Population and labor resources of the Russian Federation. Turkic group of languages: peoples The Altai family includes peoples

This is to a certain extent a hypothetical language family, uniting three language groups: Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu. Some linguists also classify Korean and Japanese as Altai languages. However, the commonality of these language groups has not been proven, and they can be considered as separate language families. The name “Altai languages” is sometimes used to designate the languages of the peoples living in Altai - Khakassians, Altaians, Tuvinians and others.

The peoples of the Altai language family in the North Caucasus are represented by the Turks. The Mongolian language is spoken by Kalmyks (self-name “Khalmg” - numbering more than 150 thousand people), genetically descended from the Mongols - the Oirats, who moved from Dzungaria to Russia in the 17th century. But Kalmyks geographically gravitate not to the North Caucasus, but to the Lower Volga region, and we do not consider them.

Peoples of the Turkic group

In the former Soviet Union, the Turks constituted the most extensive group, which included about 25 languages and dialects with a total population of up to 25 million people. The bulk of them lived in Central Asia (Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Uighurs, Karakalpaks), Siberia (Yakugs, Tuvinians, Khakassians, Altaians), Povol - Zhsko-Ural region (Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashs) and in the Caucasus (Azerbaijanis , Kumyks, Karachais, Balkars). After the collapse of the USSR at the end of 1991, five large Turkic peoples formed independent states (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan). The peoples of the North Caucasus include Kumyks, Karachais, Balkars and Nogais.

Kumyks. They live in the flat foothills of Dagestan, being part of the main population of 7 of its districts. Small groups of Kumyks also live in the Chechen Republic and North Ossetia. The number of Kumyks is approximately 150 thousand people; we do not have more accurate data at our disposal. The self-name of the people is “Kumuk”. The southern part of the Kumyks called themselves by the names of the villages - Bashlinets (village Bashly), Utamyshets (village Utamysh), etc. The Kumyk language belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages and is divided into three dialects: northern (Khasavyurt), middle (Buinak) and southern (Kaitag).

The Khasavyurt dialect is literary. The differences between dialects are gradually disappearing (62, p. 421).

The ethnogenesis of the Kumyks is currently presented as a process of ethnic mixing, that is, the mixing of the ancient aboriginal population of foothills Dagestan with the alien Turkic-speaking nomads of the early Middle Ages, who filtered here from the USSR-Caucasian steppes. According to the researcher of this problem, Ya. A. Fedorov, the first wave of such nomadic Turks were the Savirs, who appeared in Dagestan in the 5th century; Savirs are a people of Hunnic origin. In the V - VII centuries. This part of Dagestan in some sources was called the “country of the Huns.” Thus began the linguistic Turkization of the foothill aborigines of Dagestan, which lasted for several centuries (108, pp. 114-117).

Ya. A. Fedorov associates the second wave of Turkization with the Turkic-speaking people of the Khazars, who created the vast and powerful Khazar Khaganate, which existed in the 7th-10th centuries. on the territory of the Lower Volga region - North-Eastern Caucasus. The final stage of Turkization and assimilation occurred in the period of the 11th - 13th centuries, when masses of new warlike nomadic Turks appeared in the steppes of the Ciscaucasia, bearing the general name “Kipchaks” (in Russian chronicles “Polovtsy”). The Kipchak nomads reached Northern Dagestan, but after the defeat of them and the Alans by the Tatar-Mongols around the middle of the 13th century. part of the Kipchaks migrated to Dagestan, settled in the foothills among the already heavily Turkified aborigines and mixed with them, laying the foundation for the Kumyk language and the Kumyk people. The Kumyk language’s belonging to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages confirms this particular version. Anthropologically, the Kumyks represent a typical Caucasian people.

In the XVI-XIX centuries. Feudal relations based on large land ownership developed significantly among the Kumyks. The class of feudal lords, headed by Shamkhal Tarkovsky, included beks, chaikas, uzdens and Muslim clergy: Kumyks, Sunni Muslims. Peasants were also divided into several categories. The most dependent category was the chagars-freedomers, not to mention the slave-kuls. Legal proceedings were based on adats and Sharia. Feudal relations dominated until the revolution of 1917, intertwined with patriarchal-tribal remnants and elements of capitalist relations. Blood feud was also common (62, pp. 432 - 434).

During the years of Soviet power, illiteracy among the Kumyks was eliminated (which was over 90% before the revolution), magazines and newspapers were published in the Kumyk language, and an intelligentsia was formed. In 1930, the Kumyk Drama Theater was founded in Makhachkala.

Karachais. The territory of ancient settlement of the Karachais until the beginning of the 20th century. was limited to the basin of the upper reaches of the Kuban, subdivided into the Big Karachay (the headwaters of the Kuban River with the villages of Kart-Dzhurt, Uchkulan, Khur-zuk) and the Small Karachay (the gorge of the Tebsrda River with its tributaries and villages of Teberda, Senta). East of the city of Kumbashi and along the river. The Karachais did not live in Podkumku before Soviet times, nor in the upper reaches of Bolshoy Zelenchuk (the village of Arkhyz was founded in 1923 and received about 150 families of immigrants). Mountain land scarcity and simultaneous population growth encouraged the Karachais to move to the foothills, moving down the Podkumk. The Cossack villages of Zelenchukskaya, Kardonik-skaya, Storozhevaya, and Prsgradnaya settled down. Thus, the territory of settlement of the Karachais during the years of Soviet power underwent significant changes, expanded and became the basis for the revival of this small people: at the beginning of the 20th century. Karachais, according to some sources, numbered 15 thousand people (now more than 150 thousand; 107, p. 131).

