Turkic languages

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Turkic languages

The Turkic languages constitute a language family

Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples

Turkic peoples

The Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia, and who mostly speak languages belonging to the Turkic languages....
across a vast area from Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
and the Mediterranean

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea or Ocean off the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia....
to Siberia

Siberia

Siberia , is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of North Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the Soviet Union from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the 16th century....
and Western China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, and are sometimes considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family

Altaic languages

Altaic is a disputed language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic languages, Mongolic languages, Tungusic languages, Korean language, and Japonic languages language families ....
.

Turkic languages are spoken by some 180 million people as a native language; and the total number of Turkic speakers is about 200 million, including speakers as a second language

Second language

A second language is any language learned after the First language . Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas....
. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
, or Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
n Turkish, the speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers.

characteristic features of the Turkic languages are vowel harmony

Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance Assimilation Phonology process involving vowels in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on what vowels may be found near each other....
, extensive agglutination

Agglutinative language

An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphology point of view....
by means of suffix

Suffix

In grammar, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the grammatical conjugation of verbs....
es, and lack of noun class

Noun class

In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional....
es or grammatical gender

Grammatical gender

In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
.

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Encyclopedia

The Turkic languages constitute a language family

Language family

Turkic peoples

Eastern Europe

Mediterranean Sea

Siberia

China

Altaic languages

Second language

Turkish language

Anatolia

Characteristics

The characteristic features of the Turkic languages are vowel harmony

Vowel harmony

Agglutinative language

Suffix

Noun class

Grammatical gender

Subject Object Verb

In linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb is the type of languages in which the subject , object , and verb of a sentence appear or usually appear in that order....
word order is universal within the family. All of these distinguishing characteristics are shared with the Mongolic

Mongolic languages

Tungusic languages

The Tungusic languages are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. Although it is a very debated subject, many linguists consider them to be part of the Altaic languages language phylum, which, if it actually exists as a genetic entity, also includes the Turkic languages and Mongolic languages language families....
language families, as well as with the Korean language

Korean language

Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China....
, which are by some linguists considered to be genetically linked with the Turkic languages in the proposed Altaic language family

Altaic languages

Altaic is a disputed language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic languages, Mongolic languages, Tungusic languages, Korean language, and Japonic languages language families ....
, a language family rejected by some linguists though plainly accepted in the Voegelin & Voegelin classification (1977:18-19).

History

The geographical distribution of Turkic-speaking peoples across Eurasia

Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
spreads from Turkey in the West to the North-East of Siberia

Siberia

Early written records

The first established records of the Turkic languages are the 8th century Orkhon inscriptions by the Göktürks

Göktürks

The G?kt?rks were a powerful nomadic confederation of medieval Inner Asia. Known in China sources as T'u k?e , the G?kt?rks under the leadership of Bumin Khan and his sons succeeded the Rouran as the main power in the region and took hold of the lucrative Silk Road trade....
, recording the Old Turkic language

Old Turkic language

Old Turkic is the earliest attested Turkic language, found in inscriptions by the G?kt?rks and the Uyghur people in ca. the 7th to 13th centuries AD....
, which were discovered in 1889 in the Orkhon Valley

Orkhon Valley

Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape sprawls along the banks of the Orkhon River in Central Mongolia, some 360 km west from the capital Ulaanbaatar....
in Mongolia. The Compendium of the Turkic Dialects ( Divânü Lügati't-Türk), written during the 11th century by Kasgarli Mahmud of the Kara-Khanid Khanate

Kara-Khanid Khanate

Kara-Khanid Khanate was a Turkic Khanate founded by the Karakhanids or Qarakhanids, also called the Ilek Khanids , who were a Turkic people dynasty....
, constitutes an early linguistic treatment of the family. The Compendium is the first comprehensive dictionary of the Turkic languages and also includes the first known map of the Turkic speakers' geographical distribution. It mainly pertains to the Southwestern branch

Oghuz languages

The Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic languages, are spoken by more than 110 million people in an area spanning from the Balkan peninsula to China....
of the family.

The Codex Cumanicus

Codex Cumanicus

The Codex Cumanicus was a Linguistics manual of the Middle Ages, designed to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cumans, a nomadic Turkic peoples people....
(12th - 13th centuries) concerning the Northwestern branch

Kypchak languages

The Kypchak languages , are a major branch of the Turkic languages spoken by more than 12 million people in an area spanning from Lithuania to China....
is another early linguistic manual, between Kipchak language

Kipchak language

The Kipchak language is an extinct Turkic languages language of the Kipchak group.The descendants of the Kipchak language include the majority of Turkic languages spoken in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus today, as Kipchak was used as a lingua franca in Golden Horde-ruled lands....
and Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, used by the Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
missionaries

Missionary

A 'missionary' is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who Proselytism. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus...
sent to the Western Cumans

Cumans

Cumans were a nomadic Turkic peoples people who inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea known as Cumania along the Volga River. They eventually settled to the west of the Black Sea, influencing the politics of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Moldavia, and Wallachia....
inhabiting a region corresponding to present-day Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
and Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
. The earliest records of the language spoken by Volga Bulgars

Volga Bulgaria

Volga Bulgaria or Volga-Kama Bolghar, is an historic Bulgarian state that existed between the seventh and thirteenth centuries around the confluence of the Volga River and Kama River rivers in what is now Russia....
, the parent to today's Chuvash language

Chuvash language

Chuvash ) is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Republic of Chuvashia and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages....
, are dated to 13th - 14th centuries.

Geographical expansion and development

With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages is a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 to 1000....
(c. 6th - 11th centuries), Turkic languages, in the course of just a few centuries, spread across Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
, stretching from Siberia

Siberia

Sakha Republic

The Sakha Republic is a federal subjects of Russia of Russia . At half the size of the Far Eastern Federal District, it is the list of the largest country subdivisions by area in the world at 3,100,000 km? with a population of less than one million....
) to the Mediterranean (Seljuk Turks). Various elements from the Turkic languages have passed into Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic languages unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries....
, Persian

Persian language

Urdu

Urdu is a Central_Indo-Aryan_languages#Central_Zone_.28Madhya_or_Hindi.29 Indo-Aryan languages of the Indo-Iranian languages, belonging to the Indo-European languages family of languages....
, Russian

Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
, Chinese

Chinese language

Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
and to a lesser extent, Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
.

Classification

For centuries, the Turkic speaking peoples have migrated extensively and intermingled continuously, and their languages have been influenced mutually and through contact

Language contact

Language contact occurs when speakers of distinct speech varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics....
with the surrounding languages, especially the Iranian

Iranian languages

The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian languages. These languages are mainly spoken by the Iranian Peoples....
, Slavic

Slavic languages

File:Slavic europe.svgThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia....
, and Mongolic languages

Mongolic languages

The Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia. Some linguists propose the grouping of Mongolic with Turkic languages and Tungusic languages as Altaic languages, but this hypothesis is not universally agreed upon....
. This has obscured the historical developments within each language and/or language group, and as a result, there exist several systems to classify the Turkic languages. The modern genetic classification schemes for Turkic are still largely indebted to Samoilovich (1922) and are mainly based on the development of *d. However, there are still many elements of questioning for which ongoing research has not yet found an adequate solution.

The Turkic languages may be divided into six branches (Johanson 1998):

Southwestern (Oghuz Turkic
Oghuz languages

The Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic languages, are spoken by more than 110 million people in an area spanning from the Balkan peninsula to China....
)
Northwestern (Kypchak Turkic
Kypchak languages

The Kypchak languages , are a major branch of the Turkic languages spoken by more than 12 million people in an area spanning from Lithuania to China....
)
Southeastern (Uyghur Turkic
Uyghur Turkic

Uyghur Turkic or Southeastern Common Turkic, also referred to as the Uyguric languages, is a major branch of the Turkic languages. It also has the oldest written records in any Turkic language....
)
Northeastern (Siberian Turkic)
Oghur Turkic
Oghur languages

The Oghur languages , are a separate branch of the Turkic languages....
Arghu Turkic

In this classification, Oghur Turkic

Oghur languages

The Oghur languages , are a separate branch of the Turkic languages....
is also referred to as Lir-Turkic and the other branches are subsumed under the title of Shaz-Turkic or Common Turkic

Common Turkic

Common Turkic or Shaz Turkic is a taxon in the classification of the Turkic languages containing the following subgroups of Turkic languages:...
. It is not clear when these two major types of Turkic can be assumed to have actually diverged.

