Chagatay alphabet
| Chagatai | |
|---|---|
| جغتای Jağatāy | |
| Region | Khorasan (Central Asia) |
| Era | 15th to early 20th century |
|
Turkic
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
|
Linguist list
|
chg |
| Glottolog | chag1247 |
Chagatai (جغتای Jağatāy) is an extinct Turkic language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia, and remained the shared literary language there until the early 20th century. It was also spoken by the early Mughal rulers in the Indian subcontinent, where it influenced the development of Hindustani. Ali-Shir Nava'i was the greatest representative of Chagatai literature.
As part of the preparation for the 1924 establishment of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, Chagatai was officially renamed "Old Uzbek", which Edward A. Allworth argued "badly distorted the literary history of the region" and was used to give authors such as the 15th-century author Ali-Shir Nava'i an Uzbek identity. It was also referred to as "Sart". In China it is sometimes called "ancient Uyghur".
The word Chagatai relates to the Chagatai Khanate (1225 –1680s), a descendant empire of the Mongol Empire left to Genghis Khan's second son, Chagatai Khan. Many of the Chagatai Turks and Tatars, who were the speakers of this language, claimed descent from Chagatai Khan.
Chagatai belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family. It is descended from the Old Turkic language that served as a lingua franca in Central Asia, with a strong infusion of Arabic and Persian words and turns of phrase. Its literary form was based on two earlier literary Middle Turkic languages, Karakhanid and Khorezmian. It can be divided into three periods:
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