Kumyk language explained

Kumyk
Nativename:къумукъ тил
qumuq til • قموق تیل
States:North Caucasus
Region:Dagestan, Chechnya, North Ossetia
Ethnicity:Kumyks
Ref:[1]
Date:2010 census
Familycolor:Altaic
Fam1:Turkic
Fam2:Common Turkic
Fam3:Kypchak
Fam4:Kypchak–Cuman
Nation:Dagestan (Russia)
Script:Cyrillic, Latin, Arabic
Iso2:kum
Iso3:kum
Glotto:kumy1244
Glottorefname:Kumyk
Map:Kumyk-lands-Caucasus.png
Map2:Lang Status 80-VU.svg
Notice:IPA

Kumyk (Kumyk: къумукъ тил,[2] Kumyk: qumuq til,[3] Kumyk: قموق تیل[4] [5]) is a Turkic language spoken by about 426,212 people, mainly by the Kumyks, in the Dagestan, North Ossetia and Chechen republics of the Russian Federation.[6] Until the 20th century Kumyk was the lingua franca of the Northern Caucasus.

Classification

Kumyk language belongs to the Kipchak-Cuman subfamily of the Kipchak family of the Turkic languages. It's a descendant of the Cuman language, with likely influence from the Khazar language, and in addition contains words from the Bulghar and Oghuz substratum. The closest languages to Kumyk are Karachay-Balkar, Crimean Tatar, and Karaim languages.[7]

Nikolay Baskakov, based on a 12th-century scripture named Codex Cumanicus, included modern Kumyk, Karachai-Balkar, Crimean Tatar, Karaim, and the language of Mamluk Kipchaks in the linguistic family of the Cuman-Kipchak language. Samoylovich also considered Cuman-Kipchak close to Kumyk and Karachai-Balkar.[8]

Amongst the dialects of the Kumyk there are Kaitag, Terek (Güçük-yurt and Braguny), Buynaksk (Temir-Khan-Shura) and Xasavyurt. The latter two became basis for the literary language.[9]

History

Kumyk had been a lingua-franca of the bigger part of the Northern Caucasus, from Dagestan to Kabarda, until the 1930s[10] [11] [12] and was an official language of communication between the North-Eastern Caucasian nations and the Russian administration.[13]

In 1848, a professor of the "Caucasian Tatar" (Kumyk) Timofey Makarov published the first ever grammatical book in the Russian language for one of the Northern Caucasian languages, which was international Kumyk. Makarov wrote:[14] More than 90% of the Kumyks, according to 2010 census, also speak Russian, and those in Turkey and the Levant speak Turkish and Arabic.

Phonology

Kumyk vowels
Back
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/
!Labial!Dental!Palatal!Velar!Uvular!Glottal
Nasalpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/)
Plosive/
Affricate
voicelesspronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
voicedpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/)
Fricativevoicelesspronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
voicedpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Liquidrhoticpronounced as /link/
lateralpronounced as /link/
Semivowelpronounced as /link/

Orthography

Kumyk has been used as a literary language in Dagestan and Caucasus for some time. During the 20th century the writing system of the language was changed twice: in 1929, the traditional Arabic script (called ajam) was first replaced by a Latin script, which was then replaced in 1938 by a Cyrillic script.

Latin based alphabet (1927–1937)

A aB bC cÇ çD dE eF fG g
Ƣ ƣH hI iJ jK kL lM mN n
Ꞑ ꞑO oƟ ɵP pQ qR rS sꞨ ꞩ
T tU uV vX xY yZ zƵ ƶЬ ь

Cyrillic based alphabet (since 1937)

А аБ бВ вГ гГъ гъГь гьД дЕ е
Ё ёЖ жЗ зИ иЙ йК кКъ къЛ л
М мН нНг нгО оОь оьП пР рС с
Т тУ уУь уьФ фХ хЦ цЧ чШ ш
Щ щЪ ъЫ ыЬ ьЭ эЮ юЯ я

Comparison Chart

Compiled from:[15]

