Chagatai[lower-alpha 1] (چغتای, Čaġatāy), also known as Turki,[lower-alpha 2][5] Eastern Turkic[6] or Chagatai Turkic (Čaġatāy türkīsi),[4] is an extinct Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken in Central Asia and remained the shared literary language there until the early 20th century. It was used across a wide geographic area including parts of modern-day Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.[7] Literary Chagatai is the predecessor of the modern Karluk branch of Turkic languages, which include Uzbek and Uyghur.[8] Turkmen, which is not within the Karluk branch but in the Oghuz branch of Turkic languages, was heavily influenced by Chagatai for centuries.[9]
Chagatai | |
---|---|
چغتای Čaġatāy | |
Region | Central Asia |
Extinct | Around 1921 |
Language family | |
Early forms | |
Writing system | Perso-Arabic script (Nastaliq) |
Official status | |
Official language in | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | chg |
ISO 639-3 | chg |
Linguist List | chg |
Glottolog | chag1247 |
Ali-Shir Nava'i was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.[10]
Chagatai literature is still studied in modern Uzbekistan, where the language is seen as the predecessor and the direct ancestor of modern Uzbek and the literature is regarded as part of the national heritage of Uzbekistan.
The word Chagatai relates to the Chagatai Khanate (1225–1680s), a descendant empire of the Mongol Empire left to Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai Khan.[11] Many of the Turkic peoples, who were the speakers of this language, claimed political descent from Chagatai Khanate.
As part of the preparation for the 1924 establishment of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, Chagatai was officially renamed "Old Uzbek",[12][13][8][14][5] which Edward A. Allworth argued "badly distorted the literary history of the region" and was used to give authors such as Ali-Shir Nava'i an Uzbek identity.[15][16] It was also referred to as "Turki" or "Sart" in Russian colonial sources.[5] In China, it is sometimes called "ancient Uyghur".[17]
Chagatai is a Turkic language that was developed in the late 15th century.[8]: 143 It belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family. It is descended from Middle Turkic, which served as a lingua franca in Central Asia, with a strong infusion of Arabic and Persian words and turns of phrase.
Mehmet Fuat Köprülü divides Chagatay into the following periods:[18]
The first period is a transitional phase characterized by the retention of archaic forms; the second phase starts with the publication of Ali-Shir Nava'i's first Divan and is the highpoint of Chagatai literature, followed by the third phase, which is characterized by two bifurcating developments. One is the preservation of the classical Chagatai language of Nava'i, the other trend is the increasing influence of the dialects of the local spoken languages.
Uzbek and Uyghur are the two modern languages that descended from and are the closest to Chagatai. Uzbeks regard Chagatai as the origin of their own language and consider the Chagatai literature as part of their heritage. In 1921 in Uzbekistan, then a part of the Soviet Union, Chagatai was initially planned to be instated as the national and governmental language of the Uzbek S.S.R., however when it became evident that the language was too archaic for that purpose, it was replaced by a new literary language based on series of Uzbek dialects.
Ethnologue records the use of the word "Chagatai" in Afghanistan to describe the "Tekke" dialect of Turkmen.[19] Up to and including the eighteenth century, Chagatai was the main literary language in Turkmenistan as well as most of Central Asia.[20] While it had some influence on Turkmen, the two languages belong to different branches of the Turkic language family.
The most famous of the Chagatai poets is Ali-Shir Nava'i, who – among his other works – wrote Muhakamat al-Lughatayn, a detailed comparison of the Chagatai and Persian languages, in which he argued for the superiority of the former for literary purposes. His fame is attested by the fact that Chagatai is sometimes called "Nava'i's language". Among prose works, Timur's biography is written in Chagatai, as is the famous Baburnama (or Tuska Babure) of Babur, the Timurid founder of the Mughal Empire. A Divan attributed to Kamran Mirza is written in Persian and Chagatai, and one of Bairam Khan's Divans was written in the Chagatai language.
