A popular text in eastern Turki: Isnad-i Nadi Ali

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to the studies on Eastern Turki, as it is called in Western literature, which grew upon Chagatay under the improving influences of Kashgar and Yarkend dialects in the east at the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century. This written language (Eastern Turki) has been used particularly in manuscripts created by common people. Thus, a manuscript with the title Isnad-i Nadi Ali in the genre of attribution of supplications that has not been discussed in any other papers has been analyzed descriptively in this article. The mentioned manuscript, which is the essential material of this article, is between folios 66a and 71b of the miscellaneous manuscript held in the Bodleian Library under the number MS. Ind. Inst. Pers. This article consists of an introduction and five sections. The introduction provides general information about Eastern Turki and the popular texts in this literary language. The depiction of the manuscript, phonetic (vowel harmonies and phonetic changes), and morphologic (derivational and inflectional suffixes and other morphemes) aspects have been scrutinized in the initial three sections. The fourth section comprises the transcription of the manuscript. This paper's fifth section contains the grammatical index of the vocabulary of the text.