Turkic Languages 161

Turkic Languages 161 seriously endangered by the UNESCO red book on See also: Arabic; Armenian; Azerbaijanian; Caucasian endangered languages: Gagauz (Moldovan), Crim- Languages; Endangered Languages; Greek, Modern; ean Tatar, Noghay (Nogai), and West-Siberian Tatar Kurdish; Sign Language: Interpreting; Turkic Languages; . Caucasian: Laz (a few hundred thousand speakers), Turkish. Georgian (30 000 speakers), Abkhaz (10 000 speakers), Chechen-Ingush, Avar, Lak, Lezghian (it is unclear whether this is still spoken) Bibliography . Indo-European: Bulgarian, Domari, Albanian, French (a few thousand speakers each), Ossetian Andrews P A & Benninghaus R (1989). Ethnic groups in the Republic of Turkey. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert (a few hundred speakers), German (a few dozen Verlag. speakers), Polish (a few dozen speakers), Ukranian Aydın Z (2002). ‘Lozan Antlas¸masında azınlık statu¨ su¨; (it is unclear whether this is still spoken), and Farklı ko¨kenlilere tanınan haklar.’ In Kabog˘lu I˙ O¨ (ed.) these languages designated as seriously endangered Azınlık hakları (Minority rights). (Minority status in the by the UNESCO red book on endangered lan- Treaty of Lausanne; Rights granted to people of different guages: Romani (20 000–30 000 speakers) and Yid- origin). I˙stanbul: Publication of the Human Rights Com- dish (a few dozen speakers) mission of the I˙stanbul Bar. 209–217. Neo-Aramaic (Afroasiatic): Tu¯ ro¯ yo and Su¯ rit (a Çag˘aptay S (2002). ‘Otuzlarda Tu¨ rk milliyetçilig˘inde ırk, dil few thousand speakers each) ve etnisite’ (Race, language and ethnicity in the Turkish . Languages spoken by recent immigrants, refugees, nationalism of the thirties). In Bora T (ed.) Milliyetçilik ˙ ˙ and asylum seekers: Afroasiatic languages: (Nationalism). Istanbul: Iletis¸im Yayınları. 245–262. Grimes B F (ed.) (2000). Ethnologue (14th edn.). Dallas: Amharic, Somali, and Tigrigna; Niger-Congo: SIL International. Lingala, Swahili, and various languages spoken in Sadog˘lu H (2003). Tu¨ rkiye’de ulusçuluk ve dil politikaları Nigeria; Indo-European: Russian and Farsi; and (Nationism and language policies in Turkey). I˙stanbul: Altaic: Kazakh and Kirghiz (hundreds of thousands I˙stanbul Bilgi University Publications. of speakers) S¸ener C (2004). Tu¨ rkiye’de yas¸ayan etnik ve dinsel gruplar . Foreign languages taught in secondary schools: (Ethnic and religious groups in Turkey). I˙stanbul: Etik English, French, German, and Italian Yayınları. Turkic Languages L Johanson, Universita¨ t Mainz, Mainz, Germany There is no mutual intelligibility throughout the ß 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. family today. The following division combines the current areal distribution with genealogical and typological features. Development and Classification 1. The Southwestern or Oghuz branch contains a The Turkic language family was first attested in western subgroup comprising Turkish, Gagauz, 8th century inscriptions. Turkic-speaking groups and Azerbaijanian (Azerbaijani, Northern and first appeared in the Inner Eurasian steppes, from Azerbaijani, Southern), a southern subgroup com- where they moved to Central Asia, Eastern Europe, prising dialects of southern Iran and Afghanistan, the Middle East, Siberia, etc. Because of their high and an eastern subgroup comprising Turkmen and mobility, Turkic expanded over a huge area. Khorasan Turkic. The Proto-Turkic network of varieties was dis- 2. The Northwestern or Kipchak branch has a western solved by an early split of Oghur or Bulgar Turkic. subgroup comprising Kumyk, Karachay-Balkar, Its modern representative, Chuvash, a descendant of Crimean Tatar, and Karaim, a northern subgroup Volga Bulgar, differs from Common Turkic by specif- comprising Tatar and Bashkir, and a southern sub- ic phonetic representations, e.g., r and l instead of z group comprising Kazakh, Karakalpak, Kipchak and sˇ in words such as séˇr ‘hundred’ and súl ‘year’ Uzbek, Nogai, and Kirghiz (of different origin, but (Turkish yu¨ z ‘hundred,’ yas¸ ‘age’). A second split is strongly influenced by Kazakh). represented by Khalaj, which retains a reflex of Proto- 3. The Southeastern or Uyghur-Karluk branch has a Turkic *p-ash-, e.g., hadaq ‘foot.’ Dialect splitting western Uzbek subgroup and and eastern Uyghur has led to further differentiation of Common Turkic. subgroup. 162 Turkic Languages 4. The Northeastern or Siberian branch has a southern inscriptions are of this type. Old Uyghur is first heterogeneous subgroup comprising Sayan Turkic recorded in the period of Uyghur rule over the (Tuvan, Tofan), Abakan (Yenisei) Turkic (Khakas, Eastern Empire. Early Old Uyghur is attested Shor), Chulym Turkic, Altai Turkic (Altai, Northern in runiform inscriptions and manuscripts. From and Southern), and a northern subgroup comprising the 10th century on, Old Uyghur became the Yakut (Sakha) and Dolgan. medium of a flourishing literary culture in the 5. Chuvash is geographically situated in the north- Tienshan-Tarim area, attested in texts of Buddhist, western area (Volga region). Manichaean, and Nestorian content. 