Genealogical classification is the most developed classification of the world's languages. It is based on kinship relationships. Based on these relationships, languages are united into so-called language families, each of which consists of linguistic branches or groups, in turn they are divided either into individual languages or into subgroups of closely related languages. The following families of languages are usually distinguished: Turkic, Indo-European, Semitic, Finno-Ugric, Ibero-Caucasian, Paleo-Asian, etc. There are languages that are not part of language families. These are single languages. Such a language is, for example, the Basque language.
Indo-European languages include such large associations / families / as the Slavic family of languages, Indian, Romance, Germanic, Celtic, Iranian, Baltic, etc. In addition, Armenian, Albanian, and Greek are classified as Indo-European languages.
In turn, individual families of Indo-European languages may have their own division into subgroups. So, Slavic The group of languages is divided into three subgroups - East Slavic, South Slavic, West Slavic. The East Slavic group of languages includes Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, the West Slavic group includes Polish, Czech, Slovak, etc., the South Slavic group includes Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Old Slavic / dead language /.
Indian The family of languages includes a language that dates back to ancient times. Ritual texts, the texts of the Veda, were written in this language. This language is called Vedic. Sanskrit is one of the oldest Indian languages. This is the language of the epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata. Modern Indian languages include Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, etc.
Germanic languages are divided into East Germanic, West Germanic and Scandinavian / or North Germanic / groups. The northern group includes Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese. The Western group is English, German, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Afrikaans, Yiddish. The eastern group consists of dead languages - Gothic, Burgunian, etc. Among the Germanic languages, the newest languages stand out - Yiddish and Afrikaans. Yiddish was formed in the 10th – 14th centuries on the basis of High German elements. Afrikaans arose in the 12th century on the basis of Dutch dialects with the inclusion of elements from French, German, English, Portuguese and some African languages.
Romanskaya the family of languages includes languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, etc. This group of languages is related by a common origin from the Latin language. More than 10 creoles arose from individual Romance languages.
Iranian the group is Persian, Dari, Ossetian, Tajik, Kurdish, Afghan / Pashto / and other languages that make up the group of Pamir languages.
Baltic languages are represented by Latvian and Lithuanian.
Another large family of languages, spread over large areas of Asia and parts of Europe, are the Turkic languages. There are several classification schemes in Turkology. The generally accepted scheme is the classification of A.N. Samoilovich.
All Turkic The languages are divided into 6 groups: Bulgar, Uyghur, Kipchak, Chagatai, Kipchak-Turkmen, Oguz. The Bulgar group includes the Chuvash language, the Uyghur group includes Old Uyghur, Tuvan, Yakut, Khakass; the Kipchak group consists of Tatar, Bashkir, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Altai languages; the Chagatai group covers modern Uyghur, Uzbek, etc.; Kipchak-Turkmen group - intermediate dialects (Khiva-Uzbek, Khiva-Sart); The Oghuz group includes Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen and some others.
Among all language families, Indo-European languages occupy special place, since the Indo-European family was the first language family that was identified on the basis of genetic/kinship/ connections, therefore the identification of other language families was guided by the experience of studying Indo-European languages. This determines the role of research in the field of Indo-European languages for the historical study of other languages.
Conclusions
Genealogical classification is based on kinship relationships. Kinship relations are associated with common origin.
The common origin is manifested in a single source of related words - in the proto-language.
There is a hierarchy of proto-languages.
Linguistic relationship can be direct/immediate/ and indirect.
Genealogical classification is based on taking into account both direct and indirect types of relationship between languages.
Relationships of kinship are manifested in the material identity of sounds, morphemes, and words.
Reliable data is provided by a comparison of the words that make up the oldest fund.
When comparing vocabulary, it is necessary to take into account the presence of borrowings. Material similarity of grammatical indicators is one of the most reliable evidence of kinship.
Phonetic identity is manifested in the presence of phonetic / sound / correspondence.
Phonetic correspondences do not reflect complete articulatory and acoustic similarities between the sounds of related languages. Sound correspondences are the result of ancient phonetic processes.
Phonetic correspondences are found not in one isolated fact, but in a whole series of similar examples. In the historical study of languages, comparative historical analysis is used.
The comparative historical method is based on comparison of related languages.
The comparison is carried out with the aim of reconstructing the oldest prototype and the original form.
The reconstructed phenomena are classified as hypothetical. Not only individual fragments are recreated, but also proto-languages. The comparative historical method was developed by both foreign and domestic linguists.
They are distributed over a vast territory of our planet, from the cold Kolyma basin to the southwestern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Turks do not belong to any specific racial type; even among one people there are both Caucasoids and Mongoloids. They are mostly Muslim, but there are peoples who profess Christianity, traditional beliefs, and shamanism. The only thing that connects almost 170 million people is common origin groups of languages currently spoken by the Turks. Yakut and Turk all speak related dialects.
Strong branch of the Altai tree
Among some scientists, disputes still persist over which language family the Turkic language group belongs to. Some linguists identified it as a separate large group. However, the most generally accepted hypothesis today is that these related languages belong to the large Altai family.
The development of genetics has made a major contribution to these studies, thanks to which it has become possible to trace the history of entire nations in the traces of individual fragments of the human genome.
Once upon a time, a group of tribes in Central Asia spoke the same language - the ancestor of modern Turkic dialects, but in the 3rd century. BC e. a separate Bulgarian branch separated from the large trunk. The only people who speak languages of the Bulgarian group today are the Chuvash. Their dialect is noticeably different from other related ones and stands out as a special subgroup.
Some researchers even propose placing the Chuvash language into a separate genus of the large Altai macrofamily.
Classification of the southeast direction
Other representatives of the Turkic group of languages are usually divided into 4 large subgroups. There are differences in details, but for simplicity you can take the most common method.
Oguz, or southwestern, languages, which include Azerbaijani, Turkish, Turkmen, Crimean Tatar, Gagauz. Representatives of these peoples speak very similarly and can easily understand each other without a translator. Hence the huge influence of strong Turkey in Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, whose residents perceive Turkish as their native language.
The Turkic group of the Altai family of languages also includes the Kipchak, or northwestern, languages, which are spoken mainly on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as representatives of the peoples Central Asia with nomadic ancestors. Tatars, Bashkirs, Karachais, Balkars, such peoples of Dagestan as the Nogais and Kumyks, as well as Kazakhs and Kyrgyz - they all speak related dialects of the Kipchak subgroup.
The southeastern, or Karluk, languages are solidly represented by the languages of two large peoples - the Uzbeks and the Uyghurs. However, for almost a thousand years they developed separately from each other. If the Uzbek language has experienced a colossal influence from Farsi, Arabic, then the Uyghurs, residents of East Turkestan, have introduced a huge number of Chinese borrowings into their dialect over many years.
Northern Turkic languages
The geography of the Turkic group of languages is wide and varied. The Yakuts, Altaians, in general, some indigenous peoples of northeastern Eurasia, also unite into a separate branch of the large Turkic tree. Northeastern languages are quite heterogeneous and are divided into several separate genera.
The Yakut and Dolgan languages separated from the single Turkic dialect, and this happened in the 3rd century. n. e.
The Sayan group of languages of the Turkic family includes Tuvan and Tofalar languages. Khakassians and residents of Mountain Shoria speak languages of the Khakass group.
Altai is the cradle of Turkic civilization; to this day, the indigenous inhabitants of these places speak Oirot, Teleut, Lebedin, Kumandin languages of the Altai subgroup.
Incidents in a harmonious classification
However, not everything is so simple in this conditional division. The process of national-territorial demarcation that took place on the territory of the Central Asian republics of the USSR in the twenties of the last century also affected such a subtle matter as language.
All residents of the Uzbek SSR were called Uzbeks, a single version of the literary Uzbek language, based on the dialects of the Kokand Khanate. However, even today the Uzbek language is characterized by pronounced dialectism. Some dialects of Khorezm, the westernmost part of Uzbekistan, are closer to the languages of the Oghuz group and closer to Turkmen than to the literary Uzbek language.
Some areas speak dialects that belong to the Nogai subgroup of the Kipchak languages, hence there are often situations when a Ferghana resident has difficulty understanding a native of Kashkadarya, who, in his opinion, shamelessly distorts his native language.
The situation is approximately the same among other representatives of the peoples of the Turkic group of languages - Crimean Tatars. The language of the inhabitants of the coastal strip is almost identical to Turkish, but the natural steppe inhabitants speak a dialect closer to Kipchak.
Ancient history
The Turks first entered the world historical arena during the era of the Great Migration of Peoples. In the genetic memory of Europeans there is still a shudder before the invasion of the Huns by Attila in the 4th century. n. e. The steppe empire was a motley formation of numerous tribes and peoples, but the Turkic element was still predominant.
There are many versions of the origin of these peoples, but most researchers place the ancestral home of today's Uzbeks and Turks in the northwestern part of the Central Asian plateau, in the area between Altai and the Khingar ridge. This version is also adhered to by the Kyrgyz, who consider themselves direct heirs great empire and are still nostalgic about it.
The neighbors of the Turks were the Mongols, the ancestors of today's Indo-European peoples, the Ural and Yenisei tribes, and the Manchus. The Turkic group of the Altai family of languages began to take shape in close interaction with similar peoples.
Confusion with Tatars and Bulgarians
In the first century AD e. individual tribes begin to migrate towards Southern Kazakhstan. The famous Huns invaded Europe in the 4th century. It was then that the Bulgar branch separated from the Turkic tree and a vast confederation was formed, which was divided into the Danube and Volga. Today's Bulgarians of the Balkans now speak a Slavic language and have lost their Turkic roots.
The opposite situation occurred with the Volga Bulgars. They still speak Turkic languages, but after the Mongol invasion they call themselves Tatars. The conquered Turkic tribes living in the steppes of the Volga took the name of the Tatars - a legendary tribe with which Genghis Khan began his campaigns that had long disappeared in the wars. They also called their language, which they had previously called Bulgarian, Tatar.
The only living dialect of the Bulgarian branch of the Turkic group of languages is Chuvash. The Tatars, another descendant of the Bulgars, actually speak a variant of the later Kipchak dialects.
From Kolyma to the Mediterranean
To the Turkic peoples language group These include residents of the harsh regions of the famous Kolyma basin, the resort beaches of the Mediterranean, the Altai mountains and the table-flat steppes of Kazakhstan. The ancestors of today's Turks were nomads who traveled the length and breadth of the Eurasian continent. For two thousand years they interacted with their neighbors, who were Iranians, Arabs, Russians, and Chinese. During this time, an unimaginable mixture of cultures and blood occurred.
Today it is even impossible to determine the race to which the Turks belong. Residents of Turkey, Azerbaijanis, and Gagauz belong to the Mediterranean group of the Caucasian race; there are practically no guys with slanted eyes and yellowish skin. However, the Yakuts, Altaians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz - they all bear a pronounced Mongoloid element in their appearance.
Racial diversity is observed even among peoples who speak the same language. Among the Tatars of Kazan you can find blue-eyed blonds and black-haired people with slanted eyes. The same thing is observed in Uzbekistan, where it is impossible to deduce the appearance of a typical Uzbek.
Faith
Most Turks are Muslims, professing the Sunni branch of this religion. Only in Azerbaijan do they adhere to Shiism. However, individual peoples either retained ancient beliefs or became adherents of other great religions. Most Chuvash and Gagauz people profess Christianity in its Orthodox form.
In the northeast of Eurasia, individual peoples continue to adhere to the faith of their ancestors; among the Yakuts, Altaians, and Tuvans, traditional beliefs and shamanism continue to be popular.
During the time of the Khazar Kaganate, the inhabitants of this empire professed Judaism, which today's Karaites, fragments of that mighty Turkic power, continue to perceive as the only true religion.
Vocabulary
Together with world civilization, Turkic languages also developed, absorbing the vocabulary of neighboring peoples and generously endowing them with their own words. It is difficult to count the number of borrowed Turkic words in East Slavic languages. It all started with the Bulgars, from whom the words “drip” were borrowed, from which “kapishche”, “suvart” arose, transformed into “serum”. Later, instead of “whey” they began to use the common Turkic “yogurt”.
The exchange of vocabulary became especially lively during the Golden Horde and the late Middle Ages, during active trade with Turkic countries. A huge number of new words came into use: donkey, cap, sash, raisin, shoe, chest and others. Later, only the names of specific terms began to be borrowed, for example, snow leopard, elm, dung, kishlak.
Official history says that the Turkic language arose in the first millennium when the first tribes belonging to this group appeared. But, as modern research shows, the language itself arose much earlier. There is even an opinion that the Turkic language came from a certain proto-language, which was spoken by all the inhabitants of Eurasia, as in the legend of the Tower of Babel. The main phenomenon of Turkic vocabulary is that it has practically not changed over the five thousand years of its existence. The ancient writings of the Sumerians will still be as understandable to the Kazakhs as modern books.
Spreading
The Turkic language group is very numerous. If you look territorially, peoples who speak similar languages live like this: in the west the border begins with Turkey, in the east with the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China, in the north with the East Siberian Sea and in the south with Khorasan.
Currently, the approximate number of people who speak Turkic is 164 million, this number is almost equal to the entire population of Russia. At the moment, there are different opinions on how the group of Turkic languages is classified. We will consider further which languages stand out in this group. Main: Turkish, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Uzbek, Karakalpak, Uyghur, Tatar, Bashkir, Chuvash, Balkar, Karachay, Kumyk, Nogai, Tuvan, Khakass, Yakut, etc.
Ancient Turkic-speaking peoples
We know that the Turkic group of languages has spread very widely across Eurasia. In ancient times, peoples who spoke this way were simply called Turks. Their main activities were cattle breeding and agriculture. But one should not perceive all modern peoples of the Turkic linguistic group as descendants of an ancient ethnic group. After thousands of years, their blood mixed with the blood of other ethnic groups of Eurasia, and now there are simply no indigenous Turks.
The ancient peoples of this group include:
- Turkuts - tribes that settled in the Altai Mountains in the 5th century AD;
- Pechenegs - arose at the end of the 9th century and inhabited the region between Kievan Rus, Hungary, Alania and Mordovia;
- Polovtsians - with their appearance they ousted the Pechenegs, they were very freedom-loving and aggressive;
- Huns - arose in the 2nd-4th centuries and managed to create a huge state from the Volga to the Rhine, from them came the Avars and Hungarians;
- Bulgars - from these ancient tribes came such peoples as the Chuvash, Tatars, Bulgarians, Karachais, Balkars.
- Khazars - huge tribes that managed to create their own state and oust the Huns;
- Oghuz Turks - the ancestors of the Turkmens, Azerbaijanis, lived in Seljukia;
- Karluks - lived in the 8th-15th centuries.
Classification
The Turkic group of languages has a very complex classification. Or rather, each historian offers his own version, which will differ from the other with minor changes. We offer you the most common option:
- Bulgarian group. The only currently existing representative is Chuvash language.
- The Yakut group is the easternmost of the peoples of the Turkic linguistic group. Residents speak Yakut and Dolgan dialects.
- South Siberian - this group represents the languages of peoples living mainly within the borders Russian Federation in the south of Siberia.
- Southeastern, or Karluk. Examples are Uzbek and Uyghur languages.
- The northwestern, or Kipchak group is represented by a large number of nationalities, many of which live on their own independent territory, for example Tatars, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz.
- Southwestern, or Oghuz. The languages included in the group are Turkmen, Salar, Turkish.
Yakuts
On their territory, the local population simply calls themselves Sakha. Hence the name of the region - the Republic of Sakha. Some representatives also settled in other neighboring areas. The Yakuts are the easternmost of the peoples of the Turkic linguistic group. Culture and traditions were borrowed in ancient times from tribes living in the central steppe part of Asia.
Khakassians
A region has been designated for this people - the Republic of Khakassia. The largest contingent of Khakass is located here - about 52 thousand people. Several thousand more moved to live in Tula and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Shors
This nation reached its greatest numbers in the 17th-18th centuries. Now this is a small ethnic group that can only be found in the south of the Kemerovo region. Today the number is very small, about 10 thousand people.
Tuvans
Tuvinians are usually divided into three groups, differing from each other in some dialect features. They inhabit the Republic. This is a small eastern of the peoples of the Turkic linguistic group, living on the border with China.
Tofalar
This nation has practically disappeared. According to the 2010 census, 762 people were found in several villages of the Irkutsk region.
Siberian Tatars
The Eastern dialect of Tatar is the language that is considered to be the national language of the Siberian Tatars. This is also a Turkic group of languages. The peoples of this group are densely settled throughout Russia. They can be found in rural areas of the Tyumen, Omsk, Novosibirsk and other regions.
Dolgans
A small group living in the northern regions of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. They even have their own municipal district - Taimyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky. Today, there are only 7.5 thousand representatives of the Dolgans left.
Altaians
The Turkic group of languages includes the Altai lexicon. Now in this area you can freely get acquainted with the culture and traditions of the ancient people.
Independent Turkic-speaking states
Today there are six separate independent states whose nationality is the indigenous Turkic population. First of all, these are Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Of course, Türkiye and Turkmenistan. And do not forget about Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, which belong to the Turkic language group in exactly the same way.
The Uighurs have their own autonomous region. It is located in China and is called Xinjiang. Other nationalities related to the Turks also live in this territory.
Kyrgyz
The Turkic group of languages primarily includes Kyrgyz. Indeed, the Kyrgyz or Kyrgyz are the most ancient representatives of the Turks who lived in Eurasia. The first mentions of the Kyrgyz are found in the 1st millennium BC. e. Throughout almost its entire history, the nation did not have its own sovereign territory, but at the same time managed to preserve its identity and culture. The Kyrgyz even have the concept of “ashar”, which means joint work, close cooperation and unity.
The Kirghiz have long lived in sparsely populated steppe areas. This could not but affect some character traits. These people are extremely hospitable. When did you arrive at the settlement before? new person, he told news that no one could hear before. For this, the guest was rewarded with the best treats. It is still customary to honor guests sacredly.
Kazakhs
The Turkic language group could not exist without the most numerous Turkic people, living not only in the state of the same name, but throughout the world.
The folk morals of the Kazakhs are very harsh. From childhood, children are raised under strict rules and taught to be responsible and hardworking. For this nation, the concept of “dzhigit” is the pride of the people, a person who defends the honor of his fellow tribesman or his own at all costs.
In the appearance of the Kazakhs, a clear division into “white” and “black” can still be traced. IN modern world this has long lost its meaning, but vestiges of the old concepts are still preserved. The peculiarity of the appearance of any Kazakh is that he can simultaneously look like both a European and a Chinese.
Turks
The Turkic group of languages includes Turkish. Historically, Türkiye has always cooperated closely with Russia. And these relations were not always peaceful. Byzantium and later Ottoman Empire, began its existence simultaneously with Kievan Rus. Even then there were the first conflicts for the right to rule the Black Sea. Over time, this enmity intensified, which largely influenced the relationship between the Russians and the Turks.
Turks are very peculiar. First of all, this can be seen from some of their features. They are hardy, patient and completely unpretentious in everyday life. The behavior of the representatives of the nation is very cautious. Even if they are angry, they will never express their dissatisfaction. But then they can harbor anger and take revenge. In serious matters the Turks are very cunning. They can smile in your face, but plot behind your back for their own benefit.
The Turks took their religion very seriously. Severe Muslim laws prescribed every step in the life of a Turk. For example, they could kill an unbeliever and not be punished for it. Another feature associated with this feature is a hostile attitude towards non-Muslims.
Conclusion
Turkic-speaking peoples are the largest ethnic group on Earth. The descendants of the ancient Turks settled across all continents, but most of them live in the indigenous territory - in the Altai Mountains and in the south of Siberia. Many peoples managed to preserve their identity within the borders of independent states.
TURKIC LANGUAGES, a language family distributed from Turkey in the west to Xinjiang in the east and from the coast of the East Siberian Sea in the north to Khorasan in the south. Speakers of these languages live compactly in the CIS countries (Azerbaijanis - in Azerbaijan, Turkmen - in Turkmenistan, Kazakhs - in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz - in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbeks - in Uzbekistan; Kumyks, Karachais, Balkars, Chuvash, Tatars, Bashkirs, Nogais, Yakuts, Tuvinians, Khakassians, Altai Mountains - in Russia; Gagauzians - in the Transnistrian Republic) and beyond - in Turkey (Turks) and China (Uyghurs). Currently, the total number of speakers of Turkic languages is about 120 million. The Turkic family of languages is part of the Altai macrofamily.
The very first (3rd century BC, according to glottochronology) the Bulgarian group separated from the Proto-Turkic community (according to another terminology - R-languages). The only living representative of this group is the Chuvash language. Individual glosses are known in written monuments and borrowings in neighboring languages from the medieval languages of the Volga and Danube Bulgars. The remaining Turkic languages (“common Turkic” or “Z-languages”) are usually classified into 4 groups: “southwestern” or “Oghuz” languages (main representatives: Turkish, Gagauz, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Afshar, coastal Crimean Tatar) , “northwestern” or “Kypchak” languages (Karaite, Crimean Tatar, Karachay-Balkar, Kumyk, Tatar, Bashkir, Nogai, Karakalpak, Kazakh, Kyrgyz), “southeastern” or “Karluk” languages (Uzbek, Uyghur), "north-eastern" languages - a genetically heterogeneous group, including: a) the Yakut subgroup (Yakut and Dolgan languages), which separated from the common Turkic, according to glottochronological data, before its final collapse, in the 3rd century. AD; b) Sayan group (Tuvan and Tofalar languages); c) Khakass group (Khakass, Shor, Chulym, Saryg-Yugur); d) Gorno-Altai group (Oirot, Teleut, Tuba, Lebedin, Kumandin). The southern dialects of the Gorno-Altai group are close in a number of parameters to the Kyrgyz language, together with it constituting the “Central-Eastern group” of Turkic languages; some dialects of the Uzbek language clearly belong to the Nogai subgroup of the Kipchak group; Khorezm dialects of the Uzbek language belong to the Oghuz group; part of Siberian dialects Tatar language comes close to Chulym-Turkic.
The earliest deciphered written monuments of the Turks date back to the 7th century. AD (steles written in runic script, found on the Orkhon River in northern Mongolia). Throughout their history, the Turks used the Turkic runic (apparently dating back to the Sogdian script), Uyghur script (later passed from them to the Mongols), Brahmi, Manichaean script, and Arabic script. Currently, writing systems based on the Arabic, Latin and Cyrillic alphabet are common.
According to historical sources, information about the Turkic peoples first surfaces in connection with the appearance of the Huns in the historical arena. The steppe empire of the Huns, like all known formations of this kind, was not monoethnic; judging by the linguistic material that has reached us, there was a Turkic element in it. Moreover, the dating of the initial information about the Huns (in Chinese historical sources) is 4–3 centuries. BC – coincides with the glottochronological determination of the time of the separation of the Bulgar group. Therefore, a number of scientists directly connect the beginning of the movement of the Huns with the separation and departure of the Bulgars to the west. The ancestral home of the Turks is placed in the northwestern part of the Central Asian Plateau, between the Altai Mountains and the northern part of the Khingan Range. From the south-eastern side they were in contact with the Mongol tribes, from the west their neighbors were the Indo-European peoples of the Tarim basin, from the north-west - the Ural and Yenisei peoples, from the north - the Tungus-Manchus.
By the 1st century. BC separate tribal groups of the Huns moved to the territory of modern Southern Kazakhstan in the 4th century. AD The Huns' invasion of Europe begins towards the end of the 5th century. in Byzantine sources the ethnonym “Bulgars” appears, denoting a confederation of tribes of Hunnic origin that occupied the steppe between the Volga and Danube basins. Subsequently, the Bulgar confederation is divided into the Volga-Bulgar and Danube-Bulgar parts.
After the breakaway of the “Bulgars,” the remaining Turks continued to remain in the territory close to their ancestral home until the 6th century. AD, when, after the victory over the Ruan-Rhuan confederation (part of the Xianbi, presumably the proto-Mongols, who defeated and ousted the Huns in their time), they formed the Turkic confederation, which dominated from the mid-6th to the mid-7th century. over a vast territory from the Amur to the Irtysh. Historical sources do not provide information about the moment of the split from the Turkic community of the ancestors of the Yakuts. The only way to connect the ancestors of the Yakuts with some historical reports is to identify them with the Kurykans of the Orkhon inscriptions, who belonged to the Teles confederation, absorbed by the Turkuts. They were localized at this time, apparently, to the east of Lake Baikal. Judging by the mentions in the Yakut epic, the main advance of the Yakuts to the north is associated with a much later time - the expansion of the empire of Genghis Khan.
In 583, the Turkic confederation was divided into western (with a center in Talas) and eastern Turkuts (otherwise known as “blue Turks”), the center of which remained the former center of the Turkic empire Kara-Balgasun on the Orkhon. Apparently, the collapse of the Turkic languages into the western (Oghuz, Kipchaks) and eastern (Siberia; Kyrgyz; Karluks) macrogroups is associated with this event. In 745, the eastern Turkuts were defeated by the Uyghurs (localized southwest of Lake Baikal and presumably at first non-Turkic, but by that time already Turkified). Both the Eastern Turkic and Uyghur states experienced strong cultural influence from China, but they were no less influenced by the Eastern Iranians, primarily Sogdian merchants and missionaries; in 762 Manichaeism became the state religion of the Uyghur empire.
In 840, the Uyghur state centered on the Orkhon was destroyed by the Kyrgyz (from the upper reaches of the Yenisei; presumably also initially non-Turkic, but by this time a Turkic people), the Uyghurs fled to East Turkestan, where in 847 they founded a state with the capital Kocho (in the Turfan oasis). From here the main monuments of the ancient Uighur language and culture have reached us. Another group of fugitives settled in what is now the Chinese province of Gansu; their descendants may be the Saryg-Yugurs. The entire northeastern group of Turks, except the Yakuts, can also go back to the Uyghur conglomerate - as part of the Turkic population of the former Uyghur Kaganate, which moved north, deeper into the taiga, already during the Mongol expansion.
In 924, the Kyrgyz were forced out of the Orkhon state by the Khitans (presumably Mongols by language) and partially returned to the upper reaches of the Yenisei, partially moved west, to the southern spurs of Altai. Apparently, the formation of the Central-Eastern group of Turkic languages can be traced back to this South Altai migration.
The Turfan state of the Uyghurs existed for a long time next to another Turkic state, which was dominated by the Karluks - a Turkic tribe that originally lived to the east of the Uyghurs, but by 766 moved west and subjugated the state of the Western Turkuts, whose tribal groups spread to the steppes of Turan (Ili-Talas region , Sogdiana, Khorasan and Khorezm; while Iranians lived in the cities). At the end of the 8th century. Karluk Khan Yabgu converted to Islam. The Karluks gradually assimilated the Uyghurs living to the east, and the Uyghur literary language served as the basis for literary language Karluk (Karakhanid) state.
Part of the tribes of the Western Turkic Kaganate were Oghuz. Of these, the Seljuk confederation stood out, which at the turn of the 1st millennium AD. migrated west through Khorasan to Asia Minor. Apparently, the linguistic consequence of this movement was the formation of the southwestern group of Turkic languages. Around the same time (and, apparently, in connection with these events) there was a mass migration to the Volga-Ural steppes and Eastern Europe of tribes that represented the ethnic basis of the current Kipchak languages.
The phonological systems of the Turkic languages are characterized by a number of general properties. In the field of consonantism, restrictions on the occurrence of phonemes in the position of the beginning of a word, a tendency to weaken in the initial position, and restrictions on the compatibility of phonemes are common. At the beginning of the original Turkic words do not occur l,r,n, š ,z. Noisy plosives are usually contrasted by strength/weakness (Eastern Siberia) or by dullness/voice. At the beginning of a word, the opposition of consonants in terms of deafness/voicedness (strength/weakness) is found only in the Oguz and Sayan groups; in most other languages, at the beginning of words, labials are voiced, dental and back-lingual ones are voiceless. Uvulars in most Turkic languages are allophones of velars with back vowels. The following types are classificationally significant historical changes in the consonant system. a) In the Bulgarian group, in most positions there is a voiceless fricative lateral l coincided with l in sound in l; r And r V r. In other Turkic languages l gave š , r gave z, l And r preserved. In relation to this process, all Turkologists are divided into two camps: some call it rotacism-lambdaism, others - zetacism-sigmatism, and their non-recognition or recognition of the Altai kinship of languages is statistically connected with this, respectively. b) Intervocalic d(pronounced as an interdental fricative ð) gives r in Chuvash t in Yakut, d in the Sayan languages and Khalaj (an isolated Turkic language in Iran), z in the Khakass group and j in other languages; accordingly, they talk about r-,t-,d-,z- And j- languages.
The vocalism of most Turkic languages is characterized by synharmonism (similarity of vowels within one word) in series and rounding; The synharmonic system is also being reconstructed for Proto-Turkic. Synharmonism disappeared in the Karluk group (as a result of which the opposition of velars and uvulars was phonologized there). In the New Uyghur language, a certain semblance of synharmonism is again being built - the so-called “Uyghur umlaut”, the preemption of wide unrounded vowels before the next i(which goes back to both the front *i, and to the rear * ï ). In Chuvash, the entire vowel system has changed greatly, and the old synharmonicism has disappeared (its trace is the opposition k from velar in anterior word and x from the uvular in a back-row word), but then a new synharmonism was built along the row, taking into account the current phonetic characteristics of vowels. The long/short opposition of vowels that existed in Proto-Turkic was preserved in the Yakut and Turkmen languages (and in residual form in other Oguz languages, where voiceless consonants were voiced after the old long vowels, as well as in Sayan, where short vowels before voiceless consonants receive the sign of “pharyngealization”) ; in other Turkic languages it disappeared, but in many languages long vowels reappeared after the loss of intervocalic voiced ones (Tuvinsk. sō"tub"< *sagu and so on). In Yakut, the primary wide long vowels turned into rising diphthongs.
In all modern Turkic languages there is a force stress, which is morphonologically fixed. In addition, tonal and phonation contrasts were noted for Siberian languages, although not fully described.
From the point of view of morphological typology, Turkic languages belong to the agglutinative, suffixal type. Moreover, if the Western Turkic languages are a classic example of agglutinative ones and have almost no fusion, then the eastern ones, like the Mongolian languages, develop a powerful fusion.
Grammatical categories of names in Turkic languages – number, belonging, case. The order of affixes is: stem + aff. numbers + aff. accessories + case aff. Plural form h. is usually formed by adding an affix to the stem -lar(in Chuvash -sem). In all Turkic languages the plural form is h. is marked, unit form. h. - unmarked. In particular, in the generic meaning and with numerals the singular form is used. numbers (Kumyk. men at gördüm " I (actually) saw horses."
Case systems include: a) nominative (or main) case with a zero indicator; the form with a zero case indicator is used not only as a subject and a nominal predicate, but also as an indefinite direct object, an applicative definition and with many postpositions; b) accusative case (aff. *- (ï )g) – case of a definite direct object; c) genitive case (aff.) – the case of a concrete referential adjectival definition; d) dative-directive (aff. *-a/*-ka); e) local (aff. *-ta); e) ablative (aff. *-tïn). The Yakut language rebuilt its case system according to the model of the Tungus-Manchu languages. Usually there are two types of declension: nominal and possessive-nominal (declension of words with aff. belonging to the 3rd person; case affixes take a slightly different form in this case).
An adjective in Turkic languages differs from a noun in the absence of inflectional categories. Having received the syntactic function of a subject or object, the adjective also acquires all the inflectional categories of the noun.
Pronouns change by case. Personal pronouns are available for 1st and 2nd persons (* bi/ben"I", * si/sen"You", * Bir"We", *sir“you”), demonstrative pronouns are used in the third person. Demonstrative pronouns in most languages have three degrees of range, e.g. bu"this", šu"this remote" (or "this" when indicated by hand), ol"That". Interrogative pronouns distinguish between animate and inanimate ( kim"who" and ne"What").
In a verb, the order of affixes is as follows: verb stem (+ aff. voice) (+ aff. negation (- ma-)) + aff. mood/aspect-temporal + aff. conjugations for persons and numbers (in brackets are affixes that are not necessarily present in the word form).
Voices of the Turkic verb: active (without indicators), passive (*- ïl), return ( *-ïn-), mutual ( * -ïš- ) and causative ( *-t-,*-ïr-,*-tïr- and some etc.). These indicators can be combined with each other (cum. gur-yush-"see", ger-yush-dir-"to make you see each other" yaz-holes-"make you write" tongue-hole-yl-"to be forced to write").
The conjugated forms of the verb are divided into proper verbal and non-verbal. The first ones have personal indicators that go back to the affixes of belonging (except for 1 l. plural and 3 l. plural). These include the past categorical tense (aorist) in the indicative mood: verb stem + indicator - d- + personal indicators: bar-d-ïm"I went" oqu-d-u-lar"they read"; means a completed action, the fact of which is beyond doubt. This also includes conditional mood(verb stem + -sa-+ personal indicators); desired mood (verb stem + -aj- + personal indicators: Proto-Turkic. * bar-aj-ïm"let me go" * bar-aj-ïk"let's go"); imperative mood (pure base of the verb in 2 liters units and base + in 2 l. pl. h.).
Non-proper verb forms - historically gerunds and participles in the function of a predicate, formalized by the same indicators of predicability as nominal predicates, namely postpositive personal pronouns. For example: ancient Turkic. ( ben)beg ben"I am bek" ben anca tir ben"I say so", lit. “I say so-I.” There are different gerunds of the present tense (or simultaneity) (stem + -a), uncertain-future (base + -Vr, Where V– vowel of varying quality), precedence (stem + -ip), desired mood (stem + -g aj); perfect participle (stem + -g an), postocular, or descriptive (stem + -mïš), definite-future tense (base +) and many more. etc. The affixes of gerunds and participles do not carry voice oppositions. Participles with predicate affixes, as well as gerunds with auxiliary verbs in proper and improper verbal forms (numerous existential, phase, modal verbs, verbs of motion, verbs “take” and “give”) express a variety of accomplished, modal, directional and accommodative meanings, cf. Kumyk bara bolgayman"looks like I'm going" ( go- deepr. simultaneity become- deepr. desirable -I), Ishley Goremen"I'm going to work" ( work- deepr. simultaneity look- deepr. simultaneity -I), language"write it down (for yourself)" ( write- deepr. precedence take it). Various verbal names of action are used as infinitives in various Turkic languages.
From the point of view of syntactic typology, Turkic languages belong to the languages of the nominative structure with the predominant word order “subject - object - predicate”, preposition of definition, preference for postpositions over prepositions. There is an isafet design – with the membership indicator for the word being defined ( at baš-ï"horse head", lit. "horse head-her") In a coordinating phrase, usually all grammatical indicators are attached to the last word.
The general rules for the formation of subordinating phrases (including sentences) are cyclical: any subordinating combination can be inserted as one of the members into any other, and the connection indicators are attached to the main member of the built-in combination (the verb form in this case turns into the corresponding participle or gerund). Wed: Kumyk. ak saqal"white beard" ak sakal-ly gishi"white bearded man" booth-la-ny ara-son-yes"between the booths" booth-la-ny ara-son-da-gyy el-well orta-son-da"in the middle of the path passing between the booths" sen ok atgyang"you shot an arrow" Sep ok atgyanyng-ny gördyum“I saw you shoot the arrow” (“you shot the arrow – 2 liters singular – vin. case – I saw”). When a predicative combination is inserted in this way, they often speak of the “Altai type of complex sentence”; indeed, Turkic and other Altaic languages show a clear preference for such absolute constructions with the verb in the non-finite form over subordinate clauses. The latter, however, are also used; for communication in complex sentences, allied words are used - interrogative pronouns (in subordinate clauses) and correlative words - demonstrative pronouns (in main sentences).
The main part of the vocabulary of the Turkic languages is native, often having parallels in other Altai languages. Comparison general vocabulary Turkic languages allows us to get an idea of the world in which the Turks lived during the collapse of the Proto-Turkic community: the landscape, fauna and flora of the southern taiga in Eastern Siberia, on the border with the steppe; metallurgy of the early Iron Age; economic structure of the same period; transhumance based on horse breeding (using horse meat for food) and sheep breeding; agriculture in an auxiliary function; the great role of developed hunting; two types of housing - winter stationary and summer portable; fairly developed social division on a tribal basis; appears to be a somewhat codified system legal relations during active trading; a set of religious and mythological concepts characteristic of shamanism. In addition, of course, such “basic” vocabulary as names of body parts, verbs of movement, sensory perception, etc. is restored.
In addition to the original Turkic vocabulary, modern Turkic languages use a large number of borrowings from languages with whose speakers the Turks have ever been in contact. These are primarily Mongolian borrowings (in the Mongolian languages there are many borrowings from the Turkic languages; there are also cases when a word was borrowed first from the Turkic languages into the Mongolian ones, and then back, from the Mongolian languages into the Turkic languages, cf. ancient Uyghur. irbii, Tuvinsk irbiš"leopard" > Mong. irbis > Kyrgyzstan irbis). In the Yakut language there are many Tungus-Manchu borrowings, in Chuvash and Tatar they are borrowed from the Finno-Ugric languages of the Volga region (as well as vice versa). A significant part of the “cultural” vocabulary has been borrowed: in ancient Uyghur there are many borrowings from Sanskrit and Tibetan, primarily from Buddhist terminology; in Muslim languages Turkic peoples many Arabisms and Persianisms; in the languages of the Turkic peoples that were part of Russian Empire and the USSR, many Russian borrowings, including internationalisms like communism,tractor,political economy. On the other hand, there are many Turkic borrowings in the Russian language. The earliest are borrowings from the Danube-Bulgarian language into Old Church Slavonic ( book, drip"idol" - in the word temple“pagan temple” and so on), from there they came to Russian; there are also borrowings from Bulgarian into Old Russian (as well as into other Slavic languages): serum(common Turkic) *jogurt, bulg. *suvart), bursa“Persian silk fabric” (Chuvash. porzin< *bariun< Middle-Persian *aparešum; trade between pre-Mongol Rus' and Persia went along the Volga through the Great Bulgar). A large amount of cultural vocabulary was borrowed into the Russian language from late medieval Turkic languages in the 14th–17th centuries. (during the time of the Golden Horde and even more later, during times of brisk trade with the surrounding Turkic states: donkey, pencil, raisin,shoe, iron,Altyn,arshin,coachman,Armenian,ditch,dried apricots and many more etc.). In more late times The Russian language borrowed from Turkic only words denoting local Turkic realities ( snow leopard,ayran,kobyz,sultanas,village,elm). Contrary to popular belief, there are no Turkic borrowings among Russian obscene (obscene) vocabulary; almost all of these words are Slavic in origin.