The self-name of the Karachais is “Karachaily”. Their language, like Kumyk, belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages, but unlike Kumyk it has a number of similarities with the Ossetian language. The latter circumstance can hardly be explained by linguistic connections and borrowings of the late Middle Ages - the Karachais have no territorial contacts with the Ossetians. This phenomenon finds the most likely explanation in the peculiarities of the formation of the Karachay people, similar in basic features to the ethnogenesis of the Kumyks - linguistic Turkization and ethnic assimilation of the local pre-Turkic population, i.e., the Ver-Khnskuban Alans, by some group of medieval Turks. Various Turkic groups (Bulgars, Khazars) penetrated into the upper reaches of the Kuban and Pyatigors from the 7th - 8th centuries, but did not seriously change the demographic situation here. From about the middle of the 11th century. The most powerful Turkic tribal association of the Polovtsians, or Kipchaks, advances from the steppes of the Ciscaucasia to the foothills. Their settlement in the upper reaches of the Kuban radically changed the demography of the region and led to the gradual assimilation of the local group of Iranian-speaking Alans by the Kipchaks, to the final linguistic Turkization of these Alans, who mixed with the Kipchaks. The ethnonym “Alans”, which the Mingrelians of Western Georgia call the Karachais, and the preservation of this ethnonym in the historical memory of the Karachais confirm the likelihood of the described process of formation of the Karachai people (108, pp. 100 - 104). Thus, Karachay ethnogenesis can be attributed to the 11th-13th centuries. and consider this people, like the related Balkars, the youngest people of the North Caucasus.

Under the modern name “Karachai”, the people we are interested in became known in the first half of the 17th century, when Moscow ambassadors F. Elchin and P. Zakharyev passed through their lands to Megrelia (109, pp. 7 - 8). At this time, feudal relations and feudal lords already existed in Karachas, referred to in Russian sources as

Murzas, while the peasants were called “muzhiki” in the same documents. In 1828, Karachay was annexed to Russia. The main economic activity of the Karachays before the revolution of 1917 was transhumance cattle breeding with a predominance of small cattle; the Karachay breed of sheep was traditionally considered one of the best breeds.

The ethnographic life of the Karachais is characterized by some specific features. First of all, this is house-building: while most of the peoples of the North Caucasus had housing and outbuildings built of stone, the traditional dwelling of the Karachais was a log house made of thick logs with a gable earthen roof and a wall fireplace (62, pp. 250 - 253). In Karachas there are no military and residential towers, which are so widely represented in the more eastern regions of the North Caucasus. There are almost no cryptic structures and sanctuaries, which were also widespread to the east. The reasons for this uniqueness of the Karachay construction culture have not yet been revealed.

Since the 17th century Islam begins to spread in Karachay. Currently, the Karachais are Sunni Muslims. In 1926, the construction of the city of Karachaevsk began as a center of economic and cultural life of the Karachay people. Now this picturesque city, surrounded by low mountains, has grown and has truly become such a center. The mountain valleys of Tsberda, Dombay and Arkhyz have become magnificent mountain resorts, superior in natural and climatic characteristics to the resorts of Switzerland. A great future awaits them. In Nizhny Arkhyz (Bolshoy Zelenchuk Gorge) there is a Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the largest telescope in Europe (mirror diameter 6 m).

During the Second World War, the Karachay people were repressed and completely deported to Central Asia. The Karachay Autonomous Region, which had existed since 1926, was liquidated, the territory of Karachay basically went to Georgia as the Klu-Khorsky district of the GSSR. Karachay statehood was restored in 1957 within the framework of the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Okrug as part of the Stavropol Territory, and the Karachays returned to their native places. In 1991, the status of statehood was raised and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic was created with its capital in Cherkessk. A characteristic feature of the socio-political life of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic in subsequent years was the relative stability and balance of interethnic relations, despite the multiethnicity of its population. This positive balance was disrupted in May-June 1999 in connection with the elections of the first president of the republic: the most realistic contenders for the highest post were Karachai V. Semenov and Circassian S. Derev. This circumstance drew the line of an ethnic split between the two “titular” peoples of Karachay-Cherkessia and led to confrontation and an unprecedented increase in tension, which once again highlighted the complexity and severity of the situation in the North Caucasus. As a result of the elections, V. Semenov won, but the “Circassian party” did not accept the defeat of its candidate, and the hidden confrontation continued.

Balkars. They live in the Baksan, Chegem, Che-rek, Khulamo-Bezengi gorges and in some lowland settlements of Kabardino-Balkaria. The number of Balkar people is about 90 thousand people (107, p. 132). The self-name of the Balkars is “taulu” - mountaineers, but there are more private names based on the names of mountain gorges and, accordingly, societies: malkarlyla, byzyngylila, holamlyla, chegemlslyla. In written documents, the name Balkars first appears in the first half of the 17th century. (108, p. 104), but this does not mean that the history of the Balkar people began in the 17th century. The origin of the Balkars, as well as

their Turkic language of the Kipchak group is essentially the same with the ethnogenesis and language of the Karachais, as already mentioned above. These are brother peoples, who probably came from the same common roots and, perhaps, once formed one ethnic community, which later split into two separate parts. We have already seen a similar picture among the Circassians, who formed three closely related but separate peoples. Territorial and cultural isolation in conditions of very inaccessible highlands and impassable roads led to slight dialectal differences between the Karachais and Balkars. In the language of the Balkars, in particular, so-called “Digorisms” have been identified - the Digorians are the closest eastern neighbors of the Balkars and had traditional ties with them. In addition, there is reason to think that the formation of the Balkars took place on the Digor ethnic basis through the mixing and assimilation of the ancient Alan-Digor layer with the incoming group of Kipchaks after the Tatar-Mongol invasion of the 13th century. If this is so, the Balkars, like the Karachais and Kumyks, represent the youngest peoples of the North Caucasus.

Writing in the Balkar language was created in 1924, and the literary language is based on Baksano-che, a Gem dialect. The largest and most famous Balkar poet is Kaisyn Kuliev.

The basis of the economy of the Balkars has traditionally been livestock farming with a predominance of small cattle, primarily sheep of the coarse-wool Karachay breed. A significant part of the livestock and the best pastures and hayfields were in the hands of local feudal lords - Taubis. During the years of Soviet power, industrial enterprises appeared in the mountains of Balkaria. The largest was the tungsten-molpbdenum plant in the city of Tyrny-Auz (Baksanskos Gorge).

Unlike Karachay, stone residential buildings with flat ceilings and open hearths predominated in Balkaria (62, pp. 280-281). Another difference

4 Order No. 1610 Q7 is that in Balkaria stone battle towers were erected and stone burial crypts were constructed, which existed until the 18th-19th centuries. In the 18th century Islam penetrated into Balkaria, and now the Muslim Balkars are non-Sunni.

