What is it about?
This book addresses an important gap in Turkic historical linguistics. It brings together a large body of related words shared by Common Turkic and Chuvash and uses this material to discuss the reconstruction of Proto-Turkic, the common ancestor of these two branches. The book is intended both as a reference work and as a contribution to the study of Turkic etymology and historical phonology. It offers two levels of reconstruction: a cautious minimal model, which marks uncertain sound correspondences without forcing a single solution, and a fuller reconstruction based on the available linguistic evidence and my own interpretation. A separate table also presents the cognates, Proto-Turkic reconstructions, and possible material for comparison with other languages. By organising this evidence systematically, the book provides a clearer basis for future research on Chuvash, Bulgar Turkic, Common Turkic, and Proto-Turkic. Its main aim is to make the Chuvash evidence more visible and to show why it is essential for understanding the early history of the Turkic languages.
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Why is it important?
This book is important because Chuvash preserves evidence from a branch of Turkic that is otherwise poorly represented. By comparing Chuvash words with their counterparts in the other Turkic languages, the book helps us better understand the oldest recoverable stages of Turkic. It offers new material and arguments for Proto-Turkic reconstruction, etymology, and historical phonology, and provides a systematic reference for anyone interested in the early development of the Turkic language family.
Perspectives
This book is a particularly meaningful publication for me. It is my second academic monograph and the first book that I have written in English. It brings together many years of work on Turkic historical linguistics, especially on the relationship between Common Turkic and Chuvash, etymology, historical phonology, and Proto-Turkic reconstruction. My aim was not only to collect lexical correspondences, but also to assess what they can tell us about the earliest recoverable stages of Turkic. Chuvash is often treated as a difficult or marginal case in Turkology, yet precisely for that reason it is indispensable. I hope that this book will help make the Chuvash evidence more accessible and more central to discussions of Proto-Turkic and the historical development of the Turkic languages.
Dr. Orçun Ünal
Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A Compendium of Common Turkic–Chuvash Lexical Correspondences with Proto-Turkic Reconstructions, January 2026, University Goettingen,
DOI: 10.17875/gup2025-2765.
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