Kazakhs are one of the largest ethnic groups in Xinjiang, speaking the language of the Turkic group. The origins of the Kazakh ethnos can be traced back to the times when the tribes of the Sakas, Wusuns, Kanjus and northern Huns roamed the Ili Valley and Semirechye (Central Asia). But the formation of modern Kazakhs as a stable ethnic group occurred in the 15th century after the assimilation of the Tsinchazhen (Kypchaks) tribe of the Tsincha language group and other tribes who spoke other languages. Kazakhs in history were divided into three regional groups: Ulayuyts (large Yutsy), Ertuytsy (medium Yutsy) and Tsitszykyuttsy (small Yutsy). In conditions of expansion Tsarist Russia to the East and the unification of Xinjiang by Qing China, the middle Yus and small Yus partially came under the rule of the Russians (now the independent republic of Kazakhstan), as for the large Yus and part of the middle Yus, they fell under the rule of China.
According to statistics from 1998, the number of Kazakhs in Xinjiang was 1287 thousand, that is, they are in 3rd place in the family of nationalities of the XUAR. They live mainly in Northern Xinjiang.
The ancestors of the Kazakhs believed in shamans, among them were Zoroastrianism and Nestorian teachings. Today, the majority of Kazakhs are adherents of Islam, although cases of deification of nature and natural phenomena, and in some places in remote villages there are also shamans and healers, who, according to legend, are capable of driving out the evil spirit. It is not customary for Xinjiang Kazakhs to pray in special mosques; they usually use ordinary yurts for this purpose. Funerals are performed according to Muslim custom, but from the times of shamanism, cases of sacrifices in the form of a slaughtered ram, a horse saddle, dishes and bladed weapons have been preserved. The holidays are mainly celebrated by Muslims: “Kurban”, “Zhoutzyjie”, at the same time the holiday “Nauzhoutzyjie” is celebrated (21st day of the 3rd month according to the Persian calendar).
The main occupation of the Xinjiang Kazakhs is nomadic cattle breeding. An aul is a lower-level production and economic unit, which includes residents who are related by blood. The aul pasture is the collective property of the villagers and is open for pasture of livestock of all households; the livestock is the private property of the household. Pastures are divided into autumn-spring, winter and summer. Livestock are moved from one pasture to another four times a year.
Clothing, food, shelter and means of transportation are inextricably linked to livestock raw materials. Sheep meat is used for food, horse meat is considered a delicacy, and daily drinks include tea with milk (not only cow's, but also camel's) and kumiss. In addition, Kazakhs eat flour products. The Kazakhs' home is a yurt with a hole at the top, which can be rolled up and transported to a new camp. Carpets are hung and laid inside. Almost all year round, Kazakhs wear sheepskin dokha, men wear fur hats-tebetei with four corners or a round shape in winter, and white felt kalpaks (from the Turkic kalpak - hat) trimmed with black suede in summer. Married women cover their heads with a white scarf; some wear a burqa covering their faces, which they are not supposed to take off in the presence of their husband's parents and strangers. Unmarried girls wear hats in winter and summer, which are also not supposed to be removed in the presence of unfamiliar men.
The Kazakh family consists of spouses and minor children. Marriages take place between different tribes. The wedding ceremony includes the ceremony of the groom presenting the bride price for the bride. A widowed woman usually remarries one of her husband's brothers or a relative of her husband's family. Throughout life, the rituals of the first month of a newborn, naming, the first ride on a horse, circumcision for boys, participation in equestrian competitions, when participants try to take possession of the carcass of a lamb, the ceremony of grooming, when a girl on a horse overtakes a guy and hits him with a whip, are obligatory. In addition, participation in equestrian competitions and wrestling.
Kazakhs are big fans of folk tales. The repertoire of akyn storytellers includes about thousands of tales and legends. Myths about the creation of the world on Earth, the forefather of mankind Adamat, the national totem “Wolf”, the ancestor of the Kazakhs the Swan Virgin, the legend about the wonderful horse Pilak, etc. are widely popular. The Kazakh writing system uses the Arabic alphabet. Most common musical instrument is domra. Outstanding musical works are the suite “Larks” and the historical and musical poem “Larks”. Kazakh dances are distinguished by their temperament, speed and ease of movement.
The Kirghiz are one of the ancient peoples of Xinjiang. The Kyrgyz language belongs to the Turkic group of Altaic language family. The number of Kyrgyz in Xinjiang is 164 thousand (1998 census), they live mainly in the Ili District and the Kyzylsu-Kyrgyz Autonomous District.
The Xinjiang Kirghiz share the same ethnic roots with the Kirghiz of Central Asia; their ancestors were the Jiankun (Din. Han), Xiajias (Din. Tang) and Kirghiz (Din. Yuan) tribes. The Kyrgyz tribes initially lived in the upper reaches of the Yenisei, then gradually migrated to the South-West, to the Tien Shan region. The Dzungar Mongols called them "brutes". After Qing China conquered the Dzungar Khanate, 20 Kyrgyz tribes recognized the power of the Qing emperor and joined the multinational family of peoples of Xinjiang. To designate the Kyrgyz living in China and the Kyrgyz living in Central Asia, in Chinese there are two different names. Kyrgyz settlements have a “neisin” (namesakes) structure and a “30 surnames” structure, which is divided into 4 large tribes, in addition, the “30 surnames” are divided into “right” and “left” parts. The lowest settlement unit is the aul.
In the 16th century, the Sufist preacher Ishaq popularized Sufism among the Kyrgyz, but today the majority of the Kyrgyz are Sunni, in addition there are adherents of the Shia sect of Islam, and the traditions of shamanism have also been preserved. Among the people, legends about the creation by the god Tengri of the Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, mountains and rivers and man himself are still alive. Among the holidays, “Kurban” and “Zhouzijie” are celebrated according to Muslim custom, and in addition, the custom of celebrating ancient holidays has been preserved: The beginning of the year at the spring solstice (“Noluzijie”). Along with the Muslim rites of circumcision, weddings in the presence of akhuna and funerals, the Kyrgyz have preserved the ancient custom of jumping over a fire, which, according to belief, helps drive out an evil spirit.
