Khazar language

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Khazar
Region
Khazar Khanate
Extinctby the 13th century[citation needed]
Language codes
ISO 639-3zkz
zkz
GlottologNone

Khazar, also known as Khazaric, was a

nomadic Turkic peoples originating from Central Asia. There are few written records of the language and its features and characteristics are unknown. It is believed to have gradually become extinct by the 13th century AD as its speakers assimilated into neighboring Turkic-speaking populations.[citation needed
]

There is a dispute among Turkic linguists and historians as to which branch of the Turkic language family it belongs to. One consideration believes it belongs to the

Common Turkic
branch.

Classification

Orkhon
inscription word-phrase OKHQURÜM, "I read (this or it)".

There are many problems with exact classification of the Khazar language. One of the basic issues is the vague nature of the name Khazar itself. It has not yet been determined whether it refers to a specific Turkic tribe, or if it had a political and geographical origin that was not ethnolinguistic.[1] The Khazar realm was a polyglot (multilingual) and polyethnic (multicultural) state, with Iranian, Finnic, Ugric, Slavic, and North Caucasian languages.[2] According to anthropological data, it was ruled by Inner Asian Mongoloid (with some Europoid somatic elements) core tribes that accompanied the dynasty.[1][3] The Turkic tribes probably spoke a number of Turkic languages.[4] Scholars considered it a possibility that the term Khazar denoted one or even several languages; however, the sources cannot determine the extent of its use.[5]

Chronicles of the time are unclear on Khazar's linguistic affiliation. The tenth century

Al-Muqaddasi (c. 945/946 – 991) described the Khazar language as "very incomprehensible."[6] Ibn Hawqal, who travelled during the years 943 to 969 AD,[7] wrote that "the Bulgar language resembles that of the Khazars".[8][9]

Compared to the uniformity of Common Turkic, which Al-Istakhri mentioned "as for the Turks, all of them, from the

Kimek, Oguz, Qarluq, their language is one. They understand one another”. Even if Khazar belonged or was similar to Oghuro-Bulgaric languages, it was distinctly different.[10]

Vocabulary

The linguistic data on Khazar consists mostly of

Yabgu, Yilig/Yelig), anthroponyms (Itaq), and toponyms (Sarkel/Šarkil, Sarığšın/Sarığčın), mostly of Turkic origin.[11][12] The interpretations do not indicate whether these are Common Turkic or Oghuric.[13][14]

Just two

common nouns have been attested. The Arab historian Ibn A'tham al-Kufi records the name of a type of tent as alǰdāḏ, whose first part is probably a cognate of eastern Old Turkic alaču 'tent'. A word for 'funeral feast' is recorded by the Byzantine historian Theophanes in several forms: δοχήν, δογήν, δογῆν, δουγήν, comparable with eastern Old Turkic yog (as well as with a term recorded by Menandros as δογια). Other nouns have been proposed to be reflected in Khazar proper names, such as bulan 'elk', ït 'dog' in the personal names Bulan, Itakh.[15]

Khazar was stated by the 1986 Guinness Book of Records (following a claim by the Great Soviet Encyclopedia) to have the "smallest literature" of any language, allegedly comprising only one attested word, oqurüm, "I have read" (from the Kievan Letter).[16]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Golden 2011, p. 224.
  2. ^ Golden 2011, p. 151.
  3. ^ a b Golden 1992, p. 235.
  4. ^ Golden 2011, p. 151, 224.
  5. ^ a b c Golden 2011, p. 225.
  6. ^ a b c Golden 2011, p. 226.
  7. .
  8. OCLC 39655011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  9. ^ Erdal 2007, p. 83.
  10. ^ Golden 2011, p. 227.
  11. ^ Golden 1992, p. 234–235.
  12. ^ Golden 2011, p. 227–239.
  13. ^ Golden 2011, p. 150.
  14. ^ Erdal 2007, p. 94.
  15. ^ Róna-Tas, András; Berta, Árpád (2011). West Old Turkic. Vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 1168–1172.
  16. . Retrieved 2022-01-06.

Sources

External links