Bulgar language

Not to be confused with the Bulgarian language.

Bulgar (also known as Bulghar, Bolgar, or Bolghar) is an extinct Oghur Turkic language spoken by the Bulgars.

Bulgar
Region	From Central Asia to the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Volga and the Danube and Southern Italy (Molise, Campania)
Ethnicity	Bulgars
Extinct	By the 9th or 10th centuries on the Danube and by the 14th century in the Volga region
Language family	Turkic Oghuric Bulgar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xbo
Linguist List	xbo
Glottolog	bolg1250

The name is derived from the Bulgars, a tribal association that established the Bulgar state known as Old Great Bulgaria in the mid-7th century, giving rise to the Danubian Bulgaria by the 680s.^[1][2][3] While the language was extinct in Danubian Bulgaria (in favour of Old Church Slavonic), it persisted in Volga Bulgaria, eventually giving rise to the modern Chuvash language.^[4][5][6]

Other than Chuvash, Bulgar is the only language to be definitively classified as an Oghur Turkic language. The inclusion of other languages such as Hunnish, Khazar and Sabir within Oghur Turkic remains speculative owing to the paucity of historical records. Some scholars suggest Hunnish had strong ties with Bulgar and to modern Chuvash^[7][8] and refer to this extended grouping as separate Hunno-Bulgar languages.^[9][10][11]

Affiliation

Mainstream scholarship places Bulgar among the "Lir" branch of Turkic languages referred to as Oghur Turkic, Lir-Turkic or, indeed, "Bulgar Turkic", as opposed to the "Shaz"-type of Common Turkic. The "Lir" branch is characterized by sound correspondences such as Oghuric /r/ versus Common Turkic (or Shaz-Turkic) /z/ and Oghuric /l/ versus Common Turkic (Shaz-Turkic) /š/.^[1][3][12] As was stated by Al-Istakhri (Х c. AD), "The language of the Khazars is different than the language of the Turks and the Persians, nor does a tongue of (any) group of humanity have anything in common with it and the language of the Bulgars is like the language of the Khazars, but the Burtas have another language."^[13] The only surviving language from this linguistic group is believed to be Chuvash. Omeljan Pritsak in his study "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan" (1982)^[14] concluded that the language of the Bulgars was from the family of the Hunnic languages, as he calls the Oghur languages.^[15] According to the Bulgarian Antoaneta Granberg, "The Hunno-Bulgar language was formed on the northern and western borders of China in the 3rd–5th c. BC."^[16] The analysis of the loan-words in Slavonic language shows the presence of direct influences of various language-families:^[17] Turkic, Mongolic, Chinese and Iranian.

Bulgarian views

On the other hand, some Bulgarian historians, especially in recent decades, link the Bulgar language to the Iranian language group instead (more specifically, the Pamir languages are frequently mentioned), noting the presence of Iranian words in the modern Bulgarian language.^{[18][19][20][21][page needed]} According to Raymond Detrez, who is a specialist in Bulgarian history and language,^[22] such views are based on anti-Turkish sentiments and the presence of Iranian words in the modern Bulgarian is result of Ottoman Turkish linguistic influence.^[23] Indeed, other Bulgarian historians, especially older ones, only point out certain signs of Iranian influence in the Turkic base^[24] or indeed support the Turkic theory.^{[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]}

Danubian Bulgar

The language of the Danube Bulgars (or Danubian Bulgar) is recorded in a small number of inscriptions, which are found in Pliska, the first capital of First Bulgarian Empire, and in the rock churches near the village of Murfatlar, in present-day Romania. Some of these inscriptions are written in the Greek characters, others in the Kuban alphabet which is similar to the Orkhon script. Most of these appear to have been of a private character (oaths, dedications, inscriptions on grave stones) and some were court inventories. Although attempts at decipherment have been made, none of them has gained wide acceptance. These inscriptions in Danubian Bulgar are found along with other, official ones written in Greek; which was used as the official state language of the First Bulgarian Empire until the end of the ninth century, when it was replaced by Old Church Slavonic (Slavonic).^[33]

