20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Kipchak Turkic as a part of the Balkans and EasternEurope history-geography 1Süer ekerBaskent University – AnkaraHülya KASAPOĞLU ÇENGELGazi University – Ankara1. IntroductionThe existence of Turkic in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, the DanubeBulghard (the 7 th century A.D.), the Khazars (the 9 th century A.D.), thePechenegs, and the Oghuzs (the 11 th century), the Cuman-Kipchaks etc.can be considered in two main periods: the Pre-Ottoman period and thePost-Ottoman period. It can be supposed that there are Turkic-speakingethnical groups among the Huns and Avars (the 5 th and 6 th centuries) whoemigrated from Asia to Eastern Europe. However, the tracks of Turkicin the pre-Ottoman period pose obscure, complex, and difficult linguisticproblems (See for Turkic penetration in Europe in Golden 2002: 219, 234;Menges 1995: 11, 12, 20; Kurat 1992: 45-46, 72-75 et al.).1.1. The BalkansSimilar to Kipchak dialect-continuum, once spoken in Donetsk nearthe Sea of Azov and in Kamenets-Podolsk region in Western Ukraine, andin Dobruja through Moldova, the varieties of Oghuz, spoken in an arearanging from Anatolia and Thrace to Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria,Romania and Moldova also comprise a dialect-continuum. Kipchak and1This study is limited to Kipchak varieties in the Balkans and Eastern Europe(old Armeno-Kipchak and modern Karay, Krimchak, Urum, Crimean Tatar, and KazanTatar varieties), and it does not include Kipchak written languages, used in the RussianFederation, (Bashkir, Karachay-Balkar, Kumyk, Noghay and Kazan Tatar) and spokenvarieties.