The traditional occupation of the Kyrgyz people is pastoralism. In the years people's power Many Kyrgyz people began to work in the fields of agriculture and forestry. In 1956, a forestry was created in Kyzylsu, which later grew into the Forestry Department, which has several forestry departments under its subordination. Modern Kyrgyz can be said to be a people half engaged in cattle breeding and half in crop production. Felt yurts were replaced by adobe houses with wooden frames, and brick buildings also appeared. Indoors, Kyrgyz people like to hang carpets on the walls and cover the floors with carpets. The food is dominated by lamb and flour products, but there are few vegetables. Men, women and children wear long-skirted caps; inside they wear a camisole with long sleeves and a stand-up collar, fastened on one side. In winter they wear a headdress - tebetey, trimmed with fur, in summer kalpak (from the Turkic kalpak - hat), trimmed with black suede. Just like Kazakh women, Kyrgyz girls do not wear a headscarf before marriage, but after marriage they tie multi-colored scarves around their heads. Elderly women cover their faces with white silk burqas. In winter, “diaorobtso” celebrations are held, and in summer, “serne” feasts are held, dedicated to the harvest and the spring offspring of livestock.
Kyrgyz writing uses the Arabic alphabet, and the dictionary contains many words borrowed from the Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongolian and Han languages. Famous literary work is the epic "Manas", which, along with the Mongolian epic "Dzhanger" and the Tibetan epic "Gesar", is the most important outstanding historical epic of China. In the past, “Manas” existed in the form of oral legends, and during the years of the People’s Republic of China, a lot of work was done to collect and put in order various versions of oral legends. In total, more than 200 thousand stanzas of the main text and about a million stanzas, including variants, were collected. Chapters of the epic: “Manas”, “Samatai”, “Saytak”, “Kainainimu”, “Sayd”, “Aslabach Backbai”, “Somubilak” and “Chigetai”. They tell the story of the ancient hero Manas, in addition, about 100 other characters are introduced.
Uzbeks living within Xinjiang speak a Turkic language, practice Islam and have Uzbek relatives in Central Asia. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Turkic-speaking tribes living in the Baizhang Khanate assimilated the tribes of the Iranian group living in Hezhong, in the Fergana Valley, laying the foundation for the Uzbek nationality. The Uzbeks established local government bodies: in Kokand, Andijan, Samarkand, Bukhara.
According to statistics from the 80s of the 20th century, the number of Uzbeks in the world is 17 million, they live mainly in Uzbekistan, as well as in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, the USA, Saudi Arabia and other places.
Xinjiang Uzbeks are descendants of the Anjiang and Kokand people, who moved to Xinjiang during the Qing Dynasty. Later, another batch of Uzbeks came to Xinjiang along with the army of Agub Khan. To distinguish them from foreign Uzbeks, a different name has been introduced in Chinese to designate Xinjiang Uzbeks. According to the 1998 census, the number of Xinjiang Uzbeks is 13,731, of which 70% live in Northern Xinjiang, 30% in Southern. There are more city dwellers among Uzbeks than rural residents. Especially many Uzbeks come to life in the cities of Urumqi and Yining; as for Uzbeks - rural residents, most of them are in Mulei County. In 1987, the Danangou-Uzbek Autonomous Volost was formed in Mulei County.
In terms of education, Uzbeks are at a relatively high level. They are in many ways similar to the Uyghurs: in appearance, language, style of dressing, wedding and funeral customs. Mixed marriages between Uzbeks, Uighurs and Tatars are quite common. Islam was introduced by the Uzbek Khan of the Jinzhang Khanate. Currently, most Uzbeks belong to the Sunni branch of Islam. Uzbek writing uses the Arabic alphabet. Uzbeks are excellent entrepreneurs. Among the 8 largest banks operating in Urumqi at the beginning of the 20th century, 5 banks were opened by Uzbeks. Uzbek peasants are mainly engaged in growing fruits and vegetables.
Tatars are one of the nationalities of Xinjiang, speaking the language of the Turkic group. As you know, the Tatars also live within the Russian Federation. But it should be noted that Russian Tatars in the past descended from the Mongols. During the Ming Dynasty, among the Mongol tribes that rose in place of the Oirats were the Tatars. Europeans called the Mongols “Tatars.” But the Xinjiang Tatars have no relation to the Mongolian tribes. Long ago, during the time of the Kazan Khanate, its rulers, the Bulgarians, taking into account the fear of the Mongols that had become a habit among neighboring tribes, began to call themselves and the Kipchak tribes under their rule “Tatars,” hinting that they allegedly descended from Mongol tribes. In this way they wanted to increase their prestige among neighboring tribes. The name “Tatars” was retained by the Tatars and Kipchaks, although there were no family ties between them and the Mongols. In the 16th century, these peoples, who called themselves “Tatars,” entered the possessions of Tsarist Russia, and some made a long transition to Central Asia. Adherents of Islam, the Tatars in Russia adopted European, especially Russian, culture. Tatars are known as enterprising businessmen.
In the mid-19th century, cases of Tatars moving from Russia to Xinjiang began to be observed, after October Revolution Rich Tatar merchants and kulaks, together with the retreating troops of the White Army, came to the territory of China, where they settled, joining the multinational family of peoples of Xinjiang. As mentioned above, the Chinese began to call these Tatars who moved to China differently than the Tatars of Central Asia (although the pronunciation of both names is very similar). According to statistics from 1998, there were 4,668 Tatars living in Xinjiang, they live mainly in Altai County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture and Tacheng City.
The Xinjiang Tatars belong to the Sunni branch of Islam, but there are also adherents of Mazar among them. Tatars living in the Tatar Autonomous Republic of the Russian Federation use a writing system based on the Russian alphabet. This writing is incomprehensible to the Xinjiang Tatars. The latter use the Uyghur script. In addition, Tatars living in cities use Chinese hieroglyphic writing.
The first Tatars who moved to Xinjiang were mainly engaged in commerce, in particular they worked in banking, competing with Uzbek financiers. In the mid-30s - mid. In the 40s of the 20th century, Tatar businessmen became the target of repression, and many of them went bankrupt. Then many Tatars moved to the countryside, taking up agricultural production or handicrafts. Among the Tatars living in cities, a significant stratum consists of intellectuals.
The Tatars are great masters of theatrical performances, music, vocals and dancing. The Tatars build houses with a flat roof, like the Uyghurs, but they make ordinary windows, not a skylight, as in Uyghur houses. The Tatars strictly ensure that the premises are clean, the food is similar to the food of the Uyghurs, and Tatar women know how to bake a variety of dough products. The predominant color in clothing is black. Outerwear is sewn with a straight cut collar and wide sleeves. Women are excellent embroiderers. The customs of the Tatars are influenced by European culture. As for family foundations, marriage, funerals and everyday etiquette, the Tatars remain faithful to the traditions common to all Turkic-speaking eastern peoples.