The language of the Danubian Bulgars is also known from a small number of loanwords in the Old Bulgarian language, as well as terms occurring in Bulgar Greek-language inscriptions, contemporary Byzantine texts,^[34] and later Slavonic Old Bulgarian texts. Most of these words designate titles and other concepts concerning the affairs of state, including the official 12-year cyclic calendar (as used in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans). The language became extinct in Danubian Bulgaria in the ninth century as the Bulgar nobility became gradually Slavicized after the Old Bulgarian tongue was declared as official in 893.

Terms borrowed from Danube Bulgar by Old Church Slavonic^[35]

	Old Church Slavonic	Chuvash	Hungarian	Common Turkic
token, trace	БЕЛЕГ (beleg), БИЛЕГ (bileg)	палӑк (palăk)	bélyeg	*belgü
bracelet	БЕЛЬЧҮГ (bel'çug)	–	–	*bileçüg
pillow	ДОХЬТОРЬ (dox'tor')	ҫытар (śïtar)	–	*yogtu
image, icon	КАПЬ (kap')	кап (kap)	kép	*kēp
honour	САНЬ (san'), САМЬ (sam')	сум (sum)	szám	*sān

Phonology

Unlike Volga Bulgarian and Chuvash, d'ization is seen in the /j/ sounds at the beginning of words. Talât Tekin argues that this sound corresponds to the initial gy sound in Hungarian and is pronounced close to it.^[35]

Comparison of initial /j/^[35]

	Danube Bulgar / Old Church Slavonic	Volga Bulgar	Chuvash	Common Turkic
snake	ДИЛОМЬ (dilom')	–	ҫӗлен (śílen)	*yï̄lan
pillow	ДОХЬТОРЬ (dox'tor')	–	ҫытар (śïtar)	*yogdu (Mongolian зогдор)
horse	ΔΥΑΝ (dwan)	–	–	*yunt
An ethnicity	ΔΟΥΑΡΗⲤ (dovaris)	يوارى (yuwāri)	–	–
seven	ЧИТ (çit)	جىَاتِ (čyeti)	ҫиччӗ (śiččĕ)	*yẹti

Volga Bulgar

The language spoken by the population of Volga Bulgaria is known as Volga-Bulgar. There are a number of surviving inscriptions in Volga-Bulgar, some of which are written with Arabic letters, alongside the continuing use of Orkhon script. These are all largely decipherable. That language persisted until the 13th or the 14th century. In that region, it may have ultimately given rise to the Chuvash language, which is most closely related to it^[36] and which is classified as the only surviving member of a separate "Oghur-Turkic" (or Lir-Turkic) branch of the Turkic languages, to which Bulgar is also considered to have belonged (see above).^[1][2][37] Still, the precise position of Chuvash within the Oghur family of languages is a matter of dispute among linguists. Since the comparative material attributable to the extinct members of Oghuric (Khazar and Bulgar) is scant, little is known about any precise interrelation of these languages and it is a matter of dispute whether Chuvash, the only "Lir"-type language with sufficient extant linguistic material, might be the daughter language of any of these or just a sister branch.^[12]

