Editing Karaim language (section)

==History==

===Karaims in Crimea and Lithuania===
The origin of the Karaims living in Crimea is subject to much dispute and inconsistency. Difficulty in reconstructing their history stems from the scarcity of documents pertaining to this population. Most of the known history is gathered from correspondence between the populations of Karaims and other populations in the 17th to 19th centuries.{{sfn|Akhiezer|2003}} Furthermore, a large number of documents pertaining to the Crimean population of Karaims were burned during the 1736 Russian invasion of the Tatar Khanate's capital, [[Bakhchysarai|Bakhchisarai]].{{sfn|Akhiezer|2003}}

Some scholars say that Karaims in Crimea are descendants of [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]] merchants who migrated to Crimea from the [[Byzantine Empire]].{{sfn|Schur|1995}} In one particular incidence, migration of Karaites from [[Constantinople]] (modern-day [[Istanbul]]) to Crimea is documented following a fire in the Jewish quarter in 1203.{{sfn|Tsoffar|2006}} After the Turco-Mongol invasions, settlement of merchants in Crimea may have been encouraged in the 13th and 14th centuries by the active trade routes from Crimea to China and Central Asia.{{sfn|Schur|1995}}

On the other hand, "many scholars consider Karaims as descendants of [[Khazars]] and, later, [[Kipchak people|Polovtsi]] tribes" who converted to [[Karaite Judaism]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://karaim-institute.narod.ru/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312085359/http://karaim-institute.narod.ru/ |title=International Institute of the Crimean Karaites |archive-date= 12 March 2007 |first1=Valentine |last1=Kefeli}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=November 2019}} Kevin Alan Brook considered the link to the Khazars as historically inaccurate and implausible while claiming Talmudic Jews (especially [[Ashkenaz]]) as the true preservers of the Khazar legacy.{{sfn|Brook|2006}}

The third hypothesis says that Karaims are the descendants of Israelite tribes from the time of the first exile by an Assyrian king (720s BCE). The Karaim scholar [[Abraham Firkovich]] collected the documents arguing in favor of this theory before the Russian [[Tsar]]. He was of the opinion that Israelites from Assyria had gone into the North Caucasus and from there, with the permission of the Assyrian king into the Crimean peninsula. He also claimed that he has found the tombstone of [[Yitzhak ha-Sangari]] and his wife who he claimed were Karaims. Whether Firkovich forged some of the tombstone inscriptions and manuscripts is controversial.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Barry Dov |last1=Walfish |first2=Mikhail |last2=Kizilov |author-link2=Mikhail Kizilov |title=Bibliographia Karaitica: an Annotated bibliography of Karaites and Karaism. Karaite Texts and Studies |publisher=Brill |year=2010 |isbn=978-9004189270 |page=198}}</ref>

Regarding the origin of the Karaims in Lithuania also there is no complete consensus yet between the scholars. According to Lithuanian Karaim tradition they came from Crimea in 1392 when the Grand Duke [[Vytautas]] of Lithuania allied with Tokhtamysh against the [[White Horde]] Tatars and relocated 330 Karait families to Lithuania.{{sfn|Schur|1995}} Although linguistically sound, and in agreement with the tradition of the [[Lipka Tatars|Lithuanian Tatars]], claiming their origin from the collapsed [[Golden Horde]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=polish-heirs-of-tokhtamysh-2009-12-02 |title=Polish heirs of Tokhtamysh |first=Justyna |last=Szewczyk |publisher=Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review |date=December 4, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091212090000/http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=polish-heirs-of-tokhtamysh-2009-12-02 |archive-date=December 12, 2009}}</ref> some modern historians doubt this assumption.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ahiezer |first1=Golda |last2=Shapira |first2=Dan |year=2001 |trans-title=Karaites in Lithuania and in Volhynia-Galicia until the Eighteenth Century |lang=he |script-title=he:קראים בליטא ובווהלין-גליציה עד המאה הי"ח |journal=Pe'amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry |volume=89 |issue=89 |pages=19–60 |jstor=23429121}}</ref>{{sfn|Schegoleva|2011}} Nevertheless, Karaims settled primarily in Vilnius and Trakai, maintaining their Tatar language; there was also further minor settlement in [[Biržai]], [[Pasvalys]], [[Naujamiestis, Panevėžys|Naujamiestis]] and [[Upytė]]. Despite a history through the 16th and 17th centuries that included disease, famine, and pogroms, Lithuania was somewhat less affected by such turmoil than the surrounding areas. As a result, the Lithuanian Karaims had a relative sense of stability over those years, and maintained their isolation as a group, keeping their Turkic language rather than abandoning it for the local languages.{{sfn|Tütüncü|Bowman|1998}}
===Genetic affiliation of the Karaim language===
Karaim is a member of the [[Turkic languages|''Turkic language'']] family, a group of languages of Eurasia spoken by historically nomadic peoples. Within the Turkic family, Karaim is identified as a member of the [[Kipchak languages]], in turn a member of the Western branch of the Turkic language family.{{sfn|Dahl|Koptjevskaja-Tamm|2001}}{{sfn|Csató|2012}} Within the Western branch, Karaim is a part of the Ponto-Caspian subfamily.<ref>{{ethnologue15}}</ref> This language subfamily also includes the [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]] of Ukraine and Uzbekistan, and [[Karachay-Balkar language|Karachay-Balkar]] and [[Kumyk language|Kumyk]] of Russia. The close relation of Karaim to Kypchak and Crimean Tatar makes sense in light of the beginnings of the Lithuanian Karaim people in Crimea.

One hypothesis is that [[Khazars|Khazar]] nobility converted to [[Karaite Judaism]] in the late 8th or early 9th century and were followed by a portion of the general population. This may also have occurred later, under [[Mongols|Mongol rule]], during an influx of people from [[Byzantium]].{{sfn|Tütüncü|Bowman|1998}}

As all [[Turkic languages]], Karaim grammar is characterized by [[agglutinative language|agglutination]] and [[vowel harmony]]. Genetic evidence for the inclusion of the Karaim language in the Turkic language family is undisputed, based on common vocabulary and grammar. Karaim has a historically [[subject–object–verb]] word order, extensive suffixing agglutination, the presence of vowel harmony, and a lack of gender or noun classes. Lithuanian Karaim has maintained most of these Turkic features despite its history of more than six hundred years in the environment of the Lithuanian, Polish, Belarusian and Russian languages.

Most of the religious terminology in the Karaim language is [[Arabic]] in [[etymology]], showing the origins of the culture in the Middle East.{{sfn|Zajaczkowski|1961}} Arabic and [[Persian language|Persian]] had the earliest influences on the lexicon of Karaim, while later on in its history, the Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish languages made significant contributions to the lexicon of Karaims living in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania.