Nikolay Baskakov, based on a 12th-century scripture named Codex Cumanicus, included modern Kumyk, Karachai-Balkar, Crimean Tatar, Karaim, and the language of Mamluk Kipchaks in the linguistic family of the Cuman-Kipchak language. Samoylovich also considered Cuman-Kipchak close to Kumyk and Karachai-Balkar.[9]
Kumyk had been a lingua-franca of the bigger part of the Northern Caucasus, from Dagestan to Kabarda, until the 1930s[11][12][13] and was an official language of communication between the North-Eastern Caucasian nations and the Russian administration.[14]
In 1848, a professor of the "Caucasian Tatar" (Kumyk) Timofey Makarov published the first ever grammatical book in the Russian language for one of the Northern Caucasian languages, which was international Kumyk. Makarov wrote:[15]
From the peoples speaking Tatar language I liked the most Kumyks, as for their language's distinction and precision, so for their closeness to the European civilization, but most importantly, I take in account that they live on the Left Flank of the Caucasian Front, where we're conducting military actions, and where all the peoples, apart from their own language, speak also Kumyk.
More than 90% of the Kumyks, according to 2010 census, also speak Russian, and those in Turkey and the Levant speak Turkish and Arabic.[citation needed]
Kumyk has been used as a literary language in Dagestan and Caucasus for some time.[when?] During the 20th century the writing system of the language was changed twice: in 1929, the traditional Arabic script (called ajam) was first replaced by a Latin script, which was then replaced in 1938 by a Cyrillic script.
Irchi Kazak (Ийрчы Къазакъ Yırçı Qazaq; born 1839) is usually considered to be the greatest poet of the Kumyk language. The first regular Kumyk newspapers and magazines appeared in 1917–18 under the editorship of Kumyk poet, writer, translator, and theatre figure Temirbolat Biybolatov (Temirbolat Biybolat). Currently, the newspaper Ёлдаш (Yoldash, "Companion"), the successor of the Soviet-era Ленин ёлу (Lenin yolu, "Lenin's Path"), prints around 5,000 copies 3 times a week.[citation needed]
^ abBaskakov, N.A. (1969). Vvedenie v izuchenie tyurkskikh yazykov Введение в изучение тюркских языков [Introduction to the study of Turkic languages]. Moscow: Vyssh. shkola. p. 236. OCLC642737.
^Aliev, K.M.-C., ed. (2012). Kumyksky entsiklopedichesky slovar Кумыкский энциклопедический словарь [Kumyk encyclopedic dictionary] (in Russian). Makhachkala: Delta-press. p. 218. ISBN9785903454679.
^З. З. Бамматов (1972). "К вопросу о письменности кумыков" (Вопросы совершенствования алфавитов тюркских языков СССР ed.). М.: «Наука». pp. 108–117.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
^Milletlerarası Çağdaş Türk Alfabeleri Sempozyumu, 18-20 Kasım 1991. Istanbul. 1992. p. 67.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ abМугумова, Анна Львовна. "К проблеме ориентального лексического влияния на язык русской художественной литературы 20-30-х годов XIX в.: На материале произведений М. Ю. Лермонтова" (диссертация ed.).