Historical development of the category of the number of nouns in Armenian-Kypchak written monuments

Abstract

The question of the category of number belongs to the category of topical and controversial issues of the theoretical grammar of the Turkic languages, as evidenced by the abundance of works on this problem that have accumulated over many decades. The study of this grammatical category is closely related to the history of the study of the Turkic languages. Moreover, it has ancient traditions. Each of the ancient plural forms had its own characteristics, origin, features of use, periods of use. Assuming that some outdated suffixes served productively in the ancient Turkic period, it can be noted that these forms existed even before the existence of the Orkhon-Yenisei inscriptions. That is, the plural is formed from one word at a time unknown to history. The affixes of the category of the number of nouns are considered at the level of the Turkic proto-language, as well as affixes in the monuments of the Middle Ages, the Armenian-Kypchak monuments in the given article. Aspects of the historical development of the noun category in the language of monuments are also considered in comparison with the ancient Türkic medieval monuments, in particular the Orkhon-Yenisei inscriptions – Kultegin (Big inscription, Small inscription), Tonikok monuments written during the Karakhanid period (X-XII) in the language of M.Kashgari works «Divani lugat-it Turk», one of the ancient Uyghur inscriptions in the language of the Yugineka epic «Hibat-ul Hakik» («Gift of Truth») (XI-XII), the monument «Codex Kumanikus» (XIII-XIV), written in the language of the Kuman Kipchaks, the monument «Kitab at-tuhfat uz-zakiyat fil-lugat-atturkiya» written in the language of the Mamluk Kipchaks (XIV). In addition, the ancient Turkic, medieval categories of nouns are studied in comparison with modern Turkic languages, identifying established forms and development. Key words: category of number, noun, history, development, written monuments.