Turkic–Mongolic Lexical Layer in Shajara-i Tarakima: Historical-Phonetic and Semantic Perspectives

Abstract

This article investigates the seventeenth-century chronicle Shajara-i Tarakima (“Genealogy of the Turkmens”) by Abu’l-Gazi Bahadur Khan as a key source for understanding the historical interaction of Turkic and Mongolic languages. Far beyond its genealogical narrative, the text preserves a rich lexicon and structural features that reveal a sustained bilingual environment in Central Asia. Using comparative-historical, philological, and contact-linguistic methods, the study examines more than four thousand distinct lexemes recorded in the best manuscript and printed editions. Quantitative analysis shows that roughly one quarter of the vocabulary is of Mongolic origin, while the remainder reflects Oghuz, Kipchak, and Chagatai Turkic layers. Administrative and military terminology–daruga, tümen, sölde–anchors the Mongolic component, whereas everyday, natural, and spiritual terms remain predominantly Turkic. Phonological evidence such as the retention of initial b- and the Mongolic d > j alternation confirms that two sound systems operated side by side. Morphological investigation demonstrates full integration of many borrowings. Words like tümen, sölde, and jirga accept Turkic plural, possessive, and case suffixes and even generate new derivatives (tümenlik, söldeshi, jirgalash). Semantic analysis reveals further adaptation: batur broadens from “warrior” to “moral leader,” nökör expands from sworn companion to intimate friend, and tör narrows to the concrete seat of rulership. These changes mirror shifting political and social realities of the Khivan Khanate. The findings show that Shajara-i Tarakima records a reciprocal, long-term process of language contact in which Turkic and Mongolic elements merged into a stable hybrid idiom.