In 1944, the Balkar people were subjected to unjustified repression and completely deported to Central Asia, where they stayed until 1957. After the exposure of Stalin’s personality cult, all the repressed peoples of the North Caucasus returned to their historical homeland and experienced a turbulent period of revival. The Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was restored with its capital in Nalchik. In January 1991, Kabardino-Balkaria was proclaimed a republic within the Russian Federation with a presidential form of government. Soon after this, a political tendency appeared in Balkaria, oriented towards the creation of a separate Balkar republic and, consequently, the split of the united and justified statehood of the Kabardians and Balkars. After heated discussions, the impossibility of such demarcation and land redistribution was realized and condemned, the Balkar people showed sobriety and foresight, not supporting the idea of separatism.

Nogais. Between the Terek and Kura lies the Nogai steppe, which represents an arid zone administratively included in the Karanogai district of Dagestan and the Achikulak district of the Stavropol Territory. This is the territory of Nogai nomadism until the 20th century, and the nomads were scattered over a huge and flat, sometimes semi-desert (Achikulak) space. The Nogais did not make corrals for livestock and did not store food for future use. A typical phenomenon for this harsh natural environment was a lack of water: there were very few wells in the steppe. Under the nomadic system of cattle breeding, the constant threat of mass death of livestock in summer was heat and lack of water, and in winter - snow cover, when livestock could not obtain dry food from under the snow. Therefore, the Nogais occupied a territory in the Ciscaucasia that, economically, always represented a high-risk zone and the least profitable for life support.

Some of the Nogais settled in more favorable conditions in the Kizlyar, Babayurt and Khasavyurt regions of Dagestan, partly in the near-terrestrial regions of Chechnya, in the Kochubeevsky and Minsralovodsky districts (Kangly village) of Stavropol. Nogais also live in Karachay-Cherkessia, making up the population of 7 villages. The total number of Nogais is more than 75 thousand people, but we do not have exact data. The Nogai language belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages and includes three dialects: Karanogai, Achikulak-Kiy and Aknogai (in Karachay-Cherkessia). The dialects reflect, respectively, three ethnographic groups of the Nogai people (108, p. 117).

The origin of the Nogais is connected with the Mongolian tribes of the Mangyts and others, who entered the ulus of the Golden Horde temnik in the 13th century. Nogay and mixed with the Turkic-speaking Kipchaks-Polovtsians (110, pp. 5 - 6). In the process of this mixing and assimilation, the Kipchak language won and became the language of the ethnic new formation of the Nogais. For a long time it was believed that the self-name of the people “Nogai” comes from the name of the mentioned temnik Nogai, which achieved significant military-political power. Currently, a different explanation has been put forward: the ethnonym “Nogai” comes from the social term “nomad” (“Nagai”; Yu. A. Evstigneev, 111, pp. 80-81). The Nogai Horde separated from the Golden Horde at the end of the 14th century, and in the 16th century. broke up into the Greater and Lesser Hordes. In the 17th century Under the pressure of the Kalmyks who moved to the Volga region, the Nogais of the Great Horde migrated to the west and south, developing the steppes of the North Caucasus.

Like many peoples of the North Caucasus, the Nogais were dominated by feudal-patriarchal relations. The feudal class consisted of Murzas and sultans (the latter were equal to the Murzas), kaibashi - minor nobility, nobles similar to the Adyghe workers, and the Muslim clergy. The dependent population consisted of Aslanbiyke-free peasants and Yolla kul-krs - fasting ones. Constant hunger and disease without medical care led to a systematic decrease in the population. The Nogais were called an endangered people. Like other peoples of the North Caucasus, the Nogais suffered severely from epidemics. So, in the 30s of the XIX century. cholera raged, from which the population of Kanglov almost died out.

Huge changes in the life and culture of the Nogais occurred during the years of Soviet power. In 1928, Nogai writing was created on a Latin graphic basis; in 1938, it was translated into an alphabet with a Russian basis. The publication of textbooks and Nogai literature in the native language has begun, the literacy rate has increased to 90. The process of forming the Nogai intelligentsia is underway, and cadres of their own scientists are appearing. The Karachay-Cherkess Research Institute in Cherkessk became the center for the study of the Nogai people and their culture. The Nogais do not have their own national-state formation due to both the small number of people and their dispersion in different regions of the North Caucasus and the lack of a territory of compact residence. Nevertheless, the Nogai problem exists; Nogai leaders raise the question of territorial autonomy, which seems unrealistic. Two options for solving the Nogai problem proposed by A.V. Avksentiev seem realistic: the creation of national-cultural autonomy and Nogai representation in regional and federal authorities (107, p. 134).

In the most condensed form, we became acquainted with many peoples of the North Caucasus and became convinced that this southernmost region of the Russian Federation is also the most variegated and complex region of the Russian state. The picture of the historical and ethnological reality of the North Caucasus drawn above is not static. It changes differently in different parts of the region, being in constant motion. Over the past 10 years, the North Caucasus has become the zone of the most active mass migrations in the Russian Federation; after armed conflicts in the Transcaucasus and as a result of growing economic problems in the sovereign Transcaucasian states, hundreds of thousands of Armenians, Georgians and Azerbaijanis moved to the North Caucasus. It is impossible not to notice that the main flows of these migrants (and they are foreigners for Russia) are sent not to the national republics of the North Caucasus, but to the Stavropol and Krasnodar territories. Thus, the demographic situation in these areas is gradually changing, the ethnic structure of the population and the existing demographic balance are undergoing qualitative changes. The danger of uncontrolled and uncontrollable mass migrations, in our opinion, in local conditions lies in the latent accumulation of negative social energy, which can lead to tension in interethnic relations in previously stable regions of the North Caucasus. If we consider that after the collapse of the USSR it was the North Caucasus, according to A.V. Avksentyev, “that turned out to be the epicenter of ethnic conflicts in Russia,” such a development of the demographic (and therefore political) situation in the region can lead to extremely negative consequences.

They are distributed over a vast territory of our planet, from the cold Kolyma basin to the southwestern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Turks do not belong to any specific racial type; even among one people there are both Caucasians and Mongoloids. They are mostly Muslim, but there are peoples who profess Christianity, traditional beliefs, and shamanism. The only thing that connects almost 170 million people is the common origin of the group of languages now spoken by the Turks. Yakut and Turk all speak related dialects.

Strong branch of the Altai tree

Among some scientists, disputes still persist over which language family the Turkic language group belongs to. Some linguists identified it as a separate large group. However, the most generally accepted hypothesis today is that these related languages belong to the large Altai family.

The development of genetics has made a major contribution to these studies, thanks to which it has become possible to trace the history of entire nations in the traces of individual fragments of the human genome.

Once upon a time, a group of tribes in Central Asia spoke the same language - the ancestor of modern Turkic dialects, but in the 3rd century. BC e. a separate Bulgarian branch separated from the large trunk. The only people who speak languages of the Bulgar group today are the Chuvash. Their dialect is noticeably different from other related ones and stands out as a special subgroup.

Some researchers even propose placing the Chuvash language into a separate genus of the large Altai macrofamily.

Classification of the southeast direction

Other representatives of the Turkic group of languages are usually divided into 4 large subgroups. There are differences in details, but for simplicity we can take the most common method.

Oguz, or southwestern, languages, which include Azerbaijani, Turkish, Turkmen, Crimean Tatar, Gagauz. Representatives of these peoples speak very similarly and can easily understand each other without a translator. Hence the enormous influence of strong Turkey in Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, whose residents perceive Turkish as their native language.

The Turkic group of the Altai family of languages also includes the Kipchak, or northwestern, languages, which are spoken mainly on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as representatives of the peoples of Central Asia with nomadic ancestors. Tatars, Bashkirs, Karachais, Balkars, such peoples of Dagestan as the Nogais and Kumyks, as well as Kazakhs and Kyrgyz - they all speak related dialects of the Kipchak subgroup.

The southeastern, or Karluk, languages are solidly represented by the languages of two large peoples - the Uzbeks and the Uyghurs. However, for almost a thousand years they developed separately from each other. If the Uzbek language has experienced the colossal influence of Farsi and the Arabic language, then the Uyghurs, residents of East Turkestan, have introduced a huge number of Chinese borrowings into their dialect over many years.

Northern Turkic languages

The geography of the Turkic group of languages is wide and varied. The Yakuts, Altaians, in general, some indigenous peoples of northeastern Eurasia, also unite into a separate branch of the large Turkic tree. Northeastern languages are quite heterogeneous and are divided into several separate genera.

The Yakut and Dolgan languages separated from the single Turkic dialect, and this happened in the 3rd century. n. e.

The Sayan group of languages of the Turkic family includes Tuvan and Tofalar languages. Khakassians and residents of Mountain Shoria speak languages of the Khakass group.

Altai is the cradle of Turkic civilization; to this day, the indigenous inhabitants of these places speak Oirot, Teleut, Lebedin, Kumandin languages of the Altai subgroup.

Incidents in a harmonious classification

However, not everything is so simple in this conditional division. The process of national-territorial demarcation that took place on the territory of the Central Asian republics of the USSR in the twenties of the last century also affected such a subtle matter as language.

All residents of the Uzbek SSR were called Uzbeks, and a single version of the literary Uzbek language was adopted, based on the dialects of the Kokand Khanate. However, even today the Uzbek language is characterized by pronounced dialectism. Some dialects of Khorezm, the westernmost part of Uzbekistan, are closer to the languages of the Oghuz group and closer to Turkmen than to the literary Uzbek language.

Some areas speak dialects that belong to the Nogai subgroup of the Kipchak languages, hence there are often situations when a Ferghana resident has difficulty understanding a native of Kashkadarya, who, in his opinion, shamelessly distorts his native language.

The situation is approximately the same among other representatives of the peoples of the Turkic group of languages - the Crimean Tatars. The language of the inhabitants of the coastal strip is almost identical to Turkish, but the natural steppe inhabitants speak a dialect closer to Kipchak.

Ancient history

The Turks first entered the world historical arena during the era of the Great Migration of Peoples. In the genetic memory of Europeans there is still a shudder before the invasion of the Huns by Attila in the 4th century. n. e. The steppe empire was a motley formation of numerous tribes and peoples, but the Turkic element was still predominant.

There are many versions of the origin of these peoples, but most researchers place the ancestral home of today's Uzbeks and Turks in the northwestern part of the Central Asian plateau, in the area between Altai and the Khingar ridge. This version is also adhered to by the Kyrgyz, who consider themselves the direct heirs of the great empire and are still nostalgic about this.

The neighbors of the Turks were the Mongols, the ancestors of today's Indo-European peoples, the Ural and Yenisei tribes, and the Manchus. The Turkic group of the Altai family of languages began to take shape in close interaction with similar peoples.

Confusion with Tatars and Bulgarians

In the first century AD e. individual tribes begin to migrate towards Southern Kazakhstan. The famous Huns invaded Europe in the 4th century. It was then that the Bulgar branch separated from the Turkic tree and a vast confederation was formed, which was divided into the Danube and Volga. Today's Bulgarians in the Balkans now speak a Slavic language and have lost their Turkic roots.

The opposite situation occurred with the Volga Bulgars. They still speak Turkic languages, but after the Mongol invasion they call themselves Tatars. The conquered Turkic tribes living in the steppes of the Volga took the name of the Tatars - a legendary tribe with which Genghis Khan began his campaigns that had long disappeared in the wars. They also called their language, which they had previously called Bulgarian, Tatar.

The only living dialect of the Bulgarian branch of the Turkic group of languages is Chuvash. The Tatars, another descendant of the Bulgars, actually speak a variant of the later Kipchak dialects.

From Kolyma to the Mediterranean

The peoples of the Turkic linguistic group include the inhabitants of the harsh regions of the famous Kolyma basin, the resort beaches of the Mediterranean, the Altai mountains and the table-flat steppes of Kazakhstan. The ancestors of today's Turks were nomads who traveled the length and breadth of the Eurasian continent. For two thousand years they interacted with their neighbors, who were Iranians, Arabs, Russians, and Chinese. During this time, an unimaginable mixture of cultures and blood occurred.

