nogais into several the Ukraine (Crimean Autonomy Republic) there live groups: black Nogai, Aksai-Sulak, Ashykulak, Kuban, a few thousand Nogais. Except RF and CIS Nogai peo- Kum and Astrakhan Nogais [1, 4]. ple live in foreign countries such as Romania (Dobruja, The Nogai language is in the system of Turkic lan- about 30 thousand people), Bulgaria (about 5 thousand guages. The Nogai language is connected with ancient people), also Turkey (about 2 million people). More- Turkic, Uygur-Nayman scripts. From the XVIII century over, many Nogais live in Poland, Lithuania and several to 1928 the Nogai alphabet was based on Arabic graph- other European countries. In Turkey and Romania there ics, from 1928 — Latin, and from the year of 1938 — live descendants of the Nogais who moved and settled Russian graphics. there in the XVIII–XIX centuries. Although they mainly In 1928 a Latin-based Nogai alphabet was created accepted the ethnical similarity of surrounding Turkic within the project of All-Soviet Union latinization. Its related population that is Turks and Romanian Tartars, author was a teacher of the Ashybulak secondary school nevertheless they didn’t forget their ancestry. Descen- Abdulhamid Shershenbievich Zhanibekov. In 1929 the dants of the Nogais have mixed with Kazakh, Karakal- first ABC book was published with that alphabet. At end pak, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tartar people, especially Bashkor of the 1930s in the USSR there started a tendency of and Crimean Tartar people. changing writing into the Cyrillic system. In the last decade large Nogai communities have The contemporary Nogai alphabet consists of 33 let- been founded in some areas of Russia — in Moscow, in ters from the Russian alphabet and 4 special letters. Ever St. Petersburg, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Ok- since the Nogai alphabet is used in the variant given be- rug, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. low: А а, Аь аь, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, According to historical documents, in Nogai Horde Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, Нъ нъ, О о, Оь оь, П п, Р р, С с, (XIV–XVIII centuries) the Nogai language had the sta- Т т, У у, Уь уь, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, tus of the official language for diplomatic negotiations. Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я. By the 80s of the ХІХ century the Nogai language had A writer Issa Kapaev says in his historical essay “Bess- been the language of international communication in mertnaya step” (“Deathless steppe”): “The Cyrillic alpha- North Caucasia. bet is not a convenient alphabet for the Nogai language. At the end of the ХVІІІ century as a result of the Rus- Everybody is revealing advantages of the Latin alpha- sia’s active policy in the area the Nogai State disintegrated. bet. …In learning the mother tongue at schools chil- A population area of the Nogai ethnos was decreasing. dren are encountering some difficulties in pronouncing 68 The nogai language is a cognate of the Kazakh language words with a letter «в» (“v”) correctly. This problem, Islam, secondly — international and soviet words, what’s however, concerns adults too. For example, it is spelled more words from the Russian language. «авыл» (avyl), but it is pronounced as «ауыл» (auyl), There are sufficient amount of international and it is spelled «саьвле» (savle), but it is pronounced as soviet words (borrowed through Russian) and Russian «сәуле» (saule). If Turks show interest in reading publi- words. In comparison with rural people these words are cation of the contemporary Nogai literature, they will be likely to be met more frequently in speeches of people surprised by reading. It is impossible to read in the Nogai of urban areas. language on your own without any explanations. The An- Contemporary researchers identify two dialects cient Sumerian language will be more understandable of the Nogai language: black Nogai and Kuban dia- than the modern Nogai language. Contemporary turcol- lects [5, 492]. The Nogai literary language is based on ogist scientists are investigating the problem…” [2, 60]. the black Nogai dialect and Nogai parlance. Research works concerning the Nogai language The Nogai language belongs to the Kypshak-Nogai began to be published at the end of the XIX century branch of the North-West (Kypshak) group of Turkic lan- and at beginning of the XX century. They are the fol- guages. By phonetic, lexical, morphological and syntac- lowing works: Osmanov M. “Nogai and Kumyk texts” tic features the most cognate languages to Nogai are the (was published in Arabic graphics) (1883); Profes- Kazak, Karakalpak languages, the North steppe dialect of sor Falev P. A. “A Nogai fairy tale about Ak-kobek” Crimean Tartars and some dialects of the Uzbek language. (Proceedings of the Anthropology and Ethnography Relationship connections of the Nogai language with Museum of the Russian Academy of Science, Petro- the Kazakh and Karakalpak languages are very deep — grad, 1918); the same author’s “An Arab novella in the ancient types of folklore: proverbs and sayings, epos and Nogai epos” (Simferopol) and “Scripts of Nogai folk poetry are common for them. these nations’ literatures literature works in the Stavropol guberniya” (Scrits have the same roots, and ancient akyns’ (poets) are also of East Department of Russian archaeology commu- common to the three nations. An art of music and poetry nity, 1916) and “Introduction to Turkic literature and have a significant place in cultural heritage of Nogais. language investigation” (Tashkent, 1922). Heritage of Nogai folklore is very wide. There are a lot of Despite some achievements in the Nogai linguistics prominent pieces of epos such as “Koplanly batyr”, “Orak”, the Nogai language is one of the less investigated lan- “Mamay”, “Er Kosay”, “Er Shoban”, “Er Kokshe”, “Kambar”, guages. Such scientists as N. A. Baskakov, S. A. Kalmyko- “Er Sayn”, “Vozyigit”, “Kyz-Yibek”, “Kozy Korpesh-Bayan va made a significant contribution to research of the Syluv”, “Takhir-Zuhra”, “Edige”, “Shora batyr”, “Er Targyn”, language. N. A. Baskakov distinguishes three dialects of “Adil Soltan”, etc. Works of such medieval Nogai akyns the Nogai language: Nogai (Stavropol Territory), black (poets) are as Asan Kaigyly (XIV c.), Shal Kiyiz Tilenshi Nogai (Dagestan) and white Nogai (Karachay-Cherkes- uly (XV c.), Kazy-Tuvgan Suinish uly, Dosmambet Azav- sia) [3, 4]. These dialects have quite a bit differences and ly (XVII c.) are considered to be classics of national poetry, similarities too. However, in comparison with the dialect in the art of music there are renowned works of Korkut- of white Nogais there are more similarities between the Ata (VIII–IX c.), Ket-Buga Naimanly (XIII c.). dialects of Nogais and black Nogais. A inventor of a Nogai script, the author of Nogai The modern literary Nogai language differs from the alphabet and grammar is an ethnographer Abdulha- Kazakh language with its phonetics (slightly simplified mid Zhanibekov (1879–1955). Writers and poets who and with peculiarities of North Caucasian languages) and have written in Nogai are Abdulzhalilov Fazil Apasov- lexis — a big amount of borrowed from Arab, Farsi and ich (1913–1974), Zhanibekov Abdulhamid Shershen- North Caucasian and Russian languages. Moreover, it has bievich (1879–1955), Kapayev Suyun Imamalievich saved some features of Nogai-Kypshak languages which (1927–2001), Kapayev Isa Suyunovich (1949), Kum- disappeared from the Kazakh language. Comparatively it ratova Keldihan Isayevna (1944), Temirbulatova Kadria was not very long since Nogai and Kazakh entirely sepa- Orazbayevna (pen name — Kadria) (1949–1979) [6]. rated, it coincided with the period of Junggar invasion. The main part of the Nogais who live in Dagestan In the main vocabulary of the Nogai language there know their mother tongue — the Nogai language. More- are a lot of words borrowed from other foreign languages over, the Kumyk language is also widely spread among except native words which belong to the Turkic language them. 1136 Nogais consider the Kumyk language as their system. Firstly, there is a big proportion of words from mother tongue, because they have been living in close vi- Arab and Farsi languages which came with the religion cinity with Kumyk people during several centuries.