Chagatai language explained

Chagatai
Nativename:
Chagatai: Čaġatāy
Region:Central Asia
Era:15th to early 20th century
Familycolor:Altaic
Fam1:Turkic
Fam2:Common Turkic
Fam3:Karluk
Ancestor:Karakhanid
Ancestor2:Khorezmian Turkic
Iso2:chg
Iso3:chg
Glotto:chag1247
Glottorefname:Chagatai
Linglist:chg
Script:Perso-Arabic script (Nastaliq)
Nation:

Chagatai (Chagatai: چغتای, Chagatai: Čaġatāy), also known as Turki, Eastern Turkic,[4] or Chagatai Turkic (Chagatai: Čaġatāy türkīsi),[5] is an extinct Turkic language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia. It remained the shared literary language in the region until the early 20th century. It was used across a wide geographic area including western or Russian Turkestan (i.e. parts of modern-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan), Eastern Turkestan (where a dialect, known as Kaşğar tılı, developed), Crimea, the Volga region (such as Tatarstan and Bashkortostan), etc.[6] [7] Literary Chagatai is the predecessor of the modern Karluk branch of Turkic languages, which includes Uzbek and Uyghur.[8] Turkmen, which is not within the Karluk branch but in the Oghuz branch of Turkic languages, was nonetheless heavily influenced by Chagatai for centuries.[9]

Ali-Shir Nava'i was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.[10]

Chagatai literature is still studied in modern Uzbekistan, where the language is seen as the predecessor and the direct ancestor of modern Uzbek, and the literature is regarded as part of the national heritage of Uzbekistan.

Etymology

The word Chagatai relates to the Chagatai Khanate (1225–1680s), a descendant empire of the Mongol Empire left to Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai Khan.[11] Many of the Turkic peoples, who spoke this language claimed political descent from the Chagatai Khanate.

As part of the preparation for the 1924 establishment of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, Chagatai was officially renamed "Old Uzbek",[12] [13] [14] [15] which Edward A. Allworth argued "badly distorted the literary history of the region" and was used to give authors such as Ali-Shir Nava'i an Uzbek identity.[16] [17] It was also referred to as "Turki" or "Sart" in Russian colonial sources. In China, it is sometimes called "ancient Uyghur".[18]

History

In the twentieth century, the study of Chaghatay suffered from nationalist bias. In the former Chaghatay area, separate republics have been claiming Chaghatay as the ancestor of their own brand of Turkic. Thus, Old Uzbek, Old Uyghur, Old Tatar, Old Turkmen, and a Chaghatay-influenced layer in sixteenth-century Azerbaijanian have been studied separately from each other. There has been a tendency to disregard certain characteristics of Chaghatay itself, e.g. its complex syntax copied from Persian.Chagatai developed in the late 15th century.[8] It belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family. It is descended from Middle Turkic, which served as a lingua franca in Central Asia, with a strong infusion of Arabic and Persian words and turns of phrase.

Mehmet Fuat Köprülü divides Chagatay into the following periods:[19]

  1. Early Chagatay (13th–14th centuries)
  2. Pre-classical Chagatay (the first half of the 15th century)
  3. Classical Chagatay (the second half of the 15th century)
  4. Continuation of Classical Chagatay (16th century)
  5. Decline (17th–19th centuries)

The first period is a transitional phase characterized by the retention of archaic forms; the second phase began with the publication of Ali-Shir Nava'i's first divan and is the highpoint of Chagatai literature, followed by the third phase, which is characterized by two bifurcating developments. One is preservation of the classical Chagatai language of Nava'i, the other the increasing influence of dialects of the local spoken languages.

Influence on later Turkic languages

Uzbek and Uyghur, two modern languages descended from Chagatai, are the closest to it. Uzbeks regard Chagatai as the origin of their language and Chagatai literature as part of their heritage. In 1921 in Uzbekistan, then a part of the Soviet Union, Chagatai was initially intended to be the national and governmental language of the Uzbek SSR. However, when it became evident that the language was too archaic for that purpose, it was replaced by a new literary language based on a series of Uzbek dialects.

