Proto-Turkic language
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (June 2011) |
| Proto-Turkic | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of | Turkic languages |
| Region | Probably Mongolia |
| Era | c. 500 BCE |
Reconstructed ancestor | |
Proto-Turkic is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Turkic languages that was spoken by the Proto-Turks before their divergence into the various Turkic peoples. Proto-Turkic separated into Oghur (western) and Common Turkic (eastern) branches. One estimate postulates Proto-Turkic to have been spoken 2,500 years ago in East Asia.[1]
The oldest records of a Turkic language, the Old Turkic Orkhon inscriptions of the 7th century Göktürk khaganate, already shows characteristics of Eastern Common Turkic and reconstruction of Proto-Turkic must rely on comparisons of Old Turkic with early sources of the Western Common Turkic branches, such as Oghuz and Kypchak, as well as the Western Oghur proper (Bulgar, Chuvash, Khazar). Because early attestation of these non-easternmost languages is much more sparse, reconstruction of Proto-Turkic still rests fundamentally on the easternmost Old Turkic of the Göktürks.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonant system had a two-way contrast of stop consonants (fortis vs. lenis), k, p, t vs. g, b, d. There was also an affricate consonant, ç; at least one sibilant s and sonorants m, n, ń, ŋ, r, ŕ, l, ĺ with a full series of nasal consonants.
The sounds denoted by ń, ĺ, ŕ refer to palatalized sounds and have been claimed by Altaicists to be direct inheritances from Proto-Altaic. The last two can be reconstructed with the aid of the Oghur languages, which show /r, l/ for *ŕ, *ĺ, while Common Turkic has *z, *š. Oghuric is thus sometimes referred to as Lir-Turkic and Common Turkic as Shaz-Turkic.
However, an alternate theory holds that Common Turkic is closer to the original state of affairs and reconstructs Proto-Turkic *z, *š. The glottochronological reconstruction based on analysis of isoglosses and Sinicisms points to the timing of the r/z split at around 56 BCE–48 CE. As A. V. Dybo puts it, that may be associated with
the historical situation that can be seen in the history of the Huns' division onto the Northern and Southern [groups]: the first separation and withdrawal of the Northern Huns to the west has occurred, as was stated above, in 56 BC,... the second split of the (Eastern) Huns into the northern and southern groups happened in 48 AD.[2]
Dybo suggests that during that period, the Northern branch steadily migrated from Western Mongolia through Southern Xinjiang into the north's Dzungaria and then finally into Kazakhstan's Zhetysu until the 5th century.[2]
There was no fortis-lenis contrast in word-initial position: the initial stops were always *b, *t, *k, the affricate was always *č (*ç) and the sibilant was always *s. In addition, the nasals and the liquids did not occur in that position either.[3]
| Bilabial | Dental or alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives and affricate |
Fortis | *p | *t | *⟨ç⟩ t͡ʃ | *k | |
| Lenis | *b | *d | *g | |||
| Sibilants | *s | *h | ||||
| Nasals | *m | *n | *⟨ń⟩ nʲ | *ŋ | ||
| Liquids | Lateral(s) | *l | *⟨ĺ⟩ lʲ | |||
| Rhotic(s) | *r | *⟨ŕ⟩ rʲ | ||||
| Semivowel | *j | |||||
The velars /k/ and /g/ seem to have had back and front allophones ([q] and [k], [ɢ] and [g]) according to their environments, and the lenis stops /b/, /d/ and /g/ may have tended towards fricatives intervocalically.[4]
Vowels
Like most of its descendants, Proto-Turkic exhibited vowel harmony, distinguishing vowel qualities a, e, ı, o, u vs. ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, as well as two vowel quantities. Here, macrons represent long vowels. The existence of a mid back unrounded *e is not accepted by all scholars,[5] nor is that of a mid front unrounded *ë.[6] The phonemicity of the distinction between the two close unrounded vowels, i.e. front *ï and back *ı, is also rejected by some.[6]
| front | back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
| high | *ï, *ï̄ /i/ | *ü, *ǖ /y/ | *ı, *ī /ɨ/ | *u, *ū /u/ |
| mid | *ë, *ë̄ /e/ | *ö, *ȫ /ø/~/œ/ | *e, *ē /ə/ | *o, *ō /o/ |
| low | *ä, *ǟ /ɛ/ | *a, *ā /ä/ | - | |
Morphology
This section deals mainly with Róna-Tas (1998). However, some of his reconstructions of Proto-Turkic have some Common Turkic features like substituting *-z for palatalized *-ŕ.
Nouns
Plural of nouns are formed by the suffix *-lAr, however, the Chuvash plural -sem <-сем> seems to be a late replacement. Reconstructable possessive suffixes in Proto-Turkic includes 1sg *-m, 2sg *-ŋ, and 3sg *-(s)i, plurals of the possessors are formed by *-z in Common Turkic languages.
Verbs
The reconstructable suffixes for the verbs include:
- Aorist: *-Vr
- Past: *-dI
- Negative suffix: *-mA
- 1sg: *-m < *-män < *bän
- 2sg: *-n < *sän
- 3sg: *-∅ < *ï
- 1pl: *-mïz/*-bïz < *bïz
- 2pl: *-sïz < *sïz
Proto-Turkic also involves derivation with grammatical voice suffixes, as in cooperative *körüš, middle *körün, passive *körül, and causative *körtkür.
Vocabulary
Pronouns
| Proto-Turkic | Turkish | Azeri | Turkmen | Kazakh | Chuvash | Karakhanid | Uzbek | Bashkir | Kyrgyz | Sakha (Yakut) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | *bë,[7][8] *bän-[9][10] | ben, ban- | mən | men | men, ma- | e-pĕ, man- | men, man- | men | min | men | min |
| you | *së,[7][11] *sän- | sen, san- | sən | sen | sen, sa-, siz | e-sĕ, san- | sen, san- | sen, siz | hin | sen, siz | en |
| he/she/it | *an-, *o-l | on-, o | on-, o | ol | on-, o-l | un-, văl | an-, ol | u | ul | al | kini, ol[12] |
| we | *bïŕ | biz | biz | biz | biz | pir- | biz | biz | beð | biz | bihigi |
| you (plural) | *sïŕ | siz | siz | siz | sender, sizder | sir- | siz | sizlar | heð | siler, sizder | ehigi |
| they | *o-lar[13] | on-lar | onlar | olar | olar | vĕsem, vĕsen- | olar | ular | ular | alar | kiniler, ollor |
Numbers
| Proto-Turkic | Oghur Turkic | Common Turkic | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volga Bulgar | Chuvash | Karakhanid | Turkish | Azeri | Turkmen | Kazakh | Uzbek | Bashkir | Kyrgyz | Sakha (Yakut) | ||
| 1 | *bï̄r | بر (bir) | pĕr | bīr | bir | bir | bir | bir | bir | ber | bir | biir |
| 2 | *ëkï | اَكِ (eki) | ikĕ | ikkī | iki | iki | iki | eki | ikki | ike | eki | ikki |
| 3 | *üç | وج (več) | viśĕ | üč | üç | üç | üç | üsh | uch | ös | üč | üs |
| 4 | *dȫrt | تُوات (tüvet) | tăvată | tȫrt | dört | dörd | dört | tört | to'rt | dürt | tört | tüört |
| 5 | *bë̄ĺ(k) | بيال (byel) | pilĕk | bḗš | beş | beş | bäş | bes | besh | biş | beş | bies |
| 6 | *altı | اَلطِ (altï) | ultă | altï̄ | altı | altı | alty | altı | olti | altı | altı | alta |
| 7 | *jëtï | جىَاتِ (čyeti) | śičĕ | yétī | yedi | yeddi | ýedi | jeti | yetti | yete | jeti | sette |
| 8 | *säkïŕ | ڛَكِڔ (sekir) | sakăr | sekiz | sekiz | səkkiz | sekiz | segiz | sakkiz | higeð | segiz | aаğıs |
| 9 | *tokuŕ | طُخِڔ (tuxïr) | tăhăr | tokūz | dokuz | doqquz | dokuz | toğız | to'qqiz | tuğıð | toguz | toğus |
| 10 | *ōn | وان (van) | vună | ōn | on | on | on | on | o'n | un | on | uon |
| 20 | *jëgïrmï | جِيِرم (čiyirim) | śirĕm | yegirmī | yirmi | iyirmi | ýigrimi | jıyırma | yigirma | yegerme | jıyırma | süürbe |
| 30 | *otuŕ | وطر (vutur) | văḍăr | ottuz | otuz | otuz | otuz | otız | o'ttiz | utıð | otuz | otut |
| 40 | *kırk | حرح (xïrïx) | hĕrĕh | kïrk | kırk | qırx | kyrk | qırıq | qirq | qırq | kırk | - |
| 50 | *ällïg | اَلُّ (ellü) | allă | ellig | elli | əlli | elli | eliw | ellik | ille | elüü | - |
| 60 | *ältmıĺ | - | utmăl | altmïš | altmış | altmış | altmyş | alpıs | oltmish | altmış | altımış | - |
| 70 | *jëtmïĺ | - | śitmĕl | yetmiš | yetmiş | yetmiş | ýetmiş | jetpis | yetmish | yetmeş | jetimiş | - |
| 80 | *säkïŕ ōn | سكر وان (sekir van) | sakărvun | seksȫn | seksen | səksən | segsen | seksen | sakson | hikhän | seksen | ağıs uon |
