Karaim language
Encyclopedia
The Karaim language is a Turkic language
with Hebrew
influences, in a similar manner to Yiddish
or Ladino. It is spoken by Crimean Karaites
(also known as Karaims and Qarays) – ethnic Turkic
adherents of Karaite Judaism
in Crimea
, Lithuania
, Poland
and western Ukraine
. It has six remaining active speakers. The three main dialects are those of Crimea, Trakai
-Vilnius
and Lutsk
-Halych
.
The Lithuanian dialect of Karaim is spoken mainly in the town of Trakai
(also known as Troki) by a small community. Trakai is a former residence of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Crimean Karaites
were brought there by Grand Duke
Vytautas in 1397–1398 to defend the castle
. There is a chance the language will survive in Trakai as a result of official support as well as its appeal to tourists. Currently there is a museum in Trakai exhibiting heritage of the Karaite community, as well as Karaite cuisine restaurants. People from the community take part in some special holidays held in Trakai, and sometimes it is interpreted that the coat of arms of Trakai depicts a head of a Karaite, although it is of John the Baptist
.
can be loosely defined as a sect of Judaism that follows only the Hebrew scriptures as law and does not recognize the Oral Law (the Mishnah
and Talmud
) as authoritative (Nemoy 1987). It is widely accepted that the name Karaim comes from the Hebrew verb root קרא [qr’], “to read,” but in the Biblical sense of the studying and reading of the scriptures.
Prior to the Muslim conquests of the mid-seventh and eighth centuries, many Jewish communities of the world existed in isolation due to politics, geography, and culture. However, after the Muslim conquests, the majority of Jews came to live under unified Muslim rule, and as a result could associate more freely with one another (Astren 2004). Also as a consequence of this unification, practices which had been forgone or eschewed by the authoritative rabbis but preserved in remote areas came back into the mix of Jewish thought, causing some difficulty for the rabbis attempting to unify Jewish thought and law (Astren 2004).
Under Muslim rule, Jews were a tolerated minority. However, recognition by the Muslim government was a prerequisite to attaining the right to self-rule. This provided a strong impetus for the unification of leadership among the Jewish people in order to gain the “corporate recognition offered by Islam” (Astren 2004). Although Jewish religious activity was allowed to proceed without interference, the presence of Muslim rule exerted a strong influence on social spheres. Because Jews operated within and interacted with their Muslim societies, they experienced linguistic Arabicization and cultural Islamization in the areas of cuisine, dress, and social interaction (Astren 2004).
At the same time that Islamic rule was providing motivation for the rabbinic leadership to further the acceptance of the Talmud as a governing “constitution” for each smaller community (and thus establishing the rabbis as the authority on interpreting such a constitution), within the local communities there was also the opportunity to disagree with the rabbis. Thus not only “talmudism” but also other varieties of Judaism began to spring up in the environment of self-determination provided by the Muslim rule.
Karaite Judaism originated in Mesopotamia in the eighth and ninth centuries as a combination of a dissident branch of the House of the Exilarch
s (leaders during the Babylonian exile who traced their lineage to King David and came to be highly respected under Muslim rule) and sects operating elsewhere in the Muslim world (Gil 2003). ‘Anan ben David, one such dissident of the House of the Exilarchs, is often credited as the founder of Karaite movement. He is noted for having said חפשו בתורה שפיר ואל תשענו על דעתי, “Search well in Scripture and do not rely on my opinion” (Khan 2000). In addition, it is theorized that Karaism was a reaction to Islamic rule. Although Islamic rule recognized Judaism and respected its monotheism, there was also the criticism that by putting too much stock in the interpretations and opinions of the rabbinic scholars the Jews diminished their monotheism (Oesterley et al. 1920). Thus in the context of increased interaction between Jews and Muslims in the Islamic Empire and the Islamization of social mores, Islam had a strong influence on the development of Jewish thought and practice.
