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 ofTurkic languages
RegionProbably Mongolia
Erac. 500 BCE
Reconstructed
ancestor

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, ç; 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 *⟨ç⟩ t͡ʃ *k
Lenis *b *d *g
Sibilants *s *h
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 a, ë, ï, o, u vs. ä, e, i, ö, ü, as well as two vowel quantities. Here, macrons represent long vowels.

front back
unrounded rounded unrounded rounded
high *i, *ī /i/ *ü, *ǖ /y/ *ï, *ï̄ /ɨ/ *u, *ū /u/
mid *ë, *ë̄ /e/ *ö, *ȫ /ø/~/œ/ *ä, *ǟ /ə/ *o, *ō /o/
low *e, *ē /ɛ/ *a, *ā /ä/

Morphology

This section deals mainly with Róna-Tas (1998). However, some of his reconstructions of Proto-Turkic have some Common Turkic features like substituting *-z for palatalized *-ŕ.

Nouns

Plural of nouns are formed by the suffix *-lAr, however, the Chuvash plural -сем seems a late replacement. Reconstructable possessive suffixes in Proto-Turkic includes 1sg *-m, 2sg *-ŋ, and 3sg *-(s)i, plurals of the possessors are formed by *-z (note that *-z is a Common Turkic feature).

Verbs

The reconstructable suffixes for the verbs include:

  • Aorist: *-Vr
  • Past: *-dI
  • Negative suffix: *-mA (placed between the stem and the suffixes)
  • 1sg: *-m < *-men < *ben
  • 2sg: *-n < *sen
  • 3sg: *-∅ < *i
  • 1pl: *-miz/*-biz < *biz
  • 2pl: *-siz < *siz

Proto-Turkic also involves derivation with grammatical voice suffixes, as in cooperative *körüš, middle *körün, passive *körül, and causative *körtkür.

Vocabulary

Pronouns
Proto-Turkic Turkish Azeri Turkmen Kazakh Chuvash Karakhanid Uzbek Bashkir Kyrgyz Sakha (Yakut)
I *bë,[3][4] *ben-[5][6]ben, ban-mənmenmen, ma-e-pĕ, man-men, man-menminmenmin
you *së,[3][7] *sen-sen, san-sənsensen, sa-, size-sĕ, san-sen, san-sen, sizhinsen, sizen
he/she/it *an-, *o-lon-, oon-, oolon-, o-lun-, vălan-, oluulalkini, ol[8]
we *biŕbizbizbizbizpir-bizbizbeðbizbihigi
you (plural) *siŕsizsizsizsender, sizdersir-sizsizlarheðsiler, sizderehigi
they *o-lar[9]on-laronlarolarolarvĕsem, vĕsen-olarularularalarkiniler, ollor

Numbers
Proto-Turkic Turkish Azeri Turkmen Chuvash Karakhanid Kazakh Uzbek Bashkir Kyrgyz Sakha (Yakut)
1 *bīrbirbirbirpĕrbīrbirbirberbirbiir
2 *ëkiikiikiikiikĕikkīekiikkiikeekiikki
3 *üçüçüçüçviśĕüčüshuchösüčüs
4 *dȫrtdörtdörddörttăvatătȫrttörtto'rtdürttörttüört
5 *bë̄ĺ(k)beşbeşbäşpilĕkbḗšbesbeshbişbeşbies
6 *altïaltıaltıaltyultăaltï̄altıoltialtıaltıalta
7 *yëtiyediyeddiýediśičĕyétīzhetiyettiyetejetisette
8 *sekiŕsekizsəkkizsekizsakărsekizsegizsakkizhigeðsegizaаğıs
9 *tokuŕdokuzdoqquzdokuztăhărtokūztoğızto'qqiztuğıðtoguztoğus
10 *ōnonononvunăōnono'nunonuon
20 *yëgirmiyirmiiyirmiýigrimiśirĕmyegirmīzhıyırmayigirmayegermejıyırmasüürbe
30 *otuŕotuzotuzotuzvăḍărottuzotızo'ttizutıðotuzotut
40 *kïrkkırkqırxkyrkhĕrĕhkïrkqırıqqirqqırqkırk-
50 *elligelliəllielliallăelligeliwellikilleelüü-
60 *altmïĺaltmışaltmışaltmyşutmălaltmïšalpısoltmishaltmışaltımış-
70 *yëtmiĺyetmişyetmişýetmişśitmĕlyetmišzhetpisyetmishyetmeşjetimiş-
80 *sekiŕ ōnseksensəksənsegsensakărvunseksȫnseksensaksonhikhänseksenağıs uon
90 *tokuŕ ōndoksandoxsandogsantăhărvuntoksōntoqsanto'qsontuqhantoksontoğus uon
100 *yǖŕyüzyüzýüzśĕryǖzzhüzyuzyöðjüzsüüs
1000 *bïŋbinminmüňpinmiŋmıŋmingmeŋmiñmuŋ

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. ISBN 9789027205995.
  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.
  3. Georg, Stefan (2004-12-22). "Review of Starostin, Dybo, Mudrak, Gruntov & Glumov (2003): Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages". Diachronica. 21 (2): 445–450. doi:10.1075/dia.21.2.12geo. ISSN 0176-4225.
  4. "Turkic etymology : Query result". starling.rinet.ru. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  5. "Reconstruction:Proto-Turkic/ben", Wiktionary, 2021-08-20, retrieved 2021-09-23
  6. "Proto-Turkic/Pronouns and numbers - Wikibooks, open books for an open world". en.wikibooks.org. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  7. "Turkic etymology : Query result". starling.rinet.ru. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  8. In Sakha (AKA Yakut), kini(ler) is used for animate referents whereas ol(lor) is used for inanimate referents. While the latter is cognate with other third person forms given here, the former descends from Proto-Turkic *gëntü, *këntü '(him/her)self' and is thus cognate, for example, with Turkish kendi.
  9. This pronoun are constructed by adding a plural suffix to *o-l "he/she/it". However, an Oghur language Chuvash uses a completely different plural suffix that lacks vowel harmony, -sem. According to Róna-Tas (1998), -sem is a late replacement to *-lAr.

Sources
  • Décsy, Gyula (1998). The Turkic Protolanguage: A computational reconstruction.
  • 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.
  • "Wheels and Carts of the Ancient Turks in a Linguistic View". Karadeniz Araştırmaları. XVII (65): 167–176.
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