Chagatai language

The tschagataische language or short Tschagataisch ( proper name جغتای Tschaghatāy or ترکی Turkistan ) was an Eastern Turkish language, which today lives on in the Central Asian languages ​​Uzbek and Uighur. It was an important transport and literary language, which was from about the beginning of the 15th century to the beginning of the 20th century in the Islamic Central Asia and beyond also spread to other parts of Eurasia. In the strict sense is understood to be Tschagataisch the classic Tschagataisch, which was used from the mid-15th century until about 1600 in the kingdom of Timurid and its successor states, and later generations served as a model.

Language names and language codes

In the classical period of Tschagataischen the language name ترکی Turkish / Turkish occupied among others, ʿ Alī Mīr Shir Nawā'ī and Zahir ad -Din Muhammad Babur.

Tschagataisch ( جغتای Tschaghatāy ) as the language name is assigned in the works of authors of the classical period only once in ʿ Alī Mīr Shir Nawā'ī. Since the 17th century it was used by some Central Asian authors for the literary language of the classical period ( mid-15th century to about 1600) used.

The word Tschagataisch is the name of the second son of Genghis Khan, Chagatai, back, after the conquest of Central Asia by the Mongols early 13th century ruler of the Mongolian part Reich between Altai and the Aral Sea, the Chagatai Khanate, was, in its space, the tschagataische written language developed in the subsequent period.

In the modern Oriental, the term is often used Tschagataisch in a broader sense, so that it can refer to any form of Turkish literary language between the 13th century and the first world war in an Islamic cultural context in the Eurasian space outside of the Ottoman Empire was used.

In the 20th century the Tschagataische or its local varieties in the individual areas of its former distribution range were considered to be older epoch of each modern written languages ​​and accordingly referred to as Alt- Uzbek, Old Uighur, old Turkmen or Old - Tatar. In Soviet Turkic outweighed the designation Alt- Uzbek. The language code of the Tschagataischen according to ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3 is chg.

History

The tschagataische literary language represents an evolution of the previous Islamic Turkish literary languages ​​of Central Asia, the Karachanidischen the 11th to the 13th century and the Turkish Chwaresmischen of the 14th century. The development of Tschagataischen itself can be divided into three periods, the early or pre-classical Tschagataische the first half of the 15th century, the classic Tschagataische from the mid-15th century to about 1600 and the post-classical Tschagataische from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century.

The most famous poet of the Tschagataischen was ʿ Alī Mīr Shir Nawā'ī (1441-1501), poet at the court of the Timurids in Herat, who wrote both in Tschagataisch as well as in Persian. Tamerlane's descendant, Babur wrote his biography Baburname in this language.

The tschagataische written language at that time was not only throughout the Turkic-speaking area of Central Asia, but spread beyond even in the Muslim Turkic peoples in the Volga -Ural region, known as the Volga-Ural Tatars and Bashkirs today. It was next to the second Ottoman Turkic nationally used as the written language of the Islamic cultural area.

Over the following centuries, developed under the influence of the local varieties of Turkic local varieties of tschagataischen written language. While out eventually formed a separate written languages ​​on a local basis with the Tatars, and later during the Kazakhs in the 19th century, the Tschagataische remained until the early 1920s, the common written language of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia.

In the 1920s, separate written language standards for turksprachlichen varieties of Central Asia were in the young Soviet Union introduced and at the same time, then the Latin alphabet instead of Arabic in the late 1930s - introduced the Cyrillic alphabet instead of Latin - together with a boost Russian lessons. Thus the history of the written language tschagataischen ended in its traditional form. The turksprachlichen varieties of the sedentary population in the central space of the Soviet Central Asia in the wake of Neustandardisierung the basis of the Uzbek default language, the official language of the Uzbek SSR, founded in 1924, while the varieties of East Turkestan to the basis of the standard language neuuigurischen were. This was today's Uzbek language and Uighur language to the direct successor of the languages ​​Tschagataischen.

From Central Asian Islamists who are united in the Islamic Turkestanpartei, are today one hand, a strong Arab Uzbek ized and used for other (in China) a similarly strong Arab ized Uighur. These forms of speech are used for communication between the respective Central Asian Turkic peoples and are referred to by these Islamists as " Tschagatei ".

Font

The tschagataische language was mostly written in the Arabic alphabet. There are also copies tschagataischer literary works in Uighur script, which was used in the realm of Timurid for administrative purposes. The Arabic alphabet for Tschagataisch is the perso - Arabic alphabet same. The orthography was not standardized; if you want full tender a vowel or want to use Taschkil, was left to the writer himself, although the vowels were however mostly advertised. However, this does everything only to Turkish words, as Persian and Arabic words were written like their standard orthography.

Grammar

The grammar of Tschagataischen was very varied and subject to many influences.

Arab influence

The Arab influence was that Arabic loanwords could carry the Arabic plural, ie that the general Turkish plural - lar did not have to be necessarily used at these words. Especially in the written language, it was of course as eloquently to use the Arabic plural, eg would be the eloquent plural of Habar ( news ) Ahbar, while you would rather use ḫabarlar in the vernacular.

Persian influence

Greater than the aforementioned Arabic was the Persian influence on the language. Similarly as in the Ottoman language and Krimtürkischen the Persian Eżāfe construction was used in specific name or even in literary expressions that were adopted by the Persian literature, eg därd -i dil (heart pain), which would have been därdi in a Turkish construction dil. Another big influence was the Persian Indefinitartikel, but this was only used in Persian words, eg bülbül - ê ( a nightingale ).

Diversity

The diversity of tschagataischen language was that they unite the various grammars of Turkic languages ​​, this occurred particularly on in Kasusmarkern, eg was the ablative -dan or - dın, as found in Uighur dialects. The genitive was - nin, but also - in, as it occurs in Oghuz languages ​​such as Turkish and Turkmen. Generally one can say that the Turquoise was much more playful than the more rigid, standardized form of today's official Turkic languages ​​. The Turquoise was a literary standard, which was subject to many influences and these influences brought together to form a new unique form of language, which is a Uyghur proverb expresses this: "Arabic is knowledge / science, Persian is Sugar, Hindi is salt, Turquoise is art".