Bulgar language

Bulgar (also spelled Bolğar, Bulghar) is an extinct language which was spoken by the Bulgars.

The name is derived from the Bulgars, a tribal association which established the Bulgar khanate, known as Old Great Bulgaria in the mid-7th century, giving rise to the Danubian Bulgaria by the 680s. While the language was extinct in Danubian Bulgaria (in favour of the Slavic Bulgarian language), it persisted in Volga Bulgaria, eventually giving rise to the modern Chuvash language.

Affiliation

Mainstream scholarship place the Bulgar language among the "Lir" branch of Turkic languages referred to as Oghur-Turkic, Lir-Turkic, or, indeed, "Bulgar Turkic" as opposed to the "Shaz"-type of Common Turkic. The "Lir" branch is characterized by sound correspondences such as Oghuric r versus Common Turkic (or Shaz-Turkic) z and Oghuric l versus Common Turkic (Shaz-Turkic) š. As was stated by Al-Istakhri "the language of Bulgars resembles the language of Khazars". The only surviving language from this linguistic group is the Chuvash.