Ethnologue records the use of the word "Chagatai" in Afghanistan to describe the "Tekke" dialect of Turkmen.[20] Up to and including the eighteenth century, Chagatai was the main literary language in Turkmenistan and most of Central Asia.[21] While it had some influence on Turkmen, the two languages belong to different branches of the Turkic language family.

Literature

15th and 16th centuries

The most famous of Chagatai poets, Ali-Shir Nava'i, among other works wrote Muhakamat al-Lughatayn, a detailed comparison of the Chagatai and Persian languages. Here, Nava’i argued for the superiority of the former for literary purposes. His fame is attested by the fact that Chagatai is sometimes called "Nava'i's language". Among prose works, Timur's biography is written in Chagatai, as is the famous Baburnama (or Tuska Babure) of Babur, the Timurid founder of the Mughal Empire. A Divan attributed to Kamran Mirza is written in Persian and Chagatai, and one of Bairam Khan's Divans was written in Chagatai.

The following is a prime example of the 16th-century literary Chagatai Turkic, employed by Babur in one of his ruba'is.[22] Chagatai: Islam ichin avara-i yazi buldim, Kuffar u hind harbsazi buldim Jazm aylab idim uzni shahid olmaqqa, Amminna' lillahi ki gazi buldimI am become a desert wanderer for Islam,Having joined battle with infidels and HindusI readied myself to become a martyr,God be thanked I am become a ghazi.Uzbek ruler Muhammad Shaybani Khan wrote a prose essay called Risale-yi maarif-i Shaybāni in Chagatai in 1507, shortly after his capture of Greater Khorasan, and dedicated it to his son, Muhammad Timur. [23] The manuscript of his philosophical and religious work, "Bahr ul-Khuda", written in 1508, is located in London [24]

Ötemish Hajji wrote a history of the Golden Horde entitled the Tarikh-i Dost Sultan in Khwarazm.

17th and 18th centuries

In terms of literary production, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are often seen as a period of decay. It is a period in which Chagatai lost ground to Persian. Important writings in Chagatai from the period between the 17th and 18th centuries include those of Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur: Shajara-i Tarākima (Genealogy of the Turkmens) and Shajara-i Turk (Genealogy of the Turks). Abu al-Ghāzī is motivated by functional considerations and describes his choice of language and style in the sentence ‘I did not use one word of Chaghatay (!), Persian or Arabic’. As is clear from his actual language use, he aims at making himself understood to a broader readership by avoiding too ornate a style, notably saj’, rhymed prose. In the second half of the 18th century, Turkmen poet Magtymguly Pyragy also introduced the use of classical Chagatai into Turkmen literature as a literary language, incorporating many Turkmen linguistic features.[21]

Bukharan ruler Subhan Quli Khan (1680–1702) was the author of a work on medicine, "Subkhankuli's revival of medicine" ("Ihya at-tibb Subhani") which was written in the Central Asian Turkic language (Chaghatay) and is devoted to the description of diseases, their recognition and treatment. One of the manuscript lists is kept in the library in Budapest.[25]

19th and 20th centuries

Prominent 19th-century Khivan writers include Shermuhammad Munis and his nephew Muhammad Riza Agahi.[26] Muhammad Rahim Khan II of Khiva also wrote ghazals. Musa Sayrami's Tārīkh-i amniyya, completed in 1903, and its revised version Tārīkh-i ḥamīdi, completed in 1908, represent the best sources on the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) in Xinjiang.[27] [28]

Dictionaries and grammars

The following are books written on the Chagatai language by natives and westerners:[29]

Phonology

Consonants

LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarUvularGlottal
Plosive/
Affricate
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Fricativepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Nasalpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Tap/Trillpronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/
Approximantpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Sounds /f, ʃ, χ, v, z, ɡ, ʁ, d͡ʒ, ʔ, l/ do not occur in initial position of words of Turkish origin.[33]

Vowels

! colspan="2"
FrontBack
Closepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Midpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Openpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Vowel length is distributed among five vowels /iː, eː, ɑː, oː, uː/.

Orthography

Chagatai has been a literary language and is written with a variation of the Perso-Arabic alphabet. This variation is known as Kona Yëziq, . It saw usage for Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uyghur, and Uzbek.

Isolated Final Medial Initial Uzbek Letter nameUzbek LatinKazakhKyrgyzUyghurBashkirKazan Tatar
Hamza'ئ
alifО оА аА аӘ әА аئاА аА а
beB bБ бБ бБ бБ б
peP pП пП пП пП п
teT tТ тТ тТ тТ т
seS sС сС сسҪ ҫС с
jimJ jЖ жЖ жЙ йҖ җ
chimCh chШ шЧ чС сЧ ч
hoy-i huttiH hX xX xھХ хХ х
xeX xҚ қ (Х х)К к (Х х)Х хХ х
dolD dД дД дД дД д
zolZ zЗ зЗ зذҘ ҙЗ з
reR rР рР рР рР р
zeZ zЗ зЗ зЗ зЗ з
je (zhe)J jЖ жЖ жЖ жЖ ж
sinS sС сС сС сС с
shinSh shС с Ш шШ шШ ш
sodS sС сС сسС сС с
ﺿdodZ zЗ зЗ зزҘ ҙЗ з
to (itqi)T tТ тТ тتТ тТ т
zo (izgʻi)Z zЗ зЗ зزҘ ҙЗ з
ayn'Ғ ғئҒ ғГ г
ğaynGʻ gʻҒ ғГ гҒ ғГ г
feF fП п П п/Б бФ фФ ф
qofQ qҚ қК кҠ ҡК к
ککkofK kК кК кكК кК к
gofG gГ гГ гГ гГ г
نگ/ݣـنگ/ـݣـنگـ/ـݣـنگـ/ݣـnungofNg ngҢ ңҢ ңڭҢ ңҢ н
lamL lЛ лЛ лЛ лЛ л
mimM mМ мМ мМ мМ м
nunN nН нН нН нН н
vavV vU u,Oʻ oʻУ уҰ ұ, Ү үО о, Ө өУ у, Ү үО о, Ө өۋئۆ/ئو,ئۈ/ئۇО о, Ө ө,У у, Ү үО о, Ө ө,У у, Ү ү
hoy-i havvazH hA aҺ һЭ э, е∅Э э, еھئە/ئاҺ һӘ әҺ һӘ ә
yeY yЕ e, I iЙ й, И иЫ ы, І іЙ йЫ ы, И иيئى، ئېЙ й, И и, Ы ы, Э эЙ й, И и, Ы ы, Э э

Notes

The letters ف، ع، ظ، ط، ض، ص، ژ، ذ، خ، ح، ث، ء are only used in loanwords and do not represent any additional phonemes.

For Kazakh and Kyrgyz, letters in parentheses indicate a modern borrowed pronunciation from Tatar and Russian that is not consistent with historic Kazakh and Kyrgyz treatments of these letters

Influence

Many orthographies, particularly that of Turkic languages, are based on Kona Yëziq. Examples include the alphabets of South Azerbaijani, Qashqai, Chaharmahali, Khorasani, Uyghur, Äynu, and Khalaj.
Virtually all other Turkic languages have a history of being written with an alphabet descended from Kona Yëziq, however, due to various writing reforms conducted by Turkey and the Soviet Union, many of these languages now are written in either the Latin script or the Cyrillic script.

The Qing dynasty commissioned dictionaries on the major languages of China which included Chagatai Turki, such as the Pentaglot Dictionary.

Grammar

Word order

The basic word order of Chagatai is SOV. Chagatai is a head-final language where the adjectives come before nouns. Other words such as those denoting location, time, etc. usually appear in the order of emphasis put on them.

