Khorasani Turkic language


Khorasani Turkic is an Oghuz Turkic language spoken in the North Khorasan Province and the Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. Nearly all Khorasani Turkic speakers are also bilingual in Persian.

Geographic distribution

Khorasani Turkic is spoken in the Iranian provinces of North Khorasan near Bojnord and Razavi Khorasan near Sabzevar, Quchan. The Oghuz dialect spoken in Western Uzbekistan is sometimes considered a dialect of Khorasani Turkic.

Dialects

Khorasani Turkic is split into North, South and West dialects. The northern dialect is spoken in North Khorasan near Quchan; the southern in Soltanabad, near Sabzevar; the western, around Bojnord.

Classification and related languages

Khorasani Turkic belongs to the Oghuz group of Turkic languages, which also includes Turkish, Azerbaijani, Gagauz, Balkan Gagauz Turkish, Turkmen and Salar, as well as the Oghuz dialect spoken in Uzbekistan. Khorasani Turkic is most closely related to Oghuz Uzbek and Turkmen and is close to the Azerbaijani dialects spoken in Iran.
Khorasani Turkic was first classified as a separate dialect by Iranian Azerbaijani linguist Javad Heyat in the book Tarikh-e zabān o lahcayā-ye Türki. According to some linguists, it should be considered intermediate linguistically between Azerbaijani and Turkmen, although it is sufficiently distinct not to be considered a dialect of either.

Consonants

Vowels

The open back vowel is rounded when followed by or : muxabbat love, insan human, but yoldaşlık friendship. It can also be rounded by a following long. This may not happen for all speakers, and plurals never have any rounding.

Morphology

Nouns

Pluralization

Pluralization is marked on nouns with the suffix, which has the two forms and, depending on vowel harmony. Plural is never rounded, even when it follows or.

Case

Nouns in Khorasani Turkic take a number of case endings that change based on vowel harmony and whether they follow a vowel or a consonant:

Possession

Possession is marked with a suffix on the possessed noun.
SingularPlural
First Person
Second Person
Third Person

Pronouns

Khorasani Turkic has six personal pronouns. Occasionally, personal pronouns take different case endings from regular nouns.
SingularPlural
First Person
Second Person
Third Person

Verbs

Verbs are declined for tense, aspect, mood, person, and number. The infinitive form of the verb ends in -max.

Examples

;Excerpt from Tulu p. 90