The Bulgars crossed the Danube in 681, under Asparukh. The state they created on lands principally inhabited by South Slavs and Slavonized Thracians lasted until the 11th c. when it was conquered by the Byzantines. It was revived in 1185, and after more historical vicissitudes, once again re-emerged, much changed of course, as the modern Bulgaria. The original Bulgars were a minority from the start. By the beginning of the 10th c., and especially after the christianization of Bulgaria in 565, they were completely Slavicized as to speech. Their original language was a form of Turkic, believed to survive in today's Chuvash language on the Volga: