Proto-Turkic language explained

Proto-Turkic
Region:	Probably the eastern part of Central Asia, possibly including regions of East Asia and western Siberia
Era:	^[1] ^[2]
Familycolor:	Altaic
Target:	Turkic languages
Child1:	Proto-Common Turkic
Child2:	Proto-Oghuric

Proto-Turkic 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. Candidates for the proto-Turkic homeland range from western Central Asia to Manchuria,^[3] with most scholars agreeing that it lay in the eastern part of the Central Asian steppe,^[4] while one author has postulated that Proto-Turkic originated 2,500 years ago in East Asia.^[5]

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. For a long time, the reconstruction of Proto-Turkic relied 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, however it now also includes a more comprehensive analysis of all written and spoken forms of the language.

The Proto-Turkic language shows evidence of influence from several neighboring language groups, including Eastern Iranian, Tocharian, and Old Chinese.

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, l with a full series of nasal consonants. Some scholars additionally reconstruct the palatalized sounds ĺ and ŕ for the correspondence sets Oghuric /l/ ~ Common Turkic *š and Oghuric /r/ ~ Common Turkic *z. Most scholars, however, assume that these are the regular reflexes of Proto-Turkic *l and *r. Oghuric is thus sometimes referred to as Lir-Turkic and Common Turkic as Shaz-Turkic.

A 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 Anna 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.

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.^[6]

There was no fortis-lenis contrast in word-initial position: the initial stops were always *b, *t, *k, the affricate was always *č (*ç) and the sibilant was always *s. In addition, the nasals and the liquids did not occur in that position either.

		Bilabial	Dental or alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n	ń pronounced as /link/	ŋ
Plosive and affricate		p	t	ç pronounced as /link/	k
		b	d		g
Sibilant			s
Liquid			l	(*ĺ pronounced as /link/)
			r	(*ŕ pronounced as /link/)
Semivowel				j

Like in many modern Turkic languages, the velars /k/, /g/, and possibly /ŋ/ seem to have had back and front allophones (pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/) according to their environments, with the velar allophones occurring in words with front vowels, and uvular allophones occurring in words with back vowels. The lenis stops /b/, /d/ and /g/~/ɢ/ may have tended towards fricatives intervocalically.

Vowels

Like most of its descendants, Proto-Turkic exhibited vowel harmony, distinguishing vowel qualities a, ï, o, u vs. ä, e, i, ö, ü, as well as two vowel quantities. Here, macrons represent long vowels. Some scholars (e.g. Gerhard Doerfer) additionally reconstruct a mid back unrounded *ë based on cognate sets with Chuvash, Tuvan and Yakut ï corresponding to a in all other Turkic languages, although these correspondences can also be explained as deriving from *a which underwent subsequent sound changes in those three languages. The phonemicity of the distinction between the two close unrounded vowels, i.e. front *i and back *ï, is also rejected by some.

	front		back
high	i, *ī pronounced as /link/	ü, *ǖ pronounced as /link/	ï, *ï̄ pronounced as /link/	u, *ū pronounced as /link/
mid	e, *ē pronounced as /link/	ö, *ȫ pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/	(*ë, *ë̄ pronounced as /link/)	o, *ō pronounced as /link/
low	ä, *ǟ pronounced as /link/		a, *ā pronounced as /link/

Morphology

Nouns

Plurals of nouns were formed using the suffix *-An, but it fell into disuse sometime before the split between Common Turkic and Oghuric. Common Turkic languages today use their respective forms of *-lAr, whereas Chuvash uses Chuvash: -сем, which descends from Proto-Turkic *sāyïn ("every"). Reconstructable possessive suffixes in Proto-Turkic includes *-m, *-ŋ, and *-(s)i, plurals of the possessors are formed by *-z in Common Turkic languages.

