Turkic languages

Map-TurkicLanguages

Kuli Chur inscription

Irk bitig 07

Yuntai Uyghur east wall

LinguisticDiagramTurkic

Oghuz Turkic Languages distribution map

Turkic languages are a group of closely related language families spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China. They are the native languages of the Turkic peoples, a diverse group of nations and ethnic groups predominantly found within Central, East, Northern, and Western Asia, as well as parts of Eastern Europe. The Turkic languages are a significant branch of the larger Altaic languages hypothesis, although the existence of this language family is a subject of ongoing research and debate among linguists.

Classification

The Turkic languages are divided into six branches:

• Oghuz (or Southwestern Turkic), which includes Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Turkmen
• Kipchak (or Northwestern Turkic), which includes Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tatar
• Karluk (or Southeastern Turkic), which includes Uzbek and Uyghur
• Oghur (or Lir-Turkic), with Chuvash being the only surviving member
• Siberian Turkic, which includes Yakut and Tuva
• Common Turkic, a grouping that includes languages not fitting into the other categories, such as Karaim and Khalaj

History

The Turkic languages have a long history that dates back to at least the first millennium CE, with the earliest written records in the Orkhon inscriptions from the 8th century. These languages have spread over a wide geographical area through migration, trade, conquest, and intermarriage, influencing and being influenced by the Indo-European, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages, among others.

Characteristics

Turkic languages share several linguistic features, including:

• Vowel harmony, a type of phonological process where the vowels within a word harmonize to be either front or back
• Agglutination, where words are formed by stringing together morphemes (word-building units) without changing them as in Indo-European languages
• Lack of gender, with pronouns and nouns not distinguished by gender
• Use of postpositions rather than prepositions
• Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order

Writing Systems

Historically, Turkic languages have been written in a variety of writing systems, including the Orkhon script, Arabic script, Latin script, and Cyrillic script. The choice of script often reflects historical, political, and cultural shifts in the regions where these languages are spoken.

Modern Distribution

Today, Turkic languages are spoken by over 170 million people. The most widely spoken Turkic language is Turkish, with over 75 million native speakers, primarily in Turkey and Cyprus. Other significant Turkic languages include Uzbek, Kazakh, Uyghur, and Azerbaijani. The spread of Turkic languages and peoples has created a culturally and linguistically diverse region, with significant Turkic-speaking communities in Russia, China, Iran, and Afghanistan, among other countries.

Cultural Impact

The Turkic languages have played a crucial role in the history and culture of the Silk Road and the development of Islamic civilization, particularly during the Ottoman Empire. They have contributed significantly to the arts, literature, and music of the regions they are spoken in. The Epic of Manas, a traditional Kyrgyz epic poem, and the works of the 16th-century Uzbek poet Alisher Navoi, are notable examples of Turkic literature.