Vowel and consonant harmony

Like other Turkic languages, Chagatai has vowel harmony (though Uzbek, despite being a direct descendant of Chaghatai, notably doesn't). There are mainly eight vowels, and vowel harmony system works upon vowel backness.

Back vowelsoi, e
Front vowels ö

The vowels [i] and [e] are central or front-central/back-central and therefore are considered both. Usually these will follow two rules in inflection: [i] and [e] almost always follow the front vowel inflections; and, if the stem contains [q] or [ǧ], which are formed in the back of the mouth, back vowels are more likely in the inflection.

These affect the suffixes that are applied to words.

Consonant harmony is relatively less common and only appears in a few suffixes such as the genitive.

Number

Plural is formed by adding the suffix -لار (-lar/lär). There are two pronunciations which exist due vowel harmony rules. If the vowel of the last syllable is a front syllable ([a], [o], [u]) -lar is used. If the vowel is a back vowel ([ä], [ö], [ü]) or [i] and [e], -lär is used. In rare circumstances -lar is sometimes written as -لر, though generally the suffix -لار is used for both the pronunciations /-lär/ and /-lar/. Or in the case of Kazakh and Kyrgyz /-ler/ and /-lar/.

Cases

Chagatai has six different cases. The nominative and sometimes the accusative does not have any special making.

AffixNotes
Nominative-Nominative is unmarked and usually comes first in a sentence.
GenitiveThe possessed object must be inflected with third person possessive pronouns ‘ى/سى’ (si/i).
AccusativeAccusative case only takes effect in the case that the direct object is “definite”. So ‘a road’ is but ‘the road’ is .
DativeTo be noted is that the ending varies from word to word due to consonant harmony, which changes may be included in writing or not, so + <ǧa> = but may be written as . Vowel harmony is taken into effect if the vowel of the last syllable is a front vowel the suffix attains pronunciation of -ä instead of -a.
AblativeThe case marking for ablative is occasionally rendered as -دهن or -دان (dan/dän), and can become -تين (tin) before a voiceless consonants.
LocativeLike the dative the locative works through vowel harmony; of the vowel of the final syllable is a front syllable the suffix turns to -dä.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

There are seven Chagatai personal pronouns, as there are formal and informal forms of the second person singular form. Unlike other languages these pronouns do not differ between genders. Each of these pronouns have suffixes added to end of verbs as conjugation.

NumberSingularConjugational suffixPluralConjugational suffix
First personArabic: من mänArabic: -من -mänArabic: بيز bizArabic: -ميز -miz
Second personArabic: سيز siz [informal]Arabic: -سيز -siz Arabic: سيزلار sizlärArabic: -سيزلار -sizlär
Arabic: سن sän [formal]Arabic: سن -sän
Third personArabic: او/اول ul/u-Arabic: اولار ularArabic: -لار -lar

Punctuation

Below are some punctuation marks associated with Chagatai.[34]

Symbol/GraphemesNameEnglish nameFunction
Four-dot markThe four-dot mark indicates a verse break. It is used at the beginning and end of a verse, especially to separate verse from prose. It may occur at the beginning or end of lines, or in the middle of a page.
Eight teardrop-spoked propeller asteriskThe eight teardrop-spoked propeller asterisk indicates a decoration for title. This mark occurs end of the title. This mark also occurs end of a poem. This mark occurs end of a prayer in Jarring texts. However this mark did not occur consistently.
.Period (full stop)The period is a punctuation mark placed at the end of a sentence. However, this mark did not occur consistently in Chaghatay manuscripts until the later period (e.g. manuscripts on Russian paper).
" "Quotation markDialogue was wrapped in quotation marks, rarely used for certain words with emphasis
___UnderscoreDash: mostly with red ink, occurs on the top of names, prayers, and highlighted questions, answers, and important outline numbers.
WhitespaceCan indicate a stanza break in verse, and a new paragraph in brows.
-||Dash|Rare punctuation: used for number ranges (e.g. 2–5)|- style="text-align:center;"|--||Double dash|Rare punctuation: sets off following information like a colon, it is used to list a table of contents|- style="text-align:center;"|||Parentheses|Marks a tangential or contextual remark, word or phrase. |- style="text-align:center;"|:||colon|Colons appear extremely rarely preceding a direct quote. Colons can also mark beginning of dialogue|- style="text-align:center;"|...||Ellipsis:|Ellipsis: a series of dots (typically 3) that indicate missing text. |}

