History and Typology of the Instrumental Case ( Based on the Comparative Study of the Literary Documents in Turkic Languages )

This article touches upon the research, which employing comparative historical approach has been carried on about the instrument-togetherness (instrumental) case – the seventh case of noun, which is used in most of the Turkic languages, but has been removed from grammar books after becoming archaic in the Azerbaijani literary language. This case, having kept its place in the history of development of the Azerbaijani language is still evident in stabilised state within some lexical units through the suffixes –ın, in, which are the morphological indicators of the instrumental case. As postpositions birlə, bilə, ilə, la, -lə denote togetherness, this has caused the expulsion of the instrumental case from among the case paradigm. This article uses the samples selected from the XV century literary works, analyzes the morphological indicators of this ancient case, and compares them to the sources in other Turkic languages.


Introduction
The case category of noun has been stabilised after going through a certain path of historical development.As such, as the grammatical structure of the language became stabilised, the case system has also evolved and the process of attachment of the case indicators to individual cases has gained momentum.This process is characteristic not only for the Azerbaijani language, but for all the other languages as well.
It has been established that the case category, having specific morphologic indicators serves to establish grammatical connections between words within a sentence.Taking into account the important role of the case suffixes in the formation of a sentence, M. Huseynzade notes that "... case is an issue within grammar pertaining both morphology and syntax... Therefore, when speaking about the case category of noun, in addition to the morphological features it is essential to also touch upon some of their syntactic characteristics as well" (1983, p. 50).In Turkic languages, including the Azerbaijani language, the grammatical case has always been in the structural model of root of word + case suffix.
According to Y. Seyidov, "The current case system of the Azerbaijani language was already formed in the XIV century Azerbaijani-Turkic language.Even though at later periods there has happened certain refinements and stabilisations in the grammatical meanings of the cases, the system itself has remained basically unaltered" (2000, p. 233).However, varying explanations can be found in Azerbaijani linguistics in regards to the names, number and ordering of the cases.M. Huseynzade provides us with information that until 1934, the cases were defined according to the suffixes added to the noun, and consequently, eight cases of noun were proposed (in addition to the current six cases, two more cases were intended -those that would be formed with the postpositions -üçün, -çin, -çün and ilə, -la, -lə).That same year, the names of cases were established in Azerbaijani for the first time, their number became seven, including the instrumental case that was later removed from the grammar books.In 1939, instrumental and genitive cases were dropped out, but in 1944 the number of cases was finally fixed at six, after restoring the genitive case (Asker, 2003, p. 192).
We can observe a similar scene in Turkic literature in regards to the number of cases.A. von Gabain writes that there are nine cases of noun (1998, p. 39).Studying the the language of the ancient Turkic monuments A. Shukurlu also talks about the existence of 9 cases of noun.(1993, p. 91).While Majdut Mansuroglu writes that there exists 9 cases of noun in the Garakhanli Turkic dialect (1998, pp. 151-155), A. Dilaçar stresses that in many such numberings the nominative case has not been taken into account, and consequently, there would be 10 cases including the nominative case (1995, pp. 60-65).In the works of A. Rajabli, M. Novruzov, Y. Mammadov it is noted that there exists 8 cases of noun (Rajabli, 2002, p. 91;Novruzov, 1987, p. 27;Mammadov, 1979, p. 36). A. M. Sherbak on the other hand, talks about 7 cases of noun in the X-XIII century texts from East Turkestan (Щербак, 1961, pp. 76-92).R. Asker, extensively touching upon these classifications that were proposed before himself, stresses that the names of cases are partially concurring in the works of these authors, and thus he sees it fit to bring the number of cases to 7 by adding the instrumental case (2003, pp. 194-197).
Such diversity of opinions and confusion has led some Turkologist researchers to wrongly propose the argument that current contents of the case paradigm in the Turkic languages, including the Azerbaijan language has been initially formulated based upon the cases in the Russian and European languages.A. Alizade, expressing an opinion on this position, also argues that "in all the grammar books written in the nineteenth century, such as I. Giganov's "Грамматика татарского языка" (1801), M. Ivanov's "Татарская грамматика" (Казань, 1842), M. Kazim-bek's "Обшая грамматика турецко-татарского языка" (Казань, 1846), A. Troyanski's "Краткая татарская грамматика" (Москва, 1860) the case paradigm can be seen to be in the case system of the Russian and European languages.It is true that those same grammar books mention the already archaic instrumental-togetherness case of the noun under various terms.However, this has not achieved a stable position within the case system" (Alizade, 2006, p. 3).
After taking into consideration the arguments already furthered on the issue of the case category, some of which I have sought to reflect as much as possible, we can come to a conclusion that in addition to the existing 6 (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, ablative) cases it would be appropriate to talk about the seventh case of noun with the addition of the archaic instrumental-togetherness case found, albeit not extensively, when exploring the language of the XV century literary documents.