With less certainty, the Southwestern, Northwestern, Southeastern and Oghur groups may further be summarized as West Turkic, the Northeastern, Kyrgyz-Kypchak and Arghu (Khalaj) groups as East Turkic.

Geographically and linguistically, the languages of the Northwestern and Southeastern subgroups belong to the central Turkic languages, while the Northeastern and Khalaj languages are the so-called peripheral languages.

Classification Schema

The following isogloss

Isogloss

An isogloss is the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistics feature, e.g. the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or use of some syntactic feature....
es are traditionally used in the classification of the Turkic languages:

Rhoticisation, e.g. in the last consonant of the word for "nine" *toqqiz. This separates the Oghur branch, which exhibits /r/, from the rest of Turkic, which exhibits /z/. In this case, rhoticisation refers to the development of *-/r/, *-/z/, and *-/d/ to /r/ in this branch.
Intervocalic *d, e.g. in the second consonant in the word for "foot" *hadaq
Word-final -G, e.g. in the word for "mountain" *tag
Suffix-final -G, e.g. in the suffix *lIG, in e.g. *taglig

Additional isoglosses include:

Preservation of word initial *h, e.g. in the word for "foot" *hadaq

This separates Khalaj as a peripheral language

Denasalisation of palatal *n, e.g. in the word for "moon", *an

isogloss	Old Turkic Old Turkic language Old Turkic is the earliest attested Turkic language, found in inscriptions by the G?kt?rks and the Uyghur people in ca. the 7th to 13th centuries AD....	Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....	Uzbek Uzbek language Uzbek is a Turkic languages and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia....	Uyghur Uyghur language Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a Central Asian region administered by People's Republic of China....	Tatar Tatar language The Tatar language is a Turkic languages language spoken by the Tatars....	Kazakh Kazakh language Kazakh is a Turkic languages language closely related to Nogai language and Karakalpak language.Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony....	Kyrgyz Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz or Kirghiz is a Turkic languages and, together with Russian language, an official language of Kyrgyzstan. It is most closely related to Altay language and more distantly so to Kazakh language....	Altay Altay language Altay is a language of the Turkic languages group of languages. It is an official language of Altai Republic, Russia. The language was called Oyrot prior to 1948....	Western Yugur	Fu-yü Gyrgys Fuyü Gïrgïs language Fuy? G?rg?s or Fu-Yu Kirgiz is the easternmost Turkic languages language. It is spoken in northeastern China Heilongjiang province, in and around Fuyu County, Qiqihar, which is located approximately 300 km northwest of Harbin....	Khakas Khakas language Khakas is a Turkic languages spoken by the Khakas people, who mainly live in the southern Siberian Khakas Republic, or Khakassia, in Russia. The Khakas number 78,500, of whom 60,168 speak the Khakas language; most people are bilingual in Russian language ....	Tuvan Tuvan language Tuvan , also known as Tuvinian, Tyvan, or Tuvin, is one of the Turkic languages. It is spoken by around 200,000 people in the Republic of Tuva in south-central Siberia in Russia....	Sakha/Yakut Sakha language Sakha, or Yakut, is a Turkic languages with around 460,000 speakers spoken in the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation by the Yakuts or Yakuts....	Khalaj Khalaj language Khalaj is a language spoken primarily in Iran and Afghanistan. It belongs to the Turkic languages. There were approximately 42,000 speakers of this language as of 2000....	Chuvash Chuvash language Chuvash ) is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Republic of Chuvashia and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages....
z/r (nine)	toquz	dokuz	toqqiz	toqquz	tugiz	togiz	toguz	togus		dogus	togis	tos	togus	toqquz	ta?ar
h- (foot*)	adaq	ayak	åyåq	ayaq	ayaq	ayaq	ayaq		azaq	azi?	aza?	adaq	ata?	hadaq	ura
VdV (foot*)	adaq	ayak	åyåq	ayaq	ayaq	ayaq	ayaq		azaq	azi?	aza?	adaq	ata?	hadaq	ura
-g (mountain*)	tag	dag*	tåg	tag	taw	taw	to	tu	tag	da?	tag	dag	tia	tag	tu
*suffix -g** (mountainous)	taglig	daglik*	tågliq	tagliq	tawli	tawli	tolu	tulu
-n (burn*)	köy-	köy-	kuy-	köy-/küy-	köy-	küy-	küy-	küy-			köy-			kie?n-

*In the standard Istanbul dialect of Turkish, the g
G

G is the seventh letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English language is spelled gee....
in dag and dagli is not realized as a consonant, but as a slight lengthening of the preceding vowel.

