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Common Turkic languages

The Common Turkic languages, also referred to as Shaz Turkic, form the primary branch of the Turkic language family, comprising all extant and historical Turkic languages except those in the divergent Oghuric (or Bulgharic) subgroup, such as Chuvash and the extinct Bulgar varieties.^[1] This branch is defined by its shared phonological developments, including the retention of Proto-Turkic *z in certain positions (hence "Shaz"), in contrast to the Oghuric *r/z alternation.^[2] Spoken by approximately 200 million people worldwide as of 2023, the Common Turkic languages represent the vast majority of the Turkic family's speakers, with Oghuric languages accounting for only a small fraction (primarily around 1.1 million for Chuvash).^[3]^[4] They are distributed across a vast Eurasian expanse, from northeastern Siberia (e.g., Yakut/Sakha) and the Altai Mountains in the east, through Central Asia and the Caucasus, to Anatolia, the Balkans, and even pockets in Eastern Europe like Poland and Lithuania.^[1] Major languages include Turkish (over 85 million speakers as of 2023, primarily in Turkey), Uzbek (around 35 million as of 2023, in Uzbekistan and neighboring regions), Kazakh (about 15 million as of 2023, in Kazakhstan), Azerbaijani (over 30 million as of 2023, in Azerbaijan and Iran), and Uyghur (around 11 million as of 2023, mainly in Xinjiang, China), alongside smaller ones like Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Tatar, and various Siberian varieties such as Tuvan and Khakas.^[5]^[6] Linguistically, Common Turkic languages are typologically uniform, featuring agglutinative morphology where grammatical elements are added as suffixes to roots to form words, vowel harmony (a phonological rule requiring vowels within a word to share certain features like front/back or rounded/unrounded quality), and a canonical subject-object-verb (SOV) word order.^[6] These shared traits, along with high lexical similarity (often 80-90% cognate basic vocabulary among subgroups), enable partial mutual intelligibility, particularly within closely related branches like Oghuz (e.g., Turkish, Azerbaijani) or Kipchak (e.g., Kazakh, Tatar).^[7] The family is traditionally subdivided into four main subgroups—Oghuz (Southwestern), Kipchak (Northwestern), Karluk-Chagatai (Southeastern), and Siberian (Northeastern)—though the monophyly of the Siberian group remains debated in phylogenetic studies.^[1] Originating from a Common Turkic proto-language around 2,100 years ago (circa 66 BCE), these languages have evolved amid nomadic migrations, imperial expansions (e.g., Ottoman, Mongol), and contacts with Indo-European, Mongolic, and Uralic families, influencing their scripts (from runes to Arabic, Cyrillic, and Latin) and sociolinguistic status today.^[1]

Overview

Definition

The Common Turkic languages constitute the primary branch of the Turkic language family, encompassing all contemporary Turkic languages except those of the Oghuric (or Bulgharic) branch, such as Chuvash.^[1] This branch descends from Proto-Common Turkic, an intermediate stage following the divergence of Oghuric from Proto-Turkic around the 1st millennium BCE, and includes major subgroups like Oghuz, Kipchak, Karluk, and Siberian Turkic.^[1] Recognized as a valid linguistic grouping in standard classifications, Common Turkic bears the Glottolog code comm1245, while the broader Turkic family is designated under ISO 639-5 as trk.^[8] What unifies the Common Turkic languages are shared innovations in phonology and vocabulary that distinguish them from Oghuric varieties. Phonologically, these include the development of /z/ (zetacism) and /š/ from earlier Proto-Turkic affricates, in contrast to the rhotacism (/r/) and lambdacism (/l/) characteristic of Oghuric; for example, the word for "winter" is *qïš in Common Turkic but *xĕl in Chuvash.^[9] Vocabularly, Common Turkic languages share a core lexicon derived from Proto-Common Turkic, including basic terms like *toquz "nine" (versus Chuvash *tăχăr), reflecting innovations absent in the western Oghuric branch.^[9] These features underscore the relatively shallow time depth of Common Turkic divergence, estimated at around 2,000 years before present.^[1] The term "Common Turkic" also evokes "Shaz Turkic," an alternative designation highlighting its status as the core or eastern varieties of Turkic, named after the phonological reflex *šaz for "autumn" (from Proto-Turkic *čaγun), as opposed to the "Lir-Turkic" label for Oghuric based on *lir.^[9] This etymological framing emphasizes the historical and linguistic centrality of Common Turkic within the family, spoken today by over 180 million people across Eurasia.^[1]