Verbs

The reconstructable suffixes for the verbs include:

• Aorist: *-Vr
• Past: *-dI
• Negative suffix: *-mA
• : *-m < *-män < *bän
• : *-n < *sän
• : *-∅ < *ï
• : *-mïz/*-bïz < *bïz
• : *-sïz < *sïz

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	Azerbaijani	Turkmen	Kazakh	Chuvash	Karakhanid	Uzbek	Uyghur	Bashkir	Kyrgyz	Sakha (Yakut)
I	bë,^[7] ^[8] *bän-^[9]	ben, ban-	mən	men	men, ma-	e-pĕ, man-	men, man-	men	men	min	men	min
you	së,^[10] *sän-	sen, san-	sən	sen	sen, sa-, siz	e-sĕ, san-	sen, san-	sen, siz	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	u	ul	al	kini, ol^[11]
we	bïŕ	biz	biz	biz	biz	pir-	biz	biz	biz	beð	biz	bihigi
you (plural)	sïŕ	siz	siz	siz	sender, sizder	sir-	siz	sizlar	senler, siler, sizler	heð	siler, sizder	ehigi
they	o-lar^[12]	on-lar	onlar	olar	olar	vĕsem, vĕsen-	olar	ular	ular	ular	alar	kiniler, ollor

Numbers

	Proto-Turkic	Oghur Turkic		Common Turkic
		Volga Bulgar	Chuvash	Karakhanid	Turkish	Azeri	Turkmen	Kazakh	Uzbek	Uyghur	Bashkir	Kyrgyz	Sakha (Yakut)
1	bï̄r	بىر (bīr)	pĕr	bīr	bir	bir	bir	bir	bir	bir	ber	bir	biir
2	ëkï	اَكِ (eki)	ikĕ	ikkī	iki	iki	iki	eki	ikki	ikki	ike	eki	ikki
3	üç	وج (v^eč)	viśĕ	üč	üç	üç	üç	üş	uch	üç	ös	üč	üs
4	dȫrt	تُوات (tüvet)	tăvată	tȫrt	dört	dörd	dört	tört	to'rt	tört	dürt	tört	tüört
5	bë̄ĺ(k)	بيال (byel)	pilĕk	bḗš	beş	beş	bäş	bes	besh	beş	biş	beş	bies
6	altı	اَلطِ (altï)	ultă	altï̄	altı	altı	alty	altı	olti	alte	altı	altı	alta
7	jëtï	جىَاتِ (čyeti)	śičĕ	yétī	yedi	yeddi	ýedi	jeti	yetti	yetti	yete	jeti	sette
8	säkïŕ	ڛَكِڔ (sekir)	sakăr	sekiz	sekiz	səkkiz	sekiz	segiz	sakkiz	sekkiz	higeð	segiz	аğıs
9	tokuŕ	طُخِڔ (tuxïr)	tăhăr	tokūz	dokuz	doqquz	dokuz	toğız	to'qqiz	toqquz	tuğıð	toguz	toğus
10	ōn	وان (van)	vun	ōn	on	on	on	on	o'n	on	un	on	uon
20	jëgïrmï	جِيِرم (čiyir^im)	śirĕm	yegirmī	yirmi	iyirmi	ýigrimi	jıyırma	yigirma	yigrime	yegerme	jıyırma	süürbe
30	otuŕ	وطر (v^ut^ur)	văḍăr	ottuz	otuz	otuz	otuz	otız	o'ttiz	ottuz	utıð	otuz	otut
40	kırk	حرح (x^ïr^ïx)	hĕrĕh	kïrk	kırk	qırx	kyrk	qırıq	qirq	qiriq	qırq	kırk	-
50	ällïg	اَلُّ (ellü)	allă	ellig	elli	əlli	elli	eliw	ellik	ellik	ille	elüü	-
60	ältmıĺ	-	utmăl	altmïš	altmış	altmış	altmyş	alpıs	oltmish	atmiş	altmış	altımış	-
70	jëtmïĺ	-	śitmĕl	yetmiš	yetmiş	yetmiş	ýetmiş	jetpis	yetmish	etmiş	yetmeş	jetimiş	-
80	säkïŕ ōn	سكر وان (sekir van)	sakărvun	seksȫn	seksen	səksən	segsen	seksen	sakson	seksen	hikhän	seksen	ağıs uon
90	tokuŕ ōn	طوخر وان (toxïr van)	tăhărvun	toksōn	doksan	doxsan	dogsan	toqsan	to'qson	toqsan	tuqhan	tokson	toğus uon
100	jǖŕ	جُور (čǖr)	śĕr	yǖz	yüz	yüz	ýüz	jüz	yuz	yüz	yöð	jüz	süüs
1000	bıŋ	-	pin	miŋ	bin	min	müň	mıñ	ming	miñ	meñ	miñ	muñ

