#turkic languages series

[tomirida]

Today is May 31, remembrance day for victims of repressions and acarcılıq, the famines of 1920-1921 and 1931-1933. The former saw a million Qazaqs perish, and the latter between 1.3 to 1.5 million. By 1939, Qazaqs had lost more than a quarter of their population in a decade.

Moreover, Qazaqstan had lost most of its intelligentsia due to political repressions. A short list under the link.

• Äliyhan Bökeyhan (1866-1937) — leader of the Alac Party and editor of the Qazaq newspaper, which ran from 1913 until 1918. He stood for an independent and democratic Qazaq state. In 1917, he was elected president of the newly-formed Alac Autonomy, but the republic was crushed in 1920 by the Bolsheviks. In 1937 he was arrested and executed in Moscow.

Bökeyhan in 1935 and 1937.

• Ahmet Baytursınulı (1872-1937) — linguist and author of the reformed Arabic alphabet called töte jazıw, which adapted the writing system to be more accessible and accounting for the Qazaq language's unique features. He is also responsible for coining new terms for Qazaq grammar and literature. In 1937 he was accused of being an "enemy of the people" and was shot by a firing squad.

A. Baytursınulı in 1913.

Mirjaqıp Dulatulı (1885-1935) — poet and writer, author of the poem Oyan, Qazaq! (Wake up, Qazaq!) and the first Qazaq novel Baqıtsız Jamal (Unhappy Jamal), which brings to light the sad fate of women in patriarchal Qazaq society. The lines of Oyan, Qazaq! go thus:

Open your eyes; wake up, Qazaq; raise your head,

Don't waste your years in the darkness.

When the land is lost, faith corrupted, and the situation's getting worse,

My dear, there's no time to rest.

Oyan, Qazaq! has become a slogan for a free Qazaqstan in modern times.

M. Dulatulı in 1916.

In 1928 he was accused of "Qazaq nationalism" and was arrested. He spent two years in Butyrka prison, then was transferred to Solovki prison camp. He died in Sosnovka in 1935.

Turar Rısqulov (1894-1938) — chairman of the Central Electoral Committee of the Turkestan ASSR, founder of the "Bukhara" society, and participant in the 1916 Central Asian revolt. He supported the agency of indigenous Turkic peoples, viewing revolution along national lines as a fight against colonial exploitation and settler violence. He was charged with Pan-Turkism and was executed in 1938.

Portrait of T. Rısqulov.

İliyas Jansügirov (1894-1938) — poet, writer, and translator. He's the author of the famous poem Qulager about the death of Aqın-Seri's beloved horse; he also translated countless works of Pushkin, Gorky, Mayakovsky, Hugo, Heine, and other foreign classics. He was executed without trial in 1938.

İ. Jansügirov, presumably in the 1920s.

There were many more bright people who were imprisoned and executed by the Soviet regime, such as writers Mağjan Jumabay, Säken Seyfullin, Beyimbet Maylin; doctor Sanjar Asfendiyarov, linguists Qudaybergen Jubanov, Teljan Conanov, Näzir Törequlov.

The forced settlement of nomads led to Qazaqs being ripped away from their traditional life and culture, the mass repressions of the intelligentsia silenced people's voices. This day is as important as ever in light of the situation in Qazaqstan, where the government still imprisons journalists and activists; where the 200+ people killed during Bloody January and their families still haven't seen justice; and where, in the world, Russia denies Qazaqstan's history and territorial integrity, and still dreams of rebuilding the Russian Empire.

[thejackmeister-mongolhistory]

GÖKTÜRK STONE INSCRIPTIONS

You'll hear it often claimed that nomadic peoples left no writing behind of any sorts, and that we only hear the accounts of their enemies. However, this (as with so many claims about steppe societies!) is not true. A number of steppe empires (particularly in Mongolia) erected stone inscriptions in multiple languages and scripts to mark important occasions; establishing cities or honouring Khagans. They often contain important information on political events, military campaigns and the make-up of these empires.

While the Orkhon inscriptions of the 8th century are the most famous (written in Old Turkic, in Old Turk Runes), they are not the earliest and far from isolated. Some of the earliest identified include the Bugut inscription (c.580s) and Khüis Tolgoi inscription (c.early 600s), which may be Mongolic languages written in the Brāhmī script and Sogdian alphabet late in the Rouran period and early in the first Türkic Khaganate. The first Uyghur inscription, the mid-8th century Moghon Shine-Usu inscription, marks the Uyghur Khagan's establishment of the city of Bay-Baliq along the Selenge River. The construction of the city was, according on the translation, being done by, or for, the Khagan's Chinese and Sogdian subjects in Northern Mongolia— another important production and urban centre of the states, as I have been detailing in my latest video series.

[eruverse]

This is a summary of an article written by Peter B. Golden in 2000 (plus my own notes) on Mongol conquest of Turkic peoples. The Turkic people have migrated and settled in many places throughout Asia away from their historical homeland around Altai mountains and Western Mongolia even before the rise of Mongols, but the Mongol conquest produced the last in a series of realignment of Turks into a shape that we know of today. Definitely, as we’ve known, this construction wasn’t only about further migration of Turks (whether they fled the Mongols or relocated under Mongol command) but also about a lot of intermixing between the two that produced Turko-Mongols which these days are typically known as just Turkics.

Alternatively, this list is called 'Mongolia's Turkic harem' lol. He really travelled all the way from his homeland to the far west to capture all the Turkics and add them into his fold. I don't know if he managed to get absolutely ALL of them, like, did he?? But even if he didn't, the list still stretches long so he really did an astounding job.

The explanations in this list might not be fully correct but I tried my best!!

So, starting from the first Turkic people to submit or come into contact, they were:

The Keraites, in 1203. It’s unclear whether they were actually Mongolic or Turkic, or maybe a mix as they had formed a lot of coalitions with the Mongols even before the rise of Mongol Empire. Toghrul Khan of the Keraites was a bloodbrother or anda to Yesugei, Chinggis Khan’s father. Sometimes they would be in conflicts with Chinggis Khan’s party, but in general the Keraites were allies.

The Önggüd, in 1204. They were descended from the Sarts who in turn were descended from the remnant tribes of Western Turkic Khaganate. Many of them were Nestorian Christians and later they would become Mongolized.

The Naiman, in 1204. Again it’s unclear whether they were Mongolic or Turkic, with some saying they could be Mongolized Turks or even Turkic speaking. The Naiman Khanate tho was located around Western Mongolia so I think they were significantly Turkic leaning. This group would prove quite a pain to the Mongols as one of its member, Küchlüg, ran to Qara-Khitai realm in order to flee them and married a royal princess. He would then usurp the Khitan throne and was later defeated by Mongol general Jebe. The Naiman would later be absorbed into Mongol and other newer Turkic groups like Kazakh.

The Yenisei Kyrgyz, in 1207-8, along with other forest and forest-steppe peoples such as the Altay Turks. The Yenisei Kyrgyz dwelled along the Yenisei river in Siberia, with the core of their homeland in the mountainous area of what is now Tuva. The Yenisei Kyrgyz would be subjected to displacements that ultimately brought some of them into the confines of Moghulistan where the final ethnogenesis of modern Kyrgyz of Kyrgyzstan took place, involving other Turkics and Mongols. Today the Kyrgyz speak a Qipchaq branch of Turkic language. Must be noted that there are other groups that descended from Yenisei Kyrgyz such as Khakas people in Khakassia and Altai people in Altai Republic (both in Russia).

The Qocho Uyghurs as initiated by Barcuq who submitted in 1209 and was accepted as “the fifth son of Chinggis Khan”, with a Chinggisid bride being married to him sealing the ties. Qocho Uyghur was a state founded by Uyghur refugees who fled the destruction of Uyghur Khaganate after being driven out by the Yenisei Kyrgyz. The Uyghurs were favored a lot and due to their capabilities rose to prominence under Mongol Empire and served in far-flung territories under Mongol dominion like Yuan and Ilkhanate. In time, the Qocho territory would pass into the house of Chagatai.

Qarluq Turks, in 1211, who were one of the primary constituent elements of Qarakhanid state in Central Asia. Some of the prominent figures in this group were even given Chinggisid brides which showed that Chinggis Khan was adamant in binding the important Turkics to him. The Yuan-Shi, or Yuan era historical work, records Kublai explaining to a Korean ruler and his son that the Uyghurs and Qarluqs held the first rank among the subject kings because they had submitted first. Anyway, the Qarluqs, who were once also part of Göktürk Khaganate, had links to the Uzbeks and modern Uyghurs with the two speaking Qarluq branch of Turkic languages.

Qipchaqs/Polovtsy, and the Qangly who are purpoted to be related to the Qipchaqs, were particularly problematic toward the Mongols. The Qangly had contacts with the Keraites and Naimans who were foes with Chinggis Khan and that's probably why they were targeted. The Qipchaqs also granted refuge to Merkid princes in 1217-19 or earlier (we all know the Merkids were as good as archenemies with Chinggis Khan) and it was said that this event brought about the first military encounter between the Mongols and Qipchaqs. The Qipchaqs also allied with the Rus against the Mongols in the famous Battle of Kalka River in 1223 which ultimately brought the Mongols into the heart of Russian realm and the territory of Cuman-Qipchaq confederation after their defeat. Afterward, the Qipchaqs would be entered into Jochid ranks in Golden Horde or elsewhere the Mongols wanted them, with the others butchered or fleeing as far as possible either as slave soldiers, local aristocracy (in Rumania and Moldavia) or even as important component of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The Qipchaqs finally perished as a group by 1241-2 but would survive as components of the Baskirs, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Karakalpaks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Altai, Nogays, and Crimean Tatars.

Khwarazmia which comprised large parts of today's Iran, Central Asia, and Afghanistan. It was a Persianate state of Turkic mamluk origin, with mamluk being a term that denoted non-Arab slave soldiers and freed slaves who were assigned military and administrative duties. Mamluk states were born from slaves who climbed ranks, which meant they weren't originally of nobility. Anyway, Mongol enmity with the Khwarazmians that peaked in 1219 with an invasion started when the latter killed a Mongol-sponsored caravan of Mongol-sponsored Central Asian Muslim merchants who also happened to be intel. Anyway, killing or mistreating Mongol ambassadors or envoys is basically a no-no and this gives the Mongols a permission, as per nomadic rules, to ravage the culprits along with their collective group.

Volga Bulgars, who were finally defeated in 1236. They were a Muslim group who spoke an Oghuric branch of Turkic language. In time, Volga Bulgaria would be included into Kazan Khanate, being one of the successor states of Golden Horde.

Seljuks of Anatolia/Rum who were defeated at Köse Dağ in 1243 and became tribute paying vassals to the Mongols. In time, they would pass into the Ilkhanid dominion and kept at chokehold until its eventual disintegration. Rum itself had started to weaken even before the Mongols took it in, and along with its and Ilkhanate's dissolution numerous Anatolian beyliks (statelets) would take shape with Ottoman Empire ultimately rising from one of them.

[holyolyk]

November 26, 2022 - February 2, 2023.

The opening of the exhibition will take place at 12:00 on November 26, 2022.

A painting series by Oleg Kharch will be presented in the Kmytiv Museum of Fine Arts named after Buhanchuk (next is the Kmytiv Art Museum).

It should be noted that "Language Parallelisms" offers the viewer a naive fantasy and a study of the Ukrainian linguistic alphabet. The artist offers to stop the rush of time and admire our linguistic heritage. To what extent this is a successful experiment, we do not know for sure, because we are already used to the fact that the artist Oleg Kharch is always sharply critical and extremely ironic in his artistic visions. And this series of the artist, no, it is not sweet and not gross - it is not sour in taste, - yes, there is warm humor and something strange, imbued everywhere in images and characters. There is a veiled familiar collage, because this is Oleg Kharch's leading technique. But today his work is interesting to look at and think about, and you can discern meaning at a different (calm) pace.

Language is also a means for human journeys. In ancient times, traders from the East traveled to nearby Europeans. A silent boat - a snail has overcome these linguistic oceans and seas to get the meanings of words. And the Ukrainian land is one of such crossroads. So it was and so it will be.

Contemplation and reasoning, possibly fun and with different pace of recognition of the meaning of the existence of Humanity.

As the artist himself says, his "Language Parallelisms" already have their own artistic history, although as a finished painting they will only now be presented in Ukraine and directly in the Kmytiv Museum.

In 2016, Oleg Kharch collaborated with the outstanding conceptual artist Vyacheslav Akhunov. It was Mr. Vyacheslav who suggested creating pictorial parts for several digital prints for presentation at the 7th Tashkent Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Research Project of Ukrainian-Turkic linguistic and cultural contacts.

East-West communication in various spheres of human life has been going on since ancient times. If you look closely, you can obviously see the presence of a huge layer of borrowings in the Ukrainian language, which are called Turkism’s, which have spread and have long been firmly rooted, which do not cause any rejection at all. No less interesting and intensive is the synthesis and interpenetration of various eastern elements in various spheres of expression of Ukrainian visuality. Contemporary Ukrainian art finds similarity or identity, some parallel reflections in works that are sometimes completely different, sometimes with opposite approaches. Such an interesting topic cannot be limited by attention.

Maidan, Berkut, Bazar, Kurin, Tyutyun, Husak, Kava, Halva, Kovbasa, Sarai, Kabak, Yar, Chichkan and many other Turkism’s. All these linguistic borrowings have long settled both in our everyday life before, and are striking with their own historical monumentality now. They give and will continue to give creative people food for thought in artistic and creative research. And it seems that each of us, who is not just interested, but is a real researcher of this topic, has found his personal key for further decoding of those huge layers of information carriers from the past, quotes from which permeate the current Ukrainian cultural and artistic tradition.

Nowadays, it is very important for an artist to untangle the lines, symbols and images of his own self-identification. Next, the root issues at the level of national identification should be reviewed. And finally, he will try to gain the ability to carefully look at the global nature of issues in his personal creativity. Methodologically, it can be tried in different ways. Probably, each artist intersects in time, or as in most cases coexists in their parallel inner worlds of creativity. Each of them has the widest opportunities to resort to techniques of synthesis, experimentation, replicas from the past, or even shock at the border of something personally permitted with general impermissibility. The discursiveness of the topic, combined with its outer shell of incompatibility, suddenly aims to unite the worldview of the individual - the viewer and the author, the everyday and the aesthetic - by the general parallelism. At the same time, we understand the importance and beauty of today's day and this moment, and the action that happened right now, in our common space of the global world.

This artistic experiment touched Oleg Kharch and he began to fantasize about other linguistic borrowings. And finally, we have a significantly increased circle of language parallelisms, for example - from Germany, France, Italy. It is clear that there are a lot of borrowings in addition to Turkisms (over 4,000). So the series "Language Parallelisms" has every chance to be endless. Eternal theme.

[kdramasurdu0]

The Long Ballad 2021 [Chinese Drama] in Urdu Hindi Dubbed - Episode 1-15 Added

ABOUT: The Long Ballad is the Chinese Drama which is dubbed actually in Hindi and you can watch the full Drama The Long Balad in Urdu and Hindi on this site. If you don't know how to watch then you can watch video from the menu option. POST DETAILS: - Series Name: Chang Ge Xing (Season 1) - IMDb Ratings: 8.6/10 - Stars: Kudousi Jiang Ainiwaer, Dilraba Dilmurat, Yilun Fang - Genres: Action, History, Romance, C-Drama . - Quality: 1080p / 720p / 480p - Language: Hindi Dub (ORG) STORYLINE: The year is 626 C.E, and the realm and its political center Chang’an, are shaken to its core by the Xuanwu Gate Incident, a successful palace coup to take charge of the Tang Dynasty. A scheming prince leads the bloody coup and kills the family of Li Chang Ge during the raid, although she manages to escape. Now the prince has placed himself on the Imperial throne, and rules as Emperor Tai Zong. Li Chang Ge has her mind firmly set on revenge – and musters a powerful army intent on overthrowing the new Emperor. But her plans are thrown into disarray when she suffers an unexpected defeat against the armies of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. The victorious General, Ashile Sun, decides to keep her in his service, making her his military strategist as he looks to pursue his own military goals. The duo forms a formidable military partnership. And over time, she finds herself falling for her captor – as he also starts developing feelings for her.  SCREENSHOTS:

LINKS ARE HERE: E01 720p | GDrive | Direct E02 720p | GDrive | Direct E03 720p | GDrive | Direct E04 720p | GDrive | Direct E05 720p | GDrive | Direct E06 720p | GDrive | Direct E07 720p | GDrive | Direct E08 720p | GDrive | Direct E09 720p | GDrive | Direct E10 720p | GDrive | Direct E11 720p | GDrive | Direct E12 720p | GDrive | Direct E13 720p | GDrive | Direct E14 720p | GDrive | Direct E15 720p | GDrive | Direct More Episodes of The Long Ballad Will Be Added Soon WATCH OTHER CHINESE DRAMAS NOTE: Stay Tuned for Next Episodes Read the full article

[lingcharts]

Numbers in Languages of Central Asia. 

Kazakh is one of the main languages of Kazakhstan, alongside Russian, and is spoken by over 5 million people within the country. It is from the Kipchak-Nogai branch of the Kipchak family of Common Turkic, in the Turkic language family. It can be seen written in the Latin, Cyrillic and Arabic alphabets.

Uzbek is the official language of Uzbekistan, with about 27 million speakers. It comes from the Karluk branch of Common Turkic in the Turkic language family. It is typically written in the Latin or the Cyrillic alphabet.

Turkmen, the official language of Turkmenistan, is spoken by about 6.7 million people. It comes from the Eastern Oghuz branch of the Oghuz languages within Common Turkic. It can be seen written in Latin, Cyrillic and Arabic script.

Kyrgyz is the official language of Kyrgyzstan and is spoken by over four million people. Like Kazakh, it is from the Kipchak branch of Common Turkic, belongs to the Kyrgyz-Kipchak subgroup. Kyrgyz can be written in Person-Arabic script or Cyrillic script.