Today it is even impossible to determine the race to which the Turks belong. Residents of Turkey, Azerbaijanis, and Gagauz belong to the Mediterranean group of the Caucasian race; there are practically no guys with slanted eyes and yellowish skin. However, the Yakuts, Altaians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz - they all bear a pronounced Mongoloid element in their appearance.

Racial diversity is observed even among peoples who speak the same language. Among the Tatars of Kazan you can find blue-eyed blonds and black-haired people with slanted eyes. The same thing is observed in Uzbekistan, where it is impossible to deduce the appearance of a typical Uzbek.

Faith

Most Turks are Muslims, professing the Sunni branch of this religion. Only in Azerbaijan do they adhere to Shiism. However, some peoples either retained ancient beliefs or became adherents of other great religions. Most Chuvash and Gagauz people profess Christianity in its Orthodox form.

In the northeast of Eurasia, individual peoples continue to adhere to the faith of their ancestors; among the Yakuts, Altaians, and Tuvans, traditional beliefs and shamanism continue to be popular.

During the time of the Khazar Kaganate, the inhabitants of this empire professed Judaism, which today's Karaites, fragments of that mighty Turkic power, continue to perceive as the only true religion.

Vocabulary

Together with world civilization, Turkic languages also developed, absorbing the vocabulary of neighboring peoples and generously endowing them with their own words. It is difficult to count the number of borrowed Turkic words in East Slavic languages. It all started with the Bulgars, from whom the words “drip” were borrowed, from which “kapishche”, “suvart” arose, transformed into “serum”. Later, instead of “whey” they began to use the common Turkic “yogurt”.

The exchange of vocabulary became especially lively during the Golden Horde and the late Middle Ages, during active trade with Turkic countries. A huge number of new words came into use: donkey, cap, sash, raisin, shoe, chest and others. Later, only the names of specific terms began to be borrowed, for example, snow leopard, elm, dung, kishlak.

Language branches, as well as the Korean language isolate. These languages are spoken in northeast Asia, central Asia, Anatolia and eastern Europe (Turks, Kalmyks). The group is named after the Altai Mountains, a mountain range in central Asia.

These language families share many similar characteristics. The question is their source. One camp, the “Altaicists,” sees the similarities as a result of common descent from a proto-Altaic language spoken several thousand years ago. Another camp, the “anti-Altaists,” views the similarities as a result of interactions between these linguistic groups. Some linguists believe that both theories are balanced; they are called "skeptics".

Another opinion accepts the fact of the existence of the Altai family, but includes only the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu branches. This view was common until the 1960s, but has few adherents today.

Internal classification

According to the most common point of view, the Altaic family includes the Turkic languages, Mongolian languages, Tungus-Manchu languages, and, in the maximum version, also the Korean language and the Japanese-Ryukyuan languages (the relationship with the last two groups is hypothetical).

Ancestral home

The name “Altai” indicates the supposed ancestral home of the family (Altai), which, however, according to the latest data, was located further south, in the territory of what is now Northern China (Manchuria - Hongshan Culture). Until the beginning of AD. e. Altai was inhabited by Indo-European tribes (Pazyryk culture). The “Altaians” began to explore Siberia during the Glazkov culture (2nd millennium BC). They invaded Japan during the Yayoi era (1st millennium BC).

External relationship

In modern macrocomparative studies, the Altai family is included in the Nostratic macrofamily. The assumption about the special affinity of the Altai languages with the Uralic languages (the hypothesis of the Ural-Altaic family of languages has existed since the 18th century) can be removed within the framework of the Nostratic theory; The specific convergences of the Ural and Altai languages in the field of vocabulary, word formation and typology are explained by similar habitats and numerous contacts at different chronological levels.

Grammatical characteristics of the parent language and its development

Phonology

Phonological systems of modern times. Altaic languages have a number of common properties. Consonantism: restrictions on the occurrence of phonemes in the position of the beginning of a word, a tendency to weaken in the initial position, restrictions on the combinability of phonemes, a tendency towards an open syllable. Noisy plosives are usually contrasted by strength-weakness or by sonority-dullness; glottalization does not occur. There are no phonologically relevant postvelars (uvulars in Turkic languages are allophones of velars for back vowels). These systems are a development of the next system of phonemes, restored for the Proto-Altaic language.

Proto-Altai consonantism is reconstructed in the following form:

p h	p	b	m
t h	t	d	n	s	z	r	l
č h	č	ǯ	ń	š	j	ŕ	ĺ
k h	k	g	ŋ

Vocalism included 5 monophthongs (*i, *e, *u, *o, *a) and 3 diphthongs (*ia, *io, *iu), which may have been prefixed monophthongs: *ä; *ö; *ü. Diphthongs occur only in the first syllable. For Proto-Altaic, the absence of synharmonicity is restored. The vocalism of most Altai languages is characterized by synharmonism of various types; synharmonic systems are reconstructed at least for the Proto-Turkic and Proto-Mongolian languages. Some languages have long vowels, as well as rising diphthongs (in the Tungus-Manchu, some Turkic languages; for a certain period of development of the Mongolian languages).

There is practically no phonologically significant force stress in the Altaic languages. The languages of the Japanese-Korean branch are characterized by systems with musical stress; the Proto-Korean-Japanese tone system is being reconstructed. Tone and phonation prosodic differences are noted in individual Turkic languages. For the proto-language, apparently, the opposition of vowels by long-shortness (according to the Turkic-Tungus-Manchurian correspondences) and by tone (high-low, according to the Japanese-Korean correspondences) was relevant.

General trends in phonetic changes in the Altaic languages are a tendency to establish synharmonism of various types, complex positional changes, reduction of the phonological system in anlaut, compression and simplification of combinations, leading to a decrease in the length of the root. This caused a sharp increase in the number of homonymous roots, compensated by the fusion of roots with affixal elements, which makes it difficult to identify ancestral roots, establish their meanings and compare them within the framework of the Altai theory.

Morphology

In the field of morphology, the Altaic languages are characterized by agglutination of the suffix type. There are also certain typological differences: if Western Turkic languages are a classic example of agglutinative ones and have almost no fusion, then in Mongolian morphology we find a number of fusional processes, as well as not only morphonological, but also morphological distributions of affixes, that is, a clear movement in the direction of inflection. The Eastern Turkic languages, which came under Mongolian influence, also developed a powerful fusion.