Numbers and Vocabulary in Volga Bulgar^{[38][39][40][41][42][43][44]}

	Volga Bulgar – البلغَاڔِى	Chuvash – Чӑвашла^[45]	Proto-Turkic		Volga Bulgar – البلغَاڔِى	Chuvash – Чӑвашла	Proto-Turkic
one	بر (b^ir)	пӗр (pĕr)	*bīr	monument	بَلُو (belüv)	палӑк (palăk)	*belig
two	اَكِ (eki)	иккӗ (ikkĕ)	*ẹki	water	شِو (šïv)	шыв (šïv)	*sub
three	وج (v^eč)	виççӗ (viççĕ)	*üč	son	اَول (av^ïl)	ывӑл (ïvăl)	*ogul
four	تُوات (tüvet)	тăваттă (tăvattă)	*tȫrt	daughter	هِير (hīr)	хӗр (hĕr)	*kï̄ŕ
five	بيال (b^iyel)	пиллӗк (pillĕk)	*bẹ̄ĺ(k)	day	كُوَان (küven or kön)	кун (kun)	*kün
six	اَلطِ (altï)	улттӑ (ulttă)	*altï	week	ايرنى (ērne)	эрне (erne)	(from Persian آدینه‎ (âdine))
seven	جىَاتِ (čyeti)	ҫиччӗ (śiččĕ)	*yẹti	month	اَيخ (ay^ïx)	уйӑх (uyăh)	*āń(k)
eight	ڛَكِڔ (sekir)	саккӑр (sakkăr)	*sekiŕ	year	جال (čal)	ҫул (śul)	*yāĺ
nine	طُخِڔ (tuxïr)	тӑххӑр (tăhhăr)	*tokuŕ	history	تَارِيخ (tārix)	истори (istori)	(from Arabic تَارِيخ‎ (tārīḵ))
ten	وان (van)	вуннӑ (vunnă)	*ōn	to become	بَل (bal)	пул (pul)	*bōl-
twenty	جِيِرم (čiyir^im)	ҫирӗм (śirĕm)	*yẹgirmi	to do, make	طَن (ta-n)	ту (tu)	-
thirty	وطر (v^ut^ur)	вӑтӑр (văt̬ăr)	*otuŕ	to go	بَر (bar)	пыр (pïr)	*bar-
forty	حرح (x^ïr^ïx)	хӗрӗх (hĕrĕh)	*kïrk	to love	سَو (sev)	сав (sav)	*seb-
fifty	الو (el^l^üv), اَلُّ (ellü)	аллӑ (allă)	*ellig	to die	وَل (vel)	вил (vil)	*öl-
hundred	جُور (čǖr)	ҫӗр (śĕr)	*yǖŕ	to migrate	كُوَج (küveč or köč)	куҫ (kuś)	*köč-

Cases in Volga Bulgar^[39][38]

Case	Volga Bulgar	Examples in words
Genitive	-∅ or -(ı)n	اَغَان (ağā-n), يغقوُتن (yaquut-ın)
Accusative	-ne/na	مَسجِذڛَمنَ (mesčidsem-ne)
Dative-locative	-a/e and -ne/na	اِشنَ (iš-ne), بَجنَ (bač-na), جَالَ (čāl-a)
Ablative	-ran, -ren; -tan, -ten	ڊنيَاڔَان (d^önyā-ran)
Third person possessive	-i, -ı; -si, -sı	هِيرِ (hīr-i), اِلغِجِڛِ (ılğıčı-sı)

Definition of verbs in Volga Bulgar^[39][38]

Tenses and moods	Volga Bulgar	Examples in words
Past tense	-ti/tı, -ri/rı	وَلتِ‎ (vel-ti)
Past tense 2	-ruvı/rüvi (<*-dugı), -tuvı/tüvi (<*-tugı)	كُوَجڔوُي (küveč-rüvi), بلطُوى (bal-tuvı)
Adjective form of verb	-an/en	طَنَان (tan-an), سَوَان (sev-en)
Adverb form of verb	-sa/se	بَرسَ‎ (bar-sa)
Third person imperative	-tur/tür	طَنْطُرْ (tan-tur)

See also

• Buyla inscription

Notes

1. Encyclopædia Britannica Online – Bolgar Turkic 2008-06-23 at the Wayback Machine
2. Campbell, George L. Compendium of the World's Languages. Routledge, 2000. page 274
3. Marcantonio, Angela. The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics. Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2002. page 25
4. Marcantonio, Angela (2002). The Uralic language family: facts, myths and statistics. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 167. ISBN 0-631-23170-6.
5. Price, Glanville (2000). Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 88. ISBN 0-631-22039-9.
6. Clauson, Gerard (2002). Studies in Turkic and Mongolic linguistics. Taylor & Francis. p. 38. ISBN 0-415-29772-9.
7. Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. IV (4): 470. ISSN 0363-5570. JSTOR 41036005. The language had strong ties to Bulgar language and to modern Chuvash, but also had some important connections, especially lexical and morphological, to Ottoman Turkish and Yakut
8. Archived, Article. ""The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan" (pages 428, ..., 476), author: Omeljan Pritsak": 430. I was able to establish a Danube- Bulgarian nominative- suffix /A/ from the consonant stems. Recalling that Danube- Bulgarian was a Hunnic language. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
9. Pritsak, Omeljan (1981). "The Proto-Bulgarian Military Inventory Inscriptions". Turkic-Bulgarian-Hungarian relations. Budapest.
10. Ramer, Alexis Manaster. "Proto-Bulgarian/Danube Bulgar/Hunno-Bulgar Bekven": 1 p. Granberg's suggestion that we should revive the term Hunno-Bulgar may well became that replacement — once it is clear that Hunnic and Bulgar were closely related and perhaps even the same language. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
11. Ramer, Alexis Manaster. "Proto-Bulgarian/Danube Bulgar/Hunno-Bulgar Bekven". It is not every day that a new word is discovered from the poorly documented language belonging to the (Chuvashia alias Bulgaric also Lir branch, also often known as Western Turkic, though we are not sure that this is misleading) of the Turkic family that is known to most of world scholarship as Danube Bulgar or Bulghar in Bulgaria and among scholars of Bulgaria worldwide is more commonly referred to as Proto-Bulgarian {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
12. Johanson, Lars. 1998. "The history of Turkic." In: Johanson, Lars & Éva Agnes Csató (ed.). 1998. The Turkic languages. London: Routledge, pp. 81–125."Turcologica". from the original on 8 April 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2007.; Johanson, Lars. 2007. Chuvash. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier.
13. Заходер, Б. Н. (1962). Беляев, Е.А. (ed.). Каспийский свод сведений о Восточной Европе : Горган и Поволжье в IX-X вв (in Russian). Vol. I. Москва: Восточная литература. p. 238.
14. "Archived copy" (PDF). (PDF) from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
15. The Turks: Early ages, Vol. 1 , Cem Oğuz, ISBN 9756782552, Autor Murat Ocak, Redactors: Hasan Celāl Güzel, Cem Oğuz, Osman Karatay, Publisher: Yeni Türkiye, 2002, p. 535.
16. The Hunno-Bulgar language, Antoaneta Granberg, (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
17. Granberg, Antoaneta. "Classification of the Hunno-Bulgarian Loan-Words in Slavonic". Swedish Contributions to the Fourteenth International Congress of Slavists. from the original on 6 December 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
18. "Old Bulgar words from VI-X c. AD sources". www.kroraina.com. from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
19. Бакалов, Георги. Малко известни факти от историята на древните българи Част 1 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machineчаст 2 2007-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
20. Димитров, Божидар, 2005. 12 мита в българската история
21. Милчева, Христина. Българите са с древно-ирански произход. Научна конференция "Средновековна Рус, Волжка България и северното Черноморие в контекста на руските източни връзки", Казан, Русия, 15.10.2007
22. Detrez has specialisized Bulgarian philology at Sofia University and is author of several books treating Bulgarian history 2013-10-02 at the Wayback Machine.
