Oghuz languages

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The Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family, are spoken by more than 110 million people in an area spanning from the Balkans to China.

Linguistic Features

The Oghuz languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together. Some of these features are shared with other Turkic languages; others are unique to the Oghuz family.

Shared features

Loss of initial *h sound (preserved only in Khalaj)
Loss of the instrumental case (preserved only in Sakha and Khalaj)

Unique features

Voicing of stops before front vowels (e.g. gör- < kör- "to see")
Loss of q/ɣ after ɨ/u (e.g. quru < quruq "dry", sarɨ < sarɨɣ "yellow")
Change in form of participial -gan- to -an-

Classification

The Oghuz languages may be broken down into three main groups, based on geography and shared features:

a Western group, including

Turkish, including Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Gagauz, and the language of the Meskhetian Turks
Azerbaijani, including the northern and southern varieties of Azerbaijani, the languages of the Iraqi Turkmen of Iran and Iraq, Qashqa'i, and Afshar

an Eastern or Turkmen group, including Turkmen, Khorasani Turkish, and the Oghuz dialect of Uzbek
a southern group, including dialects of Iran (Kashkay, Sonqori, Aynallu etc.) and Afghanistan (Afshar).

An outlying language, Salar, is spoken by about 70,000 people in China.

Two languages, Crimean Tatar and Urum are historically Kypchak languages, but have been so heavily influenced by Oghuz languages that it is difficult to classify them definitively as either Oghuz or Kypchak.

The extinct Pecheneg language is probably Oghuz, but as it is poorly documented, it is difficult to further classify it within the Oghuz family.

References

Johanson, Lars and Csató, Éva Ágnes (1998). The Turkic Languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08200-5.

Menges, Karl H. (1995). The Turkic Languages and Peoples. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03533-1.