# Khorasani Turkic

Khorasani Turkic or Khorasani Turkish is an Oghuz Turkic language spoken in the North Khorasan Province and the Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran. Nearly all Khorasani Turkic speakers are also bilingual in Persian.

## Geographic distribution

Khorasani Turkic is spoken in the Iranian provinces of North Khorasan near Bojnord and Razavi Khorasan near Sabzevar, Quchan. The Oghuz dialect spoken in Western Uzbekistan is sometimes considered a dialect of Khorasani Turkic.

## Dialects

Khorasani Turkic is split into North, South and West dialects. The northern dialect is spoken in North Khorasan near Quchan; the southern in Soltanabad, near Sabzevar; the western, around Bojnord.

## Classification and related languages

Khorasani Turkic belongs to the Oghuz group of Turkic languages, which also includes Turkish, Azerbaijani, Gagauz, Balkan Gagauz, Qashqai, Turkmen and Salar.
Khorasani Turkic was first classified as a separate dialect by Iranian Azerbaijani linguist Javad Heyat in the book Tārikh-e zabān o lahcayā-ye Türki (History of the Turkic dialects). According to some linguists, it should be considered intermediate linguistically between Azerbaijani and Turkmen, although it is sufficiently distinct not to be considered a dialect of either. It is considered by Turkic scholars to be most closely related to the other Oghuz varieties spoken in Iran, and a close relationship with Turkmen has been disputed on the basis of the comparisons of the core set of agglutinating morphemes.
Doerfer and Hesche classify Khorasani Turkic into different branches within the Oghuz languages.
According to Robert Lindsay, Khorasani Turkic has four branches:
Glottolog lists seven distinct dialects:

## Phonology
### Consonants

| | | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | | |
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | q | |
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | x | | h |
| Fricative | voiced | v | z | ʒ | ɣ | | |
| Flap | Flap | | ɾ | | | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | | l | j | | | |

### Vowels

All vowels have phonemic length distinction. The vowel /ɑ/ is rounded to [ɒ] when followed by the vowels /u/, /i/ (sho& long /oː/ (Muxabbat [muxɒbbɑt] "love" , Insan [insɒn] "human"). On the other hand, short /o/ and all other vowels do not cause this rounding of /ɑ/. (Yoldaşlık [joldɑʃlɯk] "friendship"). /ɑ/ is always pronounced [ɑ] in plurals (& for some speakers, it is pronounced as such unconditionally)

## Writing system

Khorasani Turkic is not often written, but it may be with the Persian alphabet in the Perso-Arabic script. Khorasani Turkic orthography is identical to the Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet.
As Khorasani Turkic has more vowel sounds than either Arabic or Persian, and as the base Arabic letters are inadequate to distinguish between the divergent vowel sounds (wherein mispronunciation can at times change the meaning of words), same as in Azerbaijani Arabic alphabet, diacritics on top of existing letters are used. However, in everyday usage, these diacritics are often dropped and pronunciation is derived from context and from vowel/consonant harmony rules. In the table below, these vowels are shown with a beige background.
| Letter | Romanization | IPA |
| ا‎ | a | /ɑ/, /æ/, /Ø/ |
| ب‎ | b | /b/ |
| پ‎ | p | /p/ |
| ت‎ | t | /t/ |
| ث‎ | (s) | /s/ |
| ج‎ | c | /d͡ʒ/ |
| چ‎ | ç | /t͡ʃ/ |
| ح‎ | (h) | /h/ |
| خ‎ | x | /x/ |
| د‎ | d | /d/ |
| ذ‎ | (z) | /z/ |
| ر‎ | r | /r/ |
| ز‎ | z | /z/ |
| ژ‎ | j | /ʒ/ |
| س‎ | s | /s/ |
| ش‎ | ş | /ʃ/ |
| ص‎ | (s) | /s/ |
| ض‎ | (d) | /d/ |
| ط‎ | (t) | /t/ |
| ظ‎ | (z) | /z/ |
| ع‎ | ’ | /æ/, /Ø/ |
| غ‎ | ǧ | /ɣ/ |
| ف‎ | f | /f/ |
| ق‎ | q | /q/ |
| ک‎ | k | /k/ |
| گ‎ | g | /ɡ/ |
| ل‎ | l | /l/ |
| م‎ | m | /m/ |
| ن‎ | n | /n~ŋ/ |
| و‎ | v, o, u, ü | /v~w/, /o/, /u/, /y/ |
| وْ‎ | o | /o/ |
| وُ‎ | u | /u/ |
| وٚ‎ | ü | /y/ |
| ؤ‎ | ö | /ø/ |
| ه‎ | h, ə | /h/, /æ/ |
| ی‎ | y, ı, i | /j/, /ɯ/, /i/ |
| یٛ‎ | ı | /ɯ/ |
| ئ‎ | e | /e/ |
| ء‎ | ʿ | /ʔ/ |
| نگ‎ | ng | /ŋ(g)/ |

