Editing Bulgar language (section)

{{Short description|Extinct Oghur Turkic language}}
{{Distinguish|text=the [[Bulgarian language]]}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Bulgar
| region           = From [[Central Asia]] to the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe]], the [[Volga]] and the [[Danube]] and [[Southern Italy]] ([[Molise]], [[Campania]])
| ethnicity        = [[Bulgars]]
| extinct          = {{Citation needed span|By the 9th or 10th centuries on the Danube and by the 14th century in the Volga region|date=November 2023}}
| familycolor      = Altaic
| fam1             = [[Turkic languages|Turkic]]
| fam2             = [[Oghuric languages|Oghuric]]
| iso3             = xbo
| glotto           = bolg1250
| glottorefname    = Bolgarian
| linglist         = xbo
}}

'''Bulgar''' (also known as '''Bulghar''', '''Bolgar''', or '''Bolghar''') is an extinct [[Oghuric languages|Oghur]] [[Turkic language]] spoken by the [[Bulgars]].

The name is derived from the Bulgars, a tribal association that established the Bulgar state known as [[Old Great Bulgaria]] in the mid-7th century, giving rise to the [[First Bulgarian Empire|Danubian Bulgaria]] by the 680s.<ref name="brit">Encyclopædia Britannica Online – [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-80003/Turkic-languages ''Bolgar Turkic''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080623115154/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-80003/Turkic-languages |date=2008-06-23 }}</ref><ref name = "campbell">Campbell, George L. ''Compendium of the World's Languages''. [[Routledge]], 2000. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jeX-i2Ve0CgC&pg=RA2-PA274&dq=bulgar+language+turkic+danube&sig=djDXx0auQm9scuJKrQAOcJkWL0s ''page 274'']</ref><ref name=marc>Marcantonio, Angela. ''The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics''. Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2002. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Cp-tB08yd2EC&pg=PA25&dq=%22three+parts%22+bulgar+language+turkic&sig=EsfSon0NiB5cHYPxjoHzkIrpL80 ''page 25'']</ref> While the language initially went extinct in Danubian Bulgaria (in favour of [[Old Bulgarian]]), it persisted in [[Volga Bulgaria]], but even there it was eventually replaced by the modern [[Chuvash language]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cp-tB08yd2EC&pg=PA167 |title=The Uralic language family: facts, myths and statistics |first=Angela |last=Marcantonio |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2002 |isbn=0-631-23170-6 |page=167}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=29BAeKHwvuoC&pg=PA88 |title=Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe |first=Glanville |last=Price |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2000 |isbn=0-631-22039-9 |page=88}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJ-7yFXRpiYC&pg=PA38 |title=Studies in Turkic and Mongolic linguistics |first=Gerard |last=Clauson |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2002 |isbn=0-415-29772-9 |page=38}}</ref> Other than Chuvash, Bulgar is the only language to be definitively classified as an Oghur Turkic language.

The inclusion of other languages such as [[Hunnish language|Hunnish]], [[Khazar language|Khazar]] and [[Sabir people|Sabir]] within Oghur Turkic remains speculative owing to the paucity of historical records. Some scholars suggest [[Hunnic language|Hunnish]] had strong ties with Bulgar and to modern Chuvash<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pritsak |first=Omeljan |author-link=Omeljan Pritsak |date=1982 |title=The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41036005 |journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies |publisher=[[Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute]] |volume=IV |issue=4 |pages=470 |issn=0363-5570 |jstor=41036005 |quote="The language had strong ties to Bulgar language and to modern Chuvash, but also had some important connections, especially lexical and morphological, to Ottoman Turkish and Yakut" |place=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}</ref> and refer to this extended grouping as separate Hunno-Bulgar languages.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Archived |first=Article |title="The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan" (pages 428, ..., 476), author: Omeljan Pritsak |url=https://www.academia.edu/88411462 |journal= |pages=430 |quote="I was able to establish a Danube- Bulgarian nominative- suffix /A/ from the consonant stems. Recalling that Danube- Bulgarian was a Hunnic language."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ramer |first=Alexis Manaster |title=Proto-Bulgarian/Danube Bulgar/Hunno-Bulgar Bekven |url=https://www.academia.edu/41975042 |journal= |page=1 p |quote="Granberg's suggestion that we should revive the term Hunno-Bulgar may well became that replacement — once it is clear that Hunnic and Bulgar were closely related and perhaps even the same language."}}</ref> However, such speculations are not based on proper linguistic evidence, since the language of the Huns is almost unknown except for a few attested words, which are Indo-European in origin, and personal names. Thus, scholars generally consider Hunnish as unclassifiable.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Savelyev |first=Alexander |title=Chuvash and the Bulgharic Languages |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/41762/chapter-abstract/354239965?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false |access-date=2024-03-30 |website=academic.oup.com |date=27 May 2020 |pages=448 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-880462-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Golden |first=Peter B. |title=An introduction to the history of the Turkic peoples: ethnogenesis and state-formation in medieval and early modern Eurasia and the Middle East |date=1992 |publisher=O. Harrassowitz |isbn=978-3-447-03274-2 |series=Turcologica |location=Wiesbaden |pages=88 89}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=RÓNA-TAS |first=ANDRÁS |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7829/j.ctv280b77f |title=Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages |date=1999-03-01 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-386-572-9 |pages=208|doi=10.7829/j.ctv280b77f }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sinor |first=Denis |title=Studies in medieval inner Asia |date=1997 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-0-86078-632-0 |series=Collected studies series |location=Aldershot, Hampshire |pages=336}}</ref>