Social:Bulgar language
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|
| Bulgar | |
|---|---|
| Region | From Central Asia to the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Volga and the Danube and Southern Italy (Molise, Campania) |
| Ethnicity | Bulgars |
| Extinct | By the 9th century on the Danube and by the 14th century in the Volga region[1] |
| Dialects | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xbo |
| Glottolog | bolg1250[2] |
Bulgar (also known as Bulghar, Bolgar, or Bolghar) is the extinct Oghur Turkic language spoken by the Bulgars.
The name is derived from the Bulgars, a tribal association that established the Bulgar state known as Old Great Bulgaria in the mid-7th century, giving rise to the First Bulgarian Empire by the 680s.[3][4] While the language initially went extinct in Danubian Bulgaria (in favour of Old Church Slavonic), it persisted in Volga Bulgaria, but even there it was eventually replaced by the modern Chuvash language.[5][6] Other than Chuvash, Bulgar is the only language to be definitively classified as an Oghur Turkic language.
The inclusion of other languages such as Hunnish, Khazar and Sabir within Oghur Turkic remains speculative owing to the paucity of historical records. Some scholars suggest Hunnish had strong ties with Bulgar and to modern Chuvash[7] and refer to this extended grouping as separate Hunno-Bulgar languages.[8][9] However, such speculations are not based on proper linguistic evidence, since the language of the Huns is almost unknown except for a few attested words, which are Indo-European in origin, and personal names. Thus, scholars generally consider Hunnish as unclassifiable.[10][11][12][13]
Affiliation
Medieval scholars observations
As was stated by Al-Istakhri (c. 10 century CE), "The language of the Khazars is different than the language of the Turks and the Persians, nor does a tongue of (any) group of humanity have anything in common with it and the language of the Bulgars is like the language of the Khazars, but the Burtas have another language."[14][15]
Ibn Hawqal, who travelled during the years 943 to 969 AD,[16] wrote that "the Bulgar language resembles that of the Khazars".[17][18]
Al-Biruni (973 – 1050), while discussing the Volga Bulgars and Sawars (Sabirs), noted their language was a "mixture of Turkic and Khazar."[14]
Mainstream linguistic classification
Mainstream scholarship places Bulgar among the "Lir" branch of Turkic languages referred to as Oghur Turkic, Lir-Turkic or, indeed, "Bulgar Turkic", as opposed to the "Shaz"-type of Common Turkic. The "Lir" branch is characterized by sound correspondences such as Oghuric /r/ versus Common Turkic (or Shaz-Turkic) /z/ and Oghuric /l/ versus Common Turkic (Shaz-Turkic) /ʃ/.[3][19][20][21]
The only surviving language from this linguistic group is Chuvash.[14][11][7][22]
Omeljan Pritsak hypothesis
Historian and linguist Omeljan Pritsak proposes that the language of the Bulgars was from the family of the extinct Hunnic languages, as he calls the Oghur languages.[22][23] The slavic linguist Antoaneta Granberg from Göteborg University is the only scholar who follows the Pritsak's classifiacation, although her views differ significantly from the contemporary Bulgarian scholars.[24][25] According her research on Bulgar remnants in Old Church Slavonic, situation is further complicated by the extensive migration of nomadic communities of Hunnic and Oghuric peoples from East to West. This migration brought them into contact with a variety of different lands, neighbours, cultures, and languages, including China and Rome. Thus, linguistic individuation of the Hunno-Bulgaric language family has yet to be conclusively established. A Hunno-Bulgar language is believed to have formed on the North-Western borders of China in the 3rd–5th centuries BC.[25]
Iranian hypothesis
On the other hand, some modern Bulgarian scholars, who are not linguists, tried without much success to link the Bulgar language to the Iranic language group instead (more specifically, the Pamir languages are frequently mentioned), noting the presence of Iranian words in the modern Bulgarian language.[26][27][28][publisher missing][29] According to Raymond Detrez, who is a specialist in Bulgarian history and language,[30][title missing] such views are based on anti-Turkish sentiments that were prevalent during the 1980s, and the presence of Iranian words in the modern Bulgarian is a result of Ottoman Turkish linguistic influence.[31] Indeed, other Bulgarian historians, especially older ones, only point out certain signs of Iranian influence in the Turkic base[32] or indeed support the Turkic theory.[33][34][35][title missing][36][37][38][39][40]
Danubian Bulgar
The language of the Danube Bulgars (or Danubian Bulgar) is recorded in a small number of inscriptions, which are found in Pliska, the first capital of First Bulgarian Empire, and in the rock churches near the town of Murfatlar, in present-day Romania. Some of these inscriptions are written in the Greek characters, others in the Kuban alphabet which is a variant of Orkhon script. Most of these appear to have been of a private character (oaths, dedications, inscriptions on grave stones) and some were court inventories. Although attempts at decipherment have been made, none of them has gained wide acceptance. These inscriptions in Danubian Bulgar are found along with other, official ones written in Greek; which was used as the official state language of the First Bulgarian Empire until the end of the ninth century, when it was replaced by the Old Church Slavonic (also called Old Bulgarian).[41]
The language of the Danubian Bulgars is also known from a small number of loanwords in the Old Bulgarian language, as well as terms occurring in Bulgar Greek-language inscriptions, contemporary Byzantine texts,[42] and later Slavonic Old Bulgarian texts. Most of these words designate titles and other concepts concerning the affairs of state, including the official 12-year cyclic calendar (as used in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans). The language became extinct in Danubian Bulgaria in the ninth century as the Bulgar nobility became gradually Slavicized after the Old Bulgarian tongue was declared as official in 893.
| Old Church Slavonic | Chuvash | Hungarian | Common Turkic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| token, trace | БЕЛЕГ (beleg), БИЛЕГ (bileg) | палӑк (palăk) | bélyeg | *belgü |
| bracelet | БЕЛЬЧҮГ (belĭčug) | – | – | *bileçüg |
| pillow | ДОХЬТОРЬ (doxĭtorĭ) | ҫытар (śïtar) | – | *yogtu |
| image, icon | КАПЬ (kapĭ) | кап (kap) | kép | *kēp |
| honour | САНЬ (sanĭ), САМЬ (samĭ) | сум (sum) | szám | *sān |
Phonology
Unlike Volga Bulgarian and Chuvash, d'ization is seen in the /j/ sounds at the beginning of words. Talât Tekin argues that this sound corresponds to the initial gy sound in Hungarian and is pronounced close to it.[43]
| Danube Bulgar / Old Church Slavonic |
Volga Bulgar | Chuvash | Common Turkic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| snake | ДИЛОМЬ (dilomĭ) | – | ҫӗлен (śílen) | *yï̄lan |
| pillow | ДОХЬТОРЬ (doxĭtorĭ) | – | ҫытар (śytar) | *yogdu (Mongolian зогдор) |
| horse | ΔΥΑΝ (dwan) | – | – | *yunt |
| An ethnicity | ΔΟΥΑΡΗⲤ (dovaris) | يوارى (yuwāri) | – | – |
| seven | ЧИТ (čit) | جىَاتِ (čyeti) | ҫиччӗ (śiččĕ) | *yẹti |
Volga Bulgar
The language spoken by the population of Volga Bulgaria is known as Volga-Bulgar. There are a number of surviving inscriptions in Volga-Bulgar, some of which are written with Arabic letters, alongside the continuing use of Orkhon script. These are all largely decipherable. That language persisted until the 13th or the 14th century. In that region, it may have ultimately given rise to the Chuvash language, which is most closely related to it[44] and which is classified as the only surviving member of a separate "Oghur-Turkic" (or Lir-Turkic) branch of the Turkic languages, to which Bulgar is also considered to have belonged (see above).[3][4][45] Still, the precise position of Chuvash within the Oghur family of languages is a matter of dispute among linguists. Since the comparative material attributable to the extinct members of Oghuric (Khazar and Bulgar) is scant, little is known about any precise interrelation of these languages and it is a matter of dispute whether Chuvash, the only "Lir"-type language with sufficient extant linguistic material, might be the daughter language of any of these or just a sister branch.[19]
| Volga Bulgar – البلغَاڔِى | Chuvash – Чӑвашла[50] | Proto-Turkic | Volga Bulgar – البلغَاڔِى | Chuvash – Чӑвашла | Proto-Turkic | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| one | بیر (bīr) | пӗр (pĕr) | *bīr | monument | بَلُو (belüv) | палӑк (palăk) | *belig |
| two | اَكِ (eki) | иккӗ (ikkĕ) | *ẹki | water | شِو (šïv) | шыв (šyv) | *sub |
| three | وج (več) | виççӗ (viśśĕ) | *üč | son | اَول (avïl) | ывӑл (yvăl) | *ogul |
| four | تُوات (tüvet) | тăваттă (tăvattă) | *tȫrt | daughter | هِير (hīr) | хӗр (hĕr) | *kï̄ŕ |
| five | بيال (biyel) | пиллӗк (pillĕk) | *bẹ̄ĺ(k) | day | كُوَان (küven or kön) | кун (kun) | *kün |
| six | اَلطِ (altï) | улттӑ (ulttă) | *altï | week | ايرنى (ērne) | эрне (erne) | (from Persian آدینه (âdine)) |
| seven | جیَاتِ (čyeti) | ҫиччӗ (śiččĕ) | *yẹti | month | اَيخ (ayïx) | уйӑх (ujăh) | *āń(k) |
| eight | سَكِر (sekir) | саккӑр (sakkăr) | *sekiŕ | year | جال (čal) | ҫул (śul) | *yāĺ |
| nine | طُخِر (tuxïr) | тӑххӑр (tăhhăr) | *tokuŕ | history | تَارِيخ (tārix) | истори (istori) | (from Arabic تَارِيخ (tārīḵ)) |
| ten | وان (van) | вуннӑ (vunnă) | *ōn | to become | بَل (bal) | пул (pul) | *bōl- |
| twenty | جِيِرم (čiyirim) | ҫирӗм (śirĕm) | *yẹgirmi | to do, make | طَن (ta-n) | ту (tu) | - |
| thirty | وطر (vutur) | вӑтӑр (vătăr) | *otuŕ | to go | بَر (bar) | пыр (pyr) | *bar- |
| forty | حرح (xïrïx) | хӗрӗх (hĕrĕh) | *kïrk | to love | سَو (sev) | сав (sav) | *seb- |
| fifty | الو (ellüv), اَلُّ (ellü) | аллӑ (allă) | *ellig | to die | وَل (vel) | вил (vil) | *öl- |
| hundred | جُور (čǖr) | ҫӗр (śĕr) | *yǖŕ | to migrate | كُوَج (küveč or köč) | куҫ (kuś) | *köč- |
| Case | Volga Bulgar | Examples in words |
|---|---|---|
| Genitive | -∅ or -(ı)n | اَغَان (ağā-n), يغقوُتن (yaquut-ın) |
| Accusative | -ne/na | مَسجِدسَمنَ (mesčidsem-ne) |
| Dative-locative | -a/e and -ne/na | اِشنَ (iš-ne), بَجنَ (bač-na), جَالَ (čāl-a) |
| Ablative | -ran, -ren; -tan, -ten | دنيَارَان (dönyā-ran) |
| Third person possessive | -i, -ı; -si, -sı | هِيرِ (hīr-i), اِلغِجِسِ (ılğıčı-sı) |
| Tenses and moods | Volga Bulgar | Examples in words |
|---|---|---|
| Past tense | -ti/tı, -ri/rı | وَلتِ (vel-ti) |
| Past tense 2 | -ruvı/rüvi (<*-dugı), -tuvı/tüvi (<*-tugı) | كُوَجروُي (küveč-rüvi), بلطُوى (bal-tuvı) |
| Adjective form of verb | -an/en | طَنَان (tan-an), سَوَان (sev-en) |
| Adverb form of verb | -sa/se | بَرسَ (bar-sa) |
| Third person imperative | -tur/tür | طَنْطُرْ (tan-tur) |
See also
Notes
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Bolgarian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/bolg1250.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Encyclopædia Britannica Online – Bolgar Turkic
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Campbell, George L. Compendium of the World's Languages. Routledge, 2000. page 274
- ↑ Price, Glanville (2000). Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 88. ISBN 0-631-22039-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=29BAeKHwvuoC&pg=PA88.
- ↑ Clauson, Gerard (2002). Studies in Turkic and Mongolic linguistics. Taylor & Francis. p. 38. ISBN 0-415-29772-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=uJ-7yFXRpiYC&pg=PA38.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan". Harvard Ukrainian Studies (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute) IV (4): 470. ISSN 0363-5570. ""The language had strong ties to Bulgar language and to modern Chuvash, but also had some important connections, especially lexical and morphological, to Ottoman Turkish and Yakut"".
- ↑ Arşivi, Makale. "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan" (pages 428, ..., 476), author: Omeljan Pritsak. p. 430. https://www.academia.edu/88411462. ""I was able to establish a Danube- Bulgarian nominative- suffix /A/ from the consonant stems. Recalling that Danube- Bulgarian was a Hunnic language.""
- ↑ Ramer, Alexis Manaster. "Proto-Bulgarian/Danube Bulgar/Hunno-Bulgar Bekven". https://www.academia.edu/41975042.
- ↑ Savelyev, Alexander (27 May 2020). "Chuvash and the Bulgharic Languages". The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages. Oxford University Press. p. 448. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198804628.003.0028. ISBN 978-0-19-880462-8.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Golden, Peter B. (1992). An introduction to the history of the Turkic peoples: ethnogenesis and state-formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the Middle East. Turcologica. Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz. pp. 88 89. ISBN 978-3-447-03274-2.
- ↑ RÓNA-TAS, ANDRÁS (1 March 1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Central European University Press. p. 208. doi:10.7829/j.ctv280b77f. ISBN 978-963-386-572-9.
- ↑ Sinor, Denis (1997). Studies in medieval inner Asia. Collected studies series. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate. p. 336. ISBN 978-0-86078-632-0.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Golden, Peter B. (2011). Studies on the Peoples and Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes. Editura Academiei Române; Editura Istros a Muzeului Brăilei. ISBN 9789732721520. https://www.academia.edu/9609971.
- ↑ Zakhoder, B. N. (1962). Belyayev, E. A.. ed (in ru). I. Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura. p. 238.
- ↑ Ludwig W. Adamec (2009), Historical Dictionary of Islam, p.137. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810861615.
- ↑ Brook, Kevin Alan (1999). The Jews of Khazaria. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. p. 63. ISBN 0-7657-6032-0. OCLC 39655011.
- ↑ Erdal, Marcel (2007). "The Khazar Language". in Golden, Peter B.; Ben-Shammai, Haggai; Róna-Tas, András. The World of the Khazars: New Perspectives. Handbuch der Orientalistik: Handbook of Uralic studies. 17. BRILL. pp. 75–108. ISBN 978-90-04-16042-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZzXjdyK-CEC&pg=PA75.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Johanson, Lars (1998). "The history of Turkic". in Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Agnes. The Turkic languages. London: Routledge. pp. 81–125.
- ↑ "Classification of Turkic languages". http://www.turkiclanguages.com/www/classification.html.
- ↑ Johanson, Lars (2007). "Chuvash". Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Pritsak, Omeljan (December 1982). "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan". Harvard Ukrainian Studies (Ukrainian Research Institute of Harvard University) VI (4): 428-476. ISSN 0363-5570. http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/huri/files/vvi_n4_dec1982.pdf. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
- ↑ Ocak, Murat (2002). Güzel, Hasan Celāl; Oğuz, Cem; Karatay, Osman. eds. The Turks: Early ages. 1: Cem Oğuz. Yeni Türkiye. p. 535. ISBN 975-6782-55-2.
- ↑ Granberg, Antoaneta (2009). "Classification of the Hunno-Bulgarian Loan-Words in Slavonic". in Ambrosiani, Per (PDF). Swedish Contributions to the Fourteenth International Congress of Slavists (Ohrid, 10-16 September 2008). Umeå: Umeå University. pp. 19-31. 79023. ISBN 978-91-7264-814-2. https://www.academia.edu/683028/Classification_of_the_Hunno_Bulgarian_Loan_Words_in_Slavonic. Retrieved 2022-07-31.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Granberg, Antoaneta (2008). "The Hunno-Bulgarian language". The DSCA Journal (Danish Society for Central Asia): 6–10. http://www.centralasien.dk/joomla/images/journal/DSCA2008.pdf. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ↑ Dobrev, Peter. "Old Bulgar words from VI–X c. AD sources". http://www.kroraina.com/b_lang/bl_oldwords.html.
- ↑ Bakalov, Georgi. "Error: no
|title=specified when using {{Cite web}}" (in bg). http://www.protobulgarians.com/Statii%20ot%20drugi%20avtori/Bakalov-1.htm.- See also Part 2
- ↑ Dimitrov, Bozhidar (2005) (in bg).
- ↑ Milcheva Khristina (15 October 2007) (in bg). Bulgarians are of ancient Iranian origin. Kazan, Russia.
- ↑ Woroniff, Jon. "Editor's Foreword". http://chapters.scarecrowpress.com/08/108/0810849011ch1.pdf.
- ↑ Detrez, Raymond; Plas, Pieter; Lang, Peter (2005). Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence. Peter Lang. p. 29. ISBN 90-5201-297-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=TRttHdXjP14C&pg=PA29.
- ↑ Beshevliyev, Veselin (1967). Moscow: Nauka / Academy of Sciences of the USSR Department of History. pp. 237–247.
- ↑ Yordanov, Stefan (22–23 August 2001) (in bg). Българистични проучвания 8. Актуални проблеми на българистиката и славистиката. Седма международна научна сесия. Veliko Tarnovo. pp. 275–295.
- ↑ . 30. Sofia University. 2005. pp. 66–68.
- ↑ . 62. Bulgarian Historical Society, Institute of History (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences). 2006. p. 14.
- ↑ Palaeobulgarica: Starobŭlgaristika. 24. Center for Bulgarian Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. 2000. p. 53.
- ↑ Angelov, Dimitar (1971). Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo "Vekove". p. 117. http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/da/da_2_2.htm. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
- ↑ Petrov, Petur (1981). Sofia: Nauka i izkustvo. p. 94. http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/pp2/pp_1_2_1.htm. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
- ↑ Karloukovski, Vassil. "V. Zlatarski – Istorija 1A – a 1". http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/vz1a/vz1a_a_1.html.
- ↑ Benedikov, Ivan (1995). "Error: no
|title=specified when using {{Cite web}}". Stara Zagora: College "Thrace" publishing house. pp. 16–19. http://www.kroraina.com/knigi/iv_gumno/iv_gumno_1.htm. - ↑ Curta, Florin; Kovalev, Roman (2008). The Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans. Brill. p. 189. ISBN 978-90-04-16389-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=_-G1L-9Zec0C&pg=PA189.
- ↑ Rance, Philip,"Photios and the Bulgar Language (τῶγα, tuğ)" Byzantinoslavica 79 (2021) 41–58
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 43.2 Tekin, Talât (1987) (in Turkish). Tuna Bulgarları ve Dilleri. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. http://kutuphane.akmb.gov.tr/opac/details?id=42364&materialType=BK&query=%22tekin%2C+talat%22.
- ↑ Clark, Larry (1998). "Chuvash". in Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Agnes. The Turkic languages. London: Routledge. p. 434.
- ↑ "Error: no
|title=specified when using {{Cite web}}" (in ru). http://gov.cap.ru/hierarhy_cap.asp?page=./86/3743/1046/1053. - ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 Hakimzjanov, F. S. (1986). "New Volga Bulgarian inscriptions". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (Akadémiai Kiadó) 40 (1): 173–177.
- ↑ 47.0 47.1 47.2 Tekin, Talât (1988) (in tr). Volga Bulgar kitabeleri ve Volga Bulgarcası. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. pp. 30–38. ISBN 978-9-751600-660. http://kutuphane.akmb.gov.tr/opac/details?id=46293&materialType=BK&query=Volga+Bulgar+Kitabeleri+ve+Volga+Bulgarcas%C4%B1.
- ↑ A Volga Bulgarıan Inscription From 1307 A. Róna-tas
- ↑ Zakiev, M. Z.. "Error: no
|title=specified when using {{Cite web}}". http://bulgarizdat.ru/index.php/book1/article1-1. - ↑ "Numbers in Chuvash". https://omniglot.com/language/numbers/chuvash.htm.
External links
- Britannica Online – The article describes the position of Bulgar and Chuvash in the classification of the Turkic languages.
- "Sergei Starostin's Tower of Babel". http://starling.rinet.ru/Texts/bulgar.pdf. – A Russian Turkologist's take on Danube Bulgar inscriptions and the Bulgar calendar, in Russian. The article contains a tentative decipherment of inscriptions based on the Turkic hypothesis. (350 KiB)
- Rashev, Rasho. 1992. On the origin of the Proto-Bulgarians. p. 23–33 in: Studia protobulgarica et mediaevalia europensia. In honour of Prof. V. Beshevliev, Veliko Tarnovo – A Bulgarian archeologist's proposal. The author concedes that the ruling elite of the Bulgars was Turkic-speaking as evidenced by the inscriptions etc., but stipulates that the bulk of the population was Iranian.
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