Turkmen language

In the VI – VII centuries of our era, the first Turkic-speaking tribes appeared in southwest Asia. Already by the 8th – 9th centuries, Oguz tribes settled in the area between the Ural Mountains and the Aral Sea . Around this period of time is the first appearance of the name of the Oghuz. By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Oguz tribes in Turkmenistan had united to such an extent that they could already be considered as one people. And although they shared common traditions, different tribes had strong disagreements (the clan consciousness remains in Turkmenistan to this day) ^[4] .

The heyday of the classics of Turkmen poetry dates back to the 18th-19th centuries. The Turkmen language of this era is known from the poems of Azadi , Seidi , Makhtumkuli , Kamyaba, Mollanepes , Kemin and others. The samples of the pre-revolutionary national Turkmen language were not preserved in a more or less accurate record; indirectly judge this language can only be based on folklore .

At the beginning of the 20th century, the literary Turkmen language began to take shape. Although many sources indicate that the Tekin or Yomud dialects served as the basis for the literary language, most of the facts indicate that modern literary language combines the properties of both the Yomud and Tek dialects ^[5] .

In 1913, I. A. Belyaev published the first “Russian-Turkmen Dictionary”, and in 1915, “The Grammar of the Turkmen Language”. An important contribution to the study of the Turkmen language in the Soviet years was made by A.N. Samoilovich , A.P. Potseluevsky and other researchers.

After 1940 and the transition of official documentation, higher education and science to the Russian language, many native speakers began to refuse to use the Turkmen language. In the period from 1940 to 1991, the Turkmen language borrowed a huge amount of vocabulary from the Russian language (which, in turn, violate the principle of syngarmonism ) ^[6] .

After the collapse of the USSR, Turkmen was declared the official language of Turkmenistan, and since 2000, official documentation and all other areas of linguistic activity in Turkmenistan are conducted only in the Turkmen language. In 2016, for the first time since the independence of Turkmenistan, the Explanatory Dictionary of the Turkmen Language (about 50 thousand words) and the Spelling Dictionary of the Turkmen Language (about 110 thousand words) were released ^[7] .

Genealogy

• Altai macro-family (controversial ^[8] )
  • Turkic language family
    • Oguz branch ^[2]
      • Turkmen language

Sociolinguistic Information

The total number of speakers of the Turkmen language is about 7 million people ^[2] , most of whom live in Turkmenistan , where it is enshrined in the constitution as the state language .

Dialects

The Turkmen language consists of many different dialects. Basically, they can be divided into two groups. The first includes all the most significant dialects, namely: Yomudsky (western regions and most of the Tashauz okrug (present-day Dashoguz velayat )), Tekinsky (central part from Kazil-Avrat to Bayram Ali ), Goklensky ( Makhtumkuli etrap ), Salyr ( Yoletensky and Tagtabazar etraps ) and Ersarinsky (eastern regions). The second group includes a number of small dialects, geographically located along the borders with Iran and Uzbekistan (dialects of Nohurli, Anauli, Khasarli, Unreasonable and others) ^[10] .

With regard to the phonetic composition, the dialects of the first group are almost completely homogeneous. As for labial syngarmonism, while in the Yomuda and Ersarin dialects it is rather weakly expressed, in other dialects (especially in the Goklensky and Tekin dialects), lip syngarmonism extends to the whole basis of the word, and at times captures inflectional affixes .

The dialects of the second group stand apart from the dialects of the first, due to the numerous differences in the field of phonetics. So, for example, in most of these dialects, the final [k] goes into [θ] and [ð]. The palatalization of consonants, which is unusual for the Turkmen language, is observed, and the law of syngarmonism is often violated ^[5] .

The dialect of the Stavropol Turkmen is called the Trukhmen language ^[11] .

Bilingualism

Since about 1940, the Russian language began to be used in many areas of society in the Turkmen SSR . Russian was used as the official language, the language of higher education and science. Most Turkmen learned Russian from birth as their second native language . This led to the fact that a huge layer of vocabulary was directly borrowed from the Russian language. The pressure of the Russian language was so great that by 1991, a large group of ethnic Turkmen who did not speak the Turkmen language lived in Turkmenistan. ^[12]

Arabic writing

Traditionally, the alphabet based on Arabic graphics was used to record the Turkmen language. At the same time, the Arabic alphabet did not fully reflect the actual phonetic situation. So, for example, the free-standing letter “ Alif ” ( могла ) could immediately reflect 4 vowels ( ø , æ , ɑ , e ), and all other vowels were displayed by combinations of the letters “ Vav ” ( ﻭ ) and “ Ya ” ( ﻱ ) with Alif ( ﺍ ) .

In 1922 and 1924, reforms were made that added diacritics above and before vowels to distinguish between more vowels ^[13] .

The Arabic alphabet for writing the Turkmen language is still used in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yanalif Latin

In the 1920s, as part of the all-Union project of Latinization , the transition to the new Turkic alphabet (also known as Yanalif ) began.

In 1925, the republican newspaper Tyrkmenistan ( Arabic: تورکمەنستان ) began to switch to Latin script. Initially, the name of the newspaper appeared in the new spelling, and then a special section “ Täze Elipbiyi Bölimi ” appeared, in which alphabetical diagrams were presented.

On August 7, 1929, by the decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR “On the New Latinized Alphabet of the Peoples of the Arabic Writing of the USSR,” the transition to Latin was given official status. Yanalif was used in schools, newspapers, government documents and literature from 1928 to 1940 ^[13] .

Cyrillic writing

In the late 1930s, the project of cyrillization began.

In 1939, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Turkmen SSR instructed the Scientific Research Institute of Language and Literature to draft a Cyrillic alphabet ^[13] .

The first draft of the Cyrillic alphabet was published in April 1940, and already in May the SNK of the Turkmen SSR adopted a resolution on the transition to a new alphabet of all state and public institutions ^[13] .

The Cyrillic alphabet was used in Turkmenistan until 1993. Outside of Turkmenistan, it is still used to record the Turkmen language.

Modern Latin

In 1992, after the collapse of the USSR , several projects were launched to Latinize the Turkmen language, one of which was published to the newspaper Turkmenistan . ^{[ when? ]}

In January 1993, a meeting was held at the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan on the new alphabet. In February, a new version of the alphabet was published in the press. On April 12, the Parliament of Turkmenistan approved a presidential decree on the new alphabet. A feature of this alphabet was the use of the signs pound ( £ ), yen ( ¥ ) and dollar ( $ ) as letters ^[14] .

Soon, instead of this alphabet, another option was introduced, which is still used today. Since 2000, this alphabet has become the only valid in all official spheres of Turkmenistan ^[15] .

Marking Locus

In a permissive noun group

In the Turkmen language, in the permissive noun phrase, the most common is double marking:

Adam-yň jaý-y

Man-GEN House-POSS.3SG

"The house of man."

Dependent marking with the addition of the affix - ky is also possible, but it is much less common:

Jaý adam-yň-ky

house man-GEN-ABS.POSS

"The house of man."

In Prediction

In prediction , dependent marking is used:

Erkek aýal-a hat-y ýaz-dy-Ø

Male-NOM female-DAT letter-ACC write-PST-3SG

"The man wrote a letter to the woman."

Grammar Type Expression Type

In the Turkmen language, synthetic forms of expressing grammatical meanings predominate:

Men ukla-mag-y gowy gör-ýär-in

I-nom sleep-inf-acc good look-prs-1sg

"I like to sleep".

Role Encoding Type

Type of role encoding - Accurate :

1) Erkek ukla-dy-Ø

Man-NOM Sleep-PST-3SG

"The man is sleeping";

2) Erkek ylga-ýar-Ø

Man-NOM Run-PRS-3SG

“The man is running”;

3) Erkek it-i ur-dy-Ø

Man-NOM Dog-ACC Beat-PST-3SG

"The man hit the dog."

Basic Word Order

The basic order of the main members in the proposal is SOV:

Aýal geýim-i al-dy-Ø

Woman-NOM Clothing-ACC Take-PST-3SG

"The woman took the clothes."

The nature of the boundary between morphemes

As in most Turkic languages , in the Turkmen language there is agglutination . Morphemes are not fused :

Men gör-ýär-in pişik-ler-i

I-NOM see-PRS-1SG cat-PL-ACC

"I see cats."

In vernacular, a fusion can be observed: ^[16]

Men gör-ýän pişik-ler-i

I-NOM see-PRS.1SG cat-PL-ACC

"I see cats."

Phonology

Vowel composition

The Turkmen language vocalism system consists of 9 vowel phonemes ^[17] :

Quantitative Discrimination

Turkmen also has long and short vowels ; longitude sometimes affects the meaning of the word ^[16] :

Vowel Singharmonism

The Turkmen language is characterized by vowel synharmonism based on the front / not front row. If the first vowel is a phoneme in the word form of the front ( e , i , ä , ü ) row, then all other vowels in this word form must be in the front row. If the first vowel in the word form is not the front row, then the other vowels in this word form should also not be the front row. Each group of words (front or back row of vowels) has its own set of inflectional affixes, which does not contradict the law of syngarmonism. An exception to this rule is borrowing ^[6] .

Consonants Composition

The consonantism system has 26 consonants ^[17] :

Other Phonetic Features

Phonetically, the Turkmen language differs from other languages ​​(except the Bashkir ) of the Turkic family in a number of non-essential features. S and Z (in any position) - as interdental θ and ð ; lip assimilation of vowels after the “wide” vowels of the 1st syllable (when dogan is spelled doga ° n ), etc. In the Tekin dialect, cases of “internal inflection ” are characteristic : dūr “he stands” - instead of durar , gēr “he comes” - instead of geler , etc. In addition to the inferior participle ( alýān “taker”, berýēn “giver”), there is also the perfect participle ( alan “taking”, beren “giving”).

Vocabulary

The dictionary of the Turkmen language contained a noticeable percentage of Arabisms and Iranisms , which, again for political reasons, were fought in the Soviet era along the lines of terminological construction and open Russification.

• Syrian-Turkmen dialects
• Trukhmen language
• Turkmen steppe

• Potseluevsky A.P. Dialects of the Turkmen language. Ashgabat, 1936.
• Поцелуевский А. П. Основы синтаксиса туркменского литературного языка. Ашхабад, 1943.
• Баскаков Н. А. К истории изучения туркменского языка. Ашхабад, 1965
• Азимов П., Амансарыев Дж., Сарыев К. Туркменский язык // Языки народов СССР, т. II. M., 1966.
• Грамматика туркменского языка, ч. 1. Фонетика и морфология. Ашхабад, 1970.
• Чарыяров Б., Назаров О. Туркменский язык // Языки мира : Тюркские языки. M., 1997.
• Грунина Э. А. Туркменский язык. — М. : Восточная литература, 2005. — 288 с. — 500 экз. — ISBN 5-02-018455-1 . (in per.)

Статья основана на материалах Литературной энциклопедии 1929—1939 .

• Энциклопедия Кругосвет. Туркменский язык
• Русско-туркменский словарь