030–053talattekin_alt:turklergaram 29.11.2007 9:21 Uhr Seite 38occupy today to the north of the Caspian Sea—but northwest,not east, of the Tatars. Although it is uncertain from whichtribes or peoples the Bashkirs took their ethnic origin, it wouldappear that, as in the case of the Tatars, they consisted of aTurcophone people of mixed Kipchak-Mongol-Bulgarian composition.Moreover, the ancestors of the Bashkirs may, in thebeginning, have mingled with some Finnish-Ugor tribes inhabitingthe area. The Bashkirs are Sunni Muslims.Bashkir is a Kipchak dialect that achieved a written formonly after the Soviet revolution. It was written in Arabic scriptuntil 1929, when a script based on the Latin alphabet wasadopted. This was used until 1939, when it was replaced by thepresent-day alphabet based on Cyrillic. Nowadays, Bashkir isspoken mainly in the Bashkurdistan Republic in the southernUral Mountains. According to the 1989 census, the number ofBashkir speakers amounted to 1,449,462.There are two main dialects of written Bashkir: (1) TheEastern or Kuvakan dialects, (2) the Southern or Yurmatdialects. There are five Eastern dialects: Ay, Argayash, Salyut,Miyas, and K›z›l. The Southern dialects are found in the following:‹k-Sakmar, Orta Agh›z, Kara-‹dil, Dem, and South-West.There are important differences between the Eastern andSouthern dialects of Bashkir. The South-West dialect has longbeen influenced by Tatar. The Baflkurt written language isbased not on this dialect but rather on the Eastern (Kuvakan)dialect. Although Bashkir is close to Tatar in vowel changes andmodifications, it is radically distinguished from Tatar by certainimportant phonetic features.1. Of these differences, the most important is thechange in Bashkir of /s/ to /h/: Tatar sarı = Bashkir harı “yellow,”Tat. sin = Bshk. hin “you,” Tat. song = Bshk. hung “last,”Tat. bul-sa = Bshk. bul-ha “to become,” Tat. ata-sı = Bshk. atahı“his/her father,” etc.2. In Bashkir, as in Tatar, there is no change of /y/ > /c/,but there is the opposite change of c > y. The initial /c/ in wordsborrowed from Arabic and Persian regularly changes to /y/: Tat.cawap = Bshk. yawap “answer,” Tat. comğa = Bshk. yoma“Friday,” Tat. cämäğat = Bshk. yämäğat “society,” Tat. can =Bshk. yän “heart,” etc.3. Another distinguishing feature of Bashkir is the regularreplacement of /c/ by /s/: Tat. çap- = Bshk. sap- “to run,”Tat. çık- = Bshk. sık- “to go out,” Tat. öçen = Bshk. ösön “for,”Tat. öç = Bshk. ös “three,” Tat. kiç = Bshk. kis “evening,” Tat. çäç= Bshk. säs “hair,” etc.4. In Bashkir, the /d/ in the –da/-de and –den endingsat the beginning of the past-tense suffixes in words ending invowels changes to /n/: Tat. kala-da = Bshk. kala-na “in the city,”Tat. bala-dan = Bshk. bala-nan “from the child,” Tat. ukı-dı =Bshk. ukı-nı “(he) read,” etc.5. Another important feature of Bashkir is the labialattraction also found in Turkmen and Kirghiz—i.e., the roundingof flat vowels following rounded vowels: Tat. bolıt = Bshk. bolot“cloud,” Tat. yokısız = Bshk. yokohoz “sleepless,” Tat. yoldız =Bshk. yondoz “star,” Tat. öçen = Bshk. ösön “for,” Tat. kölemserä-= Bshk. kölömhörä- “to smile,” Tat. yöriy = Bshk. yöröy “(he is)walking,” etc.6. Another feature distinguishing Bashkir from Tatar isthe interdentalization, as in Turkmen, of Turkish fricative /s/ and/z/ consonants: Tat. asra- = Bshk. asıra- “to protect,” Tat. bas-= Bshk. bas-, Tat. kis- = Bshk. kis- “to cut,” Tat. azık = Bshk. azık,Tat. ozak = Bshk. ozak “long,” Tat. büz = Bshk. buz “gray,” Tat.süz = Bshk. hüz “word,” etc.7. Still