Tajik, the official language of Tajikistan, is spoken by about 8.4 million people and comes from a completely different linguistic family as the languages previously described. It is actually an Indo-European language, from the Persian subgroup of the Iranian languages. Tajik can be written in the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet.

Dari, also known as Farsi, is an official language of Afghanistan and is spoken by 12.5 million people. It is also a Persian language from the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It uses the Persian alphabet.

Pashto is the other official language of Afghanistan, mostly spoken southeast of the Dari speaking area by 58 million people. It is also an Iranian language, but comes from the Eastern Iranian branch rather than the Western Iranian branch (from which Persian languages originated). It is written in Person-Arabic script.

Note: Spelling, pronunciation or full words may differ according to region or locale.

[tulunnguaq]

Books in my library which, if I’m being honest, I’m probably not going to get round to using #1: Татарский Язык для Самостоятельново Изучения (The Tatar Language, for independent study)

[i-became-the-lady-of-the-blog]

OMG I HAVE TO SHARE THIS AS IT MADE ME VERY HAPPY THE LONG BALLAD

I’m gonna watch this series. I saw this when it was mentioned elsewhere. It’s Chinese historical series.

I’ve never would have thought I’d see this hotness level representing Turkic people (post Göktürks) from Chinese production. I was always let down whenever foreigner, mainly Hollywood, had a Turkish, or Turkic character in it as it’s always awful regardless of the time setting. Either, the actors can’t even speak the language so they go random bullshit, they don’t look like average Turkish or Turkic person at all.

However this production is 100%. Of course the language wouldn’t be accurate since it’s about the audience understanding what the actors say instead of having just a character like that. what I’m happy is the looks which is more accurate than any Hollywood shit as Turkic people were still in Central Asia at the time

One of the lead characters is from Turkic tribes when Göktürks basically disbanded. 

From what I understood from the comments:

They kept Tengrism for the tribe as well. Holy shit I'm so happy about this

They used real names from Turkic tribes

The events are mostly historically accurate

Of course there are some differences such as Ashina (Aşina) which is originally Asena. Asena is the name of a she-wolf associated with the Oghuz Turkic foundation myth.

The actor is very good looking too

I can't believe I'm 2 years (minus 1 day) older than this actor in the picture

[linguisticmaps]

Relativization strategies

How do languages form relative clauses like “the man that ate bread went home”.

Relative pronoun/particle/complementizer - “the man [that/who ate bread] went home”. Typical of Indo-European, Uralic and Semitic languages. 

Correlative relative (non-reduction) - “the man [who ate bread], [that man] went home or "the man [he ate bread] went home” - this strategy involves an anaphor, repeating the antecedent with a noun/pronoun. Pronoun retention is also lumped in here. This strategy occurs in Indo-Aryan languages (Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, etc.), in Mande languages (e.g Bambara in Mali), Yoruba, Lakhota, Warao, Xerente, Walpiri, etc. 

Nominalized/participial relative - “the [bread eating] man went home" or "the [bread eaten] man went home" - I lumped this two together because the behaviour is very similar - used in Turkic, Mongolic, Koreanic, Dravidian, and Bantu languages. 

Genitive relative - “[ate bread]'s man went home" - used in Sino-Tibetan, Khmer, Tagalog, Minangkabau, and Aymara. 

Relative affix - “the man [ate-REL bread] went home” - used in Seri, Northwest and Northeast Caucasian languages and Maale (Omotic). 

Adjunction - “the man [ate bread] went home”, with no overt marker just justapositions modifying the main clause. Used in Japanese, Thai, Shan, Lao, Malagasy. 

Internally headed relative - "[the man ate the bread] went home", the nucleous is in the relative clause itself. Used in Navajo, Apache, Haida. 

If you know about the languages left in blank, please let me know!

[aphasiansaresodisastrous]

[🐴🐼] Rivalry and hatred between China and Mongolia // Part I (1/2)

Introduction

Well, I wanted to start with something soft and I guess we all know about this, right?

I will try to go into details, but it will seem impossible because it is a topic that I love to talk about, by the way, I will divide it into three parts so that it is understood more.

Part 1: Xiongnu, Xianbei and Han

In this part I will try not to go in depth because I have to expand my knowledge in this confusing part of Mongolian history, besides being very little known and of limited information, but I am satisfied.

For this I must present two men:

Han: Yes, the dynasty. He is one of the older brothers of present-day mainland China and, incidentally, the only one who is still alive because of the great ethnic group that he produced and because of the great things that contributed to traditional Chinese culture. As a fun fact, he was also a womanizer like most of the ancients, but yes, his favorite lover was a young man who would later break his heart.

Xiongnu: Father of Mongolia and Hetao (present-day South Mongolia, autonomous region of China). A warrior whose tenure as a nation would not last long because he himself ended his life for a lousy loser. His eldest son apparently inherited almost all of his characteristics in battle, and mercilessly to top it off! removing the latter, he was his successor and carried the name Xianbei for a time.

Well, the origins of Mongolia go back to the same time of the Qin Dynasty, the latter, seeing the invasion attempts of the father of present-day Mongolia, decided to start the construction of a great wall (It was developed in the following different dynasties to prevent attacks from neighbors, especially our dear nomads of the steppes). This wall, as we all know, did not work, but that is another story and we will see it more in depth in part two.

For now this is all in the Qin Dynasty, first in the Imperial Era, since it lasted very little and was overshadowed by the Han.

Regarding the Han Dynasty, I will give a brief summary, I do not want to lengthen and I have not informed myself enough. During this time, two confederations of nomads occupied the Mongolian territory, Xiongnu and Xianbei, the first had a series of periods in its relationship with the Han Dynasty, there were moments of great "friendship" while on the other hand there were moments in which they hated to death, favoring Han who was much stronger than Xiongnu which led to his great defeat. As a color data, it is said that the Turkic languages ​​originated at this time. Interesting, no?

Regarding the Xianbei, I will delve into another post but, I think it is too much for today

[alpine-langblr]

I'm trying a new idea for my goals/to-do list which is the "Yesterday List" or basically "Things I wish I'd finished yesterday/in the past, things I wish I'd already done". I have either the option to complete them soon or give up on those things, point is to just do/decide something about it.