Distinction from other Turkic languages

The Turkic language family is divided into two primary branches through comparative linguistic analysis: the Oghuric (also known as Bulgharic) branch and the Common Turkic branch, with the split occurring approximately 2,000 years ago around the 1st century BC.^[1]^[10] This early divergence is inferred from phylogenetic modeling of lexical data across Turkic varieties, placing the root of the family at around 66 BC with a credibility interval spanning 755 BC to 483 AD.^[1] The separation likely took place in the eastern Eurasian steppes, after which Oghuric speakers migrated westward during the Hunnic and post-Hunnic periods in the 4th–5th centuries AD.^[10] A hallmark of this distinction lies in systematic phonological shifts unique to each branch. In Oghuric languages, Proto-Turkic palatal sounds developed into r and l, contrasting with Common Turkic z and š, a phenomenon known as rhotacism and lambdacism, respectively. For instance, the Proto-Turkic form underlying 'eight' yields Chuvash sakə̂r but Common Turkic sekiz; similarly, 'four' corresponds to Chuvash tə̂ovatə̂ versus Common Turkic tȫrt.^[10] Oghuric languages also exhibit palatalization of Proto-Turkic t and d to č before high front vowels (i, ï), and s to š in certain positions, features not paralleled in Common Turkic.^[10] These innovations, preserved in Oghuric due to early isolation, sharply differentiate it from the sound systems of Common Turkic languages spoken across Central Asia, Siberia, and parts of Europe and the Middle East. The Oghuric branch is represented today solely by Chuvash, spoken by about 1 million people in the Volga-Kama region of European Russia, while its other members, such as Bulgar, are extinct.^[10] Extinct Bulgar varieties were once used in the Volga Bulgaria kingdom (7th–13th centuries AD) and among Danube Bulgars before their Slavicization. This branch's geographic isolation in Eastern and Southern Europe, far from the core Common Turkic territories, contributed to its distinct evolution, with limited ongoing contact reinforcing the phonological and lexical gaps.^[10] Supporting evidence for the early separation comes from historical inscriptions and loanword patterns. Volga Bulghar inscriptions from the 13th–14th centuries, written in Arabic script, display Chuvash-like phonological traits, such as rhotacism, absent in contemporaneous Common Turkic runic texts like the Orkhon inscriptions.^[10] Additionally, Oghuric loanwords in neighboring languages like Hungarian, Old Russian, and Permic languages (e.g., Chuvash šurə̂ 'white' reflected in Khazar place names like Šarkel) preserve Oghuric-specific forms, indicating interactions predating the full divergence of Common Turkic subgroups and highlighting the branch's westward migration and isolation.^[10]

Historical Development

Proto-Common Turkic

Proto-Common Turkic (PCT) is the reconstructed ancestor language of the Common Turkic languages, a major branch of the Turkic family excluding the Oghuric languages, obtained through the comparative method applied to attested Old Turkic texts and modern daughter languages.^[11] This reconstruction posits PCT as spoken approximately from 500 BCE to 500 CE in Central Asia, likely in the region encompassing the Altai Mountains, Mongolia, and western Siberia, where early Turkic-speaking nomadic groups are archaeologically and linguistically attested, though the exact timing of the split from Oghuric remains debated, possibly in the 1st millennium BCE.^[11] The phonological inventory of PCT featured vowel harmony, a system where vowels in suffixes and affixes assimilate to the frontness or backness of the root vowels, influencing the overall harmony classes of words. PCT is reconstructed with nine vowels: /a/, /e/, /ə/, /i/, /o/, /ö/, /u/, /ü/, /ı/, distributed across front and back series with distinctions in height and rounding, though some reductions and mergers occurred in early attested forms.^[12] The consonant system included stops and affricates such as /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g/, /č/, and /d͡ʒ/, alongside nasals (/m/, /n/, /ŋ/), fricatives (/s/, /ʃ/, /h/), liquids (/l/, /r/), and glides (/j/, /w/), with initial /p/ often shifting to /h/ in Common Turkic reflexes but retained in some reconstructions of the proto-form.^[13]^[12] Core vocabulary of PCT includes basic kinship and natural terms like *ata 'father' and *su 'water', which show regular correspondences across daughter languages such as Turkish *ata and *su, Uyghur *ata and *su, and Kazakh *ata and *su. Basic grammatical morphemes encompass the plural suffix -lar/-ler, which varies by vowel harmony (e.g., back harmony *at-lar 'fathers'; front harmony *köŋül-ler 'hearts' or *eŋil-ler 'lights').^[12] Reconstruction of PCT draws from the Orkhon inscriptions (8th century CE, the earliest extensive Turkic texts), Middle Turkic sources such as the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk (11th century) and Uyghur manuscripts, and comparative data from over 30 modern Common Turkic languages including Turkish, Kazakh, Uzbek, and Yakut.^[12] These materials enable systematic comparison to infer proto-forms, with ongoing refinements based on phonological and morphological regularities.^[11]

Evolution and periods

The evolution of Common Turkic languages following the Proto-Common Turkic stage is marked by significant historical, cultural, and political influences that drove linguistic divergence and standardization across Eurasia. Emerging from the reconstructed Proto-Common Turkic around the 6th century CE, these languages underwent progressive differentiation through migrations and interactions, beginning with the Göktürk Empire's expansion in Central Asia, which facilitated the spread of early dialects and led to initial regional variations by approximately 1000 CE.^[14]^[12] The historical development is conventionally divided into three main periods: Old Turkic (6th–13th centuries), Middle Turkic (13th–19th centuries), and the modern period (19th century onward). The Old Turkic period, attested primarily through inscriptions like the 8th-century Orkhon Turkic texts, represents the earliest written form, characterized by a unified grammatical structure with vowel harmony and agglutination, though dialects such as those of the Uyghurs and Karakhanids began to emerge.^[12]^[14] This era saw the initial spread via Göktürk migrations westward and the Seljuk expansