Bulgar language
| Bulgar | |
|---|---|
| Region | From Central Asia to the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Volga and the Danube and Southern Italy (Molise, Campania) |
| Ethnicity | Bulgars |
| Extinct | By the 9th or 10th centuries on the Danube and by the 14th century in the Volga region |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xbo |
xbo | |
| Glottolog | bolg1250 |
Bulgar (also known as Bulghar, Bolgar, or Bolghar) is the extinct Oghur Turkic language spoken by the Bulgars.
The name is derived from the Bulgars, a tribal association that established the Bulgar state known as Old Great Bulgaria in the mid-7th century, giving rise to the Danubian Bulgaria by the 680s. While the language initially went extinct in Danubian Bulgaria (in favour of Old Bulgarian), it persisted in Volga Bulgaria, but even there it was eventually replaced by the modern Chuvash language. Other than Chuvash, Bulgar is the only language to be definitively classified as an Oghur Turkic language.
The inclusion of other languages such as Hunnish, Khazar and Sabir within Oghur Turkic remains speculative owing to the paucity of historical records. Some scholars suggest Hunnish had strong ties with Bulgar and to modern Chuvash and refer to this extended grouping as separate Hunno-Bulgar languages. However, such speculations are not based on proper linguistic evidence, since the language of the Huns is almost unknown except for a few attested words, which are Indo-European in origin, and personal names. Thus, scholars generally consider Hunnish as unclassifiable.