Some scholars say that Karaites in Crimea are descendants of Karaite merchants who migrated to Crimea from the Byzantine Empire (Schur 1995), presumably adopting a Turkic language upon their arrival in Crimea. In one particular incidence, migration of Karaites from Istanbul to Crimea is documented following a fire in the Jewish quarter of Istanbul in 1203 (Tsoffar 2006). Settlement of merchants in Crimea may have been encouraged in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the active trade routes from Crimea to China and Central Asia (Schur 1995).
On the other hand, there was a theory that the Crimean Karaites are descendants of Khazars
, or later, Kipchak tribes who converted to Karaism (IICK 2007). The link to the Khazars, however, is regarded by the scholarly community as historically inaccurate and implausible.
The third hypothese says that Karaites are the descendents of Israelite tribes from the time of the first Exile by an Assyrian King. Abraham Firkovich
collected the documents that prove this theory and he could prove it before the Russian tsar. He was namely of the opinion that Israelites from Assyria have gone into the North Caucasus and from there, with the permission of Assyrian king into the Crimean peninsula.
The origin of the Karaites in Lithuania is much better documented and agreed upon by the scholars. The Lithuanian Karaites originated in Crimea. In 1392, the Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania defeated the Crimean Tatars and relocated 330 Crimean Karaite families to Lithuania (Schur 1995). They settled primarily in Vilnius and Trakai, maintaining their Turkic language; there has been further minor settlement in Biržai
, Pasvalys
, Naujamiestis
and Upytė
. Despite a history through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that included disease, famine, and pogroms, Lithuania was somewhat less affected by such turmoil than surrounding areas. As a result, Lithuanian Karaim 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 (“Karaim Homepage” 1998).
Karaim features 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 SOV 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, Russian, and Polish languages.
Most of the religious terminology in the Karaim language is Arabic in etymology, showing the origins of the culture in the Middle East (Zajaczkowski 1961). A few religious terms are Hebrew as well. Arabic, Hebrew, and 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 Karaim lexicon of Karaite Jews living in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania.
living in Turkey
, Crimea
, Lithuania
, Poland
, Israel
, and the United States
. However, there only remain about 200 Karaim in Lithuania
, only one quarter of whom are competent speakers of the Karaim language (Csató 2001).
Karaim can be subdivided into three dialect
s. The now-extinct eastern dialect, known simply as Crimean Karaim, was spoken in Crimea
until the early 1900s. The northwestern dialect, also called Trakai, is spoken in Lithuania
, mainly in the towns of Trakai
and Vilnius
. The southwestern dialect, also known as the Lutsk or Halich dialect, spoken in Ukraine
, was near-extinct with only six speakers in a single town as of 2001 (Csató 2001). Crimean Karaim is considered to make up the “Eastern group,” while the Trakai and Lutsk dialects comprise the “Western group.”
Karaim speakers show a strong tendency towards code-copying (Csató 2001). Code-copying differs from code-switching in that speakers don’t just switch from one language to another, but actually transfer lexical items and grammatical features from one language to another in processes that may be only for a single instances, or that may have much more lasting effects on language typology (Csató 2001). Extensive code-copying is indicative both of the ever-shrinking population of Karaim speakers (leading to an insufficient Karaim lexicon and a high frequency of borrowing from Russian, Polish, and Slavonic languages) and of the high level of language contact in the regions where Karaim is spoken.
and the high level of multilingualism in Lithuania
in general, there is also a high level of multilingualism among Karaim
speakers. Karaim speakers also communicate with the dominant languages of their respective regions, including Lithuanian
, Polish
, and Russian
. Some also have religious knowledge of Hebrew (Csató 2001). Multilingualism is a necessity for Karaim speakers, because without other languages the majority would not even be able to communicate with members of their own family (Csató 2001).
is now endangered due to the dispersal of Karaim
speakers under the Soviet regime post-World War II and the very small number and old age of fluent speakers remaining (Csató 2001). Children and grandchildren of Karaim
speakers speak Lithuanian
, Polish
, or Russian
, and only the oldest generation still speaks Karaim.
Karaim also exhibits vowel harmony, whereby suffix vowels harmonize for front or back quality with the vowels in the stem of a word (Zajaczkowski 1961).
Long form Short form
1.sg. ał-a-myn ał-a-m
2.sg. ał-a-syn ał-a-s
3.sg. ał-a-dyr ał-a-d ~ ał-a-dy
1.pl. ał-a-byz ---
2.pl. ał-a-syz ---
3.pl. ał-dyr-łar ał-d-łar ~ ał-dy-łar
Karaim syntax exhibits multiple instances of code-copying, whereby Karaim merges with syntactic properties of other languages in its area due to strong language contact situations (Csató 2001). The impact of such language contact is also evident in the Karaim lexicon, which has extensive borrowing (Zajaczkowski 1961). In more modern times, the significant borrowing is also representative of insufficiencies in the lexicon (Csató 2001).
letters were used.
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
with Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
influences, in a similar manner to Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
or Ladino. It is spoken by Crimean Karaites
Crimean Karaites
The Crimean Karaites , also known as Karaim and Qarays, are a community of ethnic Turkic adherents of Karaite Judaism in Eastern Europe...
(also known as Karaims and Qarays) – ethnic Turkic
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
adherents of Karaite Judaism
Karaite Judaism
Karaite Judaism or Karaism is a Jewish movement characterized by the recognition of the Tanakh alone as its supreme legal authority in Halakhah, as well as in theology...
in Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and western Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. It has six remaining active speakers. The three main dialects are those of Crimea, Trakai
Trakai
Trakai is a historic city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies 28 km west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Because of its proximity to Vilnius, Trakai is a popular tourist destination. Trakai is the administrative centre of Trakai district municipality. The town covers 11.52 km2 of...
-Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
and Lutsk
Lutsk
Lutsk is a city located by the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of the surrounding Lutskyi Raion within the oblast...
-Halych
Halych
Halych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The town gave its name to the historic province and kingdom of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, of which it was the capital until the early 14th century, when the seat of the local princes was moved to Lviv...
.
The Lithuanian dialect of Karaim is spoken mainly in the town of Trakai
Trakai
Trakai is a historic city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies 28 km west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Because of its proximity to Vilnius, Trakai is a popular tourist destination. Trakai is the administrative centre of Trakai district municipality. The town covers 11.52 km2 of...
(also known as Troki) by a small community. Trakai is a former residence of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Crimean Karaites
Crimean Karaites
The Crimean Karaites , also known as Karaim and Qarays, are a community of ethnic Turkic adherents of Karaite Judaism in Eastern Europe...
were brought there by Grand Duke
Grand Duke
The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not...
Vytautas in 1397–1398 to defend the castle
Trakai Island Castle
Trakai Island Castle is an island castle located in Trakai, Lithuania on an island in Lake Galvė. The castle is sometimes referred to as "Little Marienburg". The construction of the stone castle was begun in the 14th century by Kęstutis, and around 1409 major works were completed by his son...
. There is a chance the language will survive in Trakai as a result of official support as well as its appeal to tourists. Currently there is a museum in Trakai exhibiting heritage of the Karaite community, as well as Karaite cuisine restaurants. People from the community take part in some special holidays held in Trakai, and sometimes it is interpreted that the coat of arms of Trakai depicts a head of a Karaite, although it is of John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
.
History
The origin of Karaite Judaism
Consensus has yet to be reached regarding the origin of the Karaite traditions (Khan 2000). However, Karaite JudaismJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
can be loosely defined as a sect of Judaism that follows only the Hebrew scriptures as law and does not recognize the Oral Law (the Mishnah
Mishnah
The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions called the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism. It was redacted c...
and Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
) as authoritative (Nemoy 1987). It is widely accepted that the name Karaim comes from the Hebrew verb root קרא [qr’], “to read,” but in the Biblical sense of the studying and reading of the scriptures.
Prior to the Muslim conquests of the mid-seventh and eighth centuries, many Jewish communities of the world existed in isolation due to politics, geography, and culture. However, after the Muslim conquests, the majority of Jews came to live under unified Muslim rule, and as a result could associate more freely with one another (Astren 2004). Also as a consequence of this unification, practices which had been forgone or eschewed by the authoritative rabbis but preserved in remote areas came back into the mix of Jewish thought, causing some difficulty for the rabbis attempting to unify Jewish thought and law (Astren 2004).
