Zolotoordynskoe Obozrenie (Dec 2016)
The Tatar and Kipchak Languages in the Frameworks of One Linguageographic Reconstruction.
Abstract
Objective: To examine the origin and development of several Turkic languages spoken in the North Caucasus. Research materials: the era of Turkic khanate domination in the steppes of Asia and Eastern Europe marked the formation of the ancient Turkic literary tradition. Initially it was displayed in the original Orkhon-Yenisey alphabet. Later, in the principality Kocho and Karakhanids’ state this tradition was transliterated into alphabet borrowed from the Sogdians. In his work compiled in Arabic, Karakhanid Mahmoud al-Kashgari was first to describe Turkic-speaking dialects that differed from the ancient writing standards. Among them, he focused mainly on the languages of nomadic Oguz and Kipchak confederations. One after another they occupied the steppes of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Based on al-Kashgari’s information, the author of this article demonstrates that the territory occupied by the Kipchak confederation preserved Oghuz dialect used by Oghuz tribes Kangly and Karabёrkli who joined to Kipchaks. The Kyrgyz branch of the Turkic languages brought by Kipchaks to the West spread in this area as well. The rise and conquest of the Great Mongol Empire changed the language boundaries and literary canons of Central Asia, Siberia and Eastern Europe forever. In the time of the Mongol Empire practice of bilingualism established in the area. Literary canons from now and until the first third of the 20th century were based on the Turkic speech of Chagataid ulus of the Mongol Empire. On the other hand, examining the Antonio de Finale’s manuscript composed at the beginning of the 14th century on the territory of the Jochid Ulus, and a number of documents of the 16th–18th centuries written in the Lithuanian Tatar, the author reveals the formation history of Tatar branch of Turkic languages in the steppes of Dasht-i Kipchak. Results and novelty of the research: on the basis of this information the article manages to conclude that both Chagatai and the Golden Horde languages were brought to the west during the Mongol invasions. Through the prism of these events, the article examines the problem of the origin and development of several Turkic languages spoken in the North Caucasus.
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