Editing Bulgars (section)

== Etymology and origin ==
The etymology of the ethnonym ''[[wikt:Bulgar|Bulgar]]'' is not completely understood and difficult to trace back earlier than the 4th century AD.<ref name="Gurov">{{cite web |last=Gurov |first=Dilian |date=March 2007 |title=The Origins of the Bulgars |url=https://www.nada.kth.se/~dilian/bulgars.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014084810/https://www.nada.kth.se/~dilian/bulgars.pdf |archive-date=2017-10-14 |access-date=2015-05-14 |pages=3}}</ref>{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=103–104}} Since the work of [[Wilhelm Tomaschek|Tomaschek]] (1873),{{sfn|Karatay|2003|p=24}} it is generally said to be derived from [[Proto-Turkic]] root *''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Turkic/bulga-|bulga-]]''<ref>[https://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=%2fdata%2falt%2fturcet&text_number=+893&root=config bulga-] in Starostin et al. "Turkic Etymology" ''Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages'' (2003). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.</ref> ("to stir", "to mix"; "to become mixed"), which with the consonant suffix ''-r'' implies a noun meaning "mixed".{{sfn|Karatay|2003|p=24, 27}}{{sfn|Chen|2012|p=96}} 
Other scholars have added that ''bulğa'' might also imply "stir", "disturb", "confuse"{{sfn|Bowersock, Brown, Grabar|1999|p=354}}{{sfn|Golden|2011|p=143}}{{sfn|Clauson|1972|p=337}} and [[Talat Tekin]] interpreted ''Bulgar'' as the verb form "mixing" (i.e. rather than the adjective "mixed").{{sfn|Karatay|2003|p=24}} Both [[Gyula Németh (linguist)|Gyula Németh]] and [[Peter Benjamin Golden]] initially advocated the "mixed race" theory, but later, like [[Paul Pelliot]],{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=384}} considered that "to incite", "rebel", or "to produce a state of disorder", i.e. the "disturbers",{{sfn|Chen|2012|p=97}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Leif Inge Ree Petersen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BRGaAAAAQBAJ |title=Siege Warfare and Military Organization in the Successor States (400–800 AD): Byzantium, the West and Islam |date=2013 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004254466 |pages=369}}</ref>{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=104}}{{sfn|Golden|2011|p=143}} was a more likely etymology for migrating nomads.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=104}}{{sfn|Golden|2011|p=143}}

According to [[Osman Karatay]], if the "mixed" etymology relied on the westward migration of the [[Oghur (tribe)|Oğurs]], meeting and merging with the Huns, north of the Black Sea, it was a faulty theory, since the Oghurs were documented in Europe as early as 463, while the Bulgars were not mentioned until 482 – an overly short time period for any such [[ethnogenesis]] to occur.{{sfn|Karatay|2003|p=25}}

However, the "mixing" in question  may have occurred before the Bulgars migrated from further east, and scholars such as [[Sanping Chen]] have noted analogous groups in [[Inner Asia]], with phonologically similar names, who were frequently described in similar terms: during the 4th century, the ''[[Jie people|Buluoji]]'' ([[Middle Chinese]] ''b'uo-lak-kiei''), a component of the "[[Five Barbarians|Five Barbarian]]" groups in Ancient China, were portrayed as both a "mixed race" and "troublemakers".{{sfn|Chen|2012|p=92–95, 97}} [[Peter A. Boodberg]] noted that the ''Buluoji'' in the Chinese sources were recorded as remnants of the [[Xiongnu]] confederation,{{sfn|Chen|2012|pp=83–90}} and had strong Caucasian elements.{{sfn|Chen|2012|pp=92–97}}

Another theory linking the Bulgars to a Turkic people of Inner Asia has been put forward by [[Boris Simeonov]], who identified them with the ''Pugu'' (僕骨; ''buk/buok kwət''; ''Buqut''), a [[Tiele people|Tiele]] and/or [[Toquz Oguz]] tribe.{{sfn|Golden|2012|loc=footnote 37}}<ref name="Origin" /> The Pugu were mentioned in Chinese sources from 103 BC up to the 8th century AD,<ref name="Origin" /> and later were situated among the eastern Tiele tribes, as one of the highest-ranking tribes after the [[Uyghur Khaganate|Uyghurs]].{{sfn|Golden|2012|loc=footnote 37}}

