The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq, Qypshaq or the Northwestern Turkic languages) are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 28 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanning from Ukraine to China. Some of the most widely spoken languages in this group are Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tatar.
| Kipchak | |
|---|---|
| Northwestern Turkic | |
| Ethnicity | Kipchaks |
| Geographic distribution | Central Asia, Russia, Northern Caucasus, Balkans, Anatolia Ukraine, China |
| Linguistic classification | Turkic
|
| Subdivisions |
|
| Glottolog | kipc1239 |
Linguistic features edit
The Kipchak languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together. Some of these features are shared with other Common Turkic languages; others are unique to the Kipchak family.
edit
- Change of Proto-Turkic *d to /j/ (e.g. *hadaq > ajaq "foot")
- Loss of initial *h (preserved only in Khalaj), see above example
Unique features edit
Family-specific edit
- Extensive labial vowel harmony (e.g. olor vs. olar "them") [citation needed]
- Frequent fortition (in the form of assibilation) of initial */j/ (e.g. *jetti > ʒetti "seven")
- Diphthongs from syllable-final */ɡ/ and */b/ (e.g. *taɡ > taw "mountain", *sub > suw "water")
Language-specific edit
- In both Tatar and Bashkir, the original mid and high vowels are swapped in position by vowel raising and lowering:
| Old Turkic | Tatar (for example) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid → high | |||
| *e | /e/ | i | /i/ |
| *o | /o/ | u | /u/ |
| *ö | /ø/ | ü | /y/ |
| High → Mid | |||
| *i | /i/ | e | /e/ |
| *ı | /ɯ/ | î | /ɤ/ |
| *u | /u/ | o | /o/ |
| *ü | /y/ | ö | /ø/ |
Classification edit
The Kipchak languages may be broken down into four groups based on geography and shared features (languages in bold are still spoken today):
| Proto-Turkic | Common Turkic | Kipchak | Kipchak–Bulgar (Uralian, Uralo-Caspian) | ||
| Kipchak–Cuman (Ponto-Caspian) |
| ||||
| Kipchak–Nogai (Aralo-Caspian) | |||||
| Kyrgyz–Kipchak (Kyrgyz) |
| ||||
See also edit
Notes edit
- ^ Except for the Southern "dialect", which is classified among the Western Oghuz languages despite its dialect status.[2]
References edit
- ^ Encyclopedia of Bashkortostan.
- ^ Yazyki mira Языки мира [Languages of the World]. Vol. 2. Indirk: Институт языкознания (Российская академия наук). 1997. pp. 19–20.
- ^ Some dialects are close to Kirghiz (Johanson 1998)
- ^ Nevskaya, I.A. "The Teleut Language". Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia. UNESCO. Retrieved 2021-07-16.
Bibliography edit
- Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Ágnes (1998). The Turkic Languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08200-5.
- Menges, Karl H. (1995). The Turkic Languages and Peoples (2nd ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03533-1.