Oghuz languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oghuz
Geographic
distribution:

 Turkish Group   Azerbaijani Group   Turkmen Group   Others 

Genetic
classification
:
Turkic
 Oghuz
Subdivisions:
Turkish Group
Azerbaijani Group
Turkmen Group

The Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family, are spoken by more than 90 million people in an area spanning from the Balkans to China.

Contents

[edit] Linguistic Features

The Oghuz languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together. Some of these features are shared with other Turkic languages; others are unique to the Oghuz family.

[edit] Shared features

[edit] Unique features

  • Voicing of stops before front vowels (e.g. gör- < kör- "to see")
  • Loss of q/ɣ after ɨ/u (e.g. quru < quruq "dry", sarɨ < sarɨɣ "yellow")
  • Change in form of participial -gan- to -an-

[edit] Classification

The Oghuz languages may be broken down into three main groups, based on geography and shared features:

An outlying language, Salar, is spoken by about 70,000 people in China.

Two languages, Crimean Tatar and Urum are historically Kypchak languages, but have been so heavily influenced by Oghuz languages that it is difficult to classify them definitively as either Oghuz or Kypchak.

The extinct Pecheneg language is probably Oghuz, but as it is poorly documented, it is difficult to further classify it within the Oghuz family.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Johanson, Lars and Csató, Éva Ágnes (1998). The Turkic Languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08200-5.
  • Menges, Karl H. (1995). The Turkic Languages and Peoples. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03533-1.
v  d  e
Turkic languages
West Turkic
Bolgar Bolgar* | Chuvash | Hunnic* | Khazar*
Chagatay Aini2| Chagatay* | Ili Turki | Lop | Uyghur | Uzbek
Kypchak Baraba | Bashkir | Crimean Tatar1 | Cuman* | Karachay-Balkar | Karaim | Karakalpak | Kazakh | Kipchak* | Krymchak | Kumyk | Nogay | Tatar | Urum1
Oghuz Afshar | Azerbaijani | Crimean Tatar1 | Gagauz | Khorasani Turkish | Ottoman Turkish* | Pecheneg* | Qashqai | Salar | Turkish | Turkmen | Urum1
East Turkic
Khalaj Khalaj
Kyrgyz-Kypchak Altay | Kyrgyz
Uyghur Chulym | Dolgan | Fuyü Gïrgïs | Khakas | Northern Altay | Shor | Tofa | Tuvan | Western Yugur | Sakha / Yakut
Old Turkic*
Notes: 1 Listed in more than one group, 2 Mixed language, * Extinct