Sources

• Antonov . Anton . Jacques . Guillaume . Turkic kümüš 'silver' and the lambdaism vs. sigmatism debate . Turkic Languages . 15 . 2 . 151–170 . 2012 .
• Book: Gyula . Décsy . The Turkic Protolanguage: A computational reconstruction . 1998 .
  • Edward J. . Vajda . 2000 . Review of Décsy (1998) . . 76 . 2 . 473–474 .
• Book: Gerard . Clauson . 1972 . Gerard Clauson . Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish . registration . Oxford . Clarendon Press . 978-0-19-864112-4 .
• Book: Vilhelm . Grønbech . 1997 . Vilhelm Grønbech . Preliminary Studies in Turkic Historical Phonology (Uralic & Altaic) . Curzon . Routledge . 0-7007-0935-5 .
• Book: Lars . Johanson . 1998 . History of Turkic . The Turkic Languages . Lars . Johanson . Éva . Csató . London . Taylor & Francis . 81–125 . 0-415-08200-5 .
• Book: András . Róna-Tas . 1998 . The Turkic Languages . The reconstruction of Proto-Turkic and the genetic question . Lars . Johanson . Éva . Csató . London . Taylor & Francis . 67–80 . 0-415-08200-5 .

Further reading

• Dybo, A.V. (2014). "Early contacts of Turks and problems of Proto-Turkic reconstruction". In: Tatarica: Language, 2, p. 7-17.
• Wheels and Carts of the Ancient Turks in a Linguistic View . Karadeniz Araştırmaları . XVII . 65 . 167–176 .

Notes and References

1. The Turkic Languages Lars Johanson, Éva Á. Csató · 2015
2. The Turks in World History Carter V. Findley · 2005, p.17
3. Yunusbayev . Bayazit . Metspalu . Mait . Metspalu . Ene . Valeev . Albert . The Genetic Legacy of the Expansion of Turkic-Speaking Nomads across Eurasia . PLOS Genetics . 21 April 2015 . 11 . 4 . e1005068 . 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005068 . 25898006 . 4405460 . en . 1553-7404 . free . "The origin and early dispersal history of the Turkic peoples is disputed, with candidates for their ancient homeland ranging from the Transcaspian steppe to Manchuria in Northeast Asia."
4. Book: Robbeets . Martine . Savelyev . Alexander . Language Dispersal Beyond Farming . 21 December 2017 . John Benjamins Publishing Company . 978-90-272-6464-0 . 127 . en. "It is generally agreed among historians and linguists that the starting point of the Turkic migrations was located in the eastern part of the Central Asian steppe (see, e.g., Golden 1992, Kljastornyj & Suktanov 2009; Menges 1995:55). Turkologists use various definitions for describing the Proto-Turkic homeland, but most indicate more or less the same region. While Janhunen (1996:26, 2015:293) locates the Proto-Turkic homeland fairly precisely in Eastern Mongolia, Rona-Tas (1998:88), in a rather general manner, places the last habitat of the Turkic speakers before the disintegration of the family "in west and central Siberia and in the region south of it." The latter localization overlaps in large part with that proposed by Tenisev et al. (2006), who associate the Proto-Turkic urheimat with the vast area stretching from the Ordos Desert in Inner Mongolia to the foothils of the Sayan-Altai mountains in Southern Siberia."
5. Book: Janhunen, Juha . Janhunen_2013 . 2013 . Shared Grammaticalization: With special focus on the Transeurasian languages . https://books.google.com/books?id=3J_6U8N2Wq8C&pg=PA223 . Juha Janhunen . Martine Irma Robbeets . Hubert Cuyckens . 223 . Personal pronouns in Core Altaic . John Benjamins . 9789027205995 .
6. Book: Dybo_2007 . Dybo, A. V. . 2007 . Chronology of Turkic languages and linguistic contacts of early Turks . 770 . Moscow . ru . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20050311224856/http://altaica.narod.ru/LIBRARY/xronol_tu.pdf . 2005-03-11 .
7. Georg. Stefan. 2004-12-22. Review of Starostin, Dybo, Mudrak, Gruntov & Glumov (2003): Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages. Diachronica. 21. 2. 445–450. 10.1075/dia.21.2.12geo. 0176-4225.
8. Web site: Turkic etymology : Query result. 2021-09-23. starling.rinet.ru.
9. Web site: Proto-Turkic/Pronouns and numbers - Wikibooks, open books for an open world. 2021-09-23. en.wikibooks.org. en.
10. Web site: Turkic etymology : Query result. 2021-09-23. starling.rinet.ru.
11. 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 *gëntü, *këntü '(him/her)self' and is thus cognate, for example, with Turkish kendi.
12. 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.