Members

The following table is based upon the classification scheme presented by Lars Johanson (1998)

Proto-Turkic	Southwestern Common Turkic (Oghuz Oghuz languages The Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic languages, are spoken by more than 110 million people in an area spanning from the Balkan peninsula to China.... )			Pecheneg Pecheneg language Pecheneg language is the extinct Turkic languages spoken by the Pechenegs in Eastern Europe.It is most likely a member of the Oghuz languages branch of the Turkic family, but the poor documentation to it and the absence of any descendant languages of Pecheneg has prevented linguists from making a definite classification; most experts would... (extinct)
		West Oghuz		Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish language Ottoman Turkish is the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire. It contains extensive borrowings from Arabic language and Persian language languages and was written in a variant of the Arabic script.... (extinct), Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe.... Gagauz Gagauz language The Gagauz language is a Turkic language, spoken by the Gagauz people, and the official language of Gagauzia, Republic of Moldova. It is spoken by approximately 150,000 people.... Azerbaijani Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic languages language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran.... Balkan Gagauz Turkish Balkan Gagauz Turkish language Balkan Gagauz Turkish is a Turkic languages language spoken in European Turkey, Greece, and in the Kumanovo and Bitola areas of the Republic of Macedonia....
		East Oghuz		Turkmen Turkmen language Turkmen is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,430,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 6,000,000 people in other countries, including Iran , Iraq , Syria , Afghanistan , and Turkey .... Khorasani Turkic
		South Oghuz		Afshar Afshar language Afshar or Afshari, is a Turkic languages spoken in parts of Afghanistan and Iran. There are some speakers in Syria and Turkey. It is considered by many to be a dialect of Azerbaijani language.... Dialects of Iran such as Qashqai Qashqai language Qashqai is a Turkic languages spoken by the Qashqai, an ethnic group living mainly in the Fars region of Iran. Estimates of the number of Qashqai speakers vary, Ethnologue gives a figure of one and a half million.... , Sonqori, Aynallu, etc.
	Northwestern Common Turkic (Kipchak) Kypchak languages The Kypchak languages , are a major branch of the Turkic languages spoken by more than 12 million people in an area spanning from Lithuania to China....			Kipchak Kipchak language The Kipchak language is an extinct Turkic languages language of the Kipchak group.The descendants of the Kipchak language include the majority of Turkic languages spoken in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus today, as Kipchak was used as a lingua franca in Golden Horde-ruled lands.... (extinct)
		West Kipchak		Kumyk Kumyk language Kumyk is a Turkic languages, spoken by about 365,000 speakers in the Dagestan republic of Russian Federation.Yir?i Qazaq is usually considered to be a founder of Kumyk literature.... Karachay-Balkar Karachay-Balkar language The Karachay-Balkar language is a Turkic language spoken by the Karachays and Balkars. It is divided into two dialects: Karachay which pronounces two phonemes as and , and Balkar, which pronounces the corresponding phonemes as and .... Crimean Tatar Crimean Tatar language The Crimean Tatar language , also known as Crimean and Crimean Turkish is the language of the Crimean Tatars. It is spoken in Crimea, Central Asia , and the Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria.... , Urum Urum language Urum is a Turkic language spoken by several thousand people who inhabit a few villages in the Southeastern Ukraine and in diaspora communities world wide.... Krymchak Krymchak language The Krymchak language Turkic Languages is the language spoken in Crimea by the Krymchaks. It is often considered to be a Crimean Tatar language dialect.... Cuman Cuman language Cuman was a Turkic language spoken by the Cumans and was similar to today's Crimean Tatar language. It is documented in several medieval works, including the Codex Cumanicus.... (extinct) Karaim Karaim language The Karaim language is a Turkic languages with Hebrew language influences, in a similar manner to Yiddish language or Ladino language. It is spoken by Crimean Karaites - ethnic Turkic adherents of Karaite Judaism in Crimea, Lithuania, Poland and western Ukraine....
		North Kipchak (Volga-Ural)		Kazan Tatar Tatar language The Tatar language is a Turkic languages language spoken by the Tatars.... Mishar Bashkir Bashkir language The Bashkir language is a Turkic languages.... West Siberian Tatar Baraba language Baraba or Baraba Tatar is spoken by at least 8,000 people in Siberia. It is dialect of Tatar.Baraba Tatar falls into a dialect continuum of Tatar dialects spoken through Siberia....