Right now on the list is production steps for my fantasy series (i talk more about that on @alpine-ink), language practice that I feel like I should've done by now (French pronunciation practice, studied Kazakh basics, etc.), research I feel like I should know by now (Turkic linguistics, Cental Asian history), and a book series I've been reading since high school and still haven't finished 😅

[pockcock]

CHOUCHOU?!!! 😳😳😳 ok bye im dead you're such a resourceful little baby bean URGH and you're LIKE VERY GOOD AT FRENCH. Did you learn at shcool? Or like? by yourself? Anyway, that's very sexy of you 🥺💕 and so you speak like, what, 3 languages?? man. You're a keeper.

OMGGG DŞGŞKDJHGŞ

donc, dorénavant tu t'appelles "chouchou anon" ehehehe

I was in the french prep school of my department but I also try to study as much as I can since french is not the dominant language of internet. You forget a lot in such a short time... As you saw my phone is in french, I read the news in french and watch french dub anime or french series.

IL/ELLE ME DIT "SEXY" AAAA ŞDFGHDİHGDJFH je vais tomber dans les pommes~~

I do speak 3 languages, yes! Before learning french, I was learning kazakh. It's one of the turkic languages and I used to be a fan of a kazakh boyband called "ninety one" (GO CHECK THEM OUT "ALL I NEED" AND "WHY'M ARE ABSOLUTE PERFECTION) but now I only remember couple words :(

[moonsnightowl]

OK I'm not at all an expert on history but there is a historical figure I really want to tell you about as much as I know.. anyway feel free to ignore if you're not interested or if it bores you.

So I'm from a city called Al Mansoura in the North of Egypt. It's an old city constructed in 1219 by King Al Kamil of the Ayyubid dynasty.

In 1250, the French, led by their king Louis IX tried to invade Egypt through my city. From 8 to 11 of February we fought the invasion and managed to capture the French King himself. In that specific battle there was a Knight who showed extraordinary bravery and intelligence and he was one of the main reasons my city was victorious, his name was Baibars and it's his birthday today ❤

Baibars was born into a nomadic Turkic tribe, the kipchaks, on July 19, 1223, in Cumania (some say Crimea)

He was kidnapped in his childhood and sold as a slave to several lords until Prince Aladin Aydakin, the Prince of Hama in Syria bought him. The Prince tought Baibars how to read, write, how to fight and took good care of him until he became a remarkable Knight that impressed the Sultan himself who chose him to join his own army. Baibars in the Sultan's army proved himself to be a very strong and smart knight which was more confirmed in the battle of Al Mansoura. The sultan died, a series of events happened until a mate of Baibars decided to kill Baibars' mentor, Aqtai, who was a strong respected commander in the army and then exiled Baibars from Egypt. When the mongol army attacked Egypt, Baibars returned and rejoined the army to defend the kingdom. After the victory, the mate of Baibars who killed his mentor became the sultan. That didn't stop Baibars from being determined to avenge his mentor so on a hunting trip together, Baibars made his move and killed him. The leaders of the army gathered and agreed that Baibars becomes the new sultan.

The people of Egypt feared Baibars at first. For nothing but he was the knight who killed the sultan so they had no idea what sort of king he would become but he was such a great king, so merciful, fair and humble that everyone loved him and even made songs about him as a legendary hero ❤ Every Thursday he would allow anyone to go to his Palace and meet him personally so that he would listen to the people and know what they need. People used to call him "Father of the poor"

Baibars as a man was quite different from the beginning and later he was also different from how kings behaved in that time.

In his slave days, people always looked at him like an alien or that he just doesn't belong or fit anywhere simply because he didn't look the Egyptians or Syrians.

He was tall with a remarkably strong body, dark skinned, blue eyed with a strong voice that could scare the strongest of men. He loved sports and it's mentioned that he could swim across the Nile, fully armoured, dragging a raft with 10 men over it. It's also mentioned that he loved playing with the ball, not sure if it was some sort of medieval football or horse football.

Unlike many Kings in that time, Baibars didn't like drinking or having slave women, an honorable man he preferred to spend his time between his duties as a sultan including joining workers and builders helping them himself and only sports in his free time. He had good relationships with several kings of Europe like the kings of Sicily, Tuscany, Aragon and Seville while other Kings would call him a "slave king" or make comments on how he is not "royal blood" like them.

In his mother language, his name means "the warrior lion" which made him choose the lion as the symbol of his reign

Happy birthday, my warrior lion 🦁❤

[13reasonstoeatthatcake]

Neil and languages

Neil knowing two languages other than English is already impressive, as I'm sure everyone is aware, but the fact of the matter is, for someone who'd supposedly hid all over the world from his mafioso father, I'm afraid German and French are... woefully inadequate in helping him blend in.

(Just to be clear, Nora Sakavic has absolutely made a masterpiece and I'd never dream of creating something as amazing as the All For The Game trilogy. It's just that I'm a language nerd and also from (Eastern) Europe, and I love forcing my own interests and experiences on characters, and as Neil is one of the only trilingual characters I've ever seen in media I can't pass up on the opportunity to make him a polyglot.)

So, without further ado, I present to you: the languages Neil Josten has had to use while on the run, a very long list of HCs.

English: since it's (presumably) Neil's mother language, he has the most practice with switching dialects in English. Neil can do almost every English accent that he's come across, which is helpful for when he needs to blend in a country where the official language is English (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand are most frequent but he's also had to do it in India and Malaysia. Not UK, for obvious reasons, and pretending to be tourists in Europe can only hold up for so long)

German: German accents are ridiculous, but significantly easier to pull off than English accents. The Austrian and Hessen accents in particular are hellish for me, but knowing Neil he probably has them all down pat. You can maybe use German outside of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, especially in France and Italy where a lot of people learn German rather than English, but up north? Yeah, no, there it's either one of the holy trinity Danish/Norwegian/Swedish or English. We're not even mentioning Finnish, oh no. A lot of people in Egypt speak German as their third language, as well as Poland and other West/South Slavic nations, but then you risk standing out as that foreign German mother and son combo, which, no. Speaking of German, though,

Yiddish: Is a language very close to German, as in close enough that even I, who can hardly understand German, gets the gist of it. Even if Mary was not a practicing Jew, or knew Hebrew or another dialect better, it's an easy language to pick up when you have German as a base and also creates a fuller backstory. The downside to that is that it's recognisable that a Jewish, Yiddish mother and son combo are walking around, so maybe it's used in rare occasions.

