Hate to burst anyone's bubble, but endings like "ov"
or "of" are *not* purely Bukharan. The correct
transliterated spelling in English for the community
is Bukharan, >from Bukhara. The majority of that
community came >from Persia a few centuries ago,
brought by the Bukharan ruler at the time. The
imported Persians were musicians and artisans for the
most part.

Such endings, which mean "son of," are common in *all*
Russian/Slavic-speaking countries, in Farsi-speaking
Iran, and Turkish-language areas (Turkey). As just one
example, a prominent family in Shiraz, Iran, is named
Kohanof; they have no connection to Bukhara. Many
Mashadi Jews of Iran use this ending in their names as
well.

Researchers need to be careful in making blanket
statements concerning languages in which they are not
fluent.

While I am not a Turkish speaker, perhaps there is a
clue in Farsi - the two languages have much vocabulary
crossover. The Farsi word Chakar or Tchakar (spelled
"che-aleph-ke-re" in Farsi) is used in the phrase
"Chakar-e-shoma hastam" means something like, "I am
your humble servant," so the word has a meaning of
humble or perhaps modest. This phrase is part of
Persian polite language in which the speakers
deliberately downgrade their own status and upgrade
the other person. Little of this flowery language has
any relation to the actual status of the two speakers,
but is considered polite conversation.

With best wishes

Schelly Talalay Dardashti
Tel Aviv
dardasht1@...
schelly@...

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