23
(1) A southwestern (SW) branch,
Oghuz Turkic languages consisting of
Turkish, Azerbaijanian, Gagauz, Turkmen, Khorasan Turkic, Qashqai, Sonqori,
Aynallu and Afshar,
(2) A northwestern (NW) branch,
Kipchak Turkic languages including
Kumyk, Karachay, Balkar, Crimean Tatar, Karaim, Tatar (Kazan Tatar, Mishar,
West Siberian), Bashkir, Kazakh,
Karakalpak, Kipchak
Uzbek and Nogay,
(3) A southeastern (SE) branch,
Uyghur Turkic languages containing
Oghuz Uzbek, Uyghur, Taranchi, and Turkic dialects of Kashgar, Yarkand,
Khotan, Kerya, Turfan etc.,
(4) A northeastern (NE) branch,
Siberian Turkic languages covering Yakut
(Sakha), Dolgan,
Sayan Turkic,
Yenisey Turkic, Chulym
Turkic and Altay Turkic,
(5) Chuvash, representing Oghur
or Bulghar Turkic, and
(6) Khalaj, representing Arghu Turkic.
Figure 2: Map of Turkic Languages. Oghuz branch of Turkic languages is spoken
in the yellow-coloured territories. (Gispert, J. 1993-2010)
25
masses resulted in contact-induced language change of the Turkic languages in
Persian-speaking territories.
However, in the 13
th
century the extension of the Mongol Invasion to the
Near East led to the migration of the Turkic-speaking masses to the Near East and
Anatolian Peninsula. As Golden (1998) stated: “Large numbers of central Asian
Oghuz tribesmen, as well as many other Turkic groupings, entered the Middle
East, swelling the ranks of those that had come here in the Seljuk era” (p. 26).
As one of the Turkic statlets
(beyliks) founded in the Anatolian Peninsula,
the Ottomans formed a fast-extending state evolving an empire with the gained
territories both in the Balkans and Middle East. Uzbeks in the Central Asia,
Baburs in the north of India, Ottomans in the Mediterranean region and Safavids
in Iran and Afghanistan were Turkic-speaking rulers and the empires which they
were ruling were mostly shaped by Turkic-speaking-peoples.
2.5.3. Turkish and Azerbaijani Languages
Turkish and Azerbaijani share a great many linguistic features (Gökçür,
2012; Kurtuluş, 1993). As Kirchner (2006) stated “Azerbaijani –especially its
northern variety- and Turkish show numerous parallels in the lexicon as well as in
major parts of their morphology and syntax”. There are so many parallels that
even speakers of one of these languages who are not suspected of sympathizing
with the pan-Turkic ideology have the impression that the language of the
respective neighbouring country is nothing more than a dialect of their mother
tongue. If the differences between related languages can just be passed over, this
is indeed convenient for the speakers. For linguistic investigations, however, such
insignificant differences are of great interest since they help to make the structures
of each language obvious” (p. 158). As Azerbaijani is the subject language of this
study, it is necessary to clarify the classification of Azerbaijani as well. North
Azerbaijani (AZJ) is spoken in the Republic of Azerbaijan and The Nakhchivan
Autonomous Republic while South Azerbaijani (AZB) is spoken in Iran. As stated