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Grenoble . Lenore . Language Policy of the Soviet Union . 2003 . Kluwer Academic Publishers . 1-4020-1298-5 . 143.
  2. Encyclopedia: Chaghatay Language and Literature. Ebn Mohannā (Jamāl-al-Dīn, fl. early 8th/14th century, probably in Khorasan), for instance, characterized it as the purest of all Turkish languages (Doerfer, 1976, p. 243), and the khans of the Golden Horde (Radloff, 1870; Kurat; Bodrogligeti, 1962) and of the Crimea (Kurat), as well as the Kazan Tatars (Akhmetgaleeva; Yusupov), wrote in Chaghatay much of the time. . Encyclopedia Iranica.
  3. Book: Sertkaya, Ayşe Gül . Archivum Ottomanicum . 2002 . György . Hazai . 20 . 114–115 . Şeyhzade Abdurrezak Bahşı . As a result, we can claim that Chagatai: Şeyhzade Abdürrezak Bahşı was a scribe lived in the palaces of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and his son Bayezid-i Veli in the 15th century, wrote letters (Chagatai: bitig) and firmans (Chagatai: yarlığ) sent to Eastern Turks by Mehmed II and Bayezid II in both Uighur and Arabic scripts and in East Turkestan (Chagatai) language..
  4. Encyclopedia: Indiana University Publications. Uralic and Altaic Series. Thomas A.. Sebeok. 60. Chagatay Manual. János . Eckmann. 6. 1966.
  5. Encyclopedia: Indiana University Publications. Uralic and Altaic Series. Thomas A.. Sebeok. 60. Chagatay Manual. János. Eckmann. 4. 1966.
  6. Web site: Chagatai literature. 2021-09-19. Encyclopedia Britannica.
  7. Book: Contact Languages. 292. 9781614513711 . Bakker . Peter . Matras . Yaron . 26 June 2013 . Walter de Gruyter .
  8. Book: Grenoble, L. A.. Language Policy in the Soviet Union. 11 April 2006. Springer Science & Business Media. 978-0-306-48083-6.
  9. Book: Vaidyanath . R. . The Formation of the Soviet Central Asian Republics: A Study in Soviet Nationalities Policy, 1917–1936 . 1967 . People's Publishing House . 24.
  10. Encyclopedia: Robert . McHenry . . Navā'ī, (Mir) 'Alī Shīr . 15th . 1993 . Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. . 8 . . 563 .
  11. Book: Vladimir . Babak. Demian . Vaisman. Aryeh . Wasserman. Political Organization in Central Asia and Azerbaijan: Sources and Documents. 23 November 2004. Routledge. 978-1-135-77681-7. 343–.
  12. Book: Schiffman, Harold. Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors: The Changing Politics of Language Choice. Brill Academic. 2011. 978-9004201453. 178–179.
  13. Book: Newton, Scott . Law and the Making of the Soviet World: The Red Demiurge. 20 November 2014. Routledge. 978-1-317-92978-9. 232–.
  14. Book: Dalby, Andrew . Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to More Than 400 Languages. registration. Chagatai Old Uzbek official.. Columbia University Press. 1998. 978-0-231-11568-1. 665–.
  15. Book: Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic. Paul Bergne. 29 June 2007. I.B.Tauris. 978-0-85771-091-8. 24, 137.
  16. Book: Allworth, Edward A.. The Modern Uzbeks: From the Fourteenth Century to the Present: A Cultural History. Hoover Institution Press. 1990. 978-0817987329. 229–230.
