Turkish Gagauz Azerbaijani Qashqai Chaharmahali Turkmen Khorasani Salar
TheOghuz languages are a sub-branch of theTurkic language family, spoken by approximately 108 million people. The three languages with the largest number of speakers areTurkish,Azerbaijani,Turkmen which, combined, account for more than 95% of speakers of this sub-branch.
Kara-Khanid scholarMahmud al-Kashgari, who lived in the 11th century, stated that the Oghuz language was the simplest among all Turkic languages.[1]
Swedishturcologist andlinguistLars Johanson notes that Oghuz languages form a clearly discernible and closely related bloc within the Turkic language family as the cultural and political history of the speakers of Oghuz languages has linked them more closely up to the modern age. Western Oghuz languages are highlymutually intelligible with each other and theCrimean Tatar language, which, though geneticallyKipchak Turkic rather than Oghuz, has been heavily influenced by Turkish over several centuries.[2]
The ancestor of Oghuz languages is a matter of debate. The language of the oldest stone monuments such asOrkhon inscriptions, and documents such asOld Uyghur manuscripts are rather the ancestor of Central Asiatic Turkic languages (includingKarluk andKipchak). Oghuz languages apparently originate from the language of the people known as "Western Türküt" in Chinese annals.Old Anatolian andOld Ottoman languages, known asMiddle Turkic, would be the most ancient within the Oghuz group of Turkic languages.[3]
The extinctPecheneg language was probably Oghuz, but as it is poorly documented, it is difficult to further classify it within the Oghuz family; it is therefore usually excluded from classification.[5]
The Oghuz languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together. Some of the features are shared with other Turkic languages, and others are unique to the Oghuz family.
Swedishturcologist andlinguistLars Johanson notes that Oghuz languages form a clearly discernible and closely related bloc within the Turkic language family as the cultural and political history of Oghuz Turks has linked them more closely up to the modern age when compared to other Turkic subgroups.[6]
The remarkable similarity between Oghuz languages may be demonstrated through a sentence, which employs averbal noun in thedative as a link between themain verb andauxiliary. This feature is universally shared by all Oghuz languages.[7]Turcologist Julian Rentzsch uses this particular sentence in his work titled "Uniformity and diversity in Turkic inceptive constructions":[8]
English: ‘The dead man rose, sat down and began to speak.’
^Robbeets, Martine (2020).The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages. Oxford University Press. p. 393.
^Danver, Steven (2015).The Native People of the World, An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues, Volume 1–3. Routledge. p. 565.ISBN9780765682222. "Historically, all of the Western or Oghuz Turks have been called Turkmen or Turkomen... In the 7th century C.E., they migrated from their ancestral homeland in the Altay mountains westward..."
^Баскаков, Н. А. Тюркские языки, Москва 1960, с. 126–131.
^Johanson, Lars (1998).The Turkic Languages. Routledge. p. 2.ISBN0-415-08200-5.
^Julian Rentzsch, "Uniformity and diversity in Turkic inceptive constructions", Johannes Gutenberg University, p. 270
^Julian Rentzsch, "Uniformity and diversity in Turkic inceptive constructions", Johannes Gutenberg University, pp. 270–271