Arabic: I actually hc Mary's family immigrated from Israel years ago and since they both look vaguely Arab/'eastern' enough to pass, and since in the books Neil says they spent some time in Dubai, they've probably had to learn some Arabic. They probably learned Modern Standard Arabic, and depending on how long they stayed in a country, they adapted it to the local dialect. (Arabic dialects vary from each other about as much as Chinese dialects do, aka A Lot. They probably used the excuse that nobody would understand their mother dialect and that's why they communicate in MSA only, but again, no matter how common that is it would still make them paranoid about standing out and so they'd move quickly.) A lot of Arabic countries however also speak a lot of

French: honestly, out of all the languages Neil speaks this is probably the hardest one because French people are fucking judgemental when you fuck up even a slight thing, ergo there's a higher risk of them being revealed because of 'oh yeah, mother and son, their French was horrendous'. French is spoken in Switzerland, Morocco and other Arabic countries, Québec, the whole of French Polynesia, also a lot of Slavic countries under the rule of USSR, but that's the older folks.

Serbian: As much as I'd like to get my favourite character to speak my mother language, I'm certain if Mary had to choose a Slavic language (other than Russian, which in official(?) post-canon Neil learns with Andrew) to learn it would have been Serbian, because it comes in a three-way package deal with fluency in Bosnian and Croatian, which makes it a lot easier to disappear. Additionally, it gives a good understanding of how other Slavic languages work, and it's only a matter of some tweaking to pretend to speak another Slavic language entirely. As someone from the literal only Slavic language that doesn't use cases, I understand up to 80% of every South Slavic and East Slavic language, and if somebody informs me of what roughly is going on, I can understand up to 70% of every West Slavic one as well. Neil and his mother might not have learned Russian, but Serbian is a must, especially since they'd blend in better with us Balkan folk than the more northern countries. Countries Serbian can be used in, with some minor tweaking: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, alongside almost all of Europe if they decide to act as immigrants or tourists (this last point counts for every language on this list, by the way)

Spanish: Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world after Chinese and English (if we're talking native speakers). There is literally no continent where it isn't spoken. While they would need to tweak their accents and such, the entirety of South America, Mexico, Cuba, the Phillipines and some African countries are all ideal places to hide. Portugese, I know, is an entirely different language, but not that hard to get the knack of once you have Spanish as a base, and it's the same thing with Italian.

Languages Neil and his mother haven't learned, even though they've hidden in the countries: a rough overview. (Note: though he hasn't learned them, Neil still probably had to memorise a set list of phrases well enough to sound fluent, but shy.)

Any northern European language. Mary was insistent they don't waste time or effort on non-essential or one-note languages; Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish are only useful in small parts of Europe and Africa, and speaking Afrikaans in Africa is a good way to get noticed, so they didn't learn that. Same thing with Finnish, Latvian, Estonian, Lituanian. They had some basic understanding of Belarussian and Russian thanks to Serbian, but nothing more.

Any African language. While Swahili is spoken all thorough Africa, it's not the language barrier that makes it hard to blend in but the colour of their skin, ergo almost the whole continent is out.

Indian languages. They'd only hidden in big cities, so people knew English, and Hindi is too complicated to learn when you're moving through so many different dialects and other, completely different languages.

Any and all languages in the Caucasus region. Those are hard to speak or learn, and they don't stay long there anyway. A lot of people there speak Russian as their second language, as well as people from Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Mongolia, etc) but again, they don't spend much time there.

Turkic languages. They learned a bit in Turkey, but again, it's not useful enough, and the dialect variations are too big without a common dialect to bind them together like Arabic had. Same thing with Greek or Albanian.

Any East Asian languages. Two non-Asians speaking any East Asian language causes too much attention.

For now, this is all I’ve got on the ‘polyglot Neil’ front. If I ever decide to include something else, it’s probably not going to be as long!

Polish. The name ‘Wesninski’ sounds Polish, if nothing else (I couldn’t find an etymology that wasn’t connected to this series) and there’s supposed to be a lot of Polish immigrants in Baltimore, so I think if Nathan Wesninski ever knew Polish, Mary would never want to hear the language again, and even if he had no connection to his Polish roots, she still would associate the language with him. Maybe Neil would one day decide to learn it, but until then it’s probably just another thing that reminds him of his father.

Bonus round:

If we're disregarding what Nora said while answering questions on tumblr and instead bend to the laws of logic, Mary and Neil would have learned Russian because it's literally THE lingua franca of Eastern Europe. It doesn't matter if you're in Bulgaria, Georgia or Kazakhstan, you speak Russian and people naturally assume you're here for work. However, I love andreil more than I love being this petty, so ig them learning Russian together is cute enough to make me forget the logistic nightmare this is.

[cincinnatusvirtue]

Commanders in Profile: Timur (1336-1405).  The Turco-Mongol Apogee.

To history he’s known as Timur or in the west as Tamerlane.  He’s one of the great conquerors of history and one who probably best epitomized the Turco-Mongol-Persianate tradition.  Taking ancestral links from the Mongols of the Mongol Empire and cultural links from the fellow nomadic Turks as well as the Persians, Timur synthesized all of these influences.  He would rise from relative obscurity to command one of the most powerful empires of the Middle Ages.

-Timur is born on April 9, 1336 in the city of Kesh, in modern day Uzbekistan.  He is a member of the Barlas, a Mongolian tribe which has been culturally Turkified over the years.  He is not a direct descendant of Genghis Khan but is evidently a distant relative through his father due to a shared common ancestor back in Mongolia.  His mother’s origins are unknown and variously described as Mongolian or even Persian.  His name means “iron” in the Chagatai Turkic language.

-By the time of Timur’s birth, the once powerful Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan has fragmented among competing junior dynasties that form separate states.  In Timur’s case, he is born into the Chagatai Khanate, which descends from Genghis Khan but has since converted to Islam and is now culturally Turkified with the majority of its populace being nomadic Turks from Central Asia.

