Eine hundertblättrige Tulpe — Bir ṣadbarg lāla. Festgabe für Claus Schönig, 2015
The verb ’ūsnā- ‘to resemble’ in Maḥmūd al-Kāšġarī’s Dīwān Luγāt at-Turk is one instance where th... more The verb ’ūsnā- ‘to resemble’ in Maḥmūd al-Kāšġarī’s Dīwān Luγāt at-Turk is one instance where the usual methods did not lead to a generally accepted reading. It was deemed to be exclusive to the Dīwān without modern descendants and it was assumed that it was a non-segmented stem unrelated to any other Turkic word. The paper discusses its morphology, cognates and descendants.
This paper discusses the approximately 25 Turkic loanwords that can be identified in the peripher... more This paper discusses the approximately 25 Turkic loanwords that can be identified in the peripheral and endangered Mongolic language Kangjia. The set of Turkic words is very similar to that documented for Baoan and Dongxiang, the closest relatives of Kangjia.
Western Yugur (Yellow Uygur) is a Turkic language spoken by approximately 4,500 people,living mos... more Western Yugur (Yellow Uygur) is a Turkic language spoken by approximately 4,500 people,living mostly in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County in Gansu Province in China. The classification of Western Yugur within the Turkic language family is not straightforward, as it is one of those languages which, in the words of Johanson, “have for centuries developed in relative isolation from the branches or groups they once belonged to, thus preserving old features and acquiring new ones in their respective environments.” Following Samoilovich’s classification of Turkic languages, which is based foremost on the development of CT *d, Western Yugur is usually grouped together with Khakas, Shor, and Chulym, which also feature z < *d. These languages are part of the Northeastern conglomerate of Turkic languages. Compared to the central Turkic (Oguz, Kypchak and Chagatay) languages, the Northeastern languages do not present themselves as a coherent subgroup. They share a number of archaisms, and in part lost the same lexical and grammatical items, but innovations shared by all NE languages are not numerous. An altemative classification, that reappears with some regularity in the literature, places Western Yugur (usually along with Salar) incorrectly with Uzbek and New or Modern Uygur in the Southeastern Turkic subgroup. A third possibility is to classify Western Yugur as a subgroup of its own, although it is much closer to the central languages than Chuvash or Khalaj are. In this paper we will outline some characteristics that connect Western Yugur to other Turkic languages, concentratingon phonetic, lexical, and, to a smaller extent, morphological data.
Transeurasian verbal morphology in a comparative perspective, 2010
This paper discusses the origins of the Eastern Yugur converb -(G)AA and its Western Yugur counte... more This paper discusses the origins of the Eastern Yugur converb -(G)AA and its Western Yugur counterpart -GA, which both function mainly as narrative converbs.
The so-called 'Turkish-Khotanese word-list' is a list of about a hundred Old Turkic words in Brāh... more The so-called 'Turkish-Khotanese word-list' is a list of about a hundred Old Turkic words in Brāhmī script, some of them with Khotanese translations. Many of the entries were provided with brief etymological notes by its first editor Harold Bailey, which were corrected and expanded by later linguists. A couple of words remain unexplained. This paper will discuss the body part ehau':cakä. Bailey compared it with Turkish ökçe 'heel' but this was rejected by later authors on phonetic grounds. Bailey's proposal will be revisited and other connections will be investigated.
Abstract: Hunting with birds is an ancient practice among the Turkic peoples, which is reflected i... more Abstract: Hunting with birds is an ancient practice among the Turkic peoples, which is reflected in the rich vocabulary associated with hunting birds and falconer’s gear. The specialized vocabulary is best preserved and documented in the Kipchak Turkic languages, Kyrgyz and Kazak, reflecting the fact that falconry traditions were best preserved by these two language communities. The names of the birds of prey are more widely documented and also occur in smaller, less completely investigated, Kipchak languages. This paper will provide a brief overview of the falconry terminology of the Kipchak Turkic languages, focusing on the most widely used names of the birds used for hunting. The Kipchak languages are one of the Turkic groups that have long been in contact with Russian and other languages of Eastern Europe, such as Ukrainian and Hungarian, and have thus served as an important transmitter of Turkic lexicon into these languages.