The following is a prime example of the 16th-century literary Chagatai Turkic, employed by Babur in one of his ruba'is.[21]
Islam ichin avara-i yazi buldim, |
I am become a desert wanderer for Islam,
|
Uzbek ruler Muhammad Shaybani Khan wrote a prose essay called "Risale-yi maarif-i Shayibani" in the Central Asian Turkic - Chagatai language in 1507 shortly after his capture of Khorasan and is dedicated to his son, Muhammad Timur (the manuscript is kept in Istanbul) [22] The manuscript of his philosophical and religious work: "Bahr ul-Khudo", written in the Central Asian Turkic literary language in 1508 is located in London [23]
Important writings in Chagatai from the period between the 17th and 18th centuries include those of Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur: Shajara-i Tarākima (Genealogy of the Turkmens) and Shajara-i Turk (Genealogy of the Turks). In the second half of the 18th century, Turkmen poet Magtymguly Pyragy also introduced the use of the classical Chagatai into Turkmen literature as a literary language, incorporating many Turkmen linguistic features.[24]
Bukharan ruler Subhan Quli Khan (1680-1702) was the author of work on medicine "Subkhankuli's revival of medicine" ("Ihya at-tibb Subhani") which was written in the Central Asian Turkic language (Chaghatay) and is devoted to the description of diseases, their recognition and treatment. One of the manuscript lists is kept in the library in Budapest.[25]
Prominent 19th century Khivan writers include Shermuhammad Munis and his nephew Muhammad Riza Agahi.[26] Muhammad Rahim Khan II of Khiva also wrote ghazals. Musa Sayrami's Tārīkh-i amniyya, completed 1903, and its revised version Tārīkh-i ḥamīdi, completed 1908, represent the best sources on the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) in Xinjiang.[27][28]
The following are books written on the Chagatai language by natives and westerners:[29]
Chagatai has been a literary language and is written with a variation of the Perso-Arabic alphabet. This variation is known as Kona Yëziq, (transl. Old script). It saw usage for Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uyghur, and Uzbek.
Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial | Uzbek Letter name | Uzbek Latin | Kazakh | Kyrgyz | Uyghur |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ﺀ | — | Hamza | ' | ∅ | ∅ | ئ | ||
ﺍ | ﺎ | ﺍ | alif | А а (О о) | А а/Ә ә | А а | ئا | |
ﺏ | ﺐ | ﺒ | ﺑ | be | B b | Б б | Б б | ﺏ |
ﭖ | ﭗ | ﭙ | ﭘ | pe | P p | П п | П п | ﭖ |
ﺕ | ﺖ | ﺘ | ﺗ | te | T t | Т т | Т т | ﺕ |
ﺙ | ﺚ | ﺜ | ﺛ | se | S s | C c | C c | س |
ﺝ | ﺞ | ﺠ | ﺟ | jim | J j | Ж ж | Ж ж | ﺝ |
ﭺ | ﭻ | ﭽ | ﭼ | chim | Ç ç | Ш ш | Ч ч | ﭺ |
ﺡ | ﺢ | ﺤ | ﺣ | hoy-i hutti | H h | Һ һ | Х х, ∅ | ھ |
ﺥ | ﺦ | ﺨ | ﺧ | xe | X x | X x | X x | ﺥ |
ﺩ | ﺪ | ﺩ | dol | D d | Д д | Д д | ﺩ | |
ﺫ | ﺬ | ﺫ | zol | Z z | З з | З з | ﺯ | |
ﺭ | ﺮ | ﺭ | re | R r | Р р | Р р | ﺭ | |
ﺯ | ﺰ | ﺯ | ze | Z z | З з | З з | ﺯ | |
ﮊ | ﮋ | ﮊ | je (zhe) | J j | Ж ж | Ж ж | ﮊ | |
ﺱ | ﺲ | ﺴ | ﺳ | sin | S s | C c | C c | ﺱ |
ﺵ | ﺶ | ﺸ | ﺷ | shin | Ş ş | Ш ш | Ш ш | ﺵ |
ﺹ | ﺺ | ﺼ | ﺻ | sod | S s | C c | C c | س |
ﺽ | ﺾ | ﻀ | ﺿ | dod | Z z | З з | З з | ز |
ﻁ | ﻂ | ﻄ | ﻃ | to (itqi) | T t | Т т | Т т | ت |
ﻅ | ﻆ | ﻈ | ﻇ | zo (izgʻi) | Z z | З з | З з | ز |
ﻉ | ﻊ | ﻌ | ﻋ | ayn | ' | ∅ (ғ) | ∅ | ئ |
ﻍ | ﻎ | ﻐ | ﻏ | ğayn | Ğ ğ | Ғ ғ | Ғ ғ | ﻍ |
ﻑ | ﻒ | ﻔ | ﻓ | fe | F f | П п (Ф ф) | П п/Б б (Ф ф) | ﻑ |
ﻕ | ﻖ | ﻘ | ﻗ | qof | Q q | Қ қ | К к | ﻕ |
ک | ک | ﻜ | ﻛ | kof | K k | К к | К к | ك |
ﮒ | ﮓ | ﮕ | ﮔ | gof | G g | Г г | Г г | ﮒ |
نگ/ݣ | ـنگ/ـݣ | ـنگـ/ـݣـ | نگـ/ݣـ | nungof | Ñ ñ | Ң ң | Ң ң | ڭ |
ﻝ | ﻞ | ﻠ | ﻟ | lam | L l | Л л | Л л | ﻝ |
ﻡ | ﻢ | ﻤ | ﻣ | mim | M m | М м | М м | ﻡ |
ﻥ | ﻦ | ﻨ | ﻧ | nun | N n | Н Н | Н н | ﻥ |
ﻭ | ﻮ | ﻭ | vav | V v
Ö ö, U u |
У у
Ұұ/Үү, Оо/Өө |
Уу/Үү, Оо/Өө |
ۋ
ئۈ/ئۇ، ئۆ/ئو | |
ﻩ | ﻪ | ﻬ | ﻫ | hoy-i havvaz | H h
A a |
∅/
E е/A a |
∅/
Э э/А а |
ھ
ئە/ئا |
ﻯ | ﻰ | ﻴ | ﻳ | ye | Y y
Е e, І i |
Й й, И и
І і/Ы ы, Е е |
Й й
И и/Ы ы, Э э |
ي
ئى، ئې |
The letters ف، ع، ظ، ط، ض، ص، ژ، ذ، خ، ح، ث، ء are only used in loanwords and don't represent any additional phonemes.
