Bulgar (also
Bolğar,
Bulghar and
Proto-Bulgarian) was the language of the
BulgarsThe Bulgars were originally semi-nomadic people, probably of Turkic descent, originating in Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards conquered different parts of Europe...
. Very few records exist of the language and little of them is understood. Considered by most linguists to have been a
Turkic languageThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
, it is believed to have been spoken in the states founded by the Bulgars, namely
Old Great BulgariaOld Great Bulgaria or Great Bulgaria was а term used by Byzantine historians to refer to Onoguria during the reign of the Bulgar ruler Kubrat in the 7th century north of the Caucasus mountains in the steppe between the Dniester and Lower Volga.-Kubrat:Kubrat was of the kingly Dulo clan and the...
(in the 7th century),
Danube BulgariaThe First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in AD 632 in the lands near the Danube Delta and disintegrated in AD 1018 after its annexation to the Byzantine Empire. At the height of its power it spread between Budapest and the Black Sea and from the Dnieper river in modern...
(from the 7th until the 9th century), and
Volga BulgariaVolga Bulgaria or Volga-Kama Bolghar, is a historic Bulgar state that existed between the seventh and thirteenth centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers in what is now Russia. Today, both the Republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia are considered to be descendants of Volga...
(until the 13th century or 14th century).
The classification of Bulgar is somewhat controversial, but the most widely accepted theory places it among the "Lir" branch of
Turkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
referred to as Oghur-Turkic, Lir-Turkic, or, indeed, "Bulghar Turkic" as opposed to the "Shaz"-type of Common Turkic.
Bulgar (also
Bolğar,
Bulghar and
Proto-Bulgarian) was the language of the
BulgarsThe Bulgars were originally semi-nomadic people, probably of Turkic descent, originating in Central Asia, who from the 2nd century onwards conquered different parts of Europe...
. Very few records exist of the language and little of them is understood. Considered by most linguists to have been a
Turkic languageThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
, it is believed to have been spoken in the states founded by the Bulgars, namely
Old Great BulgariaOld Great Bulgaria or Great Bulgaria was а term used by Byzantine historians to refer to Onoguria during the reign of the Bulgar ruler Kubrat in the 7th century north of the Caucasus mountains in the steppe between the Dniester and Lower Volga.-Kubrat:Kubrat was of the kingly Dulo clan and the...
(in the 7th century),
Danube BulgariaThe First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in AD 632 in the lands near the Danube Delta and disintegrated in AD 1018 after its annexation to the Byzantine Empire. At the height of its power it spread between Budapest and the Black Sea and from the Dnieper river in modern...
(from the 7th until the 9th century), and
Volga BulgariaVolga Bulgaria or Volga-Kama Bolghar, is a historic Bulgar state that existed between the seventh and thirteenth centuries around the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers in what is now Russia. Today, both the Republics of Tatarstan and Chuvashia are considered to be descendants of Volga...
(until the 13th century or 14th century).
Affiliation
The classification of Bulgar is somewhat controversial, but the most widely accepted theory places it among the "Lir" branch of
Turkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
referred to as Oghur-Turkic, Lir-Turkic, or, indeed, "Bulghar Turkic" as opposed to the "Shaz"-type of Common Turkic. The "Lir" branch is characterized by sound correspondences such as Oghuric
r versus Common Turkic (or Shaz-Turkic)
z and Oghuric
l versus Common Turkic (Shaz-Turkic)
š.
On the other hand, some modern
BulgarianThe Bulgarians are a South Slavic people, generally associated with the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian language. Emigration has resulted in Bulgarian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-Ethnogenesis:...
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
s link it to
Iranian language groupThe Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian. They are spoken by the Iranian peoples. Avestan is the oldest recorded Iranian language....
instead (more specifically, the
Pamir languagesThe Pamir languages are a subgroup of the Eastern Iranian languages, spoken by Pamiri people in the Pamir Mountains, primarily along the Panj River and its tributaries. This includes the Badakhshan Province of northeastern Afghanistan and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province of eastern Tajikistan...
are frequently mentioned). Other Bulgarian historians only point out certain signs of Iranian influence in the Turkic base, without drawing such conclusions from them (of the linguistic evidence only the Iranian origin of the name Asparukh seems to withstand scrutiny - see Schmitt 1985 for a critical assessment by an international Iranologist). Still others assume an intermediate stance or indeed actively oppose the "Iranian" theory.