Although in recent decades the term shaman has been used in the context of several cultures
in no... more Although in recent decades the term shaman has been used in the context of several cultures in northern Eurasia and beyond, it originally stems from the Tungusic language Ewenki. The small Tungusic language family consists of about a dozen closely related members in Siberia, northern China, and Mongolia. All Tungusic languages preserve the word for shaman, the original shape of which in Proto Tungusic can be reconstructed as *samān. In all likelihood, this is a native Tungusic word stem. Several scholars have been struck by the similarity between the Tungusic word and the Sanskrit śraman · a “ascetic, monk”, and proposed that the Tungusic word derives from the Indic. The Sanskrit word is documented in simplifed form as a loanword in the Buddhist literature of several extinct languages of Central Asia, such as Tocharian and Sogdian, as well as in Chinese. It is unlikely, however, that this Buddhist cultural term was adopted by nomadic peoples in Manchuria and Siberia to designate such a central fgure in their culture. This contribution will discuss the etymology of shaman and some of the unrelated terms for it used in other language groups in northern Eurasia.
This is the third in a series of articles on etymologies of Western Yugur, a Turkic language, and... more This is the third in a series of articles on etymologies of Western Yugur, a Turkic language, and Eastem Yugur, a Mongolic language, both spoken by the Yugur nationality in China's Gansu Province. These two different linguistic groups of the Yugur, or Yellow Uygur, as they are traditionally known among western scholars, not only came to share a common history but also a common ethnonym.
Research on the Old Uyghur secular documents has become an ever more important branch of Old Turk... more Research on the Old Uyghur secular documents has become an ever more important branch of Old Turkic studies, and many relevant publications have seen the light of day. The manuscripts provide a glimpse into the daily life and material culture of the Uyghurs. However, the terminology of some areas of life still needs in-depth investigations. Especially in the semantic field of textiles and clothing several lexical items are still unexplained. The present article identifies one such item, kükü, as a designation of the high embroidered headdress of married Mongol women, adopted from Chinese gugu.
Several opinions have been published about the origin of the Old Turkic interrogative kačan 'when... more Several opinions have been published about the origin of the Old Turkic interrogative kačan 'when'. So far the two most popular proposals seem to be: double inflection (equative + instrumental) from the interrogative root *ka-, and contraction of an unattested Old Turkic compound *kañu čagïn. This paper will discuss these and other proposals, and will present evidence in favour of an alternative etymology.
The formative +(A)l, found in all major Oghuz idioms, serves to create verbs from adjectives. Thi... more The formative +(A)l, found in all major Oghuz idioms, serves to create verbs from adjectives. This verbalizer suffix provides another defining characteristic that sets the Oghuz subgroup apart from the other two Central Turkic subgroups, Kipchak and Chaghatay. This paper will investigate the origins of this suffix, which as such was not present in Common Turkic. Furthermore it will discuss the scope of +(A)l within the context of functionally similar suffixes, both within Oghuz, as well as in comparison with older Turkic and modern Kipchak and Chaghatay languages. An inventory of common Oghuz +(A)l formations and their Kipchak-Chaghatay counterparts concludes the paper.
Eine hundertblättrige Tulpe — Bir ṣadbarg lāla. Festgabe für Claus Schönig, 2015
The verb ’ūsnā- ‘to resemble’ in Maḥmūd al-Kāšġarī’s Dīwān Luγāt at-Turk is one instance where th... more The verb ’ūsnā- ‘to resemble’ in Maḥmūd al-Kāšġarī’s Dīwān Luγāt at-Turk is one instance where the usual methods did not lead to a generally accepted reading. It was deemed to be exclusive to the Dīwān without modern descendants and it was assumed that it was a non-segmented stem unrelated to any other Turkic word. The paper discusses its morphology, cognates and descendants.