another feature distinguishing Bashkir from Tataris the change of y > c, particularly at the beginning of a word:Tat. cide = Bshk. yete “seven,” Tat. cibär- = Bshk. yebär- “tosend,” Tat. cäy = Bshk. yäy “<strong>summer</strong>,” Tat. cılı = Bshk. yılı “hot,”etc.A few sentences in Bashkir: Häzer ük kuzgalayık, yukhahunglarbız “Let’s get going or we’ll be late”; Yulğa irtänge halkındasığırbız “I’ll set out in the cool of the morning”; Kistären minöyzä bulam “I’m at home in the evenings”; Uynap höylähäng dauylap höylä “If you make a joke, think before you speak.”C. The Kazakhs and Their LanguageKazakh as an ethnic term is never encountered in OldTurkic. The Kazakhs are mixed Turkish-Mongol people formedon the Asian steppes after the Mongol invasion. The greatmajority of Kazakhs live in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Thereare also Kazakh communities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,Kirghizstan, and Tajikistan, as well as in the Russian Federation.According to the 1989 census, there were 8,137,867 Kazakhsliving in the former Soviet Union. If one takes into considerationthe Kazakhs inhabiting Mongolia, Afghanistan, China, andTurkey, the number of Kazakh speakers amounts to nearly 10million. The Kazakhs are Sunni Muslims.Kazakh became a written language under the tsars at theend of the nineteenth century. Until 1929, Kazakh was writtenwith the Arabic alphabet. Between 1929 and 1940, it was writtenin a Latin alphabet, but in 1940 this was replaced by aKazakh alphabet based on Cyrillic.Characteristic features of Kazakh:1. The initial /y/ sound changes to /j/: yaz- > jaz-, yet-> jet-, yıl > jıl, yigit > jigit “young,” yok > jok, yuğur- > juwır- “toknead,” yüz > jüz, etc.2. The Common Turkic /fl/ sound always changes to /s/:baş > bas, beş > bes, kuş > kus, kış > kıs, kişi > kisi, yaş > jas“young,” yaşıl > jasıl “green,” etc.3. The Common Turkic /ç/ sound always changes to /fl/:kaç > kaş, iç > iş, üç > üş, üçün > üşin “for,” saç (> çaç) > şaş“hair,” etc.4. In Kazakh, /€/ and /g/ sounds at the end of multi-syllablenouns disappear, as in the Oghuz group languages, whilein infinitives they change to /w/: qatığ > kattı, sarığ > sarı, ölüg> öli “dead,” tirig > tiri “alive”; but barığ > baruw “to go, going,”kelig > kelüw “to come, coming,” ölüg > ölüw “to die, dying,”etc.5. The /›€/ group in the initial syllable changes to /›y/,while the groups /eg/ and /ig/ change to /iy/: sığ- > sıy-, sığır> sıyır “cow,” yığın > jıyın, beg > biy “sir,” eg- > iy- “to bend,”teg- > tiy- “to touch,” yigne > iyne “needle,” etc.A few sentences in Kazakh: Siz Kazakşa söylese alasızba? “Can you speak Kazakh?” Sizdi tüski aska şakıramın “I’minviting you to lunch”; Mağan konak üyge baratın joldıkörsetingizşi “Could you please show me the way to the hotel?”The earliest known recordsof Old Turkic proper areeighth-century stoneinscriptions found in theOrkhon River Valley(Mongolia). They arededicated to Bilge Kaganand his brother Kültegin ofthe Göktürk Empire. TheGöktürk language is alsorepresented in somewhatlater inscriptions andmanuscripts. This photoshows the weather-beatenGöktürk side of the stone.38LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY<strong>Prince</strong> <strong>Claus</strong> <strong>Fund</strong> Reader #1 · Summer <strong>2011</strong> · 48
030–053talattekin_alt:turklergaram 29.11.2007 9:21 Uhr Seite 3949 · <strong>Prince</strong> <strong>Claus</strong> <strong>Fund</strong> Reader #3 · Summer <strong>2011</strong>
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