INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
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CONTACT PHENOMENA IN TURKIC LANGUAGES (INFLUENCE OF PERSIAN,
RUSSIAN, ARABIC)
Nabijonova Nodirabonu Nozimjonovna
Andijan branch of Kokand University
Abstract:
This article explores the linguistic consequences of prolonged contact between
Turkic languages and three major linguistic traditions: Persian, Arabic, and Russian. It
examines the nature and depth of lexical, morphological, phonological, and syntactic
borrowing, alongside sociohistorical factors that have shaped these processes. The paper
highlights the asymmetry of influence, the domains most affected (religion, administration,
education, and science), and the strategies of linguistic adaptation within Turkic language
systems. The study contributes to our understanding of how language contact shapes
structural and semantic developments across typologically diverse linguistic families.
Kеywоrds:
language contact, Turkic languages, Arabic influence, Persian influence, Russian
influence, lexical borrowing.
INTRОDUСTIОN
Language contact has been one of the most significant factors in the historical
evolution of Turkic languages. Stretching across a vast geographical area—from the Balkans
to Siberia—Turkic-speaking communities have been exposed to a range of dominant cultures
and linguistic systems. Among the most influential of these are Arabic, Persian, and Russian,
each of which has played a critical role in shaping the lexicon, structure, and stylistic
conventions of various Turkic languages. These interactions have not only contributed to the
enrichment of vocabulary but have also left traces in the grammatical and phonetic systems
of Turkic languages.
The influence of Arabic and Persian dates back to the Islamic expansion and the
cultural prestige of Persianate civilization, especially from the 9th century onwards. These
two languages served as carriers of science, philosophy, and religion, embedding a large
corpus of terminologies and rhetorical styles into Turkic languages. In contrast, Russian
influence—much more recent—resulted largely from political dominance during the Tsarist
and Soviet periods. This contact introduced a secular and administratively oriented
vocabulary, along with structural borrowing driven by education, media, and bilingualism. In
this article, we analyze the nature, extent, and consequences of these linguistic contacts,
paying close attention to how Turkic languages absorbed, adapted, and occasionally resisted
foreign elements.
MАTЕRIАLS АND MЕTHОDS
Arabic entered the Turkic linguistic sphere primarily through the spread of Islam and
the religious-cultural institutions that accompanied it. This influence is most visible in the
lexical domain, particularly in religious terminology (e.g., namaz, roza, masjid, iman, taqwa),
legal terms (e.g., shariat, mufti, qadi), and moral-philosophical vocabulary. Arabic
borrowings are typically phonologically integrated, with their morphology adapted to Turkic
patterns (e.g., pluralization, verb derivation).
Moreover, Arabic’s impact extended to script and literary style. The adoption of the
Arabic script for Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai, and other classical Turkic languages reinforced
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 04,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 937
orthographic and stylistic conventions rooted in Arabic models. Classical prose and poetry
frequently employed Arabic rhetorical structures, including parallelisms and metaphors
rooted in Quranic idioms.
Yet, despite the extensive lexical borrowing, the grammatical core of Turkic
languages remained intact, reflecting the resilience of their agglutinative structure. Arabic did
not significantly alter the syntactic order (SOV), case systems, or verbal morphology.
However, semantic shifts occurred: borrowed Arabic words often developed secondary
meanings or narrowed functions in Turkic usage, diverging from their original Arabic senses.
RЕSULTS АND DISСUSSIОN
If Arabic contributed the language of religion and law, Persian brought the aesthetics
of high culture. Particularly in Central Asia and Anatolia, Persian was the language of
administration, poetry, and sophisticated prose. Chagatai Turkish, for instance, emerged in
close symbiosis with Persian literary traditions. Persian influenced Turkic prosody, narrative
structure, and terminology related to the arts, such as adab, ghazal, shair, and majlis.
Unlike Arabic, Persian contributed significantly to phraseological and idiomatic
layers. Many fixed expressions and stylistic markers in modern Uzbek and Azerbaijani, for
example, are of Persian origin. Persian also influenced word formation strategies:
compounding and abstract noun formation through suffixes such as -goh (e.g., kitobgoh) or -
mand (e.g., ilm-mand) became common.
It is also noteworthy that Persian influence operated not just through borrowing but
through bilingual elites, whose fluency in both languages resulted in hybrid linguistic
registers. Even today, educated varieties of Uzbek or Tajikized Turkic dialects retain Persian
idiomatic frames and interjections, highlighting the deep-rooted cultural intertwining.
Russian influence became prominent in the 18th to 20th centuries as a result of Tsarist
expansion and later Soviet control. This influence is especially strong in Turkic languages of
the former USSR—such as Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tatar, and Bashkir—where Russian
functioned as the language of education, science, governance, and industry.
The most visible sign of Russian contact is lexical borrowing, especially in the fields
of science (matematika, fizika), technology (kompyuter, telefon), transportation (poezd,
samolyot), and politics (partiya, sovet, ministir). These borrowings are often phonologically
preserved and only partially adapted morphologically, leading to bilingual code-switching
and diglossia in speech.
A more profound level of contact involved structural borrowing and syntactic calques.
Certain Turkic varieties developed constructions mirroring Russian patterns, such as the use
of participial and relative clauses, or indirect speech structures unfamiliar to native Turkic
syntax. The Cyrillic script, imposed during the Soviet era, also shaped orthographic
conventions, affecting phonemic representation and literary norms.
СОNСLUSIОN
The linguistic history of Turkic languages is, in many ways, a record of cultural
convergence and divergence. Contact with Arabic, Persian, and Russian has shaped not only
vocabulary but also styles of thinking, modes of expression, and registers of formality.
Arabic and Persian introduced a religious-philosophical and literary lexicon, leaving the core
syntax largely untouched. Russian, by contrast, brought administrative and scientific
terminology, with some structural influence in syntax and orthography.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 04,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 938
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Stockholm University Press.
3. Lazard, G. (2012). Persian Influence on Central Asian Turkic Languages. In: Acta
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