Oghur Languages

The Oghur, or Bulgar languages (also spelled Ogur, Oghur, Oguric; Bulghar, Bolgar, and variants; also known as Lir-Turkic), are a separate branch of the Turkic language family, or perhaps a "para-Turkic" language group, broadly part of Altaic family. It was historically spoken in the Hunnic Empire, Old Great Bulgaria (Magna Bulgaria/Onoguria), and later in Danube Bulgar Khanate (Danube Bulgaria) and Volga Bulgaria. Its only extant member is the Chuvash language. This branch arguably broke off from Common Turkic perhaps as early as 500 BCE.

It was thus presumably the language spoken in the historical Onogurs tribal confederation, including the Huns, Bulgars, the Khazars and the Eurasian Avars, but it is uncertain whether Chuvash is directly descended from any of these, or a separate branch within this dialect group (Johanson 1998).

The Oghur group is characterized by the sound correspondences Oghuric l vs. Common Turkic (i.e. non-Oghur-Turkic) š and Oghuric r vs. Common Turkic z, for which reason it is also known as "Lir-Turkic", or "r-Turkic". The name oghur itself is an example of the r/z isogloss, being cognate with Oghuz in Common Turkic. "dj-Turkic" is also used for Oghur, in reference to a sound change from i- to dj-.