This paper discusses the approximately 25 Turkic loanwords that can be identified in the peripher... more This paper discusses the approximately 25 Turkic loanwords that can be identified in the peripheral and endangered Mongolic language Kangjia. The set of Turkic words is very similar to that documented for Baoan and Dongxiang, the closest relatives of Kangjia.
Western Yugur (Yellow Uygur) is a Turkic language spoken by approximately 4,500 people,living mos... more Western Yugur (Yellow Uygur) is a Turkic language spoken by approximately 4,500 people,living mostly in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County in Gansu Province in China. The classification of Western Yugur within the Turkic language family is not straightforward, as it is one of those languages which, in the words of Johanson, “have for centuries developed in relative isolation from the branches or groups they once belonged to, thus preserving old features and acquiring new ones in their respective environments.” Following Samoilovich’s classification of Turkic languages, which is based foremost on the development of CT *d, Western Yugur is usually grouped together with Khakas, Shor, and Chulym, which also feature z < *d. These languages are part of the Northeastern conglomerate of Turkic languages. Compared to the central Turkic (Oguz, Kypchak and Chagatay) languages, the Northeastern languages do not present themselves as a coherent subgroup. They share a number of archaisms, and in part lost the same lexical and grammatical items, but innovations shared by all NE languages are not numerous. An altemative classification, that reappears with some regularity in the literature, places Western Yugur (usually along with Salar) incorrectly with Uzbek and New or Modern Uygur in the Southeastern Turkic subgroup. A third possibility is to classify Western Yugur as a subgroup of its own, although it is much closer to the central languages than Chuvash or Khalaj are. In this paper we will outline some characteristics that connect Western Yugur to other Turkic languages, concentratingon phonetic, lexical, and, to a smaller extent, morphological data.
Transeurasian verbal morphology in a comparative perspective, 2010
This paper discusses the origins of the Eastern Yugur converb -(G)AA and its Western Yugur counte... more This paper discusses the origins of the Eastern Yugur converb -(G)AA and its Western Yugur counterpart -GA, which both function mainly as narrative converbs.
The so-called 'Turkish-Khotanese word-list' is a list of about a hundred Old Turkic words in Brāh... more The so-called 'Turkish-Khotanese word-list' is a list of about a hundred Old Turkic words in Brāhmī script, some of them with Khotanese translations. Many of the entries were provided with brief etymological notes by its first editor Harold Bailey, which were corrected and expanded by later linguists. A couple of words remain unexplained. This paper will discuss the body part ehau':cakä. Bailey compared it with Turkish ökçe 'heel' but this was rejected by later authors on phonetic grounds. Bailey's proposal will be revisited and other connections will be investigated.
Abstract: Hunting with birds is an ancient practice among the Turkic peoples, which is reflected i... more Abstract: Hunting with birds is an ancient practice among the Turkic peoples, which is reflected in the rich vocabulary associated with hunting birds and falconer’s gear. The specialized vocabulary is best preserved and documented in the Kipchak Turkic languages, Kyrgyz and Kazak, reflecting the fact that falconry traditions were best preserved by these two language communities. The names of the birds of prey are more widely documented and also occur in smaller, less completely investigated, Kipchak languages. This paper will provide a brief overview of the falconry terminology of the Kipchak Turkic languages, focusing on the most widely used names of the birds used for hunting. The Kipchak languages are one of the Turkic groups that have long been in contact with Russian and other languages of Eastern Europe, such as Ukrainian and Hungarian, and have thus served as an important transmitter of Turkic lexicon into these languages.
