Proto-Turkic language

The Proto-Turkic language is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Turkic languages that was spoken by the Proto-Turks before their divergence into the various Turkic peoples. Proto-Turkic separated into Oghur (western) and Common Turkic (eastern) branches. One estimate postulates Proto-Turkic to have been spoken 2,500 years ago in East Asia.[1]

Proto-Turkic
Reconstruction of	Turkic languages
Region	Mongolia?
Era	ca. 500 BCE
Reconstructed ancestor	Proto-Altaic?

The oldest records of a Turkic language, the Old Turkic Orkhon inscriptions of the 7th century Göktürk khaganate, already shows characteristics of Eastern Common Turkic and reconstruction of Proto-Turkic must rely on comparisons of Old Turkic with early sources of the Western Common Turkic branches, such as Oghuz and Kypchak, as well as the Western Oghur proper (Bulgar, Chuvash, Khazar). Because early attestation of these non-easternmost languages is much more sparse, reconstruction of Proto-Turkic still rests fundamentally on the easternmost Old Turkic of the Göktürks.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant system had a two-way contrast of stop consonants (fortis vs. lenis), k, p, t vs. g, b, d. There was also an affricate consonant, č; at least one sibilant s and sonorants m, n, ń, ŋ, r, ŕ, l, ĺ with a full series of nasal consonants.

The sounds denoted by ń, ĺ, ŕ refer to palatalized sounds and have been claimed by Altaicists to be direct inheritances from Proto-Altaic. The last two can be reconstructed with the aid of the Oghur languages, which show /r, l/ for *ŕ, *ĺ, while Common Turkic has *z, *š. Oghuric is thus sometimes referred to as Lir-Turkic and Common Turkic as Shaz-Turkic.

However, an alternate theory holds that Common Turkic is closer to the original state of affairs and reconstructs Proto-Turkic *z, *š. The glottochronological reconstruction based on analysis of isoglosses and Sinicisms points to the timing of the r/z split at around 56 BCE–48 CE. As A. V. Dybo puts it, that may be associated with

the historical situation that can be seen in the history of the Huns' division onto the Northern and Southern [groups]: the first separation and withdrawal of the Northern Huns to the west has occurred, as was stated above, in 56 BC,... the second split of the (Eastern) Huns into the northern and southern groups happened in 48 AD.[2]

Dybo suggests that during that period, the Northern branch steadily migrated from Western Mongolia through Southern Xinjiang into the north's Dzungaria and then finally into Kazakhstan's Zhetysu until the 5th century.[2]

		Bilabial	Dental or alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosives and affricate	Fortis	*p	*t	*⟨č⟩ t͡ʃ	*k
	Lenis	*b	*d		*g
Sibilants	Voiceless		*s			*h
	Voiced
Nasals		*m	*n	*⟨ń⟩ nʲ	*ŋ
Liquids	Lateral(s)		*l	*⟨ĺ⟩ lʲ
	Rhotic(s)		*r	*⟨ŕ⟩ rʲ
Semivowel				*j

Vowels

Like most of its descendants, Proto-Turkic exhibited vowel harmony, distinguishing vowel qualities e, i, o, u vs. ë, ï, ö, ü besides a, as well as two vowel quantities.

	front		back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
high	*i, *iː /i/	*ü, *üː /y/	*ï, *ïː /ɨ/	*u, *uː /u/
mid	*e, *eː /ɛ/	*ö, *öː /ø/~/œ/	*ë, *ëː /ə/	*o, *oː /o/
low	*a, *aː /ä/

Grammar

Pronouns

	Proto-Turkic	Turkish	Azeri	Turkmen	Kazakh	Chuvash	Karakhanid	Uzbek	Bashkir	Kyrgyz
I	*ben	ben, ban-	mən	men	men, ma-	e-pĕ, man-	men, man-	men	min	men
you	*sen	sen, san-	sən	sen	sen, sa-, siz	e-sĕ, sĕn-	sen, san-	sen, siz	hin	sen, siz
he/she/it	*an-, *o-l	on-, o	on-, o	ol	on-, o-l	un-, văl	an-, ol	u	ul	al
we	*biŕ	biz	biz	biz	biz	pir-	biz	biz	beð	biz
you (plural)	*siŕ	siz	siz	siz	sender, sizder	sir-	siz	sizlar	heð	siler, sizder
they	*o-lar	on-lar	onlar	olar	olar	vĕsen-	olar	ular	ular	alar

