Khalaj Spoken?

Mavi Boncuk |

Khalaj is spoken primarily in iran and Afghanistan. It belongs to the Turkic family of languages. There were approximately 17,000 speakers of this language as of 1968. (How many now?)

Not a dialect of Azerbaijani, as previously supposed. An independent language distinct from other extant Turkish languages (Doerfer 1971). Most are bilingual in Farsi. Some children know only Farsi. Pronounced with two long or back a's. Different from Indo-Iranian Khalaj. Muslim authors agree that the Khalaj are one of the earliest tribes to have crossed the Oxus. In addition to I. Khurdadhbih whom we have quoted above, Istakhri (circa AD 930) [1] says: �The Khalaj are a class of Turks who in the days of the old (fi qadim al-ayyam) came to the country stretching between India and the districts of Sijistan, behind Ghur. They are cattle breeders of Turkish appearance (khilaq), dress, and language.

The fact is that the important Ghilzai tribe occupies now the region round Ghazni, where the Khalaj used to live and that historical data all point, to the transformation of the Turkish Khalaj into Afghan Ghilzai. Even the phonetic evolution of the name has nothing astonishing. The ancient Turkish form was Qalaj (or Qalach), and it is well known that Turkish q was heard by the Arabs now as kh and now as gh. Qalaj could have a parallel form Ghalaj of which it was easv to bring the end in conformity with the usual Afghan terminology of zae, zai (= Persian �zada).

There is absolutely nothing astonishing in a tribe of nomad habits changing its language. This happened with the Mongols settled among Turks and probably with some Turks living among Kurds.

Source: Doerfer, G.. 1971. Khalaj Materials. Indiana University Publications. Uralic and Altaic Series. Volume 115. Bloomington. ISBN 87750-150-5.

See Also: The Khalaj West of the Oxus by V. Minorsky / Excerpts from "The Turkish Dialect of the Khalaj", Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Vol 10, No 2, pp 417-437