Proto-Turkic language

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Proto-Turkic
Reconstruction ofTurkic languages
RegionProbably Mongolia
Erac. 500 BCE
Reconstructed
ancestor
Proto-Altaic?

The Proto-Turkic language 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]

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

Vowels[]

Like most of its descendants, Proto-Turkic exhibited vowel harmony, distinguishing vowel qualities a, ë, ï, o, u vs. e, ẹ, i, ö, ü, as well as two vowel quantities. Here, macrons represent long vowels.

front back
unrounded rounded unrounded rounded
high *i, *ī /i/ *ü, *ǖ /y/ *ï, *ï̄ /ɨ/ *u, *ū /u/
mid *ẹ, *ẹ̄ /e/ *ö, *ȫ /ø/~/œ/ *ë, *ë̄ /ə/ *o, *ō /o/
low *e, *ē /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 -сем seems 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 (note that *-z is a Common Turkic feature).

Verbs[]

The reconstructable suffixes for the verbs include:

  • Aorist: *-Vr
  • Past: *-dI
  • Negative suffix: *-mA (placed between the stem and the suffixes)
  • 1sg: *-m < *-men < *ben
  • 2sg: *-n < *sen
  • 3sg: *-∅ < *i
  • 1pl: *-miz/*-biz < *biz
  • 2pl: *-siz < *siz

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 *bẹ,[3][4] *ben-[5][6] ben, ban- mən men men, ma- e-pĕ, man- men, man- men min men min
you *sẹ,[3][7] *sen- 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[8]
we *biŕ biz biz biz biz pir- biz biz beð biz bihigi
you (plural) *siŕ siz siz siz sender, sizder sir- siz sizlar heð siler, sizder ehigi
they *o-lar[9] on-lar onlar olar olar vĕsem, vĕsen- olar ular ular alar kiniler, ollor

Numbers[]

Proto-Turkic Turkish Azeri Turkmen Chuvash Karakhanid Kazakh Uzbek Bashkir Kyrgyz Sakha (Yakut)
1 *bīr bir bir bir pĕr bīr bir bir ber bir biir
2 *ẹki iki iki iki ikĕ ikkī eki ikki ike eki ikki
3 *üç üç üç üç viśĕ üč üsh uch ös üč üs
4 *dȫrt dört dörd dört tăvată tȫrt tört to'rt dürt tört tüört
5 *bēĺ(k) beş beş bäş pilĕk bḗš bes besh biş beş bies
6 *altï altı altı alty ultă altï̄ altı olti altı altı alta
7 *yẹti yedi yeddi ýedi śičĕ yétī zheti yetti yete jeti sette
8 *sekiŕ sekiz səkkiz sekiz sakăr sekiz segiz sakkiz higeð segiz aаğıs
9 *tokuŕ dokuz doqquz dokuz tăhăr tokūz toğız to'qqiz tuğıð toguz toğus
10 *ōn on on on vună ōn on o'n un on uon
20 *yėgirmi yirmi iyirmi ýigrimi śirĕm yegirmī zhıyırma yigirma yegerme jıyırma süürbe
30 *otuŕ otuz otuz otuz văḍăr ottuz otız o'ttiz utıð otuz otut
40 *kïrk kırk qırx kyrk hĕrĕh kïrk qırıq qirq qırq kırk -
50 *ellig elli əlli elli allă ellig eliw ellik ille elüü -
60 *altmïĺ altmış altmış altmyş utmăl altmïš alpıs oltmish altmış altımış -
70 *yẹtmiĺ yetmiş yetmiş ýetmiş śitmĕl yetmiš zhetpis yetmish yetmeş jetimiş -
80 *sekiŕ ōn seksen səksən segsen sakărvun seksȫn seksen sakson hikhän seksen ağıs uon
90 *dokuŕ ōn doksan doxsan dogsan tăhărvun toksōn toqsan to'qson tuqhan tokson toğus uon
100 *yǖŕ yüz yüz ýüz śĕr yǖz zhüz yuz yöð jüz süüs
1000 *bïŋ bin min müň pin miŋ mıŋ ming meŋ miñ muŋ

References[]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ "Turkic etymology : Query result". starling.rinet.ru. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  5. ^ "Reconstruction:Proto-Turkic/ben", Wiktionary, 2021-08-20, retrieved 2021-09-23
  6. ^ "Proto-Turkic/Pronouns and numbers - Wikibooks, open books for an open world". en.wikibooks.org. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  7. ^ "Turkic etymology : Query result". starling.rinet.ru. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  8. ^ 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 *gẹntü, *kẹntü '(him/her)self' and is thus cognate, for example, with Turkish kendi.
  9. ^ 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[]

  • Décsy, Gyula (1998). The Turkic Protolanguage: A computational reconstruction.
  • 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.

External links[]

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