Chagatai (چغتای, ''Čaġatāy''), also known as ''Turki'',
Eastern Turkic,
or Chagatai Turkic (''Čaġatāy türkīsi''),
is an extinct
Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken across
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
and remained the shared
literary language
A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langu ...
there until the early 20th century. It was used across a wide geographic area including parts of modern-day
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
,
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, and
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...
. Literary Chagatai is the predecessor of the modern
Karluk branch of Turkic languages, which include
Uzbek and
Uyghur.
Turkmen, which is not within the Karluk branch but in the
Oghuz branch of Turkic languages, had been heavily influenced by Chagatai for centuries.
Ali-Shir Nava'i
'Ali-Shir Nava'i (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī ( Chagatai: نظام الدین علی شیر نوایی, fa, نظامالدین علیشیر نوایی) was a Timurid poet, writer ...
was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.
![Chengde summer palace writings](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Chengde_summer_palace_writings.jpg)
Chagatai literature is still studied in modern
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
, 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.
Etymology
The word ''Chagatai'' relates to the
Chagatai Khanate
The Chagatai Khanate, or Chagatai Ulus ( xng, , translit=Čaɣatay-yin Ulus; mn, Цагаадайн улс, translit=Tsagaadain Uls; chg, , translit=Čağatāy Ulusi; fa, , translit=Xânât-e Joghatây) was a Mongol and later Turkicized kha ...
(1225–1680s), a descendant empire of the
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, ...
left to
Genghis Khan
''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan''
, birth_name = Temüjin
, successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan
, spouse =
, issue =
, house = Borjigin
, ...
's second son,
Chagatai Khan
Chagatai Khan ( Mongolian: ''; Čaɣatay''; mn, Цагадай, translit=Tsagadai; chg, , ''Čaġatāy''; ug, چاغاتاي خان, ''Chaghatay-Xan''; zh, 察合台, ''Chágětái''; fa, , ''Joghatây''; 22 December 1183 – 1 July 1242) ...
.
Many of the
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging t ...
, 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",
which
Edward A. Allworth
Edward A. Allworth (December 1, 1920 – October 20, 2016) was an American historian specializing in Central Asia. Allwarth was widely regarded as the West’s leading scholar on Central Asian studies. He extensively studied the various et ...
argued "badly distorted the literary history of the region" and was used to give authors such as
Ali-Shir Nava'i
'Ali-Shir Nava'i (9 February 1441 – 3 January 1501), also known as Nizām-al-Din ʿAli-Shir Herawī ( Chagatai: نظام الدین علی شیر نوایی, fa, نظامالدین علیشیر نوایی) was a Timurid poet, writer ...
an
Uzbek identity. It was also referred to as "Turki" or "Sart" in Russian colonial sources.
In China, it is sometimes called "ancient
Uyghur".
History
Chagatai is a Turkic language that was developed in the late 15th century.
It belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family. It is descended from
Middle Turkic, which served as a
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
in Central Asia, with a strong infusion of
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
words and turns of phrase.
Mehmet Fuat Köprülü
Mehmet Fuat Köprülü (December 5, 1890 – June 28, 1966), also known as Köprülüzade Mehmed Fuad, was a highly influential Turkish sociologist, turkologist, scholar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republi ...
divides Chagatay into the following periods:
# Early Chagatay (13th–14th centuries)
# Pre-classical Chagatay (the first half of the 15th century)
# Classical Chagatay (the second half of the 15th century)
# Continuation of Classical Chagatay (16th century)
# Decline (17th–19th centuries)
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.
Influence on later Turkic 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 language and consider the Chagatai literature as part of their heritage. In 1921 in
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
, then a part of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, Chagatai was initially planned to be instated as the national and governmental language of the
Uzbek S.S.R.
Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз ...
, 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
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
'' records the use of the word "Chagatai" in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
to describe the "Tekke" dialect of
Turkmen. Up to and including the eighteenth century, Chagatai was the main literary language in
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
as well as most of Central Asia. While it had some influence on Turkmen, the two languages belong to different branches of the Turkic language family.
Literature
15th and 16th centuries
The most famous of the Chagatai poets is Ali-Shir Nava'i, who – among his other works – wrote ''
Muhakamat al-Lughatayn
''Muhakamat al-Lughatayn'' ( ar, محاكمة اللغتين, literally ''Judgment between the Two Languages'' or ''The Comparison of the Two Languages''), was one of Mir Ali-Shir Nava'i's masterpieces. Completed in December 1499, the ''Mukakama ...
