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The early or proto-history of the Khazars is still far from being thoroughly investigated, in regard to the world wide popularity of the Khazar studies. There are still many vague points to be discovered, despite the great attempts especially for the last hundred years of modern Khazar studies. We may differentiate between the terms Khazar and Khazarian , the former referring to the ethnie in the core of the process making Khazaria, and thus to the proto stage, and the latter to the well-known imperial formation in Eastern Europe. The scattered but rich sources of Khazarian history are not, on the other hand, very helpful in Khazar history. The debates on the meaning of the ethnonym Khazar are also a part of the proto-history. We are bound, for the early parts of the history, with the eastern, i.e., Chinese and Turkic sources. Previously the Chinese sources were effectively used in that regard, and with the publication of the readings of the two Uyghur inscriptions Tes and Terkhin from the 750s some fifty years ago opened a new chapter for the early history of the Khazars and the etymology of their name. This paper suggests a new frame for the early history of the Khazars in Asia and Europe and slightly revises the etymology of what we may call the French school, supposing that the Khazars came from South Siberia to the Caucasus in the wave of the Suvar union, after being defeated by the Uyghurs during an internal strife likely instigated by the Türks and their overlords Juan-juans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article ponders upon ethnic proverbs containing the ethnonyms Ormianin 'Armenian', Grek 'Greek' and Zyd 'Jew', which constitute a peculiar collection of paremics determined by the former sociocultural context. The research material was collected using the NKJP and Google search engine. The paper aims at analysing the collected paremic items as carriers of ethnostereotypes, and to interpret them as textual realizations of the collective memory genre. I employ linguistic-cultural methods and the linguistics of memory in the analysis and description of the material, which allows the studied proverbs to be framed as a genre of memory participating in the transmission of images of the past. The study also takes into account the pragmatic functions of proverbs in contemporary identity discourse and the reinterpretation of meanings contained in the paremic items in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the research is to determine the relationship between the concepts of “ethnos” and “language” in the peripheral zone of ethnic self-determination where some part of the society considers itself a separate ethnic group, but this belief is not supported by its linguistic separateness. The material is the data on the ethnic situation in a number of countries around the world which is obtained either from social surveys or based on ethnographic descriptions of the relationship between linguistic and ethnic self-identification in different countries. The study applies the method of correlation analysis to establish the relationship between linguistic and ethnic self-determination. The work also uses the method of sociolinguistic interpretation and the method of sociolinguistic reinterpretation which is based on the analysis of secondary material, that has already entered in scientific circulation, for sociolinguistic purposes. The basis for identification processes is the linguistic identification of an ethnic nation, on the basis of which ethnographic, ethnic and ethnopolitical national unity is formed. As a result the study highlighted four situations which are based on the correction of ethnic identification according to language identity. Firstly, a situation of ethnic transition, when a person, who defines himself as belonging to a nation “by blood”, according to his linguistic identity moves to another national group. Secondly, a situation of subethnic transition, when an ethnic subgroup designates itself as part of a nation, that uses the regional dialect or dialect of a given nation. Thirdly, the situation of ethno-political identity, when the nationality is determined by the political factor such as citizenship while preserving the language of the ethnic nation living in another, base state. Finally, multiethnic political identification, which is a type of ethnopolitical identity, when several ethnic nations, which are speakers of different languages, are united into one political nation. This interpretation of the “ethnos – language” relationship allows us to adjust the parameters of sociolinguistic and social stratification of society.