According to the ''Chronicle'' by [[Michael the Syrian]], which comprises several historical events of different age into one story, three mythical [[Scythians|Scythian]] brothers set out on a journey from the mountain Imaon ([[Tian Shan]]) in Asia and reached the river Tanais ([[Don River (Russia)|Don]]), the country of the [[Alans]] called [[Barsils|Barsalia]], which would be later inhabited by the Bulgars and the Pugurs (''Puguraje'').<ref name="Barsils" />

The names [[Onoğurs|Onoğur]] and Bulgar were linked by later Byzantine sources for reasons that are unclear.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=103}}{{sfn|Bowersock, Brown, Grabar|1999|p=354}}{{sfn|Golden|2011|p=143}}Tekin derived ''-gur'' from the Altaic suffix ''-gir''.<ref>Tekin, Talat, ''Tuna Bulgarları ve Dilleri'' (1987). Türk Dil Kurumu. p. 66</ref> Generally, modern scholars consider the terms ''oğuz'' or ''oğur'', as generic terms for [[Turkic tribal confederations]], to be derived from Turkic ''*og/uq'', meaning "kinship or being akin to".{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=96}} The terms initially were not the same, as ''oq/ogsiz'' meant "arrow",{{sfn|Golden|2012|p=96}} while ''oğul'' meant "offspring, child, son", ''oğuš/uğuš'' was "tribe, clan", and the verb ''oğša-/oqša'' meant "to be like, resemble".{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=96}}

There also appears to be an etymological association between the Bulgars and the preceding [[Kutrigur]] (''Kuturgur'' > ''Quturğur'' > ''*Toqur(o)ğur'' < ''toqur''; "nine" in Proto-Bulgar; ''toquz'' in Common Turkic) and [[Utigur]] (''Uturgur'' > ''Uturğur'' < ''utur/otur''; "thirty" in Proto-Bulgar; ''otuz'' in Common Turkic) – as ''[[Oghur (tribe)|<nowiki/>'Oğur]]'' (Oghur) tribes, with the ethnonym Bulgar as a "spreading" adjective{{vague|date=September 2016}}{{explain|date=September 2016}}.{{sfn|Karatay|2003|p=24}}  Golden considered the origin of the Kutrigurs and Utigurs to be obscure and their relationship to the Onogurs and Bulgars – who lived in similar areas at the same time – as unclear.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=99}}{{sfn|Golden|2011|p=140}}

He noted, however, an implication that the Kutrigurs and Utigurs were related to the [[Saragurs|Šarağurs]] (''šara oğur'', ''shara oghur''; "white oğhurs"),{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=97, 99}} and that according to [[Procopius]] these were Hunnish tribal unions, of partly [[Cimmerians|Cimmerian]] descent.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=99}}<ref name="Origin" /> Karatay considered the Kutrigurs and Utigurs to be two related, ancestral people, and prominent tribes in the later Bulgar union, but different from the Bulgars.{{sfn|Karatay|2003|p=24–29}}

Among many other theories regarding the etymology of Bulgar, the following have also had limited support.

* an [[Eastern Germanic languages|Eastern Germanic]] root meaning "combative" (i.e. cognate with the Latin ''pugnax''), according to D. Detschev;{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=384}}
* the Latin ''burgaroi'' – a Roman term mercenaries stationed in ''burgi'' ("forts") on the ''[[Limes (Roman Empire)|limes]]'' (G. A. Keramopulos);{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=384}}
* a reconstructed but unattested early Turkic term meaning "five oğhur", such as ''*bel-gur'' or ''*bil-gur'' ([[Zeki Velidi Togan]]).{{sfn|Karatay|2003|p=28}}