'', 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
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
's biography is written in Chagatai, as is the famous ''
Baburnama
The ''Bāburnāma'' ( chg, ; literally: ''"History of Babur"'' or ''"Letters of Babur"''; alternatively known as ''Tuzk-e Babri'') is the memoirs of Ẓahīr-ud-Dīn Muhammad Bābur (1483–1530), founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great- ...
'' (or ''Tuska Babure'') of
Babur
Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his ...
, the Timurid founder of the
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
.
''Divan''attributed to
Kamran Mirza
Kamran Mirza ( fa, ) (1512 – 5 October 1557) was the second son of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire and the first Mughal Emperor. Kamran Mirza was born in Kabul to Babur's wife Gulrukh Begum. He was half-brother to Babur's eldest ...
is written in Persian and Chagatai, and one of
Bairam Khan'
''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.
I am become a desert wanderer for Islam,
Having joined battle with infidels and Hindus
I readied myself to become a martyr,
God be thanked I am become a ghazi.
Uzbek ruler
Muhammad Shaybani
Muhammad Shaybani Khan ( uz, Muhammad Shayboniy, also known as Abul-Fath Shaybani Khan or Shayabak Khan or Shahi Beg Khan, originally named "Shibägh", which means " wormwood" or "obsidian") (c. 1451 – 2 December 1510), was an Uzbek leader ...
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) 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
17th and 18th centuries
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
Magtymguly Pyragy ( fa, ''Makhdumqoli Farāghi''; tk, Magtymguly Pyragy; ; tr, Mahtumkulu Firaki; , born Magtymguly, was a Turkmen spiritual leader, philosophical poet, Sufi and traveller who is considered to be the most famous figure in ...
also introduced the use of the classical Chagatai into Turkmen literature as a literary language, incorporating many Turkmen linguistic features.
Bukharan ruler
Subhan Quli Khan
Subhan Quli Khan (1625–1702) was the sixth ruler of the Bukhara Khanate, who reigned from 1681 to 1702.
Subhan Quli Khan belonged to Ashtarkhanid dynasty.
In 1681 Abdulaziz Khan renounced the throne in favour of his brother Subhan Quli Khan. P ...
(1680-1702) was the author of a 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.
19th and 20th centuries
Prominent 19th-century
Khivan writers include Shermuhammad Munis and his nephew Muhammad Riza Agahi.
Muhammad Rahim Khan II of Khiva
Sayyid Muhammad Rahim Bahadur II (1847–1910) was Khan of Khiva from 1864 to 1910, succeeding his father Sayyid Muhammad Khan. Khiva was turned into a Russian protectorate during his rule, in 1873.
The reign of Muhammad Rahim II marked the pea ...
also wrote ghazals.
Musa Sayrami Mullā Mūsa Sayrāmī ( ug, ; uz, Mulla Muso Sayramiy, Molla Musa Seyrami; 1836–1917) was a historian from Xinjiang, known for his account of the events in that region in the 19th century, in particular the Dungan Rebellion of 1864–1877. ...
's ''Tārīkh-i amniyya'', completed in 1903, and its revised version ''Tārīkh-i ḥamīdi'', completed in 1908, represent the best sources on the
Dungan Revolt (1862–1877)
The Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) or Tongzhi Hui Revolt (, Xiao'erjing: تُجِ خُوِ لُوًا, dng, Тунҗы Хуэй Луан) or Hui (Muslim) Minorities War was a war fought in 19th-century western China, mostly during the reig ...
in
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
.
[МОЛЛА МУСА САЙРАМИ: ТА'РИХ-И АМНИЙА]
(Mulla Musa Sayrami's ''Tarikh-i amniyya'': Preface)], in: "Материалы по истории казахских ханств XV–XVIII веков (Извлечения из персидских и тюркских сочинений)" (''Materials for the history of the Kazakh Khanates of the 15–18th cc. (Extracts from Persian and Turkic literary works)''), Almaty, Alma Ata, Nauka Publishers, 1969.
Dictionaries and grammars
The following are books written on the Chagatai language by natives and westerners:
* ''Vocabularium Linguae Giagataicae Sive Igureae'' (''Lexico Ćiagataico'')
* Muḥammad Mahdī Khān, ''Sanglakh''.
*
Abel Pavet de Courteille, ''Dictionnaire turk-oriental'' (1870).
*
Ármin Vámbéry
Ármin Vámbéry (born Hermann Wamberger; 19 March 183215 September 1913), also known as Arminius Vámbéry, was a Hungarian Turkology, Turkologist and traveller.
Early life
Vámbéry was born in Szent-György, Kingdom of Hungary (now Svät ...
1832–1913, ''Ćagataische Sprachstudien, enthaltend grammatikalischen Umriss, Chrestomathie, und Wörterbuch der ćagataischen Sprache''; (1867).
* Sheykh Süleymān Efendi, ''Čagataj-Osmanisches Wörterbuch: Verkürzte und mit deutscher Übersetzung versehene Ausgabe'' (1902).
* Sheykh Süleymān Efendi, ''Lughat-ï chaghatay ve turkī-yi 'othmānī'' (Dictionary of Chagatai and Ottoman Turkish).
* Mirza Muhammad Mehdi Khan Astarabadi, ''Mabaniul Lughat: Yani Sarf o Nahv e Lughat e Chughatai''.
* Abel Pavet de Courteille, ''Mirâdj-nâmeh : récit de l'ascension de Mahomet au ciel, composé a.h. 840 (1436/1437), texte turk-oriental, publié pour la première fois d'après le manuscript ouïgour de la Bibliothèque nationale et traduit en français, avec une préf. analytique et historique, des notes, et des extraits du Makhzeni Mir Haïder''.
Orthography
Chagatai has been a literary language and is written with a variation of the
Perso-Arabic alphabet
The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran ( Western Persian) and Afghanistan (Dari Persian) since the 7th cent ...
. This variation is known as Kona Yëziq, (). It saw usage for
Kazakh,
Kyrgyz,
Uyghur, and
Uzbek.
Notes
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.
Influence
Many orthographies, particularly that of Turkic languages, are based on Kona Yëziq. Examples include the alphabets of
South Azerbaijani,
Qashqai,
Chaharmahali,
Khorasani,
Uyghur,
Äynu
Äynu may refer to:
* Äynu people of Western China
* Äynu language, their Turkic language
See also
* Aynu (disambiguation)
{{disambig
...
, 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
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, many of these languages now are written in either the
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
or the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, ...
.
The
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
commissioned dictionaries on the major languages of China which included Chagatai Turki, such as the
Pentaglot Dictionary
The ''Pentaglot Dictionary'' (Chinese: 御製五體清文鑑, ''Yuzhi Wuti Qing Wenjian''; the term 清文, ''Qingwen'', "Qing language", was another name for the Manchu language in Chinese), also known as the ''Manchu Polyglot Dictionary'', was ...
.
Punctuation
Below are some punctuation marks associated with Chagatai.
Notes
References
Bibliography
*Eckmann, János, ''Chagatay Manual''. (Indiana University publications: Uralic and Altaic series ; 60). Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University, 1966. Reprinted edition, Richmond: Curzon Press, 1997, , or .
*Bodrogligeti, András J. E., ''A Grammar of Chagatay''. (Languages of the World: Materials ; 155). München: LINCOM Europa, 2001. (Repr. 2007), .
*Pavet de Courteille, Abel, ''Dictionnaire Turk-Oriental: Destinée principalement à faciliter la lecture des ouvrages de Bâber, d'Aboul-Gâzi, de Mir Ali-Chir Nevâï, et d'autres ouvrages en langues touraniennes (Eastern Turkish Dictionary: Intended Primarily to Facilitate the Reading of the Works of Babur, Abu'l Ghazi, Mir ʿAli Shir Navaʾi, and Other Works in Turanian Languages)''. Paris, 1870. Reprinted edition, Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1972, . Als
available online(Google Books)
* Erkinov, Aftandil. "Persian-Chaghatay Bilingualism in the Intellectual Circles of Central Asia during the 15th–18th Centuries (the case of poetical anthologies, bayāz)". ''International Journal of Central Asian Studies''. C.H.Woo (ed.). vol.12, 2008, pp. 57–8
* Cakan, Varis (2011
''"Chagatai Turkish and Its Effects on Central Asian Culture"'' 大阪大学世界言語研究センター論集. 6 pp. 143–158, Osaka University Knowledge Archive.
External links
*
Russian imperial policies in Central Asia'
Chagatai languageat
Encyclopædia Iranica
''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times.
Scope
The ''Encycl ...
An introduction to Chaghatayby Eric Schluessel, Maize Books; University of Michigan Publishing 2018 (A self study, open access textbook with graded lessons)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chagatai Language
Agglutinative languages
Vowel-harmony languages
Karluk languages
Nomadic groups in Eurasia
Timurid dynasty
Chagatai Khanate
Extinct languages of Asia
Languages attested from the 15th century
Languages extinct in the 20th century
Turkic languages
Lingua francas