Khalaj has traditionally been classified with Turkoman or Azerbaijani dialects, primarily because of its proximity to those languages. However, features such as preservation of three vowel lengths, preservation of word-initial Proto-Turkic *h, and lack of the sound change *d > y has led to a non-Oghuz classification of Khalaj. An example of these archaisms is present in the word hadaq, which has preserved the initial *h and medial *d. The equivalent form in nearby Oghuz dialects is ayaq. Because of the preservation of these archaic features, some scholars have speculated that the Khalaj are the descendants of the Arghu Turks.
Khalaj is spoken mainly in Markazi Province in Iran. Doerfer cites the number of speakers as approximately 17,000 in 1968; the Ethnologue reports that the population of speakers grew to 42,107 by 2000.
The main dialects of Khalaj are Northern and Southern. Within these dialect groupings, individual villages and groupings of speakers have distinct speech patterns.
Vowels in Khalaj occur in three lengths: long (qaːn "blood"), half-long (baˑʃ "head"), and short (hat "horse"). Additionally, some vowels are realized as falling diphthongs, as in quo̯l "arm, sleeve".
Forms of case suffixes change based on vowel harmony and the consonants they follow. Case endings also interact with possessive suffixes. A table of basic case endings is provided below:
The core of Khalaj vocabulary is Turkic, but many words have been borrowed from Persian. Words from neighboring Turkic dialects, namely, Azerbaijani have also made their way into Khalaj.
During my two-week visit to Iranian Azerbaijan, I've visited also Qazvin and the so-called Halajes. I didn't hear them to call themselves Halaj anyway. But the language they speak is something like Azeri (in fact, seems like a dialect of Azeri) with some specific differences in pronounciation:
Azeri 'gidiram' = Halaj 'gidiyam' = I go
Azeri 'olmur' = It won't be (X; for instance) = Halaj 'olmiya'
Sajaja bramani totari ta, raitata raitata, radu ridu raitata, rota.
During my two-week visit to Iranian Azerbaijan, I've visited also Qazvin and the so-called Halajes. I didn't hear them to call themselves Halaj anyway. But the language they speak is something like Azeri (in fact, seems like a dialect of Azeri) with some specific differences in pronounciation:
Azeri 'gidiram' = Halaj 'gidiyam' = I go
Azeri 'olmur' = It won't be (X; for instance) = Halaj 'olmiya'
Qalach was one of the oldest Oghur(Oghuz) tribes according to Oghuzkhan legend, together with Qarluq, Qanli, Qirghiz, Uyghur, Saqlap, Qipchaq etc. Today's Qalaj might have direct decendance judging from the Turkic linguistical archaic features they have kept.
Well, they're not that much rich as Central Asian and Eastern Turkic dialects are. Their vocabulary is a mixture of Western Oghuz (majority) and Persian.
Edited by gok_toruk - 04-Feb-2007 at 11:40
Sajaja bramani totari ta, raitata raitata, radu ridu raitata, rota.
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