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Kumyk
къумукъ тил qumuq til • قوموق تیل
Kumyk written in Cyrillic script, along with obsolete Latin and Perso-Arabic counterparts.
Native to	North Caucasus
Region	Dagestan, Chechnya, North Ossetia
Ethnicity	Kumyks
Native speakers	520,000 (2020)
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kypchak Kypchak–Cuman Kumyk
Writing system	Cyrillic, Latin, Arabic
Official status
Official language in	Dagestan (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	kum
ISO 639-3	kum
Glottolog	kumy1244
Share of the Kumyk population in areas of traditional residence in the Caucasus according to the 2010 census
Kumyk is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

External videos
A series of videos about the similarities of languages
Comparison of Kumyk and Tatar languages

Kumyk (къумукъ тил, qumuq til, قوموق تیل) is a Turkic language spoken by about 520,000 people, mainly by the Kumyks, in the Dagestan, North Ossetia and Chechen republics of the Russian Federation. Until the 20th century Kumyk was the lingua franca of the Northern Caucasus.

Classification

Kumyk language belongs to the Kipchak-Cuman subfamily of the Kipchak family of the Turkic languages. It's a descendant of the Cuman language, with likely influence from the Khazar language, and in addition contains words from the Bulghar and Oghuz substratum. The closest languages to Kumyk are Karachay-Balkar, Crimean Tatar, and Karaim languages.

Nikolay Baskakov, based on a 12th-century scripture named Codex Cumanicus, included modern Kumyk, Karachai-Balkar, Crimean Tatar, Karaim, and the language of Mamluk Kipchaks in the linguistic family of the Cuman-Kipchak language. Samoylovich also considered Cuman-Kipchak close to Kumyk and Karachai-Balkar.

Amongst the dialects of the Kumyk there are Kaitag, Terek (Güçük-yurt and Braguny), Buynaksk (Temir-Khan-Shura) and Xasavyurt. The latter two became basis for the literary language.

History

Kumyk had been a lingua-franca of the bigger part of the Northern Caucasus, from Dagestan to Kabarda, until the 1930s and was an official language of communication between the North-Eastern Caucasian nations and the Russian administration. The language was known in Dagestan as simply Muslim language (Kumyk: бусурман тил, busurman til, بوسورمان تیل) due to its domniant role as the intertribal language of communication among various Muslim communities of the region.

The historian Georgi Derluguian made the following analogy with regards to the role of Turkic languages in the Caucasus and beyond:

“... For almost a thousand years, the Turkic languages that dominated the peoples of the steppe – Kumyk and Tatar – served, like Swahili in East Africa or French among the aristocracies of Europe, as a common lingua franca in the multinational North Caucasus...”

In 1848, a professor of the "Caucasian Tatar" (Kumyk) Timofey Makarov published the first ever grammatical book in the Russian language for one of the Northern Caucasian languages, which was international Kumyk. Makarov wrote:

From the peoples speaking Tatar language I liked the most Kumyks, as for their language's distinction and precision, so for their closeness to the European civilization, but most importantly, I take in account that they live on the Left Flank of the Caucasian Front, where we're conducting military actions, and where all the peoples, apart from their own language, speak also Kumyk.

During the Soviet era, the role of Kumyk was consolidated when in 1923, it was declared to be the state language of Dagestan ASSR due to the fact that "the majority of the population of indigenous Dagestan speaks and understands the Turkic-Kumyk language... the experience of teaching the Turkic language in the schools of Mountainous Dagestan gave brilliant results... it was noted... that the “Turkic-Kumyk” language is the only language of communication of the citizens of indigenous Dagestan."

Over the decades, this has changed, and Russian has displaced Kumyk as the language of education and inter-ethnic communication in Dagestan. Today, more than 90% of the Kumyks, according to 2010 census, also speak Russian, and those in Turkey and the Levant speak Turkish and Arabic.

Phonology

1. ^ къ represents at the beginning of words, and elsewhere (complementary distribution).

Orthography

Kumyk has been used as a lingua franca in Dagestan and Caucasus for some time.

The historic literary culture of Kumyks and the entire region of Dagestan, North Caucasus, and Southern Ukraine was the Cuman language. Kumyk is a direct descendant of Cuman, and its centuries-long literaray tradition was a direct continuation of Cuman.

The oldest record of Kumyk language being written in the Arabic script, goes back to the mid-17th century. From the beginning of the 19th century, Kumyk literary language began to expand and grow, with an increase in the number of publications and books.

The orthography of Kumyk was derived from the Arabic script, although with minor modifications, only several additional letters, same as in Persian alphabet, to represent consonants. Vowels, of which there exists a relatively large number of them in Turkic languages, and in Kumyk in particular (8 or 9 vowels) were rarely and irregularly written in the Arabic script, with the use of matres lectionis, the three letters ʾalif ا, wāw و and yāʾ ي. This meant that, overall, this script was far from being adapted to Kumyk phonology.

In the beginning of the 20th century, parallel with other Turkic-Muslim minority ethnic groups within the Russian Empire, Kumyk speaking literaturists decided to undertake the task of standardization and improvement of the Arabic script. It was in this era that Kumyk literature flourished, and many poets, educators, and publishers rose. The first attempt at compiling an improved orthographic convention was done in 1915, by Abdulhalim Jengutaevsky" in the preface of his Kumyk translation of the poem Layla and Majnun, published in Temir-Khan-Shura.

In the following years, vowel representations were standardized, and Arabic letters that had the same pronunciation in Karachay-Balkar were dropped and consolidated (For example, the letters ث and ص were dropped in favour of the letter س).

Later, as part of a new state campaign of Latinisation, a Latin alphabet was developed for Kumyk, derived from Yañalif, being officially adopted in 1928.

In the 1930s, the official Soviet policy was revised and the process of Cyrillization of Soviet languages was started. In 1938 the new alphabet based on Cyrillic letters was officially adopted, which remains the official alphabet for Kumyk up till today.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, with an increased prospect in international connection among Turkic peoples, a project to develop Latin alphabet again, but derived from modern Turkish orthograhpy was undertaken. Several online publications, as well as many individuals using social media, have adopted this script as well.

Modern Cyrillic qlphabet

Below is the Kumyk Cyrillic alphabet, adopted in 1938, and remaining in use in its original composition up till today.

Notes

1. In native Kumyk words, as well as in Arabic and Persian loanwords, for words starting with vowel , the letter э is only used in word-initial position. In the middle of words, the letter е is used. If the letter е is used at the beginning of a word, it will have the sound .
2. The letter ё:
   • if used at the beginning of a word, in which there are other front vowels, or either гor к, it will have a sound. In other cases, if in the beginning of a word, it will have a sound.
   • To represent the vowel at the beginning of the word, the digraph оь is used.
   • if used in the middle or end of a word, and following a front vowel, it will also make a sound, if following a back vowel, it will make a sound.
   • if used in the middle of the word and following a consonant, it will have a sound.

1. The letter ю:
   • if used at the beginning of a word, in which there are other front vowels, or either гor к, it will have a sound. In other cases, if in the beginning of a word, it will have a sound.
   • To represent the vowel at the beginning of the word, the digraph уь is used.
   • if used in the middle or end of a word, and following a front vowel, it will also make a sound, if following a back vowel, it will make a sound.
   • if used in the middle of the word and following a consonant, it will have a sound.

Over the decades, proposals to further improve the Cyrillic script have been raised. For example, it was proposed to have the digraphs гъ, гь, къ, нг, оь/ё, and уь/ю with single letters ғ, һ, қ, ң, ө, and ү respectively; it was also to introduce a letter ў to represent the sound [β] and distinguish said sound with the sound [v] both written with the letter в; and to introduce a letter җ to represent the sound [dʒ] and distinguish said sound with the sound [ʒ] both written with the letter ж. None of these policies were adopted in Kumyk orthography.

Latin alphabet (1928–1938)

Below table is the Latin alphabet for Kumyk, derived from Yañalif, and having an official status between 1928 and 1938.

Latin alphabet project (1991)

Below table is the Latin alphabet developed for Kumyk since 1991, derived from modern Turkish orthography and the Common Turkic alphabet.

Arabic alphabet (1921–1928)

Below table is the last standard iteration of the Arabic alphabet for Kumyk language, being compiled in 1921, and being the official alphabet until 1928:

Notes

1. The letter و has been used for representing a variety of vowel and consonant sounds in Kumyk. With the orthographic reforms in Kumyk, by 1921, 3 unique new letters had been created with the use of dots or diacritics, each representing a different vowel. An unmarked letter و continued to be used as well, representing either the vowel , or the consonants /. The correct pronunciation can be determined from context. If the letter و is before or after a vowel letter (as all vowels were to be written as per the 1921 orthographic conventions), then the letter would be a consonant. Otherwise it would've been a vowel.
2. The letter ی has been used for representing a variety of vowel and consonant sounds in Kumyk. During the orthographic reforms in Kumyk, the letter ی was left unmarked in all cases. Thus, this single letter could represent either a consonant , or either the front or the back vowels and respectively.
   • If the letter ی is before or after a vowel letter (as all vowels were to be written as per the 1921 orthographic conventions), then the letter would be a consonant.
   • Otherswise, the vowel pronunciation of the letter ی can be determined by having an understanding of the vowel harmony and palatal harmony rules that exist in Kumyk as typical of languages of the Turkic family. If the letter ی is in a word with front vowels اە ـە ە , اۏ / ۏ , or اۊ / ۊ , or with the two corresponding consonants ك or گ, the letter ی will be a front vowel and pronounced as .
   • If the letter ی' is in a word with back vowels آ / ـا , او / و , or اوٓ / وٓ‎‎ , or with the two corresponding consonants ق or غ , the letter ی will be a back vowel and pronounced as .

Comparison chart

Compiled from:

Literature and media

Irchi Kazak (Ийрчы Къазакъ Yırçı Qazaq; born 1839) is usually considered to be the greatest poet of the Kumyk language. The first regular Kumyk newspapers and magazines appeared in 1917–18 under the editorship of Kumyk poet, writer, translator, and theatre figure Temirbolat Biybolatov (Temirbolat Biybolat). Currently, the newspaper Ёлдаш (Yoldash, "Companion"), the successor of the Soviet-era Ленин ёлу (Lenin yolu, "Lenin's Path"), prints around 5,000 copies 3 times a week.

The Kumyk language was learned by Russian classical authors such as Leo Tolstoy and Mikhail Lermontov, both of whom served in the Caucasus. The language is present in such works of Tolstoy as "The Raid", Cossacks, Hadji Murat, and Lermontov's - "A Hero of Our Time", Bestuzhev-Marlinsky's - "Molla-nur" and "Ammalat-bek".

Sample text

Below is the translation of the Christian Lord's Prayer in Kumyk, in a variety of scripts.

Bibliography

• Saodat Doniyorova and Toshtemirov Qahramonil. Parlons Koumyk. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2004. ISBN 2-7475-6447-9.

References

1. "Kumyk in Russian Federation". UNESCO WAL. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
2. L. S. Levitskaya, "Kumyk language", in Languages of the world. Turkic languages (1997). (in Russian)
3. Book review Retrieved 1 March 2023
4. Ногайские и Кумыкский тексты, 1883, М.-Э. Османов, СпБ
5. Татарская грамматика кавказского наречия / Сост. Т. Макаровым. - Тифлис : тип. Канцелярии наместника кавк., 1848
6. "Kumyksky yazyk | Malye yazyki Rossii" Кумыкский язык | Малые языки России [Kumyk language | Minor languages of Russia]. minlang.iling-ran.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-05-11.
7. ^ Baskakov, N.A. (1969). Vvedenie v izuchenie tyurkskikh yazykov Введение в изучение тюркских языков [Introduction to the study of Turkic languages]. Moscow: Vyssh. shkola. p. 236. OCLC 642737.
8. Aliev, K.M.-C., ed. (2012). Kumyksky entsiklopedichesky slovar Кумыкский энциклопедический словарь [Kumyk encyclopedic dictionary] (in Russian). Makhachkala: Delta-press. p. 218. ISBN 9785903454679.
9. Абибуллаева С. "'Кодекс Куманикус' – ПАМЯТНИК ТЮРКСКИХ ЯЗЫКОВ КОНЦА XIII – НАЧАЛА XIV ВЕКОВ" (PDF) (in Russian).
10. Кумыкский язык // Большая советская энциклопедия :  / гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. — 3-е изд. — Москва: Советская энциклопедия, 1969—1978.
11. Pieter Muysken. (2008). Studies in language companion series. From linguistic areas to areal linguistics. Vol. 90. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 74. ISBN 9789027231000.
12. Nansen. Gjennem Kaukasus til Volga (Oslo: Jacob Dybwads Forlag, 1929).
13. Н.С.Трубецкой (1925). "О народах Кавказа" (статья ed.).
14. Ярцева В.Н. и др. (ред.) Языки Российской Федерации и соседних государств. Том 2. К-Р, стр. 183
15. D. M. Khangishiev (Хангишиев). Editor-in-chief V. P. Neroznak (1995). Государственные языки Российской Федерации [Государственные языки Российской Федерации]. Moscow: Academia (Академия). p. 129. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)

    "в пределах Дагестана кумыкский язык был известен также под названием «бумурман тил» "мусульманский язык", при этом данный лингвоним обозначал только кумыкский язык, в отличие от многочисленных народов, населявший горный Дагестан."

