Bulgar language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bulgar | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | from Central Asia to the steppes North of the Caucasus, the Volga, and the Danube | |
| Language extinction: | between the 9th century on the Danube and the 14th century on the Volga | |
| Language family: | Altaic Turkic Oghur Bulgar |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | – | |
| ISO 639-3: | xbo | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Bulgar (also Bolğar and Proto-Bulgarian) was the language of the Bulgars, now extinct. Its classification is somewhat controversial: the most widely accepted theory places it among the Turkic languages,[1][2][3] but some Bulgarian historians link it to Iranian language group instead (more specifically, the Pamir languages are frequently mentioned).[4][5][6][7] Other Bulgarian historians only point out certain signs of Iranian influence without drawing such conclusions from them[8] (of the linguistic evidence only the Iranian origin of the name Asparukh seems to withstand scrutiny - see Schmitt 1985 for a critical assessment by an international Iranologist[9]). Still others assume an intermediate stance[10] or indeed actively oppose the "Iranian" theory.[11] Bulgar is assumed to have been used in Great Bulgaria, later in Volga Bulgaria, as well as in Danubian Bulgaria. The language became extinct in Danubian Bulgaria in the 9th century as the Bulgar nobility became gradually Slavicized through intermarriages with the Slavic majority there. In Volga Bulgaria, it persisted longer (according to the prevalent theory of its Turkic affiliation) and ultimately gave rise to the modern Turkic Chuvash language.[1][2][12]
Contents |
[edit] Danube Bulgar
The language of the Danube Bulgars (or Danube Bulgar) is recorded in a small number of inscriptions, which are found in Pliska, the first capital of Danube Bulgaria and in the rock churches near the village of Murfatlar, Romania. Some of these inscriptions are written with Greek characters, others with runes similar to the Orkhon script. Most of them appear to have 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 Danube-Bulgar are found along with other official ones written in Greek. The rulers of the First Bulgarian Empire preserved Greek as the official state language until the 9th century when it was replaced by Old Bulgarian.
The language of the Danube 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, 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 e.g. in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian Khans).
[edit] 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 characters, alongside the continuing use of Turkic runes. These are all largely decipherable. That language persisted until the 13th or the 14th century. It adopted a number of words and constructions from the Kipchak language and ultimately gave rise to the Chuvash language. Chuvash is classified as the only surviving member of a separate "Oghur-Turkic" branch of the Turkic languages, characterized by sound correspondences such as Bulgar r versus Common Turkic z and Bulgar l versus Common Turkic š.[12] Likewise, the Old Tatar language, despite not belonging to the same branch as Chuvash and Bulgar, is believed to have absorbed elements of the Bulgar language; thus, the language spoken by the present-day Volga Tatars would represent a mixture of Kipchak and Bulgar.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Encyclopaedia Britannica Online - Bolgar Turkic
- ^ a b Campbell, George L. Compendium of the World's Languages. Routledge, 2000. page 274
- ^ Marcantonio, Angela. The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics. Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2002. page 25
- ^ Добрев, Петър, 1995. "Езикът на Аспаруховите и Куберовите българи" 1995
- ^ Бакалов, Георги. Малко известни факти от историята на древните българи Част 1 част 2
- ^ Димитров, Божидар, 2005. 12 мита в българската история
- ^ 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
- ^ 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.
- ^ Rüdiger Schmitt (Saarbrücken). IRANICA PROTOBULGARICA: Asparuch und Konsorten im Lichte der Iranischen Onomastik. Academie Bulgare des Sciences, Linguistique Balkanique, XXVIII (1985), l, 13-38
- ^ Rasho Rashev. On the origin of the Proto-Bulgarians, p. 23-33 in: Studia protobulgarica et mediaevalia europensia. In honour of Prof. V. Beshevliev, Veliko Tarnovo, 1992.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Формирование болгарской (древнечувашской) народности - web page
[edit] External links
- Britannica Online - The article describes the position of Bulgar and Chuvash in the classification of the Turkic languages.
- Sergei Starostin's Tower of Babel - 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.PDF (350 KiB)
- Rashev, Rasho. 1992. On the origin of the Proto-Bulgarians. p. 23-33 in: Studia protobulgarica et mediaevalia europensia. In honour of Prof. V. Beshevliev, Veliko Tarnovo - 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.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
