Old Turkic
 | This article includes a list of generalreferences,butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations.(June 2011) |
| Old Siberian Turkic | |
|---|---|
| East Old Turkic, Old Turkic | |
| Region | East Asia,Central Asiaand parts ofEastern Europe |
| Era | 8th–13th centuries |
Turkic
| |
| Dialects | |
| Old Turkic script,Old Uyghur alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:otk– Old Turkishoui–Old Uyghur |
otkOld Turkish | |
ouiOld Uyghur | |
| Glottolog | oldu1238 |
Old Siberian Turkic,generally known asEast Old Turkicand often shortened toOld Turkic,was aSiberian Turkic languagespoken aroundEast TurkistanandMongolia.[1]It was first discovered in inscriptions originating from theSecond Turkic Khaganate,and later theUyghur Khaganate,making it the earliest attestedCommon Turkic language.In terms of the datability of extant written sources, the period of Old Turkic can be dated from slightly before 720ADto theMongol invasionsof the 13th century. Old Turkic can generally be split into two dialects, the earlierOrkhon Turkicand the laterOld Uyghur.There is a difference of opinion among linguists with regard to theKarakhanid language,some (among whom includeOmeljan Pritsak,Sergey MalovandMarcel Erdal) classify it as another dialect of East Old Turkic, while others prefer to include Karakhanid among Middle Turkic languages;[2]nonetheless, Karakhanid is very close to Old Uyghur.[3]East Old Turkic and West Old Turkic together comprise the Old Turkic proper, though West Old Turkic is generally unattested and is mostly reconstructed through words loaned throughHungarian.[4]East Old Turkic is the oldest attested member of theSiberian Turkicbranch of Turkic languages, and several of its now-archaic grammatical as well as lexical features are extant in the modernYellow Uyghur,Lop Nur Uyghur[5]andKhalaj(all of which are endangered); Khalaj, for instance, has (surprisingly) retained a considerable number of archaic Old Turkic words[6]despite forming alanguage island[7]within Central Iran and being heavily influenced byPersian.[8]Old Uyghuris not a direct ancestor of the modernUyghur language,[9][10]but rather theWestern Yugur language;the contemporaneous ancestor of Modern Uyghur was theChagatai literary language.[11]
East Old Turkic is attested in a number of scripts, including theOld Turkic script,theOld Uyghur alphabet,theBrahmi script,and theManichaean script.TheTurkic runiform alphabetof Orkhon Turkic was deciphered byVilhelm Thomsenin 1893.
Sources
[edit]In stark contrast toMiddle Turkictexts, the vast majority of available Old Turkic texts come fromnon-Muslimsources. The sources of Old Turkic are divided into two (three, according toMarcel Erdal) corpora:
- The 8th to 10th centuryOrkhon inscriptionsin Mongolia and theYeniseybasin (Orkhon Turkic).
- 9th to 13th century Uyghur manuscripts fromGansuandXinjiang(Old Uyghur), in various scripts including Brahmi,Tibetan,Syriac,and Sogdian alphabets, treating religious (Buddhist,Manichaean,andChurch of the East), legal, literary, folkloric and astrological material, as well as personal correspondence.
- (According to Marcel Erdal)Kutadgu BiligbyYūsuf Balasaguniand the parts of the monumentalDīwān Lughāt al-TurkbyMahmud al-Kashgari.As Marcel Erdal acknowledged, the latter work is not wholly Old Turkic but also contains lexemes fromMiddle Turkic,thus providing a rich resource for the study of both Old and Middle Turkic.
Writing systems
[edit]TheOld Turkic script(also known variously as Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script) is thealphabetused by theGöktürksand other earlyTurkickhanatesduring the 8th to 10th centuries to record the Old Turkic language.[12]
The script is named after theOrkhon ValleyinMongoliawhere early 8th-century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition byNikolai Yadrintsev.[13]
This writing system was later used within theUyghur Khaganate.Additionally, aYeniseivariant is known from 9th-centuryYenisei Kirghizinscriptions, and it has likely cousins in theTalas ValleyofTurkestanand theOld Hungarian alphabetof the 10th century. Words were usually written from right to left. Variants of the script were found in Mongolia andXinjiangin the east and theBalkansin the west. The preserved inscriptions were dated between the 8th and 10th centuries.
