Kipchak languages

For the extinct Turkic language, see Kipchak language.

The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq, Qypshaq or the Northwestern Turkic languages) are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 30 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanning from Romania to China. Some of the most widely spoken languages in this group are Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tatar.

Kipchak
Northwestern Turkic
Geographic distribution	Central Asia, Russia, Northern Caucasus, Balkans, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, China
Ethnicity	Kipchaks
Linguistic classification	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak
Subdivisions	Kipchak–Bulgar Kipchak–Cuman Kipchak–Nogai Kipchak–Kyrgyz
Language codes
Glottolog	kipc1239

Linguistic features

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

Shared features

• Change of Proto-Turkic *d to /j/ (e.g. *hadaq > ajaq "foot")
• Loss of initial *h, see above example

Unique features

Family-specific

• Extensive labial vowel harmony (e.g. olor vs. olar "them") ^{[citation needed]}
• Frequent fortition (in the form of assibilation) of initial */j/ (e.g. *jetti > ʒetti "seven")
• Diphthongs from syllable-final */ɡ/ and */b/ (e.g. *taɡ > taw "mountain", *sub > suw "water")

Language-specific

• In both Tatar and Bashkir, the original mid and high vowels are swapped in position by vowel raising and lowering:

Old Turkic		Tatar (for example)
Mid → high
*e	/e/	i	/i/
*o	/o/	u	/u/
*ö	/ø/	ü	/y/
High → Mid
*i	/i/	e	/e/
*ı	/ɯ/	î	/ɤ/
*u	/u/	o	/o/
*ü	/y/	ö	/ø/

Classification

The Kipchak languages may be broken down into four groups based on geography and shared features (languages in bold are still spoken today):

Proto-Turkic	Common Turkic	Kipchak	Kipchak–Bulgar (Uralian, Uralo-Caspian)		Bashkir Tatar † Old Tatar (Ural-Volga Turki)[1]
			Kipchak–Cuman (Ponto-Caspian)		Crimean Tatar[nb 1] Mishar Tatar[3] Karachay-Balkar (Mountain Turkic) Kumyk Karaim Krymchak Urum † Cuman † Mamluk-Kipchak † Armeno-Kipchak
			Kipchak–Nogai (Aralo-Caspian)		Dobrujan Tatar Kazakh Karakalpak Nogai Western Siberian Tatar Baraba Tobol-Irtysh Uzbek Kipchak (ru: Кыпчакские диалекты узбекского языка)
			Kipchak–Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz)		Southern Altai[4] Teleut[5] Kyrgyz Tom Siberian Tatar † Fergana Kipchak[6][circular reference]

See also

• Kipchaks
• Kipchaks in Georgia
• Cuman people
• Cuman language
• Cumania
• Kalpak

Notes

1. Except for the Southern "dialect", which is classified among the Western Oghuz languages despite its dialect status.^[2]