For Kazakh and Kyrgyz, letters in parenthesis () indicate a modern borrowed pronunciation from Tatar and Russian that is not consistent with historic Kazakh and Kyrgyz treatments of these letters.
Many orthographies, particularly that of Turkic languages, are based on Kona Yëziq. Examples include the alphabets of South Azerbaijani, Qashqai, Chaharmahali, Khorasani, Uyghur, Äynu, and Khalaj.
Virtually all other Turkic languages have a history of being written with an alphabet descended from Kona Yëziq, however, due to various writing reforms conducted by Turkey and the Soviet Union, many of these languages now are written in either the Latin script or the Cyrillic script.
The Qing dynasty commissioned dictionaries on the major languages of China which included Chagatai Turki, such as the Pentaglot Dictionary.
Below are some punctuation marks associated with Chagatai.[33]
Symbol/
Graphemes |
Name | English name | Function |
---|---|---|---|
⁘ | Four-dot mark | The four-dot mark indicates a verse break. It is used at the beginning and end of a verse, especially to separate verse from prose. It may occur at the beginning or end of lines, or in the middle of a page. | |
❊ | Eight teardrop-spoked propeller asterisk | The eight teardrop-spoked propeller asterisk indicates a decoration for title. This mark occurs end of the title. This mark also occurs end of a poem. This mark occurs end of a prayer in Jarring texts. However this mark did not occur consistently. | |
. | Period (full stop) | The period is a punctuation mark placed at the end of a sentence. However, this mark did not occur consistently in Chaghatay manuscripts until the later period (e.g. manuscripts on Russian paper). | |
" " | Quotation mark | Dialogue was wrapped in quotation marks, rarely used for certain words with emphasis | |
___ | Underscore | Dash: mostly with red ink, occurs on the top of names, prayers, and highlighted questions, asnwers, and important outline numbers. | |
Whitespace | Can indicate a stanza break in verse, and a new paragraph in brows. | ||
- | Dash | Rare punctuation: used for number ranges (e.g. 2-5) | |
-- | Double dash | Rare punctuation: sets off following information like a colon, it is used to list a table of contents | |
( ) | Parentheses | Marks a tangential or contextual remark, word or phrase. | |
: | colon | Colons appear extremely rarely preceding a direct quote. Colons can also mark beginning of dialogue | |
… | Ellipsis: | Ellipsis: a series of dots (typically 3) that indicate missing text. |
Ebn Mohannā (Jamāl-al-Dīn, fl. early 8th/14th century, probably in Khorasan), for instance, characterized it as the purest of all Turkish languages (Doerfer, 1976, p. 243), and the khans of the Golden Horde (Radloff, 1870; Kurat; Bodrogligeti, 1962) and of the Crimea (Kurat), as well as the Kazan Tatars (Akhmetgaleeva; Yusupov), wrote in Chaghatay much of the time.
As a result, we can claim that Şeyhzade Abdürrezak Bahşı was a scribe lived in the palaces of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and his son Bayezid-i Veli in the 15th century, wrote letters (bitig) and firmans (yarlığ) sent to Eastern Turks by Mehmed II and Bayezid II in both Uighur and Arabic scripts and in East Turkestan (Chagatai) language.
Chagatai Old Uzbek official.
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