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Karakhanid, also known as Khaqani Turkic (lit. meaning 'imperial' or 'royal', self referring to as 'Türki' or 'Türkçe'), was a Turkic language developed in the 11th century during the Middle Turkic period under the Kara-Khanid Khanate. It has been described as the first literary Islamic Turkic language. It is sometimes classified under the Old Turkic category, rather than Middle Turkic, as it is contemporary to the East Old Turkic languages of Orkhon Turkic and Old Uyghur. Eastern Middle Turkic languages, namely Khorezmian Turkic and later Chagatai are descendants of the Karakhanid language.

Karakhanid vocabulary was influenced by Arabic and Persian loanwords, but the language itself was still noted to be similar to the Old Uyghur language. The language was written using the Arabic script. Mahmud al-Kashgari's Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk and Yūsuf Balasaguni's Kutadgu Bilig are considered to be important literary works written in Karakhanid language.

History

It was spoken between the 5th-15th centuries. It is one of the three parts of the Old Turkic period. According to Ligeti's classification, it is divided into three periods:

1. Mani and Buddha translations and the foundation period of Uyghur written language
2. Chagatai writing language period
3. Kipchak and Oghuz language relics period

Ḥāqāni Turkic (Khāghānī/Khāqānī Türkī) can also be called the Old Kashgar language. It was the literary language used by the Turks in this area until the beginning of the 14th century. Karakhanid Turkic and Khorezmian Turkic in the west were replaced by Chaghatai Turkic in the Timurid period.

Alphabet

Additional Letters

Only 18 of these letters are used. There are seven more letters which have no place in spelling, but are necessary in pronunciation and are not considered as root letters. Some Turkic languages require these letters. They are:

Literary works

Turkic elders valued the native language and left 21 works. The most important and valuable of these that have reached our hands are;

The famous work Kutadgu Bilig written by Yusuf Has Hajip (Yūsuf Khāss Hājib), which was written in Karakhanid Turkic for the first time during the Karakhanid State, and the famous work Divān-ı Lügati't-Türk written in the same century by Kāshgarlı Mahmud. Unfortunately, four works mentioned by Ibn Muhannā, one work called Bilik mentioned by Abu Hayyan (Abū Mūsā Ǧābir ibn Ḥayyān) and others have not been found. There was also a Turkic poet named Çuçu during the Karakhanid period.

Phonology

Vowels are found in Karakhanid Turkic, as in all periods of Turkic language.

References

1. Jan P. Beckmann; Wolfgang Kluxen (1981). Sprache und Erkenntnis im Mittelalter. p. 832.
2. Svatopluk Soucek (2000). A history of inner Asia. p. 89.
3. Yusuf Has Hacib. Kutadğu Bilig. Translated by Mustafa S. Kaçalin. T. C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Mudürlüğü. p. 3. ISBN 978-975-17-3359-7.
4. ^ Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á (2015-04-29). The Turkic Languages. Routledge. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-136-82527-9.
5. Atalay, Besim (2006). Divanü Lügati't – Türk. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. ISBN 975-16-0405-2, Cilt I, sayfa VIII.

v t e Turkic languages
Proto-language	Proto-Turkic
Common Turkic	Argu Argu Khalaj Karluk Western Northern Uzbek Southern Uzbek Eastern Ili Turki Uyghur Khoton Lop Äynu Old Chagatai Karakhanid Khorezmian Kipchak Bulgar Bashkir Tatar Mishar Tatar Nagaibak Old Tatar Cuman Armeno-Kipchak Crimean Tatar Cuman Karachay-Balkar Karaim Krymchak Kumyk Mamluk-Kipchak Urum Kyrgyz Fergana Kipchak Kyrgyz Pamir Kyrgyz Siberian Tatar Baraba Tom Southern Altai Telengit Teleut Nogai Dobrujan Tatar Karakalpak Kazakh Nogai Siberian Tatar Tobol-Irtysh Oghuz Salar Eastern Khorasani Turkic Turkmen Trukhmen Southern Afshari Chaharmahali Turkic Qashqai Sonqori Western Azerbaijani North Azerbaijani South Azerbaijani Ajem-Turkic Balkan Gagauz Gagauz Karapapakh Turkish Karamanli Turkish Old Anatolian Turkish Ottoman Turkish Siberian Northern Dolgan Yakut Southern Chulym Lower Chulym Sayan Steppe Tuvan Taiga Dukhan Soyot Tofa Yenisei Fuyu Kyrgyz Khakas Northern Altai Chelkan Kumandy Tuba Shor Western Yugur Old Old Uyghur Orkhon Turkic
Oghur	Bulgar Chuvash
Disputed classification	Khazar Pecheneg
Potentially Turkic languages	Di Hunnic Jie Pannonian Avar Tuoba Wusun Xiongnu
Creoles and pidgins	Hezhou Kurbet Qoqmončaq
Italics indicate extinct languages Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.

• Turkic languages
• Extinct languages of Asia