Grammatical categories of names in the Altai languages of the mainland branch - number, accessory, case; in Japanese and Korean - case. Number affixes are characterized by great diversity and a tendency to string together several plural indicators within one word form and then glue them together into one; many indicators reveal material similarities with the suffixes of collective names, from which they apparently originate. The easy transition of the meaning of the affix from derivational collective to grammatical plurality is associated with the nature of the use of the plural in the Altai languages: it is expressed only in a marked case, sometimes only lexically. For Proto-Altaic, a large number of collective affixes with various shades of meaning are restored.

Affixes of belonging in the Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages go back to postpositive personal pronouns, and in the Turkic languages they form a special system (possibly also going back to personal pronouns); the special affix of belonging to the 3rd person -ni, which is not reducible to the pronouns of the 3rd person, is raised to the proto-Altai state. In the Tungus-Manchu languages, 1st person plural affixes are distinguished, like personal pronouns, inclusiveness and exclusivity. In all three mainland families, the 3rd person form is used to express certainty.

Almost all Altai case systems are characterized by a nominative case with a zero indicator; the zero case form is also used for many postpositions. This form is also restored for the proto-language. The affixes of the accusative, genitive, partitive, dative and instrumental cases are also reconstructed. There are a number of common indicators with localization, directionality and similar meanings, partially involved in languages in nominal paradigms, partially manifested in adverbial formations. These indicators are often attached to each other and to the case affixes of the “main” cases, initially to express shades of localization-directive meanings; then subtle differences are erased and etymologically complex case indicators arise.

The personal pronouns of the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages show significant overlap (cf. the difference between direct (bi-) and indirect (m-) stems in 1st person pronouns; the stem of the 2nd person pronoun in Mongolian languages (*t- > n-) differs from Turkic and Tungus-Manchu (s-). In Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu, inclusive and exclusive pronouns of the 1st person are different. Possessive pronouns are derived from personal pronouns; possessive pronouns. Demonstrative pronouns are the same formally and semantically in the Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages; in the Turkic languages there is an ancient system (there are three degrees of range). In Korean there are common demonstrative pronouns i (*e) 'this' and te with the Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages. 'that'. Two interrogative pronouns are restored with a personal/non-personal opposition. In Mongolian languages there is a special category of place verbs (etymologically - verbs derived from demonstrative and interrogative pronouns); This category also includes the negative verb e-, common to the Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages.

Contrary to the often expressed opinion, the system of common numerals from 1 to 10 is reconstructed for the Altai languages.

In the Altai verb, two original verbal forms are found: the imperative mood (in the form of a pure stem) and the desirable mood (in -s-). Other finite forms etymologically represent various verbal names, standing in the predicate position, or formalized by predicative affixes (usually expressing person and number). The indicators of these verbal names (which now play the role of aspectual-temporal and fulfillment) show significant material similarity, but their original semantics and use are greatly obscured by intrasystem changes. The category of voice in the Altai languages is rather word-formative; with general structural similarity, it retains few materially identical indicators. The Turkic and Tungus-Manchu languages are characterized by the inclusion of the category of negation in the verbal paradigm, but its indicators do not coincide. There are several common modal indicators. Personal agreement of verb forms is represented in inner circle languages; its indicators ultimately go back to personal pronouns. In Japanese and Korean, the developed category of politeness acts as a functional analogue of personal agreement.

Altaic languages demonstrate a significant number of common derivational indicators, mainly nouns from verbs and verbs from nouns.

Syntax

Altaic languages are languages of the nominative system with a predominant word order SOV and preposition of definition. In the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages there are izafet constructions with a possessive indicator for the word being defined. The existential way of expressing possession is mainly used (that is, “I have” and not “I have”), except in Mongolian, where possession is expressed using a special adjective in -taj (such as “I am a horse”; adjectives of possession and non-possession are and in other mainland Altai languages). In Japanese and Korean sentences, actual division is necessarily formally expressed. The term “Altai type of complex sentence” is associated with the preference given by Altai languages to absolute constructions with a verb in a non-finite form over subordinate clauses.

History of the study

The emergence of scientific altaic studies is associated with the name of B. Ya. Vladimirtsov, G. J. Ramstedt and N. N. Poppe. G. Ramstedt substantiated the kinship not only of the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages, but also of Korean. Subsequently, R. Miller put forward, and S. A. Starostin finally substantiated the belonging to the same family of the Japanese language. A number of researchers (A. M. Shcherbak, A. Vovin, S. Georg, G. Derfer, J. Jankhunen) consider the relationship of the Altai languages unproven, leaving only the areal and typological status for the Altai community. The main complaints are raised by the vocabulary introduced into the Altai comparison: it is argued that all Altai lexical comparisons can be explained by borrowings from different times and that the words that are common to the Altai languages are precisely the words that in their meaning belong to the “penetrable” parts of the lexical system. The real basis of this view is as follows: the comparative procedure in the Altaic languages actually has to face the disturbing factor of repeatedly renewed close contacts between the Turks, Mongols and Tungus-Manchus, as a result of which the vocabulary of any mainland Altaic language is full of borrowings from other Altaic languages. Supplementing the Altai comparison with Japanese and Korean significantly increases the reliability of the lexical comparison, reducing the likelihood of lexical matches being explained by early contact.

Notes

Literature

Akhatov G. Kh. Local dialects - a reliable source for the comparative historical study of languages" // "Issues of dialectology of Turkic languages". Baku, 1963.
Baskakov N. A. Altai family of languages and its study. - M., 1981.
Kormushin I.V. Verb tense systems in Altai languages. - M., 1984.
Kotvich V. Research on Altai languages. - M., 1962.
Ramstedt G.I. Introduction to Altai linguistics. - M. 1957.
Starostin S. A. Altai problem and the origin of the Japanese language. - M., 1991.
Achatow G. Unsere vielsprachige Welt. - Berlin: NL, 1986.
Haguenauer, Charles: Nouvelles recherches comparées sur le japonais et les langues altaïques, Paris: l’Asiathèque, 1987
Miller R.A. Japanese and the other Altaic languages. - Chicago, 1971.
Poppe N. Vergleichende Grammatik der Altaischen Sprachen, 1. Wiesbaden, 1960.
Ramstedt G.J. Einführung in die altaische Sprachwissenschaft, Lautlehre. Helsinki, 1957.
Starostin S.A., Dybo A.V., Mudrak O.A. The etymological dictionary of Altaic languages. Leiden, Brill, 2003.