Numbers

	Proto-Turkic	Turkish	Azeri	Turkmen	Chuvash	Karakhanid	Kazakh	Uzbek	Bashkir	Kyrgyz	Yakut
1	*bīr	bir	bir	bir	pĕr	bīr	bir	bir	ber	bir	biir
2	*ẹki	iki	iki	iki	ikĕ	ikkī	eki	ikki	ike	eki	ikki
3	*üč	üç	üç	üç	viśĕ	üč	üsh	uch	ös	üč	üs
4	*dȫrt	dört	dörd	dört	tăvată	tȫrt	tört	to'rt	dürt	tört	tüört
5	*bēĺ(k)	beş	beş	bäş	pilĕk	bḗš	bes	besh	biş	beş	bies
6	*altï	altı	altı	alty	ultă	altï̄	altı	olti	altı	altı	alta
7	*yẹti	yedi	yeddi	ýedi	śičĕ	yétī	zheti	yetti	yete	jeti	sette
8	*sekiŕ	sekiz	səkkiz	sekiz	sakăr	sekiz	segiz	sakkiz	higeð	segiz	aаğıs
9	*tokuŕ	dokuz	doqquz	dokuz	tăhăr	tokūz	toğız	to'qqiz	tuğıð	toguz	toğus
10	*ōn	on	on	on	vună	ōn	on	o'n	un	on	uon
20	*yẹgirmi	yirmi	iyirmi	ýigrimi	śirĕm	yegirmī	zhıyırma	yigirma	yegerme	jıyırma	süürbe
30	*otuŕ	otuz	otuz	otuz	văḍăr	ottuz	otız	o'ttiz	utıð	otuz	otut
40	*kïrk	kırk	qırx	kyrk	hĕrĕh	kïrk	qırıq	qirq	qırq	kırk	-
50	*ellig	elli	əlli	elli	allă	ellig	eliw	ellik	ille	elüü	-
60	*altmïĺ	altmış	altmış	altmyş	utmăl	altmïš	alpıs	oltmish	altmış	altımış	-
70	*yẹtmiĺ	yetmiş	yetmiş	ýetmiş	śitmĕl	yetmiš	zhetpis	yetmish	yetmeş	jetimiş	-
80	*sekiŕ ōn	seksen	səksən	segsen	sakărvun	seksȫn	seksen	sakson	hikhän	seksen	ağıs uon
90	*dokuŕ ōn	doksan	doxsan	dogsan	tăhărvun	toksōn	toqsan	to'qson	tuqhan	tokson	toğus uon
100	*yǖŕ	yüz	yüz	ýüz	śĕr	yǖz	zhüz	yuz	yöð	jüz	süüs
1000	*bïŋ	bin	min	müň	pin	miŋ	mıŋ	ming	meŋ	miñ	muŋ

References

1. Janhunen, Juha (2013). "Personal pronouns in Core Altaic". In Martine Irma Robbeets; Hubert Cuyckens (eds.). Shared Grammaticalization: With special focus on the Transeurasian languages. p. 223.
2. Dybo, A. V. (2007). Chronology of Turkic languages and linguistic contacts of early Turks (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow. p. 770. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-03-11.

Sources

• Antonov, Anton; Jacques, Guillaume (2012). "Turkic kümüš 'silver' and the lambdaism vs. sigmatism debate". Turkic Languages. 15 (2): 151–170.

• Décsy, Gyula (1998). The Turkic Protolanguage: A computational reconstruction.

• Vajda, Edward J. (2000). "Review of Décsy (1998)". Language. 76 (2): 473–474.

• Clauson, Gerard (1972). Etymological Dictionary of Pre-Thirteenth-Century Turkish. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

• Grønbech, Vilhelm (1997). Preliminary Studies in Turkic Historical Phonology (Uralic & Altaic). Curzon: Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-0935-5.

• Róna-Tas, András (1998). "The reconstruction of Proto-Turkic and the genetic question". In Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva (eds.). The Turkic Languages. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 67–80. ISBN 0-415-08200-5.

External links

• ""Wheels and Carts of the Ancient Turks in a Linguistic View". Karadeniz Araştırmaları. XVII/65: 167-176