| 90 | *tokuŕ ōn | طوخر وان (tuxïr van) | tăhărvun | toksōn | doksan | doxsan | dogsan | toqsan | to'qson | tuqhan | tokson | toğus uon |
| 100 | *jǖŕ | جُور (čǖr) | śĕr | yǖz | yüz | yüz | ýüz | jüz | yuz | yöð | jüz | süüs |
| 1000 | *bıŋ | - | pin | miŋ | bin | min | müň | mıñ | ming | meñ | miñ | muñ |
References
- ^ Janhunen, Juha (2013). "Personal pronouns in Core Altaic". In Martine Irma Robbeets; Hubert Cuyckens (eds.). Shared Grammaticalization: With special focus on the Transeurasian languages. p. 223. ISBN 9789027205995.
- ^ a b Dybo, A. V. (2007). Chronology of Turkic languages and linguistic contacts of early Turks (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow. p. 770. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-03-11.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Róna-Tas 1998: 71
- ^ Johanson 1998: 97. History of Turkic. In: Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva (eds.). The Turkic Languages. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 81-125.
- ^ Róna-Tas 1998: 70
- ^ a b Johanson 1998: 90-91. History of Turkic. In: Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva (eds.). The Turkic Languages. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 81-125.
- ^ a b Georg, Stefan (2004-12-22). "Review of Starostin, Dybo, Mudrak, Gruntov & Glumov (2003): Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages". Diachronica. 21 (2): 445–450. doi:10.1075/dia.21.2.12geo. ISSN 0176-4225.
- ^ "Turkic etymology : Query result". starling.rinet.ru. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
- ^ "Reconstruction:Proto-Turkic/ben", Wiktionary, 2021-08-20, retrieved 2021-09-23
- ^ "Proto-Turkic/Pronouns and numbers - Wikibooks, open books for an open world". en.wikibooks.org. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
- ^ "Turkic etymology : Query result". starling.rinet.ru. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
- ^ In Sakha (AKA Yakut), kini(ler) is used for animate referents whereas ol(lor) is used for inanimate referents. While the latter is cognate with other third person forms given here, the former descends from Proto-Turkic *gëntü, *këntü '(him/her)self' and is thus cognate, for example, with Turkish kendi.
- ^ This pronoun are constructed by adding a plural suffix to *o-l "he/she/it". However, an Oghur language Chuvash uses a completely different plural suffix that lacks vowel harmony, -sem. According to Róna-Tas (1998), -sem is a late replacement to *-lAr.
Sources
- Antonov, Anton; Jacques, Guillaume (2012). "Turkic kümüš 'silver' and the lambdaism vs. sigmatism debate". Turkic Languages. 15 (2): 151–170.
- Décsy, Gyula (1998). The Turkic Protolanguage: A computational reconstruction.
- Vajda, Edward J. (2000). "Review of Décsy (1998)". Language. 76 (2): 473–474.
- Clauson, Gerard (1972). Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-864112-4.
- Grønbech, Vilhelm (1997). Preliminary Studies in Turkic Historical Phonology (Uralic & Altaic). Curzon: Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-0935-5.
- Róna-Tas, András (1998). "The reconstruction of Proto-Turkic and the genetic question". In Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva (eds.). The Turkic Languages. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 67–80. ISBN 0-415-08200-5.
Further reading
- Dybo, A.V. (2014). "Early contacts of Turks and problems of Proto-Turkic reconstruction". In: Tatarica: Language, 2, p. 7-17.
- "Wheels and Carts of the Ancient Turks in a Linguistic View". Karadeniz Araştırmaları. XVII (65): 167–176.
External links
