Khazar

the language of the Khazars. Khazar is attested in proper names from Hebrew, Arabic, and European sources and in a single inscription written in Orkhon-Enisei runes. The inscription, which appears in a Hebrew letter believed to have been written in the tenth century, consists of the word oqurüm (“I read,” [past tense]). Khazar is a Turkic language, but its exact relationship to the other languages in this family has not been determined. Some scholars accept the theory, based on evidence given by the Arab geographer Balkhis and on the etymology of “Sarkil,” the name of a Khazar city, that Khazar is related to Bulgar. Categorizing Khazar as a Turkic language, such Russian scholars as V. V. Grigor’ev, V. V. Bartol’d, and A. A. Kunik have noted a historical relationship between Khazar and modern Chuvash.