Arabic
alphabet
1921—1928
Latin
1928—1938
Cyrillic
c 1938
Latin
project 1991
IPA
اA aА аA a, Ä ä/a/, /æ/
بB ʙБ бB b/b/
و, ۋV vВ вV v, W w/v/, /w/
گG gГ гG g/g/
غƢ ƣГъ гъĞ ğ/ʁ/
هH hГь гьH h/h/
دD dД дD d/d/
-|Je je, e|Е е|Ye ye, E e||-|-|Ө ө|Ё ё|Yo yo, Ö ö||-|ج, ژ|Ƶ ƶ, Ç ç|Ж ж|C c, J j|/d͡ʒ/, /ʒ/|-|ز|Z z|З з|Z z|/z/|-|ى|I i|И и|İ i|/i/|-|ى|J j|Й й|Y y|/j/|-|ک|K k|К к|K k|/k/|-|ق|Q q|Къ къ|Q q|/q/|-|ل|L l|Л л|L l|/l/|-|م|M m|М м|M m|/m/|-|ن|N n|Н н|N n|/n/|-|نگ,ڭ|Ꞑ ꞑ|Нг нг|Ñ ñ|/ŋ/|-|ۉ|O o|О о|O o|/o/|-|ۊ|Ө ө|Оь оь|Ö ö|/ø/|-|پ|P p|П п|P p|/p/|-|ر|R r|Р р|R r|/r/|-|س|S s|С с|S s|/s/|-|ت|T t|Т т|T t|/t/|-|و|U u|У у|U u|/u/|-|ۏ|Y y|Уь уь|Ü ü|/y/|-|ف|F f|Ф ф|F f|/f/|-|خ|X x|Х х|X x|/x/|-|تس|S̷ s̷|Ц ц|Ts ts||-|چ|C c|Ч ч|Ç ç|/t͡ʃ/|-|ش|Ş ş|Ш ш|Ş ş|/ʃ/|-|||Щ щ|Şç şç||-|ء|'|Ъ ъ|'|/ʔ/, /ʕ/|-|ى|Ь ь|Ы ы|I ı|/ɯ/|-|||Ь ь|||-|ه|E e|Э э|E e|/e/, /æ/|-||Ju ju|Ю ю|Yu yu, Ü ü||-||Ja ja|Я я|Ya ya, Ä ä|/æ/|}

Literature and media

Irchi Kazak (Ийрчы Къазакъ Yırçı Qazaq; born 1839) is usually considered to be the greatest poet of the Kumyk language. The first regular Kumyk newspapers and magazines appeared in 1917–18 under the editorship of Kumyk poet, writer, translator, and theatre figure Temirbolat Biybolatov (Temirbolat Biybolat). Currently, the newspaper Ёлдаш (Yoldash, "Companion"), the successor of the Soviet-era Ленин ёлу (Lenin yolu, "Lenin's Path"), prints around 5,000 copies 3 times a week.

The Kumyk language was learned by Russian classical authors such as Leo Tolstoy[16] and Mikhail Lermontov, both of whom served in the Caucasus. The language is present in such works of Tolstoy as "The Raid",[17] Cossacks,[18] Hadji Murat, and Lermontov's - "A Hero of Our Time",[19] Bestuzhev-Marlinsky's - "Molla-nur" and "Ammalat-bek".

Bibliography

  • Saodat Doniyorova and Toshtemirov Qahramonil. Parlons Koumyk. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2004. .

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab6.xls 2010 Russian Census
  2. L. S. Levitskaya, "Kumyk language", in Languages of the world. Turkic languages (1997).
  3. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/136205 Book review
  4. Ногайские и Кумыкский тексты, 1883, М.-Э. Османов, СпБ
  5. Татарская грамматика кавказского наречия / Сост. Т. Макаровым. - Тифлис : тип. Канцелярии наместника кавк., 1848
  6. Web site: Kumyksky yazyk Malye yazyki Rossii . ru:Кумыкский язык Малые языки России . Kumyk language Minor languages of Russia . 2023-05-11 . minlang.iling-ran.ru . ru.
  7. Book: Kumyksky entsiklopedichesky slovar . Delta-press . 2012 . 9785903454679 . Aliev . K.M.-C. . Makhachkala . 218 . ru . ru:Кумыкский энциклопедический словарь . Kumyk encyclopedic dictionary.
  8. Web site: Абибуллаева С.. 'Кодекс Куманикус' – ПАМЯТНИК ТЮРКСКИХ ЯЗЫКОВ КОНЦА XIII – НАЧАЛА XIV ВЕКОВ. ru.
  9. Кумыкский язык // Большая советская энциклопедия : [в 30 т.] / гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. — 3-е изд. — Москва: Советская энциклопедия, 1969—1978.
  10. Book: Pieter Muysken.. Studies in language companion series. From linguistic areas to areal linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing Company. 2008. 9789027231000. 90. 74.
  11. Book: Nansen. Gjennem Kaukasus til Volga (Oslo: Jacob Dybwads Forlag, 1929).
  12. News: Н.С.Трубецкой. 1925. О народах Кавказа. статья.
  13. Ярцева В.Н. и др. (ред.) Языки Российской Федерации и соседних государств. Том 2. К-Р, стр. 183
  14. Web site: Kafkaz Lehçeni Tatar Grammatikası, Makarov 1848. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20171107011252/http://caucasian.space/qum/adabiyat_qumuq_posts/2016-12-28-qumuq-grammar-makarov.html. 2017-11-07. 2017-06-28. caucasian.space. kum, ru.
  15. News: З. З. Бамматов . К вопросу о письменности кумыков . Вопросы совершенствования алфавитов тюркских языков СССР . М. . 1972 . 1972 . «Наука» . 108–117.
  16. Web site: Лев Толстой: Дневник 1847 — 1854 гг. Тетрадь Г. Март - май 1851 г.. 2017-03-10. tolstoy.lit-info.ru.
  17. Web site: Набег (Толстой) — Викитека . 2024-01-28 . ru.wikisource.org . ru.
  18. https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/Казаки%20(Толстой)/XL s:Казаки (Толстой)/XL
  19. Web site: Герой нашего времени (Лермонтов)/СО/Предисловие — Викитека . 2024-01-28 . ru.wikisource.org . ru.