Turkic languages

language family of Eurasia

The Turkic languages are a language family of some thirty languages. They are spoken by Turkic peoples across an area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western and Northern China. Traditionally people think that they are part of the Altaic language family.[1]

Turkic
Geographic
distribution:
Eastern Europe
Caucasus
West Asia
Central Asia
North Asia (Siberia)
East Asia (Far East)
Linguistic classification:One of the world's primary language families
Proto-language:Proto-Turkic
Subdivisions:
ISO 639-5:trk

Distribution of Turkic languages

Turkic languages are spoken by some 200 million people as a native language;[2] and the total number of Turkic speakers is about 230 million, including speakers as a second language. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is the Turkish language, or Anatolian Turkish. The speakers of this language are about 40% of all Turkic speakers.[1]

History

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The geographical distribution of Turkic-speaking peoples across Eurasia spreads from Turkey in the West to the North-East of Siberia.[3]

Classification

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The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:[4][5]

 
Relative numbers of speakers of Turkic languages (2007)
Number Branch Languages Status Native Speakers Main Writing System
1 Oghuz languages 8 Normal 108,000,000 Latin
2 Karluk languages 4 Normal 69,000,000 Latin
3 Kipchak languages 12 Normal 31,300,000 Latin
4 Siberian Turkic languages 9 Vulnerable 800,000 Cyrillic
5 Oghur languages 1 Vulnerable 1,200,000 Cyrillic
6 Arghu Turkic language 1 Vulnerable 20,000 Perso-Arabic
Total Turkic languages 35 Normal 210,000,000 Latin

Languages by native speakers

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The Turkic languages are a language family of at least 35 [6] documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples. The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:[4][5]

Number Name Branch Status Native Speakers Main Country Main Writing System
1 Turkish language Oghuz languages Normal 76,000,000   Turkey Latin
2 Uzbek language Karluk languages Normal 35,000,000   Uzbekistan Latin / Cyrillic
3 Azerbaijani language Oghuz languages Normal 30,000,000   Azerbaijan Latin
5 Uyghur language Karluk languages Normal 25,000,000   China Perso-Arabic
4 Kazakh language Kipchak languages Normal 19,000,000   Kazakhstan Cyrillic / Latin
6 Turkmen language Oghuz languages Normal 7,000,000   Turkmenistan Latin
7 Tatar language Kipchak languages Normal 5,500,000   Russia Cyrillic / Latin
8 Kyrgyz language Kipchak languages Normal 5,000,000   Kyrgyzstan Cyrillic
9 Bashkir language Kipchak languages Vulnerable 1,500,000   Russia Cyrillic
10 Chuvash language Oghur languages Vulnerable 1,200,000   Russia Cyrillic
11 Qashqai language Oghuz languages Normal 1,000,000   Iran Perso-Arabic
12 Khorasani Turkic language Oghuz languages Vulnerable 1,000,000   Iran Perso-Arabic
13 Karakalpak language Kipchak languages Normal 650,000   Uzbekistan Latin
14 Crimean Tatar language Kipchak languages Severely endangered 600,000   Ukraine Latin
15 Kumyk language Kipchak languages Vulnerable 450,000   Russia Cyrillic
16 Karachay-Balkar language Kipchak languages Vulnerable 400,000   Russia Cyrillic
17 Yakut language Siberian Turkic languages Vulnerable 400,000   Russia Cyrillic
18 Tuvan language Siberian Turkic languages Vulnerable 300,000   Russia Cyrillic
19 Urum language Oghuz languages Definitely endangered 200,000   Ukraine Cyrillic
20 Gagauz language Oghuz languages Critically endangered 150,000   Moldova Latin
21 Siberian Tatar language Kipchak languages Definitely endangered 100,000   Russia Cyrillic
22 Nogai language Kipchak languages Definitely endangered 100,000   Russia Cyrillic
23 Salar language Oghuz languages Vulnerable 70,000   China Latin
24 Altai language Siberian Turkic languages Severely endangered 60,000   Russia Cyrillic
25 Khakas language Siberian Turkic languages Definitely endangered 50,000   Russia Cyrillic
26 Khalaj language Arghu Turkic language Vulnerable 20,000   Iran Perso-Arabic
27 Äynu language Karluk languages Critically endangered 6,000   China Perso-Arabic
28 Western Yugur language Siberian Turkic languages Severely endangered 5,000   China Latin
29 Shor language Siberian Turkic languages Severely endangered 3,000   Russia Cyrillic
30 Dolgan language Siberian Turkic languages Definitely endangered 1,000   Russia Cyrillic
31 Krymchak language Kipchak languages Critically endangered 200   Israel Hebrew
32 Ili Turki language Karluk languages Severely endangered 100   China Cyrillic
33 Tofa language Siberian Turkic languages Critically endangered 100   Russia Cyrillic
34 Karaim language Kipchak languages Critically endangered 100   Ukraine Cyrillic
35 Chulym language Siberian Turkic languages Critically endangered 50   Russia Cyrillic
Total Turkic languages Common Turkic languages Normal 179,000,000   Turkey Latin

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Katzner, Kenneth (March 2002). Languages of the World, Third Edition. Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0415250047.
  2. Turkic Language family tree entries provide the information on the Turkic-speaking populations and regions.
  3. Turkic Language tree entries provide the information on the Turkic-speaking regions.
  4. 4.0 4.1 https://www.ethnologue.com/
  5. 5.0 5.1 https://glottolog.org/
  6. Dybo A.V., Chronology of Türkic languages and linguistic contacts of early Türks, Moscow, 2007, p. 766, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-03-11. Retrieved 2005-03-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) (In Russian)

Further reading

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  • Johanson, Lars. 1998. "The history of Turkic." In: Johanson & Csató, pp. 81–125.
  • Johanson, Lars. 1998. "Turkic languages." In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. CD 98. Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 5 sept. 2007.
  • Menges, K. H. 1968. The Turkic languages and peoples: An introduction to Turkic studies. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Other websites

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