Links

Altai etymological database on the website “Tower of Babel” by S. A. Starostin.

Language families of Eurasia
Language families	Abkhaz-Adyghe Austroasiatic Austronesian Andaman Dravidian Yenisei Indo-European Kartvelian Mongolian Miao-Yao Nakh-Dagestan Semitic Sino-Tibetan Tai-Kadai Tungus-Manchu Turkic Ural Chukchi-Kamchatka Shompen Eskimo-Aleutian Yukaghir Japanese-Ryukyuan
Isolated languages	Ainu Basque Burushaski Korean Kusunda Nakhali Nivkh
Disappeared

There are a large number of language families and a wide variety of languages in the world. There are more than 6,000 of the latter on the planet. Most of them belong to the world's largest language families, which are distinguished by their lexical and grammatical composition, related origins, and the common geographic location of their speakers. However, it should be noted that community of residence is not always an integral factor.

In turn, the world's language families are divided into groups. They are distinguished according to a similar principle. There are also languages that do not belong to any of the identified families, as well as so-called isolated languages. It is also common for scientists to distinguish macrofamilies, i.e. groups of language families.

Indo-European family

The most fully studied is the Indo-European language family. It began to be distinguished in ancient times. However, relatively recently, work began to study the Proto-Indo-European language.

The Indo-European language family consists of groups of languages whose speakers live across vast areas of Europe and Asia. So, the German group belongs to them. Its main languages are English and German. Also a large group is Romance, which includes French, Spanish, Italian and other languages. In addition, Eastern European peoples who speak languages of the Slavic group also belong to the Indo-European family. These are Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, etc.

This language family is not the largest in terms of the number of languages it includes. However, these languages are spoken by almost half of the world's population.

Afro-Asian family

Languages representing the Afro-Asiatic language family are spoken by more than a quarter of a million people. It includes Arabic, Egyptian, Hebrew, and many others, including extinct languages.

This family is usually divided into five (six) branches. These include the Semitic branch, the Egyptian, Chadian, Cushitic, Berber-Libyan and Omotian. In general, the Afro-Asiatic family includes more than 300 languages of the African continent and parts of Asia.

However, this family is not the only one on the continent. Other unrelated languages exist in large numbers, especially to the south, in Africa. There are at least 500 of them. Almost all of them were not presented in writing until the 20th century. and were used only orally. Some of them are purely oral to this day.

Nilo-Saharan family

The language families of Africa also include the Nilo-Saharan family. The Nilo-Saharan languages are represented by six language families. One of them is Songhai Zarma. The languages and dialects of the other family, the Saharan family, are common in Central Sudan. There is also a family of mamba, whose carriers inhabit Chad. Another family, the Fur, is also common in Sudan.

The most complex is the Shari-Nile language family. It, in turn, is divided into four branches, which consist of language groups. The last family - coma - is widespread in Ethiopia and Sudan.

The language families represented by the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily have significant differences among themselves. Accordingly, they represent great difficulty for linguistic researchers. The languages of this macrofamily were greatly influenced by the Afro-Asian macrofamily.

Sino-Tibetan family

The Sino-Tibetan language family has more than a million speakers of its languages. First of all, this became possible due to the large Chinese population speaking Chinese, which is part of one of the branches of this language family. In addition to it, this branch includes the Dungan language. It is they who form a separate branch (Chinese) in the Sino-Tibetan family.

The other branch includes more than three hundred languages, which are classified as the Tibeto-Burman branch. There are approximately 60 million native speakers of its languages.

Unlike Chinese, Burmese and Tibetan, most languages of the Sino-Tibetan family do not have a written tradition and are passed down from generation to generation exclusively orally. Despite the fact that this family has been studied deeply and for a long time, it still remains insufficiently studied and hides many as yet unrevealed secrets.

North and South American languages

Currently, as we know, the vast majority of North and South American languages belong to the Indo-European or Romance families. When settling the New World, European colonists brought their own languages with them. However, the dialects of the indigenous population of the American continent did not disappear completely. Many monks and missionaries who arrived from Europe to America recorded and systematized the languages and dialects of the local population.

Thus, the languages of the North American continent north of present-day Mexico were represented in the form of 25 language families. Later, some experts revised this division. Unfortunately, South America has not been studied as well linguistically.

Language families of Russia

All the peoples of Russia speak languages belonging to 14 language families. In total, there are 150 different languages and dialects in Russia. The basis of the country's linguistic wealth is made up of four main language families: Indo-European, North Caucasian, Altai, Uralic. Moreover, most of the country's population speaks languages belonging to the Indo-European family. This part makes up 87 percent of the total population of Russia. Moreover, the Slavic group occupies 85 percent. It includes Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian, which make up the East Slavic group. These languages are very close to each other. Their speakers can understand each other almost without difficulty. This is especially true for the Belarusian and Russian languages.

Altaic language family

The Altai language family consists of the Turkic, Tungus-Manchu and Mongolian language groups. The difference in the number of representatives of their speakers in the country is great. For example, Mongolian is represented in Russia exclusively by Buryats and Kalmyks. But the Turkic group includes several dozen languages. These include Khakass, Chuvash, Nogai, Bashkir, Azerbaijani, Yakut and many others.

The group of Tungus-Manchu languages includes Nanai, Udege, Even and others. This group is in danger of extinction due to the preference of their native peoples to use Russian on the one hand and Chinese on the other. Despite the extensive and long-term study of the Altai language family, it is extremely difficult for specialists to decide on the reproduction of the Altai proto-language. This is explained by the large number of borrowings by its speakers from other languages due to close contact with their representatives.

Ural family

The Uralic languages are represented by two large families - Finno-Ugric and Samoyed. The first of them includes Karelians, Mari, Komi, Udmurts, Mordovians and others. The languages of the second family are spoken by the Enets, Nenets, Selkups, and Nganasans. The bearers of the Ural macrofamily are to a large extent Hungarians (more than 50 percent) and Finns (20 percent).

The name of this family comes from the name of the Ural ridge, where the formation of the Uralic proto-language is believed to have taken place. The languages of the Uralic family had some influence on their neighboring Slavic and Baltic languages. In total, there are more than twenty languages of the Uralic family both on the territory of Russia and abroad.

North Caucasian family

The languages of the peoples of the North Caucasus present a huge challenge for linguists in terms of their structuring and study. The concept of a North Caucasian family itself is rather arbitrary. The fact is that the languages of the local population are too little studied. However, thanks to the painstaking and in-depth work of many linguists studying this issue, it became clear how disjointed and complex many of the North Caucasian dialects are.

Difficulties concern not only the actual grammar, structure and rules of the language, for example, as in the Tabasaran language - one of the most complex languages on the planet, but also pronunciation, which is sometimes simply inaccessible to people who do not speak these languages.

A significant obstacle for specialists studying them is the inaccessibility of many mountainous regions of the Caucasus. However, this language family, despite all the contradictions, is usually divided into two groups - Nakh-Dagestan and Abkhaz-Adyghe.

Representatives of the first group inhabit mainly the regions of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. These include Avars, Lezgins, Laks, Dargins, Chechens, Ingush, etc. The second group consists of representatives of related peoples - Kabardians, Circassians, Adygeis, Abkhazians, etc.

Other language families

The language families of the peoples of Russia are not always extensive, uniting many languages into one family. Many of them are very small, and some are even isolated. Such nationalities primarily live in Siberia and the Far East. Thus, the Chukchi-Kamchatka family unites the Chukchi, Itelmen, and Koryaks. Aleuts and Eskimos speak Aleut-Eskimo.

A large number of nationalities scattered across the vast territory of Russia, being extremely few in number (several thousand people or even less), have their own languages that are not included in any known language family. Like, for example, the Nivkhs, who inhabit the banks of the Amur and Sakhalin, and the Kets, located near the Yenisei.

However, the problem of linguistic extinction in the country continues to threaten Russia's cultural and linguistic diversity. Not only individual languages, but also entire language families are under threat of extinction.

Altai family

The largest in the Altai family Turkic group(11.2 million people out of 12), which includes Tatars, Chuvash, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Yakuts, Tuvinians, Karachais, Khakassians, Balkars, Altaians, Shors, Dolgans, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, etc. Representatives of this group - Tatars - are the second in number of people of Russia after the Russians.

The largest Turkic peoples (Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashs) are concentrated in the Ural-Volga region.

Other Turkic peoples are settled in the south of Siberia (Altaians, Shors, Khakassians, Tuvans) all the way to the Far East (Yakuts).

The third area of settlement of Turkic peoples is the North Caucasus (Nogais, Karachais, Balkars).

The Altai family also includes: Mongolian group(Buryats, Kalmyks); Tungus-Manchu group(Evens, Evenks, Nanai, Ulchi, Udege, Orochi),

Ural family

The largest of this family Finno-Ugric group, which includes Mordvins, Udmurts, Mari, Komi, Komi-Permyaks, Karelians, Finns, Khanty, Mansi, Estonians, Hungarians, Sami. In addition, this family includes Samoyed group(Nenets, Selkups, Nganasans), Yukaghir group(Yukaghirs). The main area of residence of the peoples of the Uralic language family is the Ural-Volga region and the north of the European part of the country.

North Caucasian family represented mainly by peoples Nakh-Dagestan group(Chechens, Avars, Dargins, Lezgins, Ingush, etc.) and Abkhaz-Adyghe group(Kabardians, Adygeis, Circassians, Abazas). The peoples of this family live more compactly, mainly in the North Caucasus.

Representatives also live in Russia Chukotka-Kamchatka family (Chukchi, Koryak, Itelmen); Eskimo-Aleut family (Eskimos, Aleuts); Kartvelian family (Georgians) and peoples of other linguistic families and nations (Chinese, Arabs, Vietnamese, etc.).

The languages of all peoples of Russia are equal, but the language of interethnic communication is Russian.

Russia, being multinational republic in my own way state structure , is federation built on a national-territorial principle.
The federal structure of the Russian Federation is based on its state integrity, the unity of the system of state power, the delimitation of jurisdiction and powers between the bodies of state power of the Russian Federation and the bodies of state power of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, equality and self-determination of peoples in the Russian Federation (Constitution of the Russian Federation, 1993).
The Russian Federation includes 88 subjects, of which 31 are national entities (republics, autonomous okrugs, autonomous region). The total area of national entities is 53% of the territory of the Russian Federation. At the same time, only about 26 million people live here, of which almost 12 million are Russian. At the same time, many peoples of Russia are dispersed across various regions of Russia. As a result, a situation has arisen where, on the one hand, some of the peoples of Russia are settled outside their national formations, and on the other hand, within many national formations, the share of the main or “titular” (which gives the name to the corresponding formation) nation is relatively small. Thus, of the 21 republics of the Russian Federation, only in eight the main peoples make up the majority (Chechen Republic, Ingushetia, Tyva, Chuvashia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Tatarstan and Kalmykia. In multi-ethnic Dagestan, ten local peoples (Avars, Dargins, Kumyks, Lezgins, Laks , Tabasarans, Nogais, Rutuls, Aguls, Tsakhurs) form 80% of the total population (see table 11 p. 37 Dronov) Karelia (10%) and Khakassia (11%) have the lowest share of “titular” peoples.

A peculiar picture of the settlement of peoples in the autonomous okrugs. They are very sparsely populated and for many decades they attracted migrants from all the republics of the former USSR (Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Belarusians, Chechens, etc.), who came to work - to develop the richest mineral deposits, to build roads, industrial facilities and cities. As a result, the major peoples in most autonomous okrugs (and the only autonomous region) constitute only a small percentage of their total population. For example, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug - 2%, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug - 6%, Chukotka - about 9%, etc. Only in one Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug do titular peoples make up the majority (62%).

The dispersion of many peoples and their intensive contacts with other peoples, especially Russians, contribute to their assimilation.