Oghuz languages

Oghuz
Southwestern Turkic
Geographic distribution:
Linguistic classification:	Altaic? Turkic Oghuz
Subdivisions:	Turkish Group Azerbaijani Group Turkmen Group Southern Oghuz group Salar

The Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family, are spoken by more than 150 million people in an area spanning from the Balkans to China.

The term

The term Oghuz language is applied to the Southwestern Branch of Turkic languages such as Turkish language, Azerbaijani language and Turkmen language which are mainly spoken in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iranian Azerbaijan, Turkmeneli and Syria.^[1] In the 8th century, the Oghuz tribes migrated to Central Asia from Altai Mountains, and then they started to spread out through Central Asia and Khwarezm to the Middle East and Balkans. With time, Oghuz name was replaced by the names Turkmen, Seljuk, Azeri, and later Ottoman Turk.^[2] Due to the fact that Oghuz Turks settled in different parts of Asia and Europe, the Oghuz language has had a number of different features and dialects, which led linguists to classify them under the Oghuz languages.

Linguistic features

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

Shared features

• Loss of initial *h sound
• Loss of the instrumental case

Unique features

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

Classification

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The Oghuz languages may be broken down into three main groups, based on geography and shared features:

• a Western group, including
  • Turkish, including Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Gagauz, Balkan Gagauz Turkish, and the language of the Meskhetian Turks
  • Azerbaijani, including the northern and southern varieties of Azerbaijani, the languages of the Iraqi Turkmen of Iran and Iraq, Qashqa'i, and Afshar
  • Turkmen group, including Turkmen, Khorasani Turkish in Iran, and the Oghuz dialect of Uzbek
  • a southern group, including dialects of Iran (Kashkay, Sonqori, Aynallu etc.) and Afghanistan (Afshar).

An outlying language, Salar, is spoken by about 70,000 people in China.

Two languages, Crimean Tatar and Urum are historically Kypchak languages, but have been so heavily influenced by Oghuz languages that it is difficult to classify them definitively as either Oghuz or Kypchak.

The extinct Pecheneg language is likely Oghuz, but as it is poorly documented, it is difficult to further classify it within the Oghuz family.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Oghuz Turks
• Turkic languages
• Turkic peoples

References

• Johanson, Lars and Csató, Éva Ágnes (1998). The Turkic Languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08200-5. 
• Menges, Karl H. (1995). The Turkic Languages and Peoples. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03533-1. 

External links

• Ethnologue tree