Being referred to under various terminology in the Turkologist literature, the instrumental case possesses complex characteristics, and may denote togetherness, instrumental, and meditative meanings.The ancient morphological indicator of this case, which creates a grammatical link in sentence between the noun and verb had been the suffix -ın, -in. A. M. Sherbak proposes that the instrumental case denoted with -ın, -in affixes in the texts from East Turkestan has evolved into a group under adverb in the XI-XIII, and was replaced by bilə, birlə postpositions.In later periods, instrumental case that was formed with -la, -lə affixes had become widespread (Щербак, 1961, pp. 88-89).Y. Mammadov, confirming this fact notes that the instrumental case is used more frequently in Orkhon-Yenisey texts than Uighur texts and "Qutadgu Bilig" (1979, p. 74).
Most of the examples given above have become to fulfill the function of adverb in the contemporary literary language.A. Shukurov expresses his opinion on the "adverbized" words in the instrumental case as following: "It is known that the instrumental case was preserved in the ancient Turkic language until the X century.Presumably, this suffix became gradually archaic after the X century.Additionally, ilə postposition has played an important role in the process of the instrumental case becoming archaic.Therefore, many words that can be found in the literary documents in the form of instrumental case should be treated as "adverbised" words" (Shukurov, 1981, p. 19).
Even though the instrumental case has lost currency in modern literary language, morphological indicator of this case can often be seen in the structure of some the expressions in a crystallised form.For example; it has preserved its existence in expressions such as, için-için ağlamaq, dizin-bizin sürünmək, oğrun-oğrun baxmaq, xisin-xisin gülmək, as well as in words like arxayın, ilkin.
Birlən, birlə, bilə postpositions are formed from two components; that is from the combination of the word bir, which denotes number, and -lə suffix which forms verb, with the addition of the ancient verbal linkage unit n. "Birlən once meant together, in union.However, at the later stages it developed and transformed from independent word to auxiliary, acquired the characteristics of postposition, and started carrying a second meaning in addition to the previous one.In other words, birlən, birlə, bilə postpositions denotes taking two items together, or execution or accompaniment of some work, action with some item.In the second situation, it would fall in the case of noun named "instrumental case" (Mirzazade, 1990, p. 208).
Nouns used as göz qanındin, toprağdin, həstətindin, sögüşündən, yüzdən in the samples do not show the point of departure, but signifies instrumental, meditative meaning.
The evidence of the usage of -dan, -dən suffixes found in the ancient literary documents by Academic M. Shiraliyev reaffirms that the instrumental case had been historically a conventional category of Azerbaijani language (Alizade, 2006, p. 6).
Unlike the Azerbaijani language, in some modern Turkic languages the instrumental case, taking its areal of usage into consideration, has been included in the case paradigm.For example, according to K. Musayev in Karaim language instrumental case, formed by -ba, -bə suffixes, is counted as the 7th case of noun.It is relatively younger as a case and has been derived from bila postposition, which is rarely used.According to the author, this new case has also new features: -ba, -bə case suffix is added to personal and indicative pronouns after the genitive case.Within a sentence, it is more associated with bol-, kıl-verbs, and semantically it is close to the semantics of the Russian-language tvoritelny (ablative) case (Мусаев, 1961, p. 158).
In the case of Shor language, 7 cases of noun are counted, taking into account both the ancient and modern usage of the instrumental case, and the 7th case is named tvoritelniy-instrumentalniy-orudniy and is formed with bıla, bile, mıla, mile postpositions and -ba, -be, -pe, -ma, -me suffixes (Дыренкова, 1941, p. 45).In Khakas language the 8th case of nouninstrumental-togetherness case is used widely with bulan, menen, blan postpositions and their -nan, -nenğ form, which has evolved into suffix (Донидзе, 1955, p. 145).This case has been added to the case paradigm also in Tofalilar language (Рассадин, 1978, p. 43).
As we can see, in most of the Turkic languages the ancient instrumental case of noun is among the grammatical cases and has preserved its existence in various phonetic versions.Touching upon the grammatical function of this ancient case in the Azerbaijani language, which is of enabling the formation of connection between the words, A. Alizade, considers the restoration of the instrumental case as a necessary category fulfilling the requirement of the grammatical norms of the language as an important issue (2006, p. 10).
Thus, our research on the XV century literary documents in the Azerbaijani-Turkic language makes it clear that even though the ancient instrumental case of noun could preserve its existence in the Azerbaijani literary language during the medieval period, -ın, -in suffix had become already archaic during that period, possibly even earlier, and consequently could only be preserved in the structure of some lexical units in crystallised form.Such that, in the language of the literary documents from that period we can see stabilised words in the form of single units : dünün, yarın, sənsizin, ansızın, kışın, yazın, əvəlin, axırın, küzün, saqın, etc. Instrumental case expressed with birlə, bilə, ilə postpositions has already lost its case function and became stabilised in modern Azerbaijani language in the form of -la, -lə participation postpositions.