Although in recent decades the term shaman has been used in the context of several cultures
in no... more Although in recent decades the term shaman has been used in the context of several cultures in northern Eurasia and beyond, it originally stems from the Tungusic language Ewenki. The small Tungusic language family consists of about a dozen closely related members in Siberia, northern China, and Mongolia. All Tungusic languages preserve the word for shaman, the original shape of which in Proto Tungusic can be reconstructed as *samān. In all likelihood, this is a native Tungusic word stem. Several scholars have been struck by the similarity between the Tungusic word and the Sanskrit śraman · a “ascetic, monk”, and proposed that the Tungusic word derives from the Indic. The Sanskrit word is documented in simplifed form as a loanword in the Buddhist literature of several extinct languages of Central Asia, such as Tocharian and Sogdian, as well as in Chinese. It is unlikely, however, that this Buddhist cultural term was adopted by nomadic peoples in Manchuria and Siberia to designate such a central fgure in their culture. This contribution will discuss the etymology of shaman and some of the unrelated terms for it used in other language groups in northern Eurasia.
This is the third in a series of articles on etymologies of Western Yugur, a Turkic language, and... more This is the third in a series of articles on etymologies of Western Yugur, a Turkic language, and Eastem Yugur, a Mongolic language, both spoken by the Yugur nationality in China's Gansu Province. These two different linguistic groups of the Yugur, or Yellow Uygur, as they are traditionally known among western scholars, not only came to share a common history but also a common ethnonym.
Research on the Old Uyghur secular documents has become an ever more important branch of Old Turk... more Research on the Old Uyghur secular documents has become an ever more important branch of Old Turkic studies, and many relevant publications have seen the light of day. The manuscripts provide a glimpse into the daily life and material culture of the Uyghurs. However, the terminology of some areas of life still needs in-depth investigations. Especially in the semantic field of textiles and clothing several lexical items are still unexplained. The present article identifies one such item, kükü, as a designation of the high embroidered headdress of married Mongol women, adopted from Chinese gugu.
Several opinions have been published about the origin of the Old Turkic interrogative kačan 'when... more Several opinions have been published about the origin of the Old Turkic interrogative kačan 'when'. So far the two most popular proposals seem to be: double inflection (equative + instrumental) from the interrogative root *ka-, and contraction of an unattested Old Turkic compound *kañu čagïn. This paper will discuss these and other proposals, and will present evidence in favour of an alternative etymology.
The formative +(A)l, found in all major Oghuz idioms, serves to create verbs from adjectives. Thi... more The formative +(A)l, found in all major Oghuz idioms, serves to create verbs from adjectives. This verbalizer suffix provides another defining characteristic that sets the Oghuz subgroup apart from the other two Central Turkic subgroups, Kipchak and Chaghatay. This paper will investigate the origins of this suffix, which as such was not present in Common Turkic. Furthermore it will discuss the scope of +(A)l within the context of functionally similar suffixes, both within Oghuz, as well as in comparison with older Turkic and modern Kipchak and Chaghatay languages. An inventory of common Oghuz +(A)l formations and their Kipchak-Chaghatay counterparts concludes the paper.
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Papers by Hans Nugteren
without modern descendants and it was assumed that it was a non-segmented stem unrelated to any other Turkic word.
The paper discusses its morphology, cognates and descendants.
An altemative classification, that reappears with some regularity in the literature, places Western Yugur (usually along with Salar) incorrectly with Uzbek and New or Modern Uygur in the Southeastern Turkic subgroup.
A third possibility is to classify Western Yugur as a subgroup of its own, although it is much closer to the central languages than Chuvash or Khalaj are.
In this paper we will outline some characteristics that connect Western Yugur to other Turkic languages, concentratingon phonetic, lexical, and, to a smaller extent, morphological data.
in northern Eurasia and beyond, it originally stems from the Tungusic language Ewenki. The small
Tungusic language family consists of about a dozen closely related members in Siberia, northern China, and Mongolia. All Tungusic languages preserve the word for shaman, the original shape of which
in Proto Tungusic can be reconstructed as *samān. In all likelihood, this is a native Tungusic word
stem. Several scholars have been struck by the similarity between the Tungusic word and the Sanskrit
śraman
·
a “ascetic, monk”, and proposed that the Tungusic word derives from the Indic. The Sanskrit
word is documented in simplifed form as a loanword in the Buddhist literature of several extinct languages of Central Asia, such as Tocharian and Sogdian, as well as in Chinese. It is unlikely, however,
that this Buddhist cultural term was adopted by nomadic peoples in Manchuria and Siberia to designate such a central fgure in their culture. This contribution will discuss the etymology of shaman and
some of the unrelated terms for it used in other language groups in northern Eurasia.
daily life and material culture of the Uyghurs. However, the terminology of some areas of life still needs in-depth investigations. Especially in the semantic field of textiles and clothing several lexical items are still unexplained. The present article identifies one such item, kükü, as a designation of the high embroidered headdress of married Mongol women, adopted from Chinese gugu.
the Oghuz subgroup apart from
the other two Central Turkic subgroups, Kipchak and Chaghatay. This paper will
investigate the origins of this suffix, which as such was
not present in Common Turkic. Furthermore it will discuss the scope of +(A)l within the context of functionally similar
suffixes, both within Oghuz, as well as in comparison with older Turkic and modern Kipchak and Chaghatay languages.
An inventory of common Oghuz +(A)l formations and their
Kipchak-Chaghatay counterparts concludes the paper.
without modern descendants and it was assumed that it was a non-segmented stem unrelated to any other Turkic word.
The paper discusses its morphology, cognates and descendants.
An altemative classification, that reappears with some regularity in the literature, places Western Yugur (usually along with Salar) incorrectly with Uzbek and New or Modern Uygur in the Southeastern Turkic subgroup.
A third possibility is to classify Western Yugur as a subgroup of its own, although it is much closer to the central languages than Chuvash or Khalaj are.
In this paper we will outline some characteristics that connect Western Yugur to other Turkic languages, concentratingon phonetic, lexical, and, to a smaller extent, morphological data.
in northern Eurasia and beyond, it originally stems from the Tungusic language Ewenki. The small
Tungusic language family consists of about a dozen closely related members in Siberia, northern China, and Mongolia. All Tungusic languages preserve the word for shaman, the original shape of which
in Proto Tungusic can be reconstructed as *samān. In all likelihood, this is a native Tungusic word
stem. Several scholars have been struck by the similarity between the Tungusic word and the Sanskrit
śraman
·
a “ascetic, monk”, and proposed that the Tungusic word derives from the Indic. The Sanskrit
word is documented in simplifed form as a loanword in the Buddhist literature of several extinct languages of Central Asia, such as Tocharian and Sogdian, as well as in Chinese. It is unlikely, however,
that this Buddhist cultural term was adopted by nomadic peoples in Manchuria and Siberia to designate such a central fgure in their culture. This contribution will discuss the etymology of shaman and
some of the unrelated terms for it used in other language groups in northern Eurasia.
daily life and material culture of the Uyghurs. However, the terminology of some areas of life still needs in-depth investigations. Especially in the semantic field of textiles and clothing several lexical items are still unexplained. The present article identifies one such item, kükü, as a designation of the high embroidered headdress of married Mongol women, adopted from Chinese gugu.
the Oghuz subgroup apart from
the other two Central Turkic subgroups, Kipchak and Chaghatay. This paper will
investigate the origins of this suffix, which as such was
not present in Common Turkic. Furthermore it will discuss the scope of +(A)l within the context of functionally similar
suffixes, both within Oghuz, as well as in comparison with older Turkic and modern Kipchak and Chaghatay languages.
An inventory of common Oghuz +(A)l formations and their
Kipchak-Chaghatay counterparts concludes the paper.