16. Дерлугьян, Георгий (15 May 2022). Дерлугьян Г.М. Адепт Бурдье на Кавказе. Эскизы к биографии в миросистемной перспективе ; Издательство · Территория будущего, 2010 г. Litres. ISBN 978-5-457-06529-1. Archived from the original on 2023-11-20. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
17. "Kafkaz Lehçeni Tatar Grammatikası, Makarov 1848". caucasian.space (in Kumyk and Russian). Archived from the original on 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2017-06-28.
18. Kumyk language (Кумыкский язык), Great Soviet Encyclopedia: — 3rd ed — (1969—1978)
19. Levitskaïa. 1997.
20. ^ З. З. Бамматов (1972). "К вопросу о письменности кумыков". Вопросы совершенствования алфавитов тюркских языков СССР. М.: «Наука»: 108–117.
21. ^ З. З. Бамматов (1973). "Орфография кумыкского языка". Орфографии тюркских литературных языков СССР. М.: «Наука»: 160–169.
22. ^ Qumuq görüş (18 oct. 2015) О кумыкском алфавите http://qumuq.ru/ru/2015/10/18/o-kumykskom-alfavite/
23. Literary Encyclopedia (Литературная энциклопедия) (1929-1939) Articles starting with the letter "K" (part 14, "KRY"-"KUM") http://niv.ru/doc/dictionary/literary-encyclopedia/fc/slovar-202-14.htm
24. Milletlerarası Çağdaş Türk Alfabeleri Sempozyumu, 18-20 Kasım 1991. Istanbul. 1992. p. 67.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
25. "Лев Толстой: Дневник 1847 — 1854 гг. Тетрадь Г. Март - май 1851 г." tolstoy.lit-info.ru. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
26. ^ Мугумова, Анна Львовна. "К проблеме ориентального лексического влияния на язык русской художественной литературы 20-30-х годов XIX в.: На материале произведений М. Ю. Лермонтова" (диссертация ed.).
27. "Набег (Толстой) — Викитека". ru.wikisource.org (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-01-28.
28. s:Казаки (Толстой)/XL
29. "Герой нашего времени (Лермонтов)/СО/Предисловие — Викитека". ru.wikisource.org (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-01-28.
30. Institute for Bible Translation. - къумукъ тил Scriptures. Matthew 6 https://ibtrussia.org/en/text?m=KUM&l=Matt.6.1.1&g=0
31. Transliteration of Non-Roman Scripts: Kumyk (KNAB) https://transliteration.eki.ee/pdf/Kumyk.pdf

External links

• Kumyks video and music
• Kumyk language newspaper "Ёлдаш" published in Dagestan
• Kumyk language on the website "Minority languages of Russia on the Net"
• Russian-Kumyk dictionary (1960)
• Holy Scriptures in the Kumyk language
• Kumyk information portal kumukia.com Archived 2022-02-02 at the Wayback Machine

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.

v t e Languages of the Caucasus
Caucasian (areal)	South (Kartvelian) Karto-Zan Georgian Judaeo-Georgian Old Georgian Zan Laz Mingrelian Svan Northeast (Caspian) Avar–Andic Andic Andi Akhvakh Bagvalal–Tindi Botlikh–Godoberi Chamalal Karata Avar Dargin Chirag North-Central Mehweb Gapshima Muira [ru] Tsudaqar–Usisha–Butri Northern Dargwa [ru] Aqusha [ru] Literary Dargwa Murego–Gubden [uk] Kadar Mugi [ru] Upper Mulebki Urakhi Southern Ashti [ru]–Kubachi Sanzhi–Itsari Amuzgi–Shiri Sanakari–Chakhrizhi Southwestern Dargwa Sirhwa [lez; uk] Tanti Upper Vurqni Kaitag–Shari Kaitag Shari Lezgic Archi Samur Eastern Aghul Lezgin Tabasaran Southern Budukh Kryts Jek Western Rutul Tsakhur Udi Nakh Bats Vainakh Chechen Aukh Ingush Tsezic (Didoic) Bezhta–Hunzib–Khwarshi Hinukh–Tsez Others Khinalug Lak Northwest (Pontic) Abazgi Abaza Abkhaz Circassian Adyghe Kabardian Ubykh
Indo- European	Iranian Kurdish Kurmanji Ossetian Persian Talysh Kilit Tat Judeo-Tat Slavic Russian Ukrainian Others Armenian Eastern Western German Pontic Greek
Turkic	Kipchak Karachay-Balkar Kumyk Nogai Urum Oghuz Azerbaijani Turkish Turkmen
Others	Kalmyk Oirat Lomavren Northeastern Neo-Aramaic Assyrian Bohtan Shirvani Arabic
Italics indicate extinct languages Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left. See also Languages of Armenia Languages of Azerbaijan Languages of Georgia Languages of Russia

• Turkic languages
• Languages of the Caucasus
• Kumyk language
• Agglutinative languages
• Kipchak languages
• Languages of Russia
• Dagestan
• Lingua francas