Phonology
[edit]| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unr. | Rnd. | Unr. | Rnd. | |
| Close | i | y | ɯ | u |
| Mid | e | ø | o | |
| Open | ɑ | |||
Vowel roundness is assimilated through the word throughvowel harmony.Some vowels were considered to occur only in the initial syllable, but they were later found to be in suffixes.[14]Length is distinctive for all vowels; while most of its daughter languages have lost the distinction, many of these preserve it in the case of /e/ with a height distinction, where the long phoneme developed into a more closed vowel than the short counterpart.
| Labial | Dental | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Uvular | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||
| Stop | p | b | t | d | tʃ | k | g | q | ɢ | |
| Fricative | s | z | ʃ | |||||||
| Tap/Flap | ɾ | |||||||||
| Approximant | ɫ | l | j | |||||||
Old Turkic is highly restrictive in which consonants words can begin with: words can begin with /b/, /t/, /tʃ/, /k/, /q/, /s/, /ɫ/ and /j/, but they do not usually begin with /p/, /d/, /g/, /ɢ/, /l/, /ɾ/, /n/, /ɲ/, /ŋ/, /m/, /ʃ/, or /z/. The only exceptions are𐰤𐰀(ne,"what, which" ) and its derivatives, and some early assimilations of word-initial /b/ to /m/ preceding a nasal in a word such as𐰢𐰤(men,"I" ).
Grammar
[edit]Cases
[edit]There are approximately 12case morphemesin Old Turkic (treating 3 types ofaccusativesas one); the table below lists Old Turkic cases followingMarcel Erdal’s classification (some phonemes of suffixes written in capital letters denotearchiphonemeswhich sometimes are dropped or changed as per (East) Old Turkicphonotactics):
| Case Suffixes | Examples | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ∅ (unmarked) | köŋül∅ | heart |
| Genitive | -nIŋ | Tämürniŋ | Tämür’s |
| Accusative I (Pronominal Accusative) | -nI | bunï | this |
| Accusative II (Nominal Accusative) | -Ig/-Ug[a] | kïzlarïg,Karlukug | girls, Karluk |
| Accusative III[16] | -(I)n | oglïmïn | my son’s |
| Dative | -ka[b] | ordoka | topalace |
| Directive / Allative[c] | -gArU[d] | ävgärü | towardshome |
| Locative | -tA/-dA | ävdä,suvlukta | inhouse,invessel |
| Directive-Locative / Partitive-Locative | -rA | asra[e],bašra[f] | below,at/towards/onhead |
| Ablative | -dIn/-tIn-dAn | kaŋtïn | fromfather |
| Equative-Lative | -čA[g][h] | tükägüčä | up to/tillend |
| Instrumental | -In/-Un | okun | witharrow |
| Comitative[i] | -lXgU[j]-lUgUn[k] | iniligü | together withyoung brother |
| Similative | -lAyU | yultuzlayu | likestar(s) |
- ^This Old Turkic accusative suffix is retained inModern Turkishin the form of-jXg.[15]Karakhanidalso employs this suffix.
- ^Khalajis the only modern Turkic language to have retained this archaic case suffix, which fact has ledMahmud al-Kashgarito regard the suffix as a distinctive marker of Arghu language (i.e. Khalaj). Most of the remaining Turkic languages usually have-GA.[17]
- ^Old Turkic possessed an opposition between dative-kaand allative-gArU/-kArUcases, the latter perhaps derived secondarily from the former at the pre-Old Turkic stage. The dative case has been preserved intact in all the modern Siberian Turkic languages. On the other hand, the old allative has lost its case function, being preserved in a lexicalized manner in only a small number of adverbial expressions - for example,Uzbekichkari‘towards inside’. However,TuvanandKhakashave reintroduced the formal opposition into their respective case systems.
