Kipchak languages

The Kipchak languages are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 30 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanning from Romania to China. Some of the most widely spoken languages in this group are Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tatar.

Linguistic features

The Kipchak languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together. Some of these features are shared with other Common Turkic languages; others are unique to the Kipchak family.

Shared features

Change of Proto-Turkic *d to
Loss of initial *h, see above example

Unique features

Family-specific

Frequent fortition of initial
Diphthongs from syllable-final and

Language-specific

In both Tatar and Bashkir, the original mid and high vowels are swapped in position by vowel raising and lowering:

Classification

The Kipchak languages may be broken down into four groups based on geography and shared features :