-Timur’s father, Taraghai is a minor noble of a certain social standing and wealth in the Chagatai Khanate.

-Timur turns to the life of nomadic raiding, with a band of followers he conducts raids on travelling caravans, part of the Silk Road that pass through these lands from Europe to China.  The raids usually take good, such as animals or other measures of wealth.  During one raid against a shepherd, Timur is wounded by two arrows one to his right leg and one to his right hand, both wounds will cripple him the rest of life.  Causing Timur to lose two fingers and suffer a limp on his leg.  This will give rise to his later name in the west, Tamerlane which is a corruption of the moniker Timur the Lame.

-Timur will become a military leader of Turkic horsemen, the horse archer tradition of the Turks and Mongols would be the central element to his military thereafter.  Timur joins the Chagatai Khan on several campaigns by the 1360′s.  He invades parts of modern Iran and elsewhere in Central Asia.  Becoming leader of the Barlas after his father’s death and becoming a powerful regional governor in the area of his birth, known as Transoxiana, north of the Oxus River which flows in Central Asia.

-In time, the Chagatai Khans begin to lose their central authority and brothers of the dynasty lead to rival claims which weaken the khanate’s power.  Timur, ever the shrewd politician sides with whoever is the most advantageous for himself.  In time, Timur will reduce the khan’s to mere ceremonial figureheads.  He cannot take the title for himself because Mongol tradition dictates only direct descendants of Genghis Khan can do so and this, Timur wasn’t.  He instead take the title, Amir which is Arabic for leader, and connotes a military or noble designation which suited Timur, a king in all but name.

-Timur was known to have been multilingual speaking Mongolian, Chagatai Turkic and Persian.  This multilingualism would have an appeal in addition to his personal appeal through his intelligence and military prowess.  His Mongol linguistics appealed to his tribesmen, giving him a premiere position in their society.  His Chagatai Turkic language was the language of his military, it appealed to the core of his army, namely his rank and file horse archers of Turkic extraction.  His Persian skills which became the language of culture and governance in the Islamic world from Anatolia to India, appealed to the artisans, politicians, religious clergy and engineers.

-Timur would typically destroy whole cities and their populaces, save for artisans and engineers, people who he could put to work in his own capital, Samarkand, Uzbekistan.  

-Timur over the coming decades invaded Persia (modern Iran) as well as Afghanistan as well as consolidated control of Transoxiana.  His empire, known in history as the Timurid Empire would control much of Central and West Asia.  in 1380 he invaded Persia which has been party of the Mongol successor state, the Ilkhanate.  However, due to the Black Death plague of the 1330′s-1340′s, the khanate dynasty was devastated and collapsed.  Causing a number of fragmented successor states to rise up in its wake.  Due to their decentralized nature, Timur with his consolidated strength was able to overcome enemy after enemy.  Gradually ruling over the whole of Persia.

-Timur also was popular with his people due to his supposedly charitable nature, increasing schools and patronizing the arts, namely religious in nature.

-He called himself the “Sword of Islam” and setup a cult of personality to appeal to both his Mongol lineage and his Islamic religion.  He could neither be the Great Khan by restriction of birth in the traditional confines of Mongol culture nor could he be the Caliph of Islam by din of descent.  Instead through his military victories and charity would he appeal as a spiritual successor to both these claims, a sort of personal ordination by the hand of God.

-The title, Sword of Islam was questionable given that most of his enemies were fellow Muslims, nevertheless the moniker persisted.

-Timur’s varied campaigns took his expanse further west into Mesopotamia and Syria, conquering Baghdad from the Turkic khanates that survived.  Additionally, in the 1380′s he came into conflict with the Golden Horde or Tatars.  The Golden Horde was the Mongol successor state that ruled over the Caucasus and Eurasian steppe of southern Russia and Ukraine.  In time, his long off and on campaigns with the Golden Horde would permanently weaken them.  In a ripple effect of Timur’s conflict with the Golden Horde, the Slavic Rus’ principalities which had been vassals of the Mongols since the 13th century now were able to gradually rebel and become independent giving rise to medieval Russia under the power of the princely city-state of Muscovy or Moscow.

-In 1398, Timur turned his attention to the Dehli Sultanate of Northern India which was ruled by the Turco-Indian Tughlaq dynasty.  In the battle of Dehli, Timur showed his characteristic tactical prowess.  Facing a large Indian army that included armored elephants draped in chain mail and with tusks dipped in poison. Knowing his men were afraid of the elephants and the damage they could do, Timur planned to likewise panic the elephants and reverse their charge on the battlefield.  Prior to the battle, he had a trench dug by his men to slow the elephants advance.  Then he loaded up pack camels and tied hay and wood to their backs.  He set these bundles of hay and wood on fire and prodded the camels with hit iron pokers which sent them charging forward toward the elephants.  This bit of psychological warfare worked, scaring the elephants at the sight of camels, howling in pain with flames emitting from their backs.  The elephants turned and stampeded towards their own lines from which the Timurid army launched a follow up attack overwhelming the Indian army.  

-Timur had 100,000 people executed in Delhi, sacked and burnt the city and looted its many riches to be swept back to Samarkand.  This would be emulated when the Persian Shah, Nader Shah in the early 18th century would likewise attack and sack Delhi, ironically then under the leadership of Timur’s descendants.

-1399 saw Timur declare war on the Ottoman Empire then rising in Anatolia as well as the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

-1400 saw an invasion of Armenia and Georgia in one of his few campaigns against Christians, as many as 60,000 were enslaved and untold numbers killed with entire districts being depopulated.

-The war with the Ottomans, actually started as a series of insulting letters exchanged with the then Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I.  The Ottomans has in the last century risen from semi-obscure beylik in western Anatolia to the most powerful Anatolian Turkic state and one with a presence in Europe with conquest of the Balkans and laying siege to the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople.  However, Timur invaded Anatolia, claiming over lordship of all Turkmen rulers.  Bayezid was forced to lift his siege of Constantinople and instead contend with Timur.

