Re: Question

From: tolgs001
Message: 26801
Date: 2003-11-01

>Perhaps some Karaites did speak *Turkish*, but the language I was
>referring to was Karaim, a *Turkic* language, but not Turkish.
>Ethnologue classifies it was a member of the Ponto-Caspian
>group. See
><http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=709>
>
> Regards,
> Ned Smith

I write "Turkish" since I tend to believe what Turks
themselves say of the so-called Turkic languages:
they're rather dialects of one language. (I myself
had many a time the occasion to see various Turks,
from Anatolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,
Uyghuria etc. talk to one another in some common
Turkish. A feat impossible without translator, say,
among Germans, Dutch, Anglos & Scandinavians.)

Also cf. Google: "karayim" (not necessarily in
combination with Türkler+Türkleri+Türkçesi...).

BTW ethnologue: there's mentioned a "Judeo-Crimean
Tatar" group in the same Western Turkish subdivision,
i.e, in the "Ponto-Caspian" category.

George