User:BurakD53/Danube Bulgar Language

Danube Bulgar
Region	Danube region
Extinct	By the 9th or 10th centuries
Language family	Turkic Oghuric Danube Bulgar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xbo
Linguist List	xbo
Glottolog	bolg1250

Danube Bulgar language is one of the historical periods of the Turkic language, which was spoken and written in the Danube area in the ancient times of the Turkic language.

Kuban, Volga and Danube Bulgar languages' materials are scarce. We know more about Kuban Bulgar. We are indebted to 300-odd borrowed words that passed from Kuban Bulgar language to Hungarian before VIIIth century. Our knowledge of the Danube Bulgarian is based on the language material that has come down to us but is very limited. However, this language material is enough to enlighten us about the nature of Danube Bulgar and its closeness to Kuban and Volga Bulgar.

The Danube Bulgar language material can be classified as follows:

1. Proto-Bulgarian words and phrases in the list of Bulgarian Khans;
2. Proto-Bulgaric phrase in Tudor Doksov's annotation;
3. Proto-Bulgaric inscriptions in the Nagy Szent-Miklós treasury;
4. Turkish words and phrases in Proto-Bulgaric inscriptions;
5. Bulgaric Turkic ethnic names in Byzantine sources;
6. Proto-Bulgaric loanwords in Old Church Slavonic.

Danube Bulgar Inscriptions

The language of the Danube Bulgars (or Danubian Bulgar) is recorded in a small number of inscriptions, which are found in Pliska, the first capital of First Bulgarian Empire, and in the rock churches near the village of Murfatlar, in present-day Romania. Some of these inscriptions are written with the Greek characters, others with the Kuban alphabet which is similar to the Orkhon script. Most of these appear to have been of a private character (oaths, dedications, inscriptions on grave stones) and some were court inventories. Although attempts at decipherment have been made, none of them has gained wide acceptance. These inscriptions in Danubian Bulgar are found along with other, official ones written in Greek; which was used as the official state language of the First Bulgarian Empire until the 9th century, when it was replaced by Old Church Slavonic (Slavonic).

The language of the Danubian Bulgars is also known from a small number of loanwords in the Old Bulgarian language, as well as terms occurring in Bulgar Greek-language inscriptions, contemporary Byzantine texts, and later Slavonic Old Bulgarian texts. Most of these words designate titles and other concepts concerning the affairs of state, including the official 12-year cyclic calendar (as used in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans). The language became extinct in Danubian Bulgaria in the 9th century as the Bulgar nobility became gradually Slavicized after the Old Bulgarian tongue was declared as official in 893.

The Buyla and Preslav inscriptions, the translation of which is controversial, but it is agreed that they belong to the Danube Bulgar, are very important. These inscriptions are written in the Greek alphabet and contain important sentence structures belonging to the Danube Bulgar language.