Central Asia, Linguistics, and more...

Sakha-English Dictionary

Mäke — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:12:32 +0000

Today I stumbled upon a decent Sakha-English dictionary, a rare find.

http://home.uchicago.edu/~straughn/sakhadic.pdf

Tatar Music

Mäke — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:40:03 +0000

I found a nice collection of Tatar music on this Russian blog. Overall, I am very impressed with the sheer amount of Tatar music circulating on the Internet. It’s easier to find than music in a lot of other Turkic languages.

I also recommend that everyone listen to one of Zemfira Ramazanova’s lesser-known songs (but well-known among Turkic enthusiasts – Koida. It is a love song in Bashkurt (though according to Wikipedia, Zemfira is actually of Tatar descent).

Fall 2008 Russian OPI

Mäke — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:04:51 +0000

I had my oral proficiency interview (OPI) for Russian today, and the instructor was so interested in what I had to say about my experiences in Kazakhstan that she didn’t even bother doing the scenario cards with me!

Turkic Logograms for Pronouns and Cases

Mäke — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:06:43 +0000

I’ve created a tentative system for Turkic logograms marking case. This system will be specific to pronouns. I’m still working out what I want to do with nouns and adjectives, and verbs are a completely different story.

Horizontally, the pronouns at the top are men, biz, sen, sender, siz, sizder, ol, olar, bu, bular, ne, neler, kim, kimder. Vertically, the cases are nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, and instrumental.

Where’s the Tuvan Wikipedia?

Mäke — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:08:01 +0000

For the past day or so, I had been searching for a Tuvan Wikipedia, when it was pointed out by someone on the Zompist forums that it hadn’t been created yet, and only this test Wikipedia exists. However, this did lead me to discover TyvaWiki, which is a neat resource. It isn’t huge, but it does include some rudimentary language lessons complete with dialogue. There also is a small collection of texts, and plenty of cultural information.

For the more ambitious, I stumbled upon a Tuvan New Testament online.

Here is a sample of the Tuvan style of music, characterized by throat singing. However, the lyrics to this song area actually in Russian.

Also, in the sidebar I have a link to Swarthmore College’s online Talking Tuvan Dictionary. It’s a great resource, especially if you are curious as to how individual Tuvan words sound, and you aren’t in contact with any native speakers (as is common in the States).

Logographic Turkic Pronouns

Mäke — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:42:55 +0000

I am working on a logographic character system that can be used to write Kazakh and other Turkic languages. The lexical values shown here are in Kazakh. More will be included on this in future postings.

New Article: Salimzhan Nakpaev

Mäke — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:24:08 +0000

I’ve created a new Wikipedia article for the current mayor of Atyrau, Salimzhan Nakpaev. All are encouraged to contribute, especially those who can read Russian and/or Kazakh better than I. I intend to add additional articles about other Turkic figures – the paucity of English-language information on these individuals is a shame!

On a side note, I have a bad habit of spelling his name as Nakbaev rather than Nakpaev.

Yakut (Sakha) Language Lesson 3

Mäke — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:52:38 +0000

Disclaimer: These lessons are part of a translation series done by me. I do not promise that this translation is 100% accurate, as I am not a native speaker of Russian or Yakut (Sakha). The original content, written in Russian by L. N. Kharitonov, can be viewed here. Any reports of errors in my translation, no matter how trivial, will be appreciated. Thank you for reading.

Lesson Three

Vocabulary

Yakut (Sakha) Word	Part of Speech	English Translation	Origin
oskuola (оскуола)	noun	school	from Russian школа
tetereet (тэтэрээт)	noun	notebook	from Russian тетрадь
kini (кини)	pronoun	he/she/it	–
emie (эмиэ)	adverb	also, again	–
uruuçuka (уруучука)	noun	pen	from Russian ручка
çereniile (черенииле)	noun	ink	from Russian чернила
çereniile ihite (черенииле иhите)	noun	inkwell	from Russian чернила
duoska attıgar (дуоска аттыгар)	compound phrase	near the wall	from Russian доска
üçügey (үчүгей)	adjective	good	–
kuhağan (куhаҕан)	adjective	bad	–
üörener (үөренер)	verb	he/she/it studies	cf. Kazakh üyrenu
sıtar (сытар)	verb	he/she/it lays	cf. Kazakh catu
en (эн)	pronoun	you (singular)	cf. Kazakh sen
xaydax (хайдах)	adverb	how	–
üçügeydik (үчүгейдик)	adverb	well	үчүгей + -дик
üçügeydik (үчүгейдик)	adverb	well	üçügey + -dik (nik)
kuhağannık (куhаҕаннык)	adverb	poorly	kuhağan + -nık (nik)
uçuutal (учуутал)	noun	teacher	from Russian учитель

Read and translate.

Bu oskuolağa elbex kihi üörener. Sergey emie manna baar. Kini kılaaska oloror. Paartağa çereniile ihite turar, tetereet uonna uruuçuka sıtallar. Sergey kinige aağar. Olopposko uçuutal oloror. Ostuolga kinige, xarandaas uonna tetereet baar. Sergey, en tur uonna aax. Sergey aağar. Kini üçügeydik aağar. Petr, en aax. Petr emie aağar. Kini kuhağannık aağar. Vasiliy, en duoskağa bar. Vasiliy duoskağa barar. Kini duoska attıgar turar uonna suruyar. Vasiliy üçügeydik suruyar. Kini üçügeydik üörener.

Manna üçügey oskuola baar. İni kuhağan xarandaas. Üçügey xarandaas bu sıtar. Bu uruuçuka üçügey, ol uruuçuka kuhağan.

Answer the questions.

Bu oskuolağa kim üörener? Sergey xanna üöreneriy? Paartağa tuox baarıy? Sergey tugu gınar? Ostuol attıgar kim oloror? Ostuolga tuox baarıy? Sergey xaydax aağar? Petr tugu gınar? Kini xaydax aağar? Vasiliy xanna barda? Kini tugu gınar? Vasiliy xaydax suruyarıy?

Sergey xanna oloror? Tetereet xanna sıtar? Çereniile ihite xanna turarıy? Duoska attıgar kim turarıy? Ostuol attıgar kim olororuy?

Sakha/Bashkir Lists

Mäke — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:24:47 +0000

Some useful lists on the Sakha and Bashkir Wikipedias:

Bashkir/General Turkic Swadesh List

Yakut/Turkish/Kyrgyz Comparison

Turkic Numbers

Mäke — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:52:08 +0000

Number System In Various Turkic Languages

#	Turkish	Tatar	Kazakh	Yakut
1	bir	ber	bir	biir
2	iki	ike	yeki	ikki
3	üç	öç	üş	üs
4	dört	dürt	tört	tüört
5	beş	biş	bes	bies
6	altı	altı	altı	alta
7	yedi	cide	ceti	sette
8	sekiz	sigez	segiz	ağıs
9	tokuz	tuğız	toğız	toğus
10	on	un	on	uon
20	yirmi	yegerme	cıyırma	süürbe
30	otuz	utız	otız	otut
40	kırk	qırıq	qırıq	tüört uon
50	elli	ille	yelu	bies uon
60	altmış	altmış	altpış	alta uon
70	yetmiş	citmeş	cetpiş	sette uon

cıyırma – süürbe
otız – otut
qırıq – tüört uon
yelu – bies uon
altpıs – alta uon
cetpis – sette uon
seksen – ağıs uon
toqsan – toğus uon
cüz – süüs
mıñ – tıhıınça