Bulgar language
| Bulgar | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | from Central Asia to the steppes North of the Caucasus, the Volga, and the Danube, and Southern Italy (Molise, Campania) |
| Extinct | between the 9th century on the Danube and the 14th century on the Volga |
| Language family | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xbo |
Bulgar (also spelled Bolğar, Bulghar) is an extinct language which was spoken by the Bulgars. It was a language belonging to Oghur subgroup of Turkic languages.[1][2][3][4]
It is named for the Bulgars, a tribal association of uncertain ethno-linguistic composition which conquered Moesia in the 7th century,[5][6][7] establishing the Bulgar khanate, known as Old Great Bulgaria in the mid-7th century, giving rise to the Danubian Bulgaria by the 680s. While the language was extinct in Danubian Bulgaria (in favour of the Slavic Bulgarian language), it persisted in Volga Bulgaria, eventually giving rise to the modern Chuvash language.[8][9][10]
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[edit] Affiliation
Most historians place the Bulgar language it among the "Lir" branch of Turkic languages referred to as Oghur-Turkic, Lir-Turkic, or, indeed, "Bulghar 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) š.[5][7][11] As was stated by Al-Istakhri "the language of Bulgars resembles the language of Khazars".[12] The only surviving language from this linguistic group is the Chuvash.
On the other hand, some Bulgarian historians, especially modern ones, link the Bulgar language to the Iranian language group instead (more specifically, the Pamir languages are frequently mentioned), noting the presence of Iranic words in the modern Bulgarian language.[13][14][15][16] According to Prof. Raymond Detrez, who is specialist in Bulgarian history and language,[17] such views have arisen in 1980s, and are based on anti-Turkish sentiments. He have maintained that most of Iranian loanwords in modern Bulgarian are result of Ottoman language influence.[18] However, most Bulgarian historians, especially older ones, only point out certain signs of Iranian influence in the Turkic base,[19] or indeed support the Turkic theory.[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]
[edit] Danube Bulgar
The language of the Danube Bulgars (or Danube Bulgar) is recorded in a small number of inscriptions, which are found in Pliska, the first capital of Danube Bulgaria and in the rock churches near the village of Murfatlar, present-day Romania. Some of these inscriptions are written with Greek characters, others with runes similar to the Orkhon script. Most of them appear to have 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 Danube-Bulgar are found along with other official ones written in Greek. Greek was used as the official state language of Danube Bulgaria until the 9th century, when it was replaced by Old Bulgarian (Slavonic).
The language of the Danube 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, 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 e.g. in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian Khans). The language became extinct in Danubian Bulgaria in the 9th century as the Bulgar nobility became gradually Slavicized after the Slavic language was declared as official in 893.
[edit] 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 Turkic runes. 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[28] 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).[5][6][29] 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 (Hunnic, Turkic Avar, 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.[11]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Petrov 1981: §A.II.1
- ^ Angelov 1971: §II.2
- ^ Runciman 1930: §I.1
- ^ Siegert 1985: 46
- ^ a b c Encyclopaedia Britannica Online - Bolgar Turkic
- ^ a b Campbell, George L. Compendium of the World's Languages. Routledge, 2000. page 274
- ^ a b Marcantonio, Angela. The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics. Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2002. page 25
- ^ The Uralic language family: facts, myths and statistics, Angela Marcantonio, Wiley-Blackwell, 2002, ISBN 0631231706, p. 167.
- ^ Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe, Glanville Price, Wiley-Blackwell, 2000, ISBN 0631220399, p. 88.
- ^ Studies in Turkic and Mongolic linguistics, Royal Asiatic Society books, Gerard Clauson, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0415297729, p. 38.
- ^ a b Johanson, Lars. 1998. "The history of Turkic." In: Johanson, Lars & Éva Agnes Csató (ed.). 1998. The Turkic languages. London: Routledge, pp. 81-125.[1]; Johanson, Lars. 2007. Chuvash. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier.
- ^ Al-Istakhri translation by Zahoder B. N. "Caspian code of the information about Eastern Europe. Gorgan and Volga area in 9-11 cc", Oriental Literature, Moscow, 1962, p. 238
- ^ Добрев, Петър, 1995. "Езикът на Аспаруховите и Куберовите българи" 1995.
- ^ Бакалов, Георги. Малко известни факти от историята на древните българи Част 1част 2
- ^ Димитров, Божидар, 2005. 12 мита в българската история
- ^ Милчева, Христина. Българите са с древно-ирански произход. Научна конференция "Средновековна Рус, Волжка България и северното Черноморие в контекста на руските източни връзки", Казан, Русия, 15.10.2007
- ^ Detrez has specialisized Bulgarian philology at Sofia University and is author of several books treating Bulgarian history.
- ^ Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence, Raymond Detrez, Pieter Plas, Peter Lang, 2005, ISBN 9052012970, p. 29.
- ^ Бешевлиев, Веселин. Ирански елементи у първобългарите. Античное Общество, Труды Конференции по изучению проблем античности, стр. 237-247, Издательство "Наука", Москва 1967, АН СССР, Отделение Истории.
- ^ Йорданов, Стефан. Славяни, тюрки и индо-иранци в ранното средновековие: езикови проблеми на българския етногенезис. В: Българистични проучвания. 8. Актуални проблеми на българистиката и славистиката. Седма международна научна сесия. Велико Търново, 22-23 август 2001 г. Велико Търново, 2002, 275-295.
- ^ Съпоставително езикознание, Том 30, Софийски университет "Климент Охридски", 2005, стр. 66-68.
- ^ Исторически преглед, Том 62, Броеве 3–4, Bŭlgarsko istorichesko druzhestvo, Institut za istoria (Bŭlgarska akademia na naukite) 2006, стр. 14.
- ^ Palaeobulgarica: Starobŭlgaristika, Том 24, Tsentŭr za bŭlgaristika (Bŭlgarska akademiia na naukite), 2000, стр. 53.
- ^ Образуване на българската народност. Димитър Ангелов (Издателство Наука и изкуство, “Векове”, София, 1971) стр. 117.
- ^ Образуване на българската държава, Петър Петров (Издателство Наука и изкуство, София, 1981) стр. 94.
- ^ Васил Н. Златарски, История на Първото българско Царство. Наука и изкуство, София 1970, под ред. на Петър Хр. Петров, стр. 55-56.
- ^ Медното гумно на прабългарите. Иван Венедиков (Издателство към колеж „Тракия”, II. прераб. изд., Стара Загора 1995) стр. 16-19.
- ^ Clark, Larry. 1998. "Chuvash." In: Johanson, Lars & Éva Agnes Csató (ed.). 1998. The Turkic languages. London: Routledge, p.434
- ^ Формирование болгарской (древнечувашской) народности - web page
[edit] External links
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Look up Bulgar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Britannica Online - The article describes the position of Bulgar and Chuvash in the classification of the Turkic languages.
- Sergei Starostin's Tower of Babel - 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.PDF (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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