Oghuric languages

Not to be confused with Ugric languages or Oghuz languages.

The Oghuric, Onoguric or Oguric^[3] languages (also known as Bulgar,^[4] Bulgharic,^[5] Bolgar,^[6] Pre-Proto-Bulgaric^[7] or Lir-Turkic and r-Turkic) are a branch of the Turkic language family. The only extant member of the group is the Chuvash language. The first to branch off from the Turkic family, the Oghuric languages show significant divergence from other Turkic languages, which all share a later common ancestor. Languages from this family were spoken in some nomadic tribal confederations, such as those of the Onogurs or Ogurs, Bulgars and Khazars.^[8]

Oghuric
Onogur Ogur
Geographic distribution	Historically: Balkans, Caucasus, Northern China (presumably) Today: Volga region
Linguistic classification	Turkic Oghuric
Subdivisions	Chuvash † Bulgar † Khazar (classification disputed) † Hunnic (disputed) † Tuoba (disputed)^[1] † Avar (disputed)^[2]
Glottolog	bolg1249

History

The Oghuric languages are a distinct group of the Turkic languages, standing in contrast to Common Turkic. Today they are represented only by Chuvash. The only other language which is conclusively proven to be Oghuric is the long-extinct Bulgar, while Khazar may be a possible relative within the group.^[9] The Hunnic language is sometimes assumed to have been a Oghuric language, although such speculations are not based on proper linguistic evidence, since the language of the Huns is almost unknown except for a few attested words and personal names.^[10] Oghuric was the lingua franca of the Khazar state.^[11]

There is no consensus among linguists on the relation between Oghuric and Common Turkic and several questions remain unsolved:^[3]

• Are they parallel branches of Proto-Turkic (c. 3000 BC-500 BC) and, if so, which branch is more archaic?
• Does Oghuric represent Archaic Turkic before phonetic changes in 100–400 AD and was it a separate language?

Fuzuli Bayat dates the separation into Oghur r-dialects and Oghuz z-dialects to the 2nd millennium BC.^[12]

Features

The Oghuric languages are also known as "-r Turkic" because the final consonant in certain words is r, not z as in Common Turkic.^[9] Chuvash: вăкăр - Turkish: öküz - Tatar: үгез - English: ox. Hence the name Oghur corresponds to Oghuz "tribe" in Common Turkic.^[3] Other correspondences are Com. š : Oghur l (tâš : tâl, 'stone'); s > š; *č > ś; k/q > ğ; y > j, ś; d, δ > δ > z (10th cent.) > r (13th cent.)"; ğd > z > r (14th cent.); a > ı (after 9th cent.).^[13][14] The shift from s to š operates before i, ï, and iV, and Dybo calls the sound change the "Bulgar palatalization".^[15]

Denis Sinor believed that the differences noted above suggest that the Oghur-speaking tribes could not have originated in territories inhabited by speakers of Mongolic languages, given that Mongolian dialects feature the -z suffix.^[16] Peter Golden, however, has noted that there are many loanwords in Mongolic from Oghuric, such as Mongolic ikere, Oghuric *ikir, Hungarian iker, Common Turkic *ikiz 'twins',^[3] and holds the contradictory view that the Oghur inhabited the borderlands of Mongolia prior to the 5th century.^[17]

Oghuric influence on other languages

The Oghuric tribes are often connected with the Hungarians, whose exo-ethnonym is usually derived from On-Oğur (> (H)Ungari). Hungarians -> Hun Oghur -> (ten oghur tribes): On ogur -> up.chv. Won ogur -> dow.chv. Wun ogur -> belor. Wugorac -> rus. Wenger -> slove. Vogr, Vogrin -> cheh. pol. Węgier, Węgrzyn, -> lit. Veñgras. ^[18] Hungarian has many borrowings from Turkic languages, with phonological characteristics which indicate that they borrowed from a Oghuric source language:^[19] Hung. tenger, Oghur. *tengir, Comm. *tengiz 'sea',^[3] Hung. gyűrű, Oghur. *ǰürük, Comm. *yüzük 'ring',^[20] A number of Hungarian loanwords were borrowed before the 9th century, shown by sz- (< Oğ. *ś-) rather than gy- (< Oğ. *ǰ-), for example Hung. szél, Oghur. *śäl, Chuv. śil, Comm. *yel 'wind', Hung. szűcs 'tailor', Hung. szőlő 'grapes'.^[20]

In the Oghuz languages as azer. tur. öküz means ox (totemic animal), and is a reflection of the Chuvash language wăkăr where rhotacism is used, in the Kipchak languages it is ögiz.^[21][22]

See also

• Saragurs
• Kutrigurs
• Utigurs
• Oghur & Oghuz
• Oghur (tribe)

References

1. Juha Janhunen, (1996), Manchuria: An Ethnic History, p. 190
2. Golden 1992, p. 110.
3. Golden 2011, p. 30.
4. The extinct Bulgar, Bulgaric, etc., a Turkic group, should not be confused with the unrelated Indo-European Bulgarian, which is very much alive.
5. Savelyev 2020, p. 446.
6. Glottolog
7. Golden 2011, p. 39.
8. Golden 2011, p. 239.
9. Golden 1992, p. 95–96.
10. Savelyev 2020, p. 448.
11. Golden 2006, p. 91.
13. Golden 1992, p. 20, 96.
14. Golden 2011, p. 30, 236–239.
15. Dybo 2014, p. 13.
16. Golden 2011, p. 29.
17. Golden 2011, p. 31.
18. Golden 1992, p. 102–103.
19. Golden 1992, p. 259–260.
20. Golden 2011, p. 164.
21. Clauson, Gerard (1972), An Etymological Dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page: 120.
22. Егоров (Egorov), Василий Георгиевич (1964). Чăваш чĕлхин этимологи словарĕ [Этимологический словарь чувашского языка] (PDF) (in Russian). Cheboksary: Чувашское книжное издательство.

Sources

• Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan" (PDF). Harvard Ukrainian Studies. IV (4). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. ISSN 0363-5570.
• Golden, Peter Benjamin (1992). An introduction to the History of the Turkic peoples: ethnogenesis and state formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the Middle East. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. ISBN 9783447032742.
• Golden, Peter B. (2011). Studies on the Peoples and Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes. Editura Academiei Române; Editura Istros a Muzeului Brăilei. ISBN 9789732721520.
• Dybo, Anna (2014). "Early Contacts of Turks and Problems of Proto-Turkic Reconstruction" (PDF). Tatarica. II.
• Guglielmino, Carmela Rosalba; Béres, Judit (1996). "Genetic Structure in Relation to the History of Hungarian Ethnic Groups". Human Biology. 68 (3). Wayne State University Press: 335–355. JSTOR 41465480. PMID 8935316.
• Savelyev, Alexander (2020). "Chuvash and the Bulgharic Languages". In Martine Robbeets; Alexander Savelyev (eds.). The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages. pp. 446–464. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198804628.003.0028. ISBN 978-0-19-880462-8.
• Golden, Peter Benjamin (2006). "The Khazar Sacral Kingship". In Reyerson, Kathryn Von; Stavrou, Theofanis George; Tracy, James Donald (eds.). Pre-modern Russia and its world: Essays in Honour of Thomas S. Noonan. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 79–102. ISBN 978-3-447-05425-6 – via Google Books.