  17. Book: Aramco World Magazine. Arabian American Oil Company. 1985. 27.
  18. Book: Chinese Lexical Semantics: 14th Workshop, CLSW 2013, Zhengzhou, China, May 10–12, 2013. Revised Selected Papers. Pengyuan . Liu. Qi . Su. 12 December 2013. Springer. 978-3-642-45185-0. 448–.
  19. Encyclopedia: Indiana University Publications. Uralic and Altaic Series. Thomas A. . Sebeok. 60. Chagatay Manual. János . Eckmann. 7. 1966.
  20. Web site: Turkmen language . Ethnologue.
  21. Clark, Larry, Michael Thurman, and David Tyson. "Turkmenistan." Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies. p. 318. Comp. Glenn E. Curtis. Washington, D.C.: Division, 1997
  22. Book: Balabanlilar . Lisa . Imperial Identity in the Mughal Empire. Memory and Dynastic Politics in Early Modern South and Central Asia . 2015 . Bloomsbury Publishing . 978-0-857-72081-8 . 42–43.
  23. Bodrogligeti . A.J.E. . Muḥammad Shaybānī Khan's Apology to the Muslim Clergy . Archivum Ottomanicum . 1994a . 13 . 1993–1994 . 98.
  24. Bodrogligeti . A.J.E. . Muhammad Shaybanî's Bahru'l-huda : An Early Sixteenth Century Didactic Qasida in Chagatay . Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher . 54 . 1982 . 1 and n.4.
  25. A Turkic Medical Treatise from Islamic Central Asia: A Critical Edition of a Seventeenth-Century Chagatay Work by Subḥān Qulï Khan. Edited, Translated and Annotated by László KÁROLY. Brill’s Inner Asian Library. Volume 32. Editors: Michael DROMPP; Devin DEWEESE; Mark C. ELLIOTT. Leiden. 2015
  26. https://www.britannica.com/art/Uzbek-literature
  27. http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/Dokumenty/M.Asien/XX/1900-1920/Sairami/pred.htm МОЛЛА МУСА САЙРАМИ: ТА'РИХ-И АМНИЙА
  28. Book: Kim, Ho-dong. Kim Ho-dong. Stanford University Press . 2004. 0-8047-4884-5. Holy war in China: the Muslim rebellion and state in Chinese Central Asia, 1864–1877. xvi.
  29. Book: Brill . Oriens, Volume 36 Volume 36 . Sellheim . R. . Endress . G. . 2001-06-01 . BRILL . 978-90-04-12135-5 . 299-300 . en.
  30. Onur . Samet . 2020 . EASTERN TURKISH - LATIN DICTIONARY: VOCABULARIUM LINGUAE GIAGATAICAE SIVE IGUREAE (LEXICO ĆIAGATAICO) . Çukurova Üniversitesi Türkoloji Araştırmaları Dergisi . 5 . 1 . 136 . 2587-1900.
  31. Web site: Mabaniul Lughat: Yani Sarf o Nahv e Lughat e Chughatai – Mirza Muhammad Mehdi Khan Astarabadi (Farsi). Internet Archive.
  32. Web site: Mirâdj-nâmeh : récit de l'ascension de Mahomet au ciel, composé a.h. 840 (1436/1437), texte turk-oriental, publié pour la première fois d'après le manuscript ouïgour de la Bibliothèque nationale et traduit en français, avec une préf. analytique et historique, des notes, et des extraits du Makhzeni Mir Haïder. Mir. Haïder. Abel. Pavet de Courteille. 1 January 1975. Amsterdam : Philo Press. Internet Archive.
  33. Book: Bodrogligeti, András J. E. . A Grammar of Chagatay . Munich: München: Lincom . 2001.
  34. Web site: Chaghatay manuscripts transcription handbook. 2021-11-13. uyghur.ittc.ku.edu.