-Things came to a head in 1402 at the Battle of Ankara in central Anatolia when the Timurid and Ottoman armies, the two rising Islamic powers of the age would meet.  Both armies were large and fought very hard that day, especially of note were the Serbian knights who were vassals of the Ottomans.  Their heavy armor repelled the Timurid cavalry’s arrows and the ferocity of the Serbian troops caused Timur to remark that Serbs “fought like lions”.  Nevertheless, Ottoman troops on a forced march in summer heat were tired and thirsty from the outset and exhaustion set in and allowed the Timurids with their superior numbers to gradually overwhelm them, though the Serb and Romanian vassals fled the battlefield realizing it a lost cause, Bayezid stayed on to fight.  The Ottomans tired, thirsty, partially abandoned by their European troops and then betrayed by their own Tatars who joined the Timurid ranks were eventually surrounded and Bayezid himself was captured and taken prisoner.  Never before or ever again would an Ottoman Sultan be taken prisoner on the field of battle, he died in captivity a few months later.

-With Bayezid’s death a civil war in the Ottoman Empire would take place among his sons which provided some relief to the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire as Constantinople would be spared for another few decades.  Timur had unintentionally bought them more time.  This victory over the Ottomans earned Timur fame in Europe and actually earned him some praise, unique for a Muslim ruler in the eyes of Christian Europe.

-In fact Timur engaged in diplomatic exchanges with France and the Spanish Kingdom of Castile during this time, each sending embassies back and forth.  Timur referred to the Castilian king Henry III as like a son.  Overall, mixed views of Timur pervaded, his barbaric mass beheadings were condemned but his running interference against a common enemy in the Ottoman Empire was appreciated.  

-His westward expansion took him to western Anatolia and city of Smyrna which had an Ottoman contingent hiding and protected by Christian Knights of Rhodes and supported by Genoese Italian sailors.  The Timurids put up a two week siege which finally succeeded in capturing the city despite fierce resistance from the Knights of Rhodes.  Much of the city as was Timur’s custom was executed by mass beheading, burning or burying alive. Some Knights escaped on Genoese ships as did the Ottomans, ferried back to the Balkans where they were safe.  This marked the extent of Timur’s westward expanse, he returned east to his empire having wrought the necessary damage upon the Ottomans and setting them up for a 12 year long civil war which kept them distracted.

-Timur, next planned an eastward campaign against the Ming dynasty of China which had overthrown the Mongol over lordship of China which had existed since the days of Genghis Khan.  Timur’s goal was to conquer China and restore Mongol rule there now with an Islamic flavor.  In 1405 he set out after months of preparation and died en route to China in Kazakhstan on February 17th of that year.  His cause of death is believed to have been the common cold, though is not known definitively.  He was by then nearing his 70′s and was liable to have been prone to death by disease.

-Timur was buried in simplistic fashion though in an ornate mausoleum in Samarkand.  His tomb was said to had a curse placed on it.  That anyone who disturbed it would face a great calamity.  Nader Shah, his Turco-Persian emulator in the 18th century is rumored to have taken some jade from Timur’s tomb only to have his son fall ill until the jade was returned.  Most famously in 1941 with Uzbekistan part of the USSR, Soviet scientists exhumed Timur’s body and conducted research confirming his disability and able to get a description of his body size, frame and reconstruct his facial features.  The exhumation took place days before the Nazi invasion of the USSR.  Some have tried to link the events.  Indeed Timur’s body was re entombed in 1942 prior to the victory of Stalingrad which shifted the tide of war on the Eastern Front of World War II.  Whether one believes in a link between these events and disturbances to the tomb of Timur, the idea of a curse persists into the modern era.

-Timur’s legacy was a one of great ambition and a demonstration of the power of the individual to through their own deeds appeal to others and in doing so come to wield great power and influence.  He attempted to straddle legacies that influenced him, a Mongol tradition and an Islamic religious duty, both of which motivated him to attempt a Mongol renaissance but combine with Islam’s religious unity.  Timur might not have been able to succeed in all his ambition due to time and his death but his achievements were certainly vast and plentiful.

-His legacy isn’t just military victory and conquest but it is one of patronizing art and in his attempt to put forth that Turco-Mongol tradition with Islamic influences that influenced architecture in Central Asia and the greater Islamic world in general.  He also had a legacy that lived outside him and beyond him.  His campaigns indirectly gave rise to the later Russian Empire and preserved the Byzantine Empire.  His own love of Persian culture and government administration became a hallmark of Islamic empires for ages to come in terms of language and high culture.

-Timur’s legacy is also one that existed within his family, his empire never really maintained the stability it did under him, his successors ruled but another century or so but the state began to crumble and decentralize much like predecessor states in the region had before him.  Eventually the Uzbek tribes and the Kurdish Safavid dynasty which came to rule Persia in the 1500′s replaced the remnants of the Timurid Empire and the various Turkic tribes in its power vacuum.  One of his descendants by the name of Babur escaped to the east and established power over Delhi forming the Mughal Empire which spread Islam throughout India and came to rule much of the subcontinent for the next several centuries.

-Finally, Timur’s atrocities need to be accounted for as well, millions dead due to war, mass executions or through famine and disease are attested too.  Some estimates say upward of 17 million died as a result of Timur’s campaigns through various causes, roughly this was 5% of the world’s estimated total population at the time.  Already ravaged by the Black Death decades before, it would take some places decades if not centuries to recover its population...

[ayearinlanguage]

A Year in Language, Day 350: Udmurt Udmurt is a Uralic language, of the Permic branch, same as Komi which was featured in this series earlier this year. It is spoken by some 3-400,000 people in the Russian republic of Udmurtia. Udmurtia lies adjacent to Tatarstan, home to Tatar, a turkic language. Contact with the prominent ethnic group has resulted in a mighty influx of loanwords. In certain dialects and registers Tatar loans make up over 30% of the vocabulary. Like other Uralic languages, Udmurt is agglutination with a robust system of case suffixes. It also lacks the common Uralic traits of vowel harmony and vowel length. Udmurt, along with Tatar, have been highly influential on unique Yiddish dialect spoken by Tatar and Udmurt Jews.