Danube Bulgar
The language of the Danube Bulgars (or
Danube Bulgar) is recorded in a small number of inscriptions, which are found in
PliskaPliska is the name of both the first capital of Danubian Bulgaria and a small town which was renamed after the historical Pliska after its site was determined and excavations began.- Historical Pliska :Pliska was the capital of Bulgaria between 681 and 893 AD...
, the first capital of
Danube BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
and in the rock churches near the village of Murfatlar, present-day
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
. Some of these inscriptions are written with
Greek charactersThe Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is the first and oldest alphabet in the narrow sense that it notes each vowel and consonant with a separate symbol. It is as such in continuous use to...
, others with
runesThe term "Bulgar alphabet". may refer to*the medieval Kuban alphabet in use in Old Great Bulgaria during the 8th to 13th centuries.*the modern Bulgarian alphabet, introduced in 1870 by Marin Drinov, reformed in 1945....
similar to the
Orkhon scriptThe Old Turkic script is the alphabet used by the Göktürk and other early Turkic Khanates from at least the 8th century to record the Old Turkic language. It was later used by the Uyghur Empire...
. Most of them appear to have a private character (oaths, dedications, inscriptions on grave stones) and some were court inventories. Although attempts at decipherment have been made, none of them has gained wide acceptance. These inscriptions in Danube-Bulgar are found along with other official ones written in
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
. The rulers of the
First Bulgarian EmpireThe First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in AD 632 in the lands near the Danube Delta and disintegrated in AD 1018 after its annexation to the Byzantine Empire. At the height of its power it spread between Budapest and the Black Sea and from the Dnieper river in modern...
preserved Greek as the official state language until the 9th century when it was replaced by
Old BulgarianOld Bulgarian may refer to:* An alternative name for the Old Church Slavonic language* The Bulgarian recension of Old Church Slavonic ....
(Slavonic).
The language of the Danube Bulgars is also known from a small number of loanwords in the
Old BulgarianOld Bulgarian may refer to:* An alternative name for the Old Church Slavonic language* The Bulgarian recension of Old Church Slavonic ....
language, as well as terms occurring in Bulgar Greek-language inscriptions, contemporary
ByzantineThe word Byzantine may refer to:Topics directly related to the Byzantine Empire* A citizen of The Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
texts, and later Slavonic Old Bulgarian texts. Most of these words designate titles and other concepts concerning the affairs of state, including the official 12-year cyclic calendar (as used e.g. in the
Nominalia of the Bulgarian KhansThe Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans is a short manuscript containing the names of some early Bulgar rulers, their clans, the year of their ascending to the throne according to the cyclic Bulgar calendar and the length of their rule, including the times of joint rule and civil war...
). The language became extinct in Danubian Bulgaria in the 9th century as the Bulgar nobility became gradually Slavicized after the Slavic language was declared as official in 893.
Volga Bulgar
The language spoken by the population of Volga Bulgaria is known as
Volga-Bulgar. There are a number of surviving inscriptions in Volga-Bulgar, some of which are written with
Arabic charactersThe Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic and Urdu. After the Latin alphabet, it is the second-most widely used alphabet around the world....
, alongside the continuing use of
Turkic runesThe Old Turkic script is the alphabet used by the Göktürk and other early Turkic Khanates from at least the 8th century to record the Old Turkic language. It was later used by the Uyghur Empire...
. These are all largely decipherable. That language persisted until the 13th or the 14th century. In that region, it may have ultimately given rise to the
Chuvash languageChuvash is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Republic of Chuvashia and adjacent areas...
, which is most closely related to it and which is classified as the only surviving member of a separate "Oghur-Turkic" (or Lir-Turkic) branch of the Turkic languages, to which Bulgar is also considered to have belonged (see above). Still, the precise position of Chuvash within the
OghurThe Oghur languages , are a separate branch of the Turkic language family.-Subgrouping:A tentative subgrouping results in the following list of languages:*Khazar...
family of languages is a matter of dispute among linguists. Since the comparative material attributable to the extinct members of Oghuric (
HunnicThe Hunnic language is the language spoken by the historic Huns. The literary records for this language are sparse, consisting of a few names and words.- Classification :...
, Turkic Avar,
KhazarKhazar was the language spoken by the medieval Khazar tribe, a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia. It is also referred to as Khazarian, Khazaric, or Khazari...
and Bulgar) is scant, little is known about any precise interrelation of these languages and it is a matter of dispute whether Chuvash, the only "Lir"-type language with sufficient extant linguistic material, might be the daughter language of any of these or just a sister branch.
External links