Under Muslim rule, Jews were a tolerated minority. However, recognition by the Muslim government was a prerequisite to attaining the right to self-rule. This provided a strong impetus for the unification of leadership among the Jewish people in order to gain the “corporate recognition offered by Islam” (Astren 2004). Although Jewish religious activity was allowed to proceed without interference, the presence of Muslim rule exerted a strong influence on social spheres. Because Jews operated within and interacted with their Muslim societies, they experienced linguistic Arabicization and cultural Islamization in the areas of cuisine, dress, and social interaction (Astren 2004).
At the same time that Islamic rule was providing motivation for the rabbinic leadership to further the acceptance of the Talmud as a governing “constitution” for each smaller community (and thus establishing the rabbis as the authority on interpreting such a constitution), within the local communities there was also the opportunity to disagree with the rabbis. Thus not only “talmudism” but also other varieties of Judaism began to spring up in the environment of self-determination provided by the Muslim rule.
Karaite Judaism originated in Mesopotamia in the eighth and ninth centuries as a combination of a dissident branch of the House of the Exilarch
Exilarch
Exilarch refers to the leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community in Babylon following the deportation of King Jeconiah and his court into Babylonian exile after the first fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE and augmented after the further deportations following the destruction...
s (leaders during the Babylonian exile who traced their lineage to King David and came to be highly respected under Muslim rule) and sects operating elsewhere in the Muslim world (Gil 2003). ‘Anan ben David, one such dissident of the House of the Exilarchs, is often credited as the founder of Karaite movement. He is noted for having said חפשו בתורה שפיר ואל תשענו על דעתי, “Search well in Scripture and do not rely on my opinion” (Khan 2000). In addition, it is theorized that Karaism was a reaction to Islamic rule. Although Islamic rule recognized Judaism and respected its monotheism, there was also the criticism that by putting too much stock in the interpretations and opinions of the rabbinic scholars the Jews diminished their monotheism (Oesterley et al. 1920). Thus in the context of increased interaction between Jews and Muslims in the Islamic Empire and the Islamization of social mores, Islam had a strong influence on the development of Jewish thought and practice.
Karaims in Crimea and Lithuania
The origin of the Karaims living in Crimea is subject to much dispute and inconsistency. Difficulty in reconstructing this history stems from the scarcity of documents pertaining to this population. Most of the known history is gathered from correspondence between the Crimean Karaite populations and populations elsewhere in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries (Akhiezer 2003). Furthermore, a large number of documents pertaining to the Crimean population of Karaim were burned during the 1736 Russian invasion of the Tatar Khanate capital of Bakhchisarai (Akhiezer 2003).Some scholars say that Karaites in Crimea are descendants of Karaite merchants who migrated to Crimea from the Byzantine Empire (Schur 1995), presumably adopting a Turkic language upon their arrival in Crimea. In one particular incidence, migration of Karaites from Istanbul to Crimea is documented following a fire in the Jewish quarter of Istanbul in 1203 (Tsoffar 2006). Settlement of merchants in Crimea may have been encouraged in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the active trade routes from Crimea to China and Central Asia (Schur 1995).
On the other hand, there was a theory that the Crimean Karaites are descendants of Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
, or later, Kipchak tribes who converted to Karaism (IICK 2007). The link to the Khazars, however, is regarded by the scholarly community as historically inaccurate and implausible.
The third hypothese says that Karaites are the descendents of Israelite tribes from the time of the first Exile by an Assyrian King. Abraham Firkovich
Abraham Firkovich
Abraham ben Samuel Firkovich was a famous leader of the Qarays . He was born in Lutsk, Volhynia, then lived in Lithuania, and finally settled in Çufut Qale, Crimea. Firkovich was a communal leader and hakham...
collected the documents that prove this theory and he could prove it before the Russian tsar. He was namely of the opinion that Israelites from Assyria have gone into the North Caucasus and from there, with the permission of Assyrian king into the Crimean peninsula.
