Patzinak

The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პაჭანიკი, bg, печенеги, pechenegi, bg, печенези, ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Pečenezi, separator=/, Печенези, la, Pacinacae, Bisseni were a semi-nomadic Turkic ethnic people from Central Asia who spoke the Pecheneg language which belonged to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family.

Ethnonym

The Pechenegs were mentioned as ''Bjnak'', ''Bjanak'' or ''Bajanak'' in medieval Arabic and Persian texts, as ''Be-ča-nag'' in Classical Tibetan documents, and as ''Pačanak-i'' in works written in Georgian. Anna Komnene and other Byzantine authors referred to them as ''Patzinakoi'' or ''Patzinakitai''. In medieval Latin texts, the Pechenegs were referred to as ''Pizenaci'', ''Bisseni'' or ''Bessi''. East Slavic peoples use the terms ''Pečenegi'' or ''Pečenezi'' (plural of ''Pečeneg''), while the Poles mention them as ''Pieczyngowie'' or ''Piecinigi''. The Hungarian word for Pecheneg is ''Besenyő''; the Romanian term is ''Pecenegi''.

According to Max Vasmer and some other researchers the ethnonym may have derived from the Old Turkic word for "brother-in-law, relative” (''baja'', ''baja-naq'' or ''bajinaq; Kyrgyz
baja
'' tk, baja and tr, bacanak), implying that it initially referred to an "in-law related clan or tribe".

In Mahmud Kashgari's 11th-century work Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, Pechenegs were described as "a Turkic nation living around the country of the Rum", where ''Rum'' was the Turkic word for the Eastern Roman Empire or Anatolia, and "a branch of Oghuz Turks"; he subsequently described the Oghuz as being formed of 22 branches, of which the Pecheneg were the 19th.

Pechenegs are mentioned as one of 24 ancient tribes of Oghuzes by 14th-century statesman and historian of Ilkhanate-ruled Iran Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in his work Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh ("Compendium of Chronicles") with the meaning of the ethnonym as "the one who shows eagerness". The 17th-century Khan of the Khanate of Khiva and historian Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur mentions the Pechenegs as ''bechene'' among 24 ancient tribes of Turkmens (or Oghuzes) in his book '' Shajara-i Tarākima'' (“Genealogy of the Turkmen") and provides for its meaning as "the one who makes".

Three of the eight Pecheneg "provinces" or clans were collectively known as Kangars. According to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the Kangars received this denomination because "they are more valiant and noble than the rest" of the people "and that is what the title Kangar signifies". Because no Turkic word with a similar meaning is known, Ármin Vámbéry connected the ethnonym to the Kirghiz words ''kangir'' ("agile"), ''kangirmak'' ("to go out riding") and ''kani-kara'' ("black-blooded"), while Carlile Aylmer Macartney associated it with the Chagatai word ''gang'' ("chariot"), semantically related to the Turkic Gaoche.

Omeljan Pritsak proposed that the name had initially been a composite term ''(Kängär As'', mentioned in Old Turkic texts) deriving from the Tocharian word for stone ''(kank)'' and the ethnonym ''As'', suggesting that they were Tocharian-speaking or at least formed a confederation consisting of Tocharian, Eastern Iranian and Bulgaric Turkic elements. Their connection with Eastern Iranian elements is hinted at in the remark of al-Biruni regarding a people that "are of the race of al-Lān and that of al-Ās and their language is a mixture of the languages of Khwarazmians and the Badjanak.". If the latter assumption is valid, the Kangars' ethnonym suggests that (East) Iranian elements contributed to the formation of the Pecheneg people but Spinei concedes that Pechenegs were of "a predominantly Turkic character... beyond any doubt". This may be mirrored in the Old Rus translation of Josephus Flavius (ed. Meshcherskiy, 454) which adds "the Yas, as is known, descended from the Pecheneg tribe." On the basis of their fragmentary linguistic remains, scholars view them as Common Turkic-speakers, most probably Kipchak ( Németh, followed by Ligeti) or Oguz ( Baskakov). Hammer-Purgstall classifies the Chinese Kangju