23. Detrez, Raymond; Plas, Pieter; Lang, Peter (2005). Developing cultural identity in the Balkans: convergence vs divergence. p. 29. ISBN 90-5201-297-0.
24. Бешевлиев, Веселин. Ирански елементи у първобългарите. Античное Общество, Труды Конференции по изучению проблем античности, стр. 237–247, Издательство "Наука", Москва 1967, АН СССР, Отделение Истории.
25. Йорданов, Стефан. Славяни, тюрки и индо-иранци в ранното средновековие: езикови проблеми на българския етногенезис. В: Българистични проучвания. 8. Актуални проблеми на българистиката и славистиката. Седма международна научна сесия. Велико Търново, 22–23 август 2001 г. Велико Търново, 2002, 275–295.
26. Съпоставително езикознание, Том 30, Софийски университет "Климент Охридски", 2005, стр. 66–68.
27. Исторически преглед, Том 62, Броеве 3–4, Bŭlgarsko istorichesko druzhestvo, Institut za istoria (Bŭlgarska akademia na naukite) 2006, стр. 14.
28. Palaeobulgarica: Starobŭlgaristika, Том 24, Tsentŭr za bŭlgaristika (Bŭlgarska akademiia na naukite), 2000, стр. 53.
29. "Образуване на българската народност. Димитър Ангелов (Издателство Наука и изкуство, "Векове", София, 1971) стр. 117". kroraina.com. from the original on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
30. "Образуване на българската държава, Петър Петров (Издателство Наука и изкуство, София, 1981) стр. 94". kroraina.com. from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
31. Karloukovski, Vassil. "V. Zlatarski – Istorija 1A – a 1". www.kroraina.com. from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
32. "Медното гумно на прабългарите, Ivan Benedikov, (College "Thrace" publishing house, I edition 1983, II. reworked edition, Stara Zagora 1995, pp. 16–19". kroraina.com. from the original on 20 June 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
33. Curta, Florin; Kovalev, Roman (2008). The Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans. Brill. p. 189. ISBN 978-9004163898.
34. Rance, Philip,"Photios and the Bulgar Language (τῶγα, tuğ)" Byzantinoslavica 79 (2021) 41–58
35. Tekin, Talât (1987). Tuna Bulgarları ve Dilleri (in Turkish). Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi.
36. Clark, Larry. 1998. "Chuvash." In: Johanson, Lars & Éva Agnes Csató (ed.). 1998. The Turkic languages. London: Routledge, p.434
37. Формирование болгарской (древнечувашской) народности – web page
38. HAKIMZJANOV, F. S. “NEW VOLGA BULGARIAN INSCRIPTIONS.” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, vol. 40, no. 1, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1986, pp. 173–77, [1].
39. Tekin, Talât (1988). Volga Bulgar kitabeleri ve Volga Bulgarcası. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. p. 30-38. ISBN 978-9-751600-660.
40. A Volga Bulgarıan Inscription From 1307 A. Róna-tas
41. Unpublished Volga Bulgarian inscriptions A. H. Khalikov and J. G. Muhametshin
42. "Закиев М. З. Лингвоэтнические особенности волжских булгар — главного этнического корня татар". bulgarizdat.ru. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
43. "Category:Bulgar numerals – Wiktionary". en.wiktionary.org. 31 July 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
44. "Proto-Turkic/History of Proto-Turkic language – Wikibooks, open books for an open world". en.wikibooks.org. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
45. "Numbers in Chuvash".

External links

 

Look up Bulgar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

 

For a list of words relating to Bulgar language, see the Bulgar language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Britannica Online – The article describes the position of Bulgar and Chuvash in the classification of the Turkic languages.
• "Sergei Starostin's Tower of Babel" (PDF). – A Russian Turkologist's take on Danube Bulgar inscriptions and the Bulgar calendar, in Russian. The article contains a tentative decipherment of inscriptions based on the Turkic hypothesis. (350 KiB)
• – A Bulgarian archeologist's proposal. The author concedes that the ruling elite of the Bulgars was Turkic-speaking as evidenced by the inscriptions etc., but stipulates that the bulk of the population was Iranian.