The origin of the Karaites in Lithuania is much better documented and agreed upon by the scholars. The Lithuanian Karaites originated in Crimea. In 1392, the Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania defeated the Crimean Tatars and relocated 330 Crimean Karaite families to Lithuania (Schur 1995). They settled primarily in Vilnius and Trakai, maintaining their Turkic language; there has been further minor settlement in Biržai
Biržai
Biržai is a city in northern Lithuania. Biržai is famous for its reconstructed Biržai Castle manor, and the whole region is renowned for its many traditional-recipe beer breweries.-Names:...
, Pasvalys
Pasvalys
Pasvalys is a city in Panevėžys County, Lithuania, located near the bank of the Svalia River. Its sister city is Götene in Sweden. In 1557, the Treaty of Pozvol was signed in the town, which provoked Ivan IV of Russia to start the Livonian War.-References:...
, Naujamiestis
Kudirkos Naumiestis
Kudirkos Naumiestis is in the Šakiai district municipality, Lithuania. It is located south-west of Šakiai.The settlement was first mentioned in 1561 as a village called Duoliebaičiai. In 1639 the town was renamed Vladislavovas by Cecilia Renata of Austria after her husband Władysław IV Vasa. He...
and Upytė
Upyte
Upytė is a small village in Panevėžys district municipality in northern Lithuania. It is situated some 12 km southwest of Panevėžys on the banks of Vešeta Creek. It is now the capital of an elderate. In 1987 it had 580 residents...
. Despite a history through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that included disease, famine, and pogroms, Lithuania was somewhat less affected by such turmoil than surrounding areas. As a result, Lithuanian Karaim 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 (“Karaim Homepage” 1998).
Genetic affiliation of the Karaim language
Karaim is a member of the 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 language group, in turn a member of the Western branch of the Turkic language family (Dahl et al. 2001). Within the Western branch, Karaim is a part of the Ponto-Caspian subfamily (Ethnologue 2007). This language subfamily also includes the Crimean Tatar of Ukraine and Uzbekistan, Karachay-Balkar of Russia, and Kumyk of Russia. The close relation of Karaim to Kipchak and Crimean Tatar makes sense in light of the beginnings of the Lithuanian Karaim people in Crimea. One hypothesis is that Khazar nobility converted to Karaite Judaism in the late eighth or early ninth century and were followed by a portion of the general population. This may also have occurred later, under Mongol rule, during an influx of people from Byzantium (Tütüncü et al. 1998).Karaim features 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 SOV 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, Russian, and Polish languages.
Most of the religious terminology in the Karaim language is Arabic in etymology, showing the origins of the culture in the Middle East (Zajaczkowski 1961). A few religious terms are Hebrew as well. Arabic, Hebrew, and 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 Karaim lexicon of Karaite Jews living in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania.
Distribution of Karaim speakers
Today, there are KaraimKaraim
Karaim may refer to:*Crimean Karaites, the article about this group, and*Karaim language, the article about their language.*Karaite Judaism, a Jewish movement....
living in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. However, there only remain about 200 Karaim in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, only one quarter of whom are competent speakers of the Karaim language (Csató 2001).
Karaim can be subdivided into three dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s. The now-extinct eastern dialect, known simply as Crimean Karaim, was spoken in Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
until the early 1900s. The northwestern dialect, also called Trakai, is spoken in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, mainly in the towns of Trakai
Trakai
Trakai is a historic city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies 28 km west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Because of its proximity to Vilnius, Trakai is a popular tourist destination. Trakai is the administrative centre of Trakai district municipality. The town covers 11.52 km2 of...
and Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
. The southwestern dialect, also known as the Lutsk or Halich dialect, spoken in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, was near-extinct with only six speakers in a single town as of 2001 (Csató 2001). Crimean Karaim is considered to make up the “Eastern group,” while the Trakai and Lutsk dialects comprise the “Western group.”
Language contact
Throughout its long and complicated history, Karaim has experienced extensive language contact. A past rooted in Mesopotamia and persisting connections to the Arab world resulted in Arabic words which likely carried over via the migration of the Crimean and Lithuanian Karaim people from Mesopotamia. The Karaim language was spoken in Crimea during the rule of the Ottoman empire, so there is also a significant history of contact with Turkish, a member of the same language family. Finally, since Karaim has always been a small minority language in the other areas to which it dispersed, Karaim coexisted with Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian, which were all dominant majority languages in the areas where Karaim people lived and spoke their language.Karaim speakers show a strong tendency towards code-copying (Csató 2001). Code-copying differs from code-switching in that speakers don’t just switch from one language to another, but actually transfer lexical items and grammatical features from one language to another in processes that may be only for a single instances, or that may have much more lasting effects on language typology (Csató 2001). Extensive code-copying is indicative both of the ever-shrinking population of Karaim speakers (leading to an insufficient Karaim lexicon and a high frequency of borrowing from Russian, Polish, and Slavonic languages) and of the high level of language contact in the regions where Karaim is spoken.
Multilingualism
Due to the very small number of speakers of KaraimKaraim
Karaim may refer to:*Crimean Karaites, the article about this group, and*Karaim language, the article about their language.*Karaite Judaism, a Jewish movement....
and the high level of multilingualism in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
in general, there is also a high level of multilingualism among Karaim
Karaim
Karaim may refer to:*Crimean Karaites, the article about this group, and*Karaim language, the article about their language.*Karaite Judaism, a Jewish movement....
speakers. Karaim speakers also communicate with the dominant languages of their respective regions, including Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. Some also have religious knowledge of Hebrew (Csató 2001). Multilingualism is a necessity for Karaim speakers, because without other languages the majority would not even be able to communicate with members of their own family (Csató 2001).
Language health
Most dialects of Karaim are now extinct. Maintenance of the Karaim language in LithuaniaLithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
is now endangered due to the dispersal of Karaim
Karaim
Karaim may refer to:*Crimean Karaites, the article about this group, and*Karaim language, the article about their language.*Karaite Judaism, a Jewish movement....
speakers under the Soviet regime post-World War II and the very small number and old age of fluent speakers remaining (Csató 2001). Children and grandchildren of Karaim
Karaim
Karaim may refer to:*Crimean Karaites, the article about this group, and*Karaim language, the article about their language.*Karaite Judaism, a Jewish movement....
speakers speak Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, or Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, and only the oldest generation still speaks Karaim.
Consonant inventory
| |labial | labiodental | alveolar | postalveolar | palatal | velar | uvular | pharyngeal | |||
| stops | p b | t d | k g | |||||||
| nasals | m | n | ||||||||
| fricatives | f v | s z | š ž | γ | χ | |||||
| approximates | r | j | ł |
Phonotactics
While most languages of the Turkic family exhibit palatal vowel harmony, Trakai Karaim shows harmony in palatalization of consonants. Thus, in any given word, only palatalized or only non-palatalized consonants can be found (Németh 2003). Palatalized consonants occur in the presence of front vowels, and non-palatalized consonants occur in the presence of back vowels. Similarly to most Turkic languages, virtually all of the consonants in Karaim exist in both a palatalized and a non-palatalized form, which may be further evidence of their genetic relationship (Hansson 2007). However, care must be taken in assuming as much, because Karaim has been in contact with Turkic languages in Lithuania for hundreds of years.Karaim also exhibits vowel harmony, whereby suffix vowels harmonize for front or back quality with the vowels in the stem of a word (Zajaczkowski 1961).
Morphology
Karaim morphology is suffixing and highly agglutinating. The Karaim language lacks prefixes and uses postpositions. Nouns are inflected for seven cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, locative, and instrumental, which is rare in other Turkic languages). A notable feature of verb conjugation in Karaim is the possibility of abbreviated forms, as shown below for the verb [ał], “to take” (Németh 2003):Long form Short form
1.sg. ał-a-myn ał-a-m
2.sg. ał-a-syn ał-a-s
3.sg. ał-a-dyr ał-a-d ~ ał-a-dy
1.pl. ał-a-byz ---
2.pl. ał-a-syz ---
3.pl. ał-dyr-łar ał-d-łar ~ ał-dy-łar
Syntax
Historically, Karaim had a typically Turkic SOV word order. However, it appears to have acquired somewhat free word order due to extensive language contact situations, and currently has a preference for SVO constructions (Csató 2001). Due to the agglutinative nature of Karaim morphology, pronominal subjects are frequently dropped as the same information is already represented in the inflection of the main verb. Karaim is head-final and uses postpositions.Karaim syntax exhibits multiple instances of code-copying, whereby Karaim merges with syntactic properties of other languages in its area due to strong language contact situations (Csató 2001). The impact of such language contact is also evident in the Karaim lexicon, which has extensive borrowing (Zajaczkowski 1961). In more modern times, the significant borrowing is also representative of insufficiencies in the lexicon (Csató 2001).
Writing system
In Crimea and Ukraine, Karaim was written using Cyrillic script, while in Lithuania and Poland, a modified Latin alphabet is used. From the 17th century up until the 19th century, HebrewHebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...
letters were used.
Further reading
- Akhiezer, Golda. 2003. “The history of the Crimean Karaites during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.” pp. 729–757 in Polliack, Meira (ed.). Karaite Judaism: A Guide to its History and Literary Sources. Boston: Brill.
- Astren, Fred. 2004. Karaite Judaism and Historical Understanding. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
- Csató, Éva Ágnes, Nathan, D., & Firkavičiūtė, K. (2003). Spoken Karaim. [London: School of Oriental and African Studies].
- ---. 2001. “Syntactic code-copying in Karaim.”
- Dahl, Östen and Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm. 2001. Circum-Baltic Languages.
- Gil, Moshe. 2003. “The origins of the Karaites.” pp. 73–118 in Polliack, Meira (ed.). Karaite Judaism: A Guide to its History and Literary Sources. Boston: Brill.
- Hansson, Gunnar Ólafur. 2007. “On the evolution of consonant harmony: the case of secondary articulation agreement.” Phonology. 24: 77-120.
- International Institute of the Crimean Karaites (IICK). 2007. “Crimean Karaites.”
- Khan, Geoffrey. 2000. The Early Karaite Tradition of Hebrew Grammatical Thought. Boston: Brill.
- Kocaoğlu, T., & Firkovičius, M. (2006). Karay: the Trakai dialect. Languages of the world, 458. Muenchen: Lincom Europa. ISBN 3895864900
- The language of Western Ukrainian Karaites: Part one. A brief essay : comp. by V. A. Mireyev, N. D. Abrahamowicz – Simferopol, Ukraine – Polevskoy, Russia – Slippery Rock, USA: 2008 – 96 pp.
- The language of Western Ukrainian Karaites: Part two. Karaite–Russian–Ukrainian–English dictionary :comp. by V. A. Mireyev, N. D. Abrahamowicz – Simferopol, Ukraine – Polevskoy, Russia – Slippery Rock, USA: 2008 – 184 pp.
- The language of Western Ukrainian Karaites: Part three. Russian–Karaite Dictionary : comp. by V. A. Mireyev, N. D. Abrahamowicz – Simferopol, Ukraine – Polevskoy, Russia – Slippery Rock, USA: 2008 – 116 pp.
- Németh, Michał. 2003. “Grammatical features.” Karaimi.
- Nemoy, Leon. 1987. “Karaites.” In Mircea Eliade, ed., The Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: MacMillan.
- Oesterley, W. O. E. and G. H. Box. 1920. A Short Survey of the Literature of Rabbinical and Mediaeval Judaism. Burt Franklin: New York.
- Schur, Nathan. 1995. “Karaites in Lithuania.” in The Karaite Encyclopedia.
- SIL International. 2007. “Linguistic Lineage for Karaim.” Ethnologue.com.
- Tsoffar, Ruth. 2006. Stains of Culture: an Ethno-Reading of Karaite Jewish Women. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
- Tütüncü, Mehmet and Inci Bowman. 1998. “Karaim Homepage.”
- Zajaczkowski, Ananiasz. 1961. Karaims in Poland.
External links
See also
- Krymchak languageKrymchak languageThe Krymchak language is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea by the Krymchak people. It is often considered to be a Crimean Tatar dialect. The language is sometimes referred to as Judeo-Crimean Tatar....