Derivatives -či/čï in the medieval Kipchak manuscript Temür Qutlugh Khan’s yarliǧ

Abstract

In 1397, Temür Qutlugh, Khan of the Golden Horde, issued the edict (yarlïǧ) to a local royal family in Crimea. In this medieval manuscript, the addresser mentions dozens of profession names, many of which are formed with the help of the word-formative suffix (affix) -či/čï. The derivative -či/čï is a common word-formation affix in Old and modern Turkic languages, its origins are in the Proto-Altaic language. -či/čï is actively functioning in both the early and late Middle Ages, which is also confirmed by the analysis of derived words in this specific manuscript. Historically, -či/-čï denoted a person’s connection with a subject, an action, or a professional activity to which it attaches, and this word-formation meaning has also existed in this manuscript (bitigči, tartnaqčï, köprükči, etc.). The authors have made a semantic and etymological analysis of the generating bases of lexemes, identified the corpus of derived words denoting professions in the Golden Horde, considered their syntagmatic and contextual compatibility, and concluded that derived words with derivatives -či/-čï in the vocabulary of Temür Qutlugh yarlïǧï, and their word-formation meanings have continuity with similar derivatives of modern Turkic languages.

Keywords

• Golden Horde, manuscript of the Middle Ages, Temür Qutlugh Khan’s yarlïğ, derivatives, affix či/čï, semantic analysis, continuity, Turkic languages.