Oghuz languages

Oghuz
	Southwestern Turkic
Geographic; distribution
Linguistic classification	Turkic Common Turkic Oghuz; ;
Subdivisions	† Old Anatolian Turkish; † Ottoman Turkish; † Pecheneg language; Gagauz; Turkish; Azerbaijani; Turkmen; Qashqai; Khorasani; Salar;
Glottolog	oghu1243 (Oghuz + Kipchak + Uzbek)[1]

The Oghuz languages are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family, spoken by approximately 108 million people. The three languages with the largest number of speakers are Turkish, Azerbaijani and Turkmen, which combined account for more than 95% of speakers.

According to Kara-Khanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari, who lived in 11th century, Oghuz language was the simplest among all Turkic languages.[2]

Swedish turcologist and linguist Lars Johanson notes that Oghuz languages form a clearly discernible and closely related block within the Turkic language family as the cultural and political history of the speakers of Oghuz languages has linked them more closely up to the modern age.[3]

Terminology

The term "Oghuz" is applied to the southwestern branch of the Common Turkic languages. It is in reference to the Oghuz Turks, who migrated from the Altay Mountains[4] to Central Asia in the 8th century and further expanded to the Middle East and to the Balkans as separate tribes.

Classification

The Oghuz languages currently spoken have been classified into three categories based on their features and geography: Western, Eastern, and Southern.

Proto-Turkic	Common Turkic	Oghuz	Salar
			Western	Turkish Azerbaijani Gagauz Rumelian Turkish Ottoman Turkish † Old Anatolian Turkish † Pecheneg †
			Eastern	Turkmen Khorasani Turkic
			Southern	Qashqai

Two further languages, Crimean Tatar and Urum, are Kipchak languages, but have been heavily influenced by the Oghuz languages.

The extinct Pecheneg language was probably Oghuz, but as it is poorly documented, it is difficult to further classify it within the Oghuz family; it is therefore usually excluded from classification.[5]

Features

The Oghuz languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together. Some of the features are shared with other Turkic languages, and others are unique to the Oghuz family.

Shared features

Loss of initial *h sound (shared with all Turkic languages but Khalaj)
Loss of productivity of the original Turkic instrumental case -n (shared with all Turkic languages but Yakut and Khalaj)

Unique features

Voicing of stops before front vowels (e.g. gör- < kör-, "to see")
Loss of q/ɣ after ɯ/u (e.g. quru < quruq, "dry", sarɯ < sarɯɣ, "yellow")
Change in form of participial from -gan to -an

Comparison

The remarkable similarity between Oghuz languages may be demonstrated through the sentence, which employs a verbal noun in the dative as a link between the main verb and auxiliary. This feature is universally shared by all Oghuz languages.[6] Turcologist Julian Rentzsch uses this particular sentence in his work titled "Uniformity and diversity in Turkic inceptive constructions":[7]

English: ‘The dead man rose, sat down and began to speak.’

Turkish: Ölü doğrulup oturdu ve konuşmaya başladı.
Turkmen: Öli ýerinden galyp oturdy-da, geplemäge başlady.
Azerbaijani: Ölü durub oturdu və danışmağa başladı.
Gagauz: Ölü oturdu da bašladï lafetmää.

Literary works

Book of Dede Korkut
Epic of Köroğlu
Târîh-i Âli Selçûk (History of the House of Seljuk) by Yazıcıoğlu Ali
Şikâyetnâme (شکايت نامه; "Complaint") by Fuzûlî
Dâstân-ı Leylî vü Mecnûn by Fuzûlî
Risâletü'n-Nushiyye by Yunus Emre
Mârifetnâme (معرفت‌نامه; "Book of Gnosis") by İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi

References

Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Oghuz". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
D. T. Potts, (2014), Nomadism in Iran: From Antiquity to the Modern Era, p. 177
Johanson, Lars (1998). The Turkic Languages. Routledge. p. 2. ISBN 0-415-08200-5.
Danver, Steven (2015). The Native People of the World, An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues, Volume 1-3. Routledge. p. 565. ISBN 9780765682222. "Historically, all of the Western or Oghuz Turks have been called Turkmen or Turkomen... In the 7th century C.E., they migrated from their ancestral homeland in the Altay mountains westward..."
Баскаков, Н. А. Тюркские языки, Москва 1960, с. 126-131.
Julian Rentzsch, "Uniformity and diversity in Turkic inceptive constructions", Johannes Gutenberg University, p. 270
Julian Rentzsch, "Uniformity and diversity in Turkic inceptive constructions", Johannes Gutenberg University, pp. 270-271