Turkish

[Jim Rader]

I think Prof. Schulze has addressed the matter in his post of 29
Nov.  If I may quote him, "Nogays (Kipchak)  can be spotted in the
Dobrucha [i.e., Dobru(d)ja, Dobrogea] area esp. north of Constantia
in Romania[;] they came to this place in the 19th century (after the
Crimea[n] war) from the eastern parts of the Crimea[n] peninsula
(due to Russian pressure)."

I assume the Nogay movement to Dobrudja was more or less part
of the massive emigration of Muslim peoples out of the North
Caucasus in the 19th century.  After the final "pacification" of the
Caucasus by Russia in the 1860's, approximately half a million
Muslim Caucasians, predominantly West Circassian speakers,
emigrated to the Ottoman Empire.  According to Rieks Smeets,
_Studies in West Circassian Phonology and Morphology_, "At first,
large groups [of Caucasian migrants] were sent to the Balkans in
order to help the Ottomans in the war they were losing to the
rebelling Balkan peoples, who were supported by Russia.
Ultimately, practically all emigrants from the Caucasus found a
place scattered throughout the Asiatic areas of the Ottoman
Empire.  Nowadays [1984] we can find their descendants in
Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and also--but only in very small
numbers--in Yugoslavia."

Jim Rader

> On a Hammond map of European ethnic groups c. 1910
> I saw Nogays in both Daghestan and also between the mouth of the Danube and
> Crimea

> [snip]
> >The Nogay are a Turkic-speaking people of
> >the North Caucasus.  If there are any in the Balkans, I don't know
> >about it--Balkanologists on the list have anything to say?

> >Jim Rader
> [snip]

> Rick Mc Callister