Khazar language

Khazar (also known as Khazarian, Khazaric, Khazari) was the Turkic language spoken by the Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia. The language is extinct and written records are almost non-existent. The linguistic affiliation of the Khazars has been disputed. Khazar was a Turkic language, however, different scholars take different views whether it belonged to the Oghur ("lir") or the Oghuz ("shaz") branch of the Turkic language family.

Classification

There are a lot of problems with exact classification of the Khazar language. One of the basic issues is vagueness of the name Khazar itself, did it mean a specific Turkic tribe, or had a political and geographical origin beside ethno-linguistic. The Khazar realm was a polyglot and polyethnic state, with Iranian, Finnic, Ugric, Slavic and North Caucasian languages. According anthropological data, it was ruled by Inner Asian Mongoloid (with some Europoid somatic elements) core tribes that accompanied the dynasty. The Turkic tribes probably spoke a number of Turkic languages. Scholars consider possibility that by the term Khazar was denoted one or even several languages, and yet again, by the sources can not be claimed the extent of its use.