## Morphology
### Nouns
#### Pluralization

Pluralization is marked on nouns with the suffix /-lar/, which has the two forms /-lar/ and /-lær/, depending on vowel harmony. As mentioned in the phonology section, plural /ɑ/ is never rounded to [ɒ], even when it follows /u/, /oː/ or /i/.

#### Case

Nouns in Khorasani Turkic take a number of case endings that change based on vowel harmony and whether they follow a vowel or a consonant:
Case :
| | After Vowels | After Consonants |
| Nominative | No Ending | No Ending |
| Genitive | niŋ/nin | iŋ/in |
| Dative | ja/jæ | a/æ |
| Accusative | ni/nɯ | i/ɯ |
| Locative | da/dæ | da/dæ |
| Ablative | dan/dæn | dan/dæn |
| Instrumental | nan/næn | nan/næn |

#### Possession

Possession is marked with a suffix on the possessed noun.
| | Singular | Plural |
| 1st Person | (I)m | (I)mIz |
| 2nd Person | (I)ŋ | (I)ŋIz |
| 3rd Person | (s)I | lArI |

### Pronouns

Khorasani Turkic has six personal pronouns. Occasionally, personal pronouns take different case endings from regular nouns.
| | Singular | Plural |
| 1st Person | mæn | bɯz |
| 2nd Person | sæn | siz |
| 3rd Person | o | olar |

### Verbs

Verbs are declined for tense, aspect, mood, person, and number. The infinitive form of the verb ends in -max.

## Sample text
### Excerpt from Tulu (1989) p. 90

| Translation | IPA | Romanization | Arabic script (Iran) |
| Thus, there was a padishah named Ziyad. | ɑl ɣæssa bir zijæːd pæːdiʃæːhiː bæːɾɨdɨ | Al ğässa bir Ziyäd pädişähi bärıdı | .ال غسا بیر زياد پدیشهی بـهریدی |
| Almighty God had given him no son. | xodɒːʷændi æːlæm ona hit͡ʃ ɔɣul ataː elæmɑmiʃdi | Xodavändi äläm ona hiç oğul ata elämamişdi. | .خوداوندی آلم اونا هیچ اوغول اتا ایلهمامیشدی |
| Then, he spoke to his vizier: "O Vizier, I have no son. What shall I do about it?" | bæːdæn vaziːɾæ dədi, ej vaziːɾ, mændæ ki ɔɣul joxdɨ, mæn næ t͡ʃaːɾæ ejlem | Bädän vazirä dedi: "Ey vazir, mändä ki oğul yoxdı. Män nä çarä eylem?" | بدن وازیره دهدی: «ای وازیر, منده کی اوغول یوخدی. من نه چاره ایولیم»؟ |
| The vizier said: "Ruler of the whole world, what will you do with this possession?" | vaziːɾ dedi, pɒːdiʃaː-i ɢɨblæ-ji ɒːlæm, sæn bu mɒːlɨ-æmwɒːlɨ næjlijæsæn | Vazir dedi: "Padişai qıbläyi aläm, sän bu malıämvalı näyliyäsän?" | وازیر دهدی: «پادیشای قیبلنهیی آلم, سن بو مالیموالی نیلیسن»؟ |