Chagatay's Transformation
Chagatay is primarily a Turkic language and is the most advanced and best-documented of the Eastern Middle Turkic forms. Its substantial structural and lexical departures from Old Turkic, Old Uighur, and Qarakhanid distinguished it from these earlier language forms.3 These departures were caused by the influx of Arabic and Persian elements influencing phonetics, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, and cultural content. There are many words and vowels, known as loan elements, that are taken directly from the Arabic and Persian languages and used in Chagatay, and they do not follow Chagatay language patterns.3 Some of these loan elements include the vowels "ā, u, i, ō, ē" and the words pāludan, āḡāz kardan, and yār-e ḥaqiqi,among many, many others.3 While there were several dialects of Chagatay and the spoken language differed across regions of central Asia, there are two written variants: vulgar and classic. Vulgar Chagatay was used for prose and didactic works, and was a simpler idiom language close to the spoken languages. Classic Chagatay was used in poetry and for producing high-level literary works.
Classic Chagatay was composed in the Persian-Arabic style and had the same tone and rhythm as Persian and Arabic. The writing system of Classic Chagatay was built on the writing system of Arabic and Persian. The classic language was also typically used in court documents and followed the cultural standards of the Timurid courts. In addition, most genres of classical Persian and Ottoman divan literature are written in Chagatay. Classic Chagatay was used to compose a plethora of literary works, including informational works, such as the Mogaddemat al-salat; legends, including some about the Prophet's family; Sufi literature, including the Divan-e hekmat; court literature, including panegyrics; and contest compositions, love poetry, sequels of letters and epics, treatises on religious, literary, and social topics, biographical dictionaries of poets, and lexicons.3 Mir 'Ali-Shir Nava'i was a Turkic poet and writer who played a large part in shaping the Chagatay language. To this day, he is held as the main example of Classic Chagatay.2 Here is a sample of one of Nava'i's works, a photo taken of the Chagatay manual.2
Classic Chagatay was composed in the Persian-Arabic style and had the same tone and rhythm as Persian and Arabic. The writing system of Classic Chagatay was built on the writing system of Arabic and Persian. The classic language was also typically used in court documents and followed the cultural standards of the Timurid courts. In addition, most genres of classical Persian and Ottoman divan literature are written in Chagatay. Classic Chagatay was used to compose a plethora of literary works, including informational works, such as the Mogaddemat al-salat; legends, including some about the Prophet's family; Sufi literature, including the Divan-e hekmat; court literature, including panegyrics; and contest compositions, love poetry, sequels of letters and epics, treatises on religious, literary, and social topics, biographical dictionaries of poets, and lexicons.3 Mir 'Ali-Shir Nava'i was a Turkic poet and writer who played a large part in shaping the Chagatay language. To this day, he is held as the main example of Classic Chagatay.2 Here is a sample of one of Nava'i's works, a photo taken of the Chagatay manual.2
Eckmann, Janos. Chagatay Manual. Bloomington: Indiana University Publications, 1966. Print.