Posted on 12/01/2002 6:37:28 AM PST by SJackson
Restorer responded
There are still all kinds of Turks in Central Asia.
Turkish refers to a language group. Talking about "the Turks" as if they're a single ethnic group makes even less sense than talking about the Spanish, French, Romansh, Romanians, Italians, Portugese, Catalans, etc. as if they make up a single group.
I think the closer parallel would be Germanic. Here were a group of warring tribes with a common culture, and which spread out over Europe over 1500 years.
Hoqwever, in common language, if you refer to the Turks, you're talking about the Ottomans.
I think it deopends on the time period. The term is actually a political one rather than a truly descriptive ethnographical one.
The Ghur and Ghuzz groups you mention do ring a bell. I'm probably wrong, but I think for some reason of two groupings of Albanian tribes or clans.
The terms "G(h)uz(z)" and "G(h)ur" both mean "tribe." About 2000 years ago the proto-turks seem to have split into two groups. The Northern groups pronounced the word as "Oghur", while the southern groups pronounced it "Oghuzz". Hence the shorthand for both.
Most modern languages and peoples are Ghuzz. Only the Volga Bulghars speak a Ghur language, Chuvash.
Depending on your interest there are hundreds of sites on line.
The following is a rather abbreviated one
http://www.geocities.com/kaganate/tribelist.html
For links to alot more information, go to
http://www.khazaria.com/turkic/
http://www.hostkingdom.net/siberia.html
Note: this topic is from March 4, 2002. Thanks SJackson.
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