		South Kipchak (Aralo-Caspian)		Kazakh Kazakh language Kazakh is a Turkic languages language closely related to Nogai language and Karakalpak language.Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony.... Karakalpak Karakalpak language Karakalpak is a Turkic language mainly spoken by Karakalpaks in Karakalpakstan , as well as by Bashkirs and Nogay. Ethnic Karakalpaks who live in the Provinces of Uzbekistan tend to speak local Uzbek dialects.... Kyrgyz Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz or Kirghiz is a Turkic languages and, together with Russian language, an official language of Kyrgyzstan. It is most closely related to Altay language and more distantly so to Kazakh language.... Kipchak Uzbek Nogay Nogai language Nogai , is a Turkic languages language spoken in southwestern Russia. Three distinct dialects are recognized: Qara-Nogay , spoken in Dagestan; Nogai Proper, in Stavropol; and Aqnogay , by the Kuban River, its tributaries in Karachay-Cherkessia, and in the Mineralnye Vody District....
	Southeastern Common Turkic (Uyghuric)	West		Uzbek Uzbek language Uzbek is a Turkic languages and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia....
		East		Uyghur Uyghur Uyghur may refer to:* Uyghur people* Uyghur Empire* Uyghur language* Uyghur alphabet... Taranchi Western Yugur (Yellow Uyghur) Salar Salar language Salar is a Turkic language spoken by the Salar people, who mainly live in the provinces of Qinghai and Gansu in China; some also live in Ghulja, Xinjiang.... Old Turkic (extinct) Chagatay Chagatai language The Chagatai language is an extinct Turkic language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia, and remained the shared literary language there until the early twentieth century.... (extinct) Aini Aini language ?ynu is a Turkic languages spoken in western China known in various spelling as Aini, Aynu, Ainu, Eyni or by the Uyghur Abdal , in Russian sources ?????, ????, ?????, by the Chinese as Ainu.... Ili Turki Ili Turki language Ili Turki is a language spoken primarily in China. It belongs to the Turkic languages. There were approximately 120 speakers of this language as of 1982....
	Northeastern Common Turkic (Siberian Siberian Turkic Siberian Turkic or Northeastern Common Turkic is a major branch of the Turkic languages. The following table is based upon the classification scheme presented by Lars Johanson ... )	North Siberian		Sakha Sakha language Sakha, or Yakut, is a Turkic languages with around 460,000 speakers spoken in the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation by the Yakuts or Yakuts.... (Yakut) Dolgan Dolgan language The Dolgan language is a Turkic languages with around 5,000 speakers, spoken in the Taymyr Peninsula in Russia. Its speakers are known as the Dolgans....
		South Siberian	Sayan Turkic	Tuvan Tuvan language Tuvan , also known as Tuvinian, Tyvan, or Tuvin, is one of the Turkic languages. It is spoken by around 200,000 people in the Republic of Tuva in south-central Siberia in Russia.... (Soyot, Uriankhai) Tofa Tofa language Tofa, also known as Tofalar or Karagas, is one of the Turkic languages. It is a moribund language spoken in Russia's Irkutsk Oblast....
			Yenisei Turkic	Khakas Khakas language Khakas is a Turkic languages spoken by the Khakas people, who mainly live in the southern Siberian Khakas Republic, or Khakassia, in Russia. The Khakas number 78,500, of whom 60,168 speak the Khakas language; most people are bilingual in Russian language .... Fuyü Gïrgïs Fuyü Gïrgïs language Fuy? G?rg?s or Fu-Yu Kirgiz is the easternmost Turkic languages language. It is spoken in northeastern China Heilongjiang province, in and around Fuyu County, Qiqihar, which is located approximately 300 km northwest of Harbin.... Shor Shor language The Shor language is one of the Turkic languages. It is spoken by around 10,000 people in the Kemerovo Oblast in south-central Siberia. Not all ethnic Shors speak Shor, and the language witnessed a decline from the late 1930s to the early 1990s.... (Saghay Qaca, Qizil)
			Chulym Turkic	Chulym Chulym language Chulym , also known as Chulim, Chulym-Turkic, K?erik, Chulym Tatar or Melets Tatar is the language of the Chulyms.... (Küerik)
			Altai Turkic	Altay Altay language Altay is a language of the Turkic languages group of languages. It is an official language of Altai Republic, Russia. The language was called Oyrot prior to 1948.... Oirot and dialects such as Tuba, Qumanda, Qu, Teleut, Telengit
	Oghur Oghur languages The Oghur languages , are a separate branch of the Turkic languages....			Chuvash Chuvash language Chuvash ) is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Republic of Chuvashia and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages.... Khazar Khazar language *Khazar* was the language spoken by the medieval Khazar tribe, a semi-nomadic Turkic peoples people from Central Asia. It is also referred to as Khazarian, Khazaric, or Khazari.... (extinct) Turkic Avar (extinct) Bulgar (extinct) Hunnic Hunnic language The Hunnic language is the language spoken by the historic Huns. The literary records for this language are sparse, consisting of a few names and three words.... (extinct)
	Arghu			Khalaj Khalaj language Khalaj is a language spoken primarily in Iran and Afghanistan. It belongs to the Turkic languages. There were approximately 42,000 speakers of this language as of 2000....

Vocabulary comparison

The following is a brief comparison of cognate

Cognate

Cognates in linguistics are words that have a common etymology origin.An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt vs....
s among the basic vocabulary across the Turkic language family (about 60 words). Note that empty cells do not imply that a particular language is lacking a word to describe the concept, but rather that the word for the concept in that language is formed from another stem and is not a cognate with the other words in the row. Also, there may be shifts in the meaning from one language to another, and so the "common meaning" given is only approximate. In some cases the form given is found only in some dialects of the language. Forms are given in native Latin orthographies unless otherwise noted.

	common meaning	Old Turkic Old Turkic language Old Turkic is the earliest attested Turkic language, found in inscriptions by the G?kt?rks and the Uyghur people in ca. the 7th to 13th centuries AD....	Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....	Azerbaijani Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic languages language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran....	Turkmen Turkmen language Turkmen is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,430,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 6,000,000 people in other countries, including Iran , Iraq , Syria , Afghanistan , and Turkey ....	Tatar Tatar language The Tatar language is a Turkic languages language spoken by the Tatars....	Kazakh Kazakh language Kazakh is a Turkic languages language closely related to Nogai language and Karakalpak language.Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony....	Kyrgyz Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz or Kirghiz is a Turkic languages and, together with Russian language, an official language of Kyrgyzstan. It is most closely related to Altay language and more distantly so to Kazakh language....	Uzbek Uzbek language Uzbek is a Turkic languages and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia....	Uyghur Uyghur language Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a Central Asian region administered by People's Republic of China....	Sakha/Yakut Sakha language Sakha, or Yakut, is a Turkic languages with around 460,000 speakers spoken in the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation by the Yakuts or Yakuts....	Chuvash Chuvash language Chuvash ) is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Republic of Chuvashia and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages....
Persons	(Grand)father/Ancestor	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ata	Ota	Ata		Atte
	Mother	Ana	Anne, Ana	Ana	Ene	Ana	Ana	Ene	Ona	Ana		Anne
	Son	O'gul	Ogul	Ogul	Ogul	Ul, ugil	Ul	Uul	O'gil	Oghul	Uol	Yval, Ul
	Man	Er(kek)	Erkek	Er /Kisi	Erkek	Ir	Er(kek)	Erkek	Erkak	Er	Er	Ar
	Girl	Kyz	Kiz	Qiz	Gyz	Qiz	Qiz	Kiz	Qiz	Qiz	Ky:s	Her
	Person	Kisi	Kisi		Kisi	Kese	Kisi	Kishi	Kishi	Kishi	Kihi
	Bride	Kelin	Gelin	G?lin	Gelin	Kilen	Kelin	Kelin	Kelin	Kelin	Kylyn	Kin
	Mother-in-law		Kaynana	Qaynana	Gayin ene	Qayin ana	Qayin ene	Kaynene	Qayin ona	Qeyinana		Hun'ama
Body parts	Heart	Yürek	Yürek	Ür?k	Ýürek	Yöräk	Jürek	Jürök	Yurak	Yürek	Süreq	Cere
	Blood	Qan	Kan	Qan	Ga:n	Qan	Qan	Kan	Qon	Qan	Qa:n	Jun
	Head	Baš	Bas	Bas	Bas	Bas	Bas	Bash	Bosh	Bas	Bas	Pus
	Hair	Qil	Kil	Qil	Qyl	Qil	Qil	Kil	Qil	Qil	Kil
	Eye	Köz	Göz	Göz	Göz	Küz	Köz	Köz	Ko'z	Köz	Kos	Kus
	Eyelash	Kirpik	Kirpik	Kiprik	Kirpik	Kerfek	Kirpik	Kirpik	Kiprik	Kirpik	Kirbi:	Harpak
	Ear	Qulqaq	Kulak	Qulaq	Gulak	Qolaq	Qulaq	Kulak	Quloq	Qulaq	Gulka:k	Halha
	Nose	Burun	Burun	Burun	Burun	Borin	Murin	Murun	Burun	Burun	Murun
	Arm	Qol	Kol	Qol	Gol	Qul	Qol	Kol	Qo'l		Qol	Hul, Hol
	Hand	El(ig)	El	?l	El		Alaqan	Alakan			Ili:	Ala
	Finger	Barmak	Parmak	Barmaq	Barmak	Barmaq	Barmaq	Barmak	Barmoq	Barmaq		Pürne, Porn'a
	Fingernail	Tyrnaq	Tirnak	Dirnaq	Dyrnaq	Tirnaq	Tirnaq	Tyrmak	Tirnoq	Tirnaq	Tynyraq	Cerne
	Knee	Tiz	Diz	Diz	Dy:z	Tez	Tize	Tize	Tizza	Tiz	Tüsä?	Cerpussi
	Calf	Baltyr	Baldir	Baldir	Baldyr	Baltir	Baldir	Baltyr	Boldyr	Baldir	Ballyr
	Foot	Adaq	Ayak	Ayaq	Aýak	Ayaq	Ayaq	Ayak	Oyoq	Ayaq	Ataq	Ura
	Belly	Qaryn	Karin	Qarin	Garyn	Qarin	Qarin	Karyn	Qorin	Qerin	Qaryn	Hyram
Animals	Horse	At	At	At	At	At	At	At	Ot	At	At	Ut
	Cattle	Siyir	Sigir	Inek	Sygyr	Siyir	Sïir	Siyir	Sigir	Siyir
	Dog	Yt	It/Köpek	It	It	Et	Ït	It	It/Ko'ppak/Kuchuk	It	Yt	Jyta
	Fish	Balyq	Balik	Baliq	Balyk	Baliq	Baliq	Balik	Baliq	Beliq	Balyk	Pula
	Louse	Bit	Bit	Bit	Bit	Bet	Bït	Bit	Bit	Pit	Byt	Pyjta, Put'a
Other nouns	House	Uy	Ev	Ev	Öý	Öy	Üy	Üy	Uy	Uy		Av*
	Tent	Otag	Otag/Çadir		Otag		Otaw		O'toq/Chodir	Otaq	Otu:
	Way	Yol	Yol	Yol	Yo:l	Yul	Jol	Jol	Yo'l	Yol	Suol	Sul
	Bridge	Köprüq	Köprü	Körpü	Köpri	Küper	Köpir	Köpürö	Ko'prik	Kövrük	Kürpe	Keper
	Arrow	Oq	Ok	Ox	Ok	Uq	Oq	Ok	O'q	Oq	O?	Uha
	Fire	Ot	Od	Od	Ot	Ut	Ot	Ot	O't	Ot	Uot	Vut, Vot
	Ash	Kül	Kül	Kül	Kül	Köl	Kül	Kül	Kul	Kül	Kül	Kel
	Water	Suv	Su	Su	Suw	Su	Sw	Suu	Suv	Su	Ui	Šyv, Šu
	Ship, boat	Kemi	Gemi	G?mi	Gämi	Köymä	Keme	Keme	Kema	Keme		Kime
	Lake	Köl	Göl	Göl	Köl	Kül	Köl	Köl	Ko'l	Köl	Küöl	Küle
	Sun/Day	Küneš	Gün(es)	Gün(?s)	Gün	Kön	Kün	Kün	Kun	Kün	Kün	Kun
	Cloud	Bulut	Bulut	Bulud	Bulut	Bolit	Bult	Bulut	Bulut	Bulut	Bylyt	Pelet
	Star	Yulduz	Yildiz	Ulduz	Ýyldyz	Yoldiz	Juldiz	Jildiz	Yulduz	Yultuz	Sulus	Saltar
	Earth	Topraq	Toprak	Torpaq	Toprak	Tufraq	Topiraq	Topurak	Tuproq	Tupraq	Tobura?	Tapra
	Hilltop	Töpü	Tepe	T?p?	Depe	Tübä	Töbe	Töbö	Tepa	Töpe	Töbö	Tüpe
	Tree/Wood	Yagac	Agaç	Agac	Agaç	Agaç	Agas	Jygach	Yog'och			Jyvas
	God (Tengri Tengri Tengri is the supreme god of the old Turkic peoples and Mongolic languages religion named Tengriism. It is analogous with the early Chinese concept of TianLi in Western Zhou Dynasty , and later Daoist coinage of ? and derived Confucian concept of TianLi.... )	Tengri	Tanri	Tanri	Tanry	Täñre	Täñiri	Teñir	Tangri	Tengri	Tanara	Tura, Tora
	Sky, Blue	Kök	Gök	Göy	Gök	Kük	Kök	Kök	Ko'k	Kök	Küöq	Kavak, Koak
Adjectives	Long	Uzun	Uzun	Uzun	Uzyn	Ozin	Uzin	Uzun	Uzun	Uzun	Uhun	Varam
	New	Yany	Yeni	Yeni	Yany	Yaña	Jaña	Jañi	Yangi	Yengi	Sana	Sene
	Fat	Semiz	Semiz/Sisman		Semiz	Simez	Semiz	Semiz	Semiz	Semiz	Emis	Samar
	Full	Tolu	Dolu	Dolu	Do:ly	Tuli	Toli	Tolo	To'la	Toluq	Toloru	Tulli
	White	Aq	Ak	Ag	Ak	Aq	Aq	Ak	Oq	Aq
	Black	Qara	Kara	Qara	Gara	Qara	Qara	Kara	Qora	Qara	Xara	Hura
	Red	Qyzyl	Kizil	Qizil	Gyzyl	Qizil	Qizil	Kizil	Qizil	Qizil	Kyhyl	Herle
Numbers	1	Bir	Bir	Bir	Bir	Ber	Bir	Bir	Bir	Bir	Bi:r	Perre
	2	Eki	Iki	Iki	Iki	Ike	Eki	Eki	Ikki	Ikki	Ikki	Ikke
	4	Tört	Dört	Dörd	Dö:rt	Dürt	Tört	Tört	To'rt	Tört	Tüört	Tavatta
	7	Yeti	Yedi	Yeddi	Yedi	Cide	Jeti	Jeti	Yetti	Yetti	Sette	Sicce
	10	On	On	On	O:n	Un	On	On	O'n	On	Uon	Vunna, Vonna
	100	Yüz	Yüz	Yüz	Yüz	Yöz	Jüz	Jüz	Yuz	Yüz	Sü:s	Ser
		Old Turkic Old Turkic language Old Turkic is the earliest attested Turkic language, found in inscriptions by the G?kt?rks and the Uyghur people in ca. the 7th to 13th centuries AD....	Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....	Azerbaijani Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic languages language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran....	Turkmen Turkmen language Turkmen is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,430,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 6,000,000 people in other countries, including Iran , Iraq , Syria , Afghanistan , and Turkey ....	Tatar Tatar language The Tatar language is a Turkic languages language spoken by the Tatars....	Kazakh Kazakh language Kazakh is a Turkic languages language closely related to Nogai language and Karakalpak language.Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony....	Kyrgyz Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz or Kirghiz is a Turkic languages and, together with Russian language, an official language of Kyrgyzstan. It is most closely related to Altay language and more distantly so to Kazakh language....	Uzbek Uzbek language Uzbek is a Turkic languages and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia....	Uyghur Uyghur language Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a Central Asian region administered by People's Republic of China....	Sakha/Yakut Sakha language Sakha, or Yakut, is a Turkic languages with around 460,000 speakers spoken in the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation by the Yakuts or Yakuts....	Chuvash Chuvash language Chuvash ) is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Republic of Chuvashia and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages....

Turkic languages

Characteristics

History

Early written records

Geographical expansion and development

Classification

Classification Schema

Members

Vocabulary comparison

Further reading

See also

External links