6. Khalaj is geographically situated in the southwest- 2. A middle Turkic period comprises various early ern area (central Iran). Islamic varieties. The first East Turkic written language, Karakha- Deviant languages in China are Salar, of Oghuz nid (11th century–), developed in Kashgar, is close origin, Yellow Uyghur (Yugur, West) and Fu-yu¨ to Old Uyghur but lexically influenced by Arabic (Manchuria), both of south Siberian origin. and Persian. Mahmu¯d of Kashgar provides informa- One traditional classificatory criterion is the final . tion (1073) on Karakhanid and other contemporary consonant of the word for ‘nine.’ Its representation as Turkic varieties. r in Chuvash ta˘xxa˘r separates Oghur from Common Khorezmian Turkic, used in the 13th–14th cen- Turkic (Turkish dokuz). The intervocalic consonant in turies in the Golden Horde and Mamluk Egypt, is the word for ‘foot’ divides most Northeastern lan- based on the older languages but contains Oghuz guages, Chuvash, Khalaj, etc. from the rest, which and Kipchak elements. exihibits -y- (Turkish ayak), e.g., Tuvan adaq, Khakas This tradition is continued in Chaghatay (15th azax, Chuvash ura. Oghuz Turkic differs from the rest century–). Early Chaghatay contains regional ele- by loss of suffix-initial velars, e.g., qal-an [remain- ments of the Timurid area. Later, Chaghatay PART] instead of qal-gan [remain-PART] ‘remaining.’ became the dominant written language of Central Final -G is devoiced in the Southeast (Uyghur tag-liq Asia, eventually conquering an immense area of [mountain-DER] ‘mountainous’), preserved in south- validity and developing regional varieties. ern Siberia (Tuvan dag-lı¨g [mountain-DER]), and lost The first West Turkic written language is Volga elsewhere (Turkish dag˘-li [mountain-DER]). Bulgar, insufficiently known from epitaphs of the Most older linguistic stages are insufficently 13th and 14th centuries. Information on early known. Written sources, where available, provide Kipchak Turkic is given in the Codex Cumanicus, no direct information on spoken varieties. Early compiled by Christians, and in dictionaries and Oghuz and Bulgar (East Europe, 6th–7th centuries) grammars written in Mamluk Egypt and Syria. are unknown. There are no texts in the language of Oghuz Turkic is first represented by Old Anato- the Khazars (7th–10th centuries). Pecheneg and lian Turkish (13th century–), which was a subordi- Kuman, predecessors of West Kipchak, are only nate written medium until the end of Seljuk rule. known from loanwords, titles, and names. Old Ottoman is the initial stage of Ottoman, which begins with the foundation of the Ottoman Empire Written Varieties in 1307. In Azerbaijan a literary language developed from the 15th century on. Turkic literary varieties have emerged in various 3. A premodern period (16th century–) begins with cultural centers. Many older Turkic empires, how- the development of regionally influenced written ever, used foreign languages for administration languages. Middle and Late Ottoman became (Sogdian, Persian). Muslim Turks often used Persian the leading written language with an abundantly for poetry, and Arabic for religious and scientific rich literature. Chaghatay continued to play a writing. Russian has played an important role for major role and remained the literary language of many groups. The following main stages of written all non-Oghuz Muslim Turks until a century ago. Turkic may be distinguished. 4. A modern period begins in the second half of 1. An older pre-Islamic East Old Turkic period (8th the 19th century with the formation of regional century–), is represented in inscriptions, manu- written languages. The political division of the scripts, and block prints. East Old Turkic proper Turkic-speaking world in the 20th century and is documented in stone inscriptions (Orkhon the language policies pursued in the Soviet Union, Valley), which celebrate the rulers of the Second Turkey, China, and Iran had dramatic effects that Eastern Tu¨ rk Empire, in other inscriptions found increasingly obstructed transregional linguistic in Mongolia and the Yenisei and Talas valleys, contacts. A dozen ‘national’ languages with a and also in a few manuscripts. The Old Kirghiz narrow radius of validity emerged. In Turkey, Turkic Languages 163 Ottoman was replaced by modern Turkish. The koine´s have been used as transregional codes for trade social importance of many Turkic languages was and intergroup communication, e.g., Azerbaijanian in very limited.

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