- ^Rare in Buddhist Uyghur and Karakhanid.[18]
- ^In directive-locative sense.
- ^In partitive-locative sense.
- ^Today this Old Turkic suffix is preserved as a case form inAltayandShor.
- ^Though Khalaj retains this suffix as a case form (like Altay and Shor), it denotes locative case; which, at first glance, is aberrant.[19]
- ^Out of all Turkic languages, today this case is preserved only inSakha(i.e. Yakut).
- ^InOrkhon Turkic.This ancient suffix is already rare by the time of Orkhon Turkic and the usage of this case with pronouns is not attested in the whole of Old Turkic.[20].
- ^In Manichaean Uyghur
Grammatical Number
[edit]Old Turkic (like Modern Turkic) had 2 grammatical numbers: singular and plural. However, Old Turkic also formed collective nouns (a category related to plurals) by a separate suffix-(A)gU(n)e.g.tayagunuŋuz‘your colts’.[21]Unlike Modern Turkic, Old Turkic had 3 types of suffixes to denote plural:[22]
- -(X)t
- -An
- -lAr
Today, all Modern Turkic languages (except forChuvash) use exclusively the suffix of the-lArtype for plural.
Verb
[edit]Finite verb forms in Old Turkic (i.e. verbs to which a tense suffix is added) always conjugate for person and number of the subject by corresponding suffixes save for the 3rd person, in which case person suffix is absent. This grammatical configuration is preserved in the majority of Modern Turkic languages, except for some such asYellow Uyghurin which verbs no longer agree with the person of the subject.
Tense
[edit]Old Turkic had a complex system of tenses,[23]which could be divided into six simple[24]and derived tenses, the latter formed by adding special (auxiliary) verbs to the simple tenses.
| Tense | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| ImperfectAorist | -Ur | -mAz |
| Preterite (Simple Past) | -dI | |
| Perfect Participle | -mIš | -mAdOk |
| Future | -dAčI | -mAčI |
| Vivid Past | -yOk | -mAyOk |
| Imminent Future | -gAlIr |
Hapax Legomena
[edit]Some suffixes are attested as being attached to only one word and no other instance of attachment is to be found. Similarly, some words are attested only once in the entire extant Old Turkic corpus.
Denominal
[edit]The following have been classified byGerard Clausonas denominal noun suffixes.
| Suffix | Usages | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| -ča | anča | at least one |
| -ke | sigirke yipke |
sinew string/thread |
| -la/-le | ayla tünle körkle |
thus, like that yesterday, night, north beautiful |
| -suq/-sük | bağïrsuq | liver, entrails |
| -ra/-re | içre | inside, within |
| -ya/-ye | bérye yırya |
here north |
| -čïl/-čil | igčil | sickly |
| -ğïl/-gil | üçgil qïrğïl |
triangular grey haired |
| -nti | ékkinti | second |
| -dam/-dem | tegridem | god-like |
| tïrtï:/-türti | ičtirti |
inside, within |
| -qı:/-ki | ašnuki üzeki ebdeki |
former on or above in the house |
| -an/-en/-un | oğlan eren |
children men, gentlemen |
| -ğu:/-gü | enčgü tuzğu buğrağu |
tranquil, at peace food given to a traveller as a gift woodwork |
| -a:ğu:/-e:gü: | üčegü ičegü |
three together inside human body |
| -dan/-dun | otun izden |
firewood track, trace |
| -ar/-er | birer azar |
one each a few |
| -layu:/-leyü | börileyü | like a wolf |
| -daš/-deš | qarïndaš yerdeš |
kinsman compatriot |
| -mïš/-miš | altmïš yetmiš |
sixty seventy |
| -gey | küçgey | violent |
| -çaq/-çekand-çuq/-çük | ïğïrčaq | spindle-whorl |
| -q/-k(after vowels and -r) -aq/-ek(the normal forms) -ïq/-ik/-uq/-ük(rare forms) |
ortuq | middle partner |
| -daq/-dekand(?)-duq/-dük | bağırdaq beligdek burunduq |
wrap terrifying nose ring |
| -ğuq/-gük | çamğuq | objectionable |
| -maq/-mek | kögüzmek | breastplate |
| -muq/-a:muq | solamuk | left-handed (pejorative?) |
| -naq | baqanaq | "frog in a horse's hoof" (frombaqafrog) |
| -duruq/-dürük | boyunduruq | yoke |
Deverbal
[edit]The following have been classified by Gerard Clauson asdeverbalsuffixes.
| Suffix | Usages | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| -a/-e/-ı:/-i/-u/-ü | oprı adrı keçe egri köni ötrü |
hollow,valley branched,forked evening, night crooked straight, upright, lawful then, so |
| -ğa/-ge | kısğa öge bilge kölige tilge |
short wise wise shadow slice |
| -ğma/-gme | tanığma | riddle |
| -çı/-çi | otaçı: okıçı |
healer priest |
| -ğuçı/-güçi | ayğuçı bitigüçi |
councilor scribe |
| -dı/-di | üdründi ögdi alkadı sökti |
chosen,parted,separated,scattered customs praised bran |
| -tı/-ti | arıtı uzatı tüketi |
completely, clean lengthily completely |
| -du | eğdu umdul süktü |
curved knife desire, covetousness campaigning |
| -ğu:/-gü | bilegü kedgü oğlağü |
whetstone clothing gently nurtured |
| -ingü | bilingü etingü yeringü salingü |
be in the know be prepared disgusted be moving violently |
| -ğa:ç/-geç | kışgaç | pincers |
| -ğuç/-güç | bıçgüç | scissors |
| -maç/-meç | tutmaç | "saved" noodle dish |
| -ğut/-güt | alpağut bayağut |
warrior merchant |
Literary works
[edit]- Yenisei Inscriptions(8-10th centuries CE) - a group of texts in Old Turkic fromYenisei Riverbasin.
- Uyuk-Tarlak inscription(date unknown) by an unknown writer (in Yenisei Kyrgyz)
- Elegest inscription(date unknown) by an unknown writer (inYenisei Kyrgyz)
- Orkhon Inscriptions(732 and 735) byYollıg Khagan(in Orkhon Turkic)
- Bain Tsokto inscriptions(716) by an unknown writer (in Orkhon Turkic)
- Ongin inscription(between 716 and 735) by an unknown writer (in Orkhon Turkic)
- Kul-chur inscription(between 723 and 725) a writer called "Ebizter" (in Orkhon Turkic)
- Altyn Tamgan Tarhan inscription(724) by an unknown writer (in Orkhon Turkic)
- Tariat inscriptions(between 753 and 760) by an unknown writer (in Old Uyghur)
- Choiti-Tamir inscriptions(between 753 and 756) by an unknown writer (in Old Uyghur)
- Sükhbaatar inscriptions(8th century) by an unknown writer (in Old Uyghur)
- Bombogor inscription(8th century) by an unknown writer (in Old Uyghur)
- Book of Divination(9th century) by an unknown writer (in Old Uyghur)
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Rachewiltz, Igor de; Rybatzki, Volker (31 May 2010).Introduction to Altaic Philology.BRILL. p. 17.ISBN9789004188891.
- ^Rachewiltz, Igor de; Rybatzki, Volker (31 May 2010).Introduction to Altaic Philology.BRILL. p. 19.ISBN9789004188891.
- ^Erdal, Marcel (September 2004).A Grammar of Old Turkic.BRILL. p. 8.ISBN9789047403968.
- ^Robbeets, Martine; Savelyev, Alexander (27 May 2020).The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages.Oxford University Press. p. 106.ISBN978-0-19-880462-8.
- ^The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages.p. 413.
- ^Robbeets, Martine; Savelyev, Alexander (27 May 2020).The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages.Oxford University Press. p. 112.ISBN978-0-19-880462-8.
- ^Ragagnin, Elisabetta (May 2020)."Major and Minor Turkic Language Islands in Iran with a Special Focus on Khalaj".Iranian Studies.53(3–4): 573–588.doi:10.1080/00210862.2020.1740881.S2CID218924277.
- ^Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á. (29 April 2015).The Turkic Languages.Routledge. p. 280.ISBN9781136825279.
- ^Dwyer, Arienne M. (2007).Salar.Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 49.ISBN9783447040914.
- ^Studies in Asian Historical Linguistics.BRILL. 19 July 2021. p. 209.ISBN9789004448568.
- ^Khalid, Adeeb (January 1999).The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform.University of California Press. p. 188.ISBN9780520920897.
- ^Scharlipp, Wolfgang (2000).An Introduction to the Old Turkish Runic Inscriptions.Verlag auf dem Ruffel, Engelschoff.ISBN978-3-933847-00-3.
- ^Sinor, Denis (2002). "Old Turkic".History of Civilizations of Central Asia.Vol. 4. Paris:UNESCO.pp. 331–333.
- ^Erdal, Marcel (2004).A grammar of Old Turkic.Boston: Brill. p. 88.ISBN1-4294-0826-X.OCLC73959547.
- ^Dwyer, Arienne M. (2007).Salar.Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 61.ISBN9783447040914.
- ^Irregularities in Turkic Languages.p. 228.
- ^Robbeets, Martine; Savelyev, Alexander (27 May 2020).The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages.Oxford University Press. p. 113.ISBN978-0-19-880462-8.
- ^A Grammar of Old Turkic.p. 177.
- ^Heritage and Identity in the Turkic World.p. 42.
- ^A Grammar of Old Turkic.p. 180.
- ^A Grammar of Old Turkic.p. 160.
- ^A Grammar of Old Turkic.p. 158.
- ^Micro-change and Macro-change in Diachronic Syntax.p. 64.
- ^A Grammar of Old Turkic.p. 272.
Further reading
[edit]- Noten zu den alttürkischen Inschriften der Mongolei und Sibiriens (1898)
- Ö.D. Baatar,Old Turkic Script,Ulan-Baator (2008),ISBN0-415-08200-5
- M. Erdal,Old Turkic word formation: A functional approach to the lexicon,Turcologica, Harassowitz (1991),ISBN3-447-03084-4.
- M. Erdal,Old Turkic,in: The Turkic Languages, eds. L. Johanson & E.A. Csato, Routledge, London (1998),ISBN978-99929-944-0-5
- M. Erdal,A Grammar of Old Turkic,Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 8 Uralic & Central Asia, Brill, Leiden (2004),ISBN90-04-10294-9.
- Erdal, Marcel (1 January 2004).A Grammar Of Old Turkic.BRILL.ISBN90-04-10294-9.
- L. Johanson,A History of Turkic,in: The Turkic Languages, eds. L. Johanson & E.A. Csato, Routledge, London (1998),ISBN0-415-08200-5
- Talat Tekin,A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic,Uralic and Altaic Series Vol. 69, Indiana University Publications, Mouton and Co. (1968). (review:Gerard Clauson,Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1969); Routledge Curzon (1997),ISBN0-7007-0869-3.
External links
[edit]- Old Turkic inscriptions (with translations into English), reading lessons and tutorials
- Turkic Inscriptions of Orkhon Valley (with translations into Turkish)
- VATEC,pre-Islamic Old Turkic electronic corpus at uni-frankfurt.de.
- A Grammar of Old Turkicby Marcel Erdal
- Old Turkic (8th century) funerary inscription(W. Schulze)
- Kuli Chor inscription complete text
- Tonyukuk inscription complete text
- Kul Tigin inscription complete text
- Bilge Qaghan inscription complete text
- Eletmiš Yabgu (Ongin) inscription complete text
- Bayanchur Khan inscription complete text
- Ongin inscriptionsby Gerard Clauson
- Timeline of Turkic Languages (Turkish)
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