Turkic peoples/ countries EXPLAINED!

hey everybody welcome back this is going to be a filler video or more like a reference video by the way you can get your geography now merch like this geography now mug at geography.com not selling out if it's your brand there actually is coffee in here usually I fake it but oh God I need it this time this is the third time I filmed this because the first time there was no audio second time it was blurry up whatever anyway so I've been meaning to make this video for a long time but never got to it but as you know the Uzbekistan video will be our last turkic country so I figure probably uh more appropriate now than ever to make a reference video for the turkic peoples for those of you that are completely unknowledgeable on this topic when you hear the word turkic you probably think Turkish no the two are not mutually intelligible words although Turkish people are turkic but not all turkey peoples are Turkish although Turkish people do make up of like a third of all turkic peoples but whatever the point is you you get the point anywho scattered across Central Asia and extending all the way into the Southeastern parts of Europe with like weird detached pockets in places like China and Moldova it's it's a lot and yet here's the thing they're all kind of distant relatives it's weird so where did it all begin well it all pretty much began with the Proto Turks the common ancestor of all the turkic peoples and they spoke proto-turkic nobody knows exactly where it originated but most linguists will speculate that it was most likely the Central Asian step region somewhere around the 500 to 3000 BC Mark and from there it spread across mostly Asia and bits of Europe much of everything started with the first turkic cognate or the guptur kaguna formed around the 6th to 7th centuries A.D started by the ashina clan under these leaders women Kagan and his brother istami they were originally semi-nomadic in the plains of the Eurasian stepped belt they were skilled Horsemen they had their own runic writing system that was used for centuries they come from many different belief systems from tangrism Shamanism animism nestorian Christianity but the largest one that seems to dominate most of the turkic people groups is Islam specifically Sunni Islam over time due to Inner conflict and advancements from outside forces turkey group split off from the original Turks and created their own new languages and turkic peoples and today there are six main branches that survive with about 35 or so main languages that are spoken upwards by 200 million peoples across the world so it's kind of a big deal and today we'll explain those six branches and which turkic peoples belong to which branch so yeah let's start off with the most populous one the ogus I've heard it pronounced O's like you don't pronounce the g whatever this is the largest group of turkic peoples numbering somewhere around 120 million speakers and it is the westernmost Branch mostly concentrated in what is now turkey Azerbaijan Northwestern parts of Iran and Turkmenistan it is divided into three regions the Western ogus which includes the language groups of Turkish azerbaijani and gagaus which is in modern day moldova's autonomous gagausia region we've talked about that before in the Moldova episode and then you have the east ogos people which includes the turkmen in Turkmenistan obviously and the horosanni language peoples and finally South ogles which is mostly found in pockets of Iran that includes these languages like kashkai and tahar mahali afshari and I think I pronounce them I don't know I butcher them then you get a weird singular detached community of about 132 Salat peoples in China they basically branched out from the original cook Turks and migrated down to what is now China since the 8th Century A.D long story short anyway the old those people are descended from the tribal Confederation of the ogos yagbu state in Central Asia by the founder obulus Khan and his six Sons that were the founders of the 24 tribes each tribe had their own runic symbol it's it's pretty cool the ogos Turks were basically the base of the largest turkic empires in history such as the seljuks and the ottoman Empires although the seljuk was more like a Peugeot turkic Empire but whatever they typically mixed in and intermarried the most with Outsiders which is why today they are considered the most genetically diverse group of Turks on the planet if you go to Turkey you'll see like blonde blue haired Turks and black Turks it's there's a lot of different technically ogos Turks and it's partially because they had much more interaction with the Arabs North Africans and Europeans so you see a lot of that type of admixture within their culture and overall they're kind of like the Turks that got the most Spotlight out of all the turkic siblings so oblos the second largest group the car look with about 50 million speakers they are mostly made up of only two main language groups the West carloop Branch or the uzbeks mostly found in Uzbekistan as well as diaspora communities throughout Asia and the east branch the wigler peoples which are mostly found in the xinjiang uyghur autonomous region of China and there's like a small incredibly small group of elite turkey was in the Kazakh autonomous prefecture of xinjiang as well but only like 30 families are documented to speak it's very small but anyway these are the only three surviving family groups of the carluke Turks basically the tribes of the cognant The Originals they kind of branched out and they formed the uchkar look Union around the 7th Century A.D and thus the car look Branch was born and also around the 8th Century the car looks built up strong armies and they marched as far as the amudharya river and they established their own independent yagbu and kanet states which ruled for centuries after taking control of the ironic sogdal region they had control over some of the most important cities along the Silk Road including Samar Khan the Bukhara and Kesh all of which are Uzbek cities today so overall Kara looks are kind of like the Turks that broke off and kind of worked at the crossroads between the ancient Chinese and Persian worlds while being their own things they were heavily focused on trade and Merchant work so they're kind of like the businessmen of the turkic world of the turkic people I guess you could say you know carlux will always have their suitcases with them and make a deal number three the kit Chucks ah the third largest group of turkic peoples that keep Chucks made up of about 33 million or so people is divided into four Regional branches this is going to be an interesting one the largest one the South keep chalks with the largest language being Kazakh spoken mostly in Kazakhstan and the karaoke pox in the karaka Pakistan autonomous region of Uzbekistan and they have a bunch of other smaller cousin languages mostly found in what is now Russia and the Caucasus region then you have the Eastern Cape Chucks mostly made up of the kyrgyz peoples in obviously Kyrgyzstan the north keep chalks which are the tatars and bashqirs in what are now Russia and finally the West keep chalks also all of whom have communities and what are now parts of Russia as well as Crimea and Tatar weirdly enough there are two offshoot turkic language groups that are spoken by non-ethnic Turks the urum language found in Ukraine and Georgia but it's spoken by ethnic Greeks and the almost extinct kiromchak and Karim languages that are spoken by Jews then it fuses a lot of Hebrew long words yet at the base they are turkic languages so yeah there's a story behind all that it's a kip chalk man long story short kipchok tricks were a small group within the truck times but during the medieval period they got their Spotlight and kind of made their own new thing known as the people that wore battle masks with the mustaches on them they created the Kik Chuck cumin Confederation the most powerful unit within the step region that expanded all the way from the Danube River in Europe all across Central Asia to the Irish River in what is now Russia influencing the politics of every part in between and they were pretty much the domineering peoples all the way up into the Mongol invasions and here's the thing kimchock history is pretty complicated basically although they had many powerful cons they didn't have an exact centralized source of power and they were often just kind of hired as mercenaries and Military sisters and neighboring Empires kind of like what the Cossacks were to Russia and yeah like it's crazy even after the Mongols took over they still saw value in kiptak soldiers and even established entire regimens of kiptop warriors in the Mongol army they were even imported as mamluks or military slaves sent as far as Egypt and North India and here's the thing when they went into India in fact in the 13th century one of themesh became the Sultan of the Delhi Dynasty including his daughter Razia the only female Muslim ruler of Delhi basically to conclude although all Turks will say they have some degree of a fighter spirit in their ancestors Kip jocks are kind of like the Relentless exception like even when they were enslaved they kept fighting and found a way to still come up on top and like even like rule parts of the places that they were sent to as slaves like mate so those are the first three and largest turkic family branches and it's crazy to see how each one was formed over the Millennia through migration and interaction through surrounding people groups with different languages and cultures and uh speaking of languages uh like I mentioned in this video you can actually learn one of the turkic languages Turkish with Babel that's right I have partnered with Babel and would like to give them a huge thank you I'm actually really excited because I actually use this app and it's a brand that I actually really like so you know I'm serious about this promo it is a language learning app that you can use to learn a variety of offered languages that they have as you know part of my job on geography now is to travel and oftentimes I need to brush up on certain lingua francas just so I can be a little bit more immersive when I interact with local populations when I'm traveling and Babel is a great resource it's not like a boring quiz yourself app it actually involves things like games you can sign up for live classes with native speakers they even have podcasts that you can listen to and they're spoken slowly and coherently so you can work on your listening skills it's it's great you can customize your own goals and your own lessons and if you think maybe you'd like to learn Turkish or maybe another different language they have check out babbling get 50 off of their services by going to this link right here and I'll also put it in the description of this video so you can click on it right away get your Babel experience and uh once you start learning start babbling with those people across the world cheers thank you so much Babel alright and with that let's finish off with the final three turkic family branches is shall we number four Siberian you've probably heard of Siberia in Russia well yeah that's that's where most of this group lies the native Siberian turkic peoples of Far Eastern Russia however some other groups can be found in what is now Mongolia and China they are split into North and South branches the largest group with about half a million speakers being the yakut in North Russia's autonomous Republic which is also the largest country subdivision in the world then you have the second largest Siberian language groups the southern Siberians which includes the tuvan peoples spoken in the tuva Republic then you also have the khakas and the hakasio Republic and altai in the altai Republic of what is Russia from there there are about 15 or so other smaller Siberian languages and language groups and dialects most of which either have less than a thousand speakers some less than a hundred and some are detached in China such as Western yugur and the fuyu kirkis peoples who are not kyrgis it's it's a misnomer and then you have the southernmost Siberians that I know peoples of xinjiang's takumakin desert they are unrecognized and usually just get counted as uighurs although they are not wiggers and they use their own language as usually like a secret communication technique it's it's a whole other story but anyway so the original cook Turks most of them migrated West but these guys went North they are the cold Turks harnessing the ability to survive in some of the coldest places on Earth known for their heavy Fur clothing and vibrant Traditions rooted in shamanistic rituals Northern Siberian Turks have always kind of been more nature oriented and due to their extreme isolation and harsh terrain they really didn't have to worry much about conflict with Outsiders essentially they were pretty much left alone until the 17th century when Cossack fur hunters came in as mercenaries and kind of acquiesced them in the name of Russia as for their cousins the southern Siberians due to the close proximity to the Mongols and mongolic peoples and being taken over during the Mongol Empire times southern Siberians like the tuva and altais Have Not only borrowed Mongol words in their languages but they've also adopted many Mongolia customs and traditions such as overtoned throat singing and clothing patterns you'll notice it a lot it's like when a Turkish person in Turkey meets a Siberian Turk they kind of just like nod their head and like hey you're like super different from me but I still kind of at you and now we go on to the two least talked about turkic family branches here we go you've probably never heard of these the first one the ogre Branch today only one surviving ethnolinguistic group of this Branch exists the chuvash people and their language the only known two other languages in this branch have gone extinct the khazar and the bulgar languages yes bulgar as in the ancient ancestors to the bulgarians that migrated from Central Asia before they got mixed in and slavicized over the centuries which is why bulgarians say technically they're not European but that's a whole other story anywho the chuvash people is numbering at about one and a half million have their own Republic within Russia their Origins are a little debated but most will say that they are a mixture of the suar and sabir tribes in what was the Volga Bulgaria region they have a lot of borrowed Russian words in their language and most are Eastern Orthodox Christian culturally you'll see a lot of pictographic imagery in their artwork and their symbols and their ornaments and embroidery including the tree of of Life pictograph that you can find on their flag it expresses the desire of the chuvash people for inner spiritual Harmony and harmony with the outside world and nature so there you go chuvash people they're a little isolated but they're still 1.5 million strong still trying to keep their own ways and finally the smallest of all the turkic family branches a lot of people have never even heard of this one even in the turkic world the argu branch which has only one surviving language it has only about 20 000 people in Iran that speak it it is the smallest of all the turkey family branches initially it was thought to just be like a branch of the azerbaijani language however linguist Gerard dorfer discovered that it was actually its own category now here's the thing even though they're like super small they actually have a lot of crazy deep history like they are suspected to be the remnant descendants of the heptolite Confederacy or the white Huns and although those people were indo-iranian it speculated that they also were turkic as well kind of like how the cell Dukes were Turco Iranian as well it's a lot of people mixed Back Then basically over over time they got persianized and interacted with the pashtun peoples a lot some migrated to India and established the khalji dynasties of Bengal and Delhi in the 13th centuries it's crazy like there's even like ancient coins that were used during this period and you can find them in museums and all for the khalji dynasty so it's crazy it's like this super small group of turkic peoples actually had a huge historical establishment in the name for themselves in surrounding areas with things like dynasties and rulers that took over and today they're only like 20 000 people that belong to it they're like rare people with a deep history in conclusion the entire continent of Asia owes much of its identity to the turkic family so many chapters of Asian history were built off of them anyway if you didn't really learn much from this video if there's one takeaway basically all you have to know is that people in Turkey today can kind of look at Siberians and be like hmm we got something in common and that's all you basically gotta know so there you go turkic peoples explain hope you liked it slash kind of learned stuff alright cheers gotta move on to the next video have a good one stay cool stay tuned [Music]

Channel: Geography Now

Views: 362,561

Keywords: Geography, facts, info, cool, education, learning, countries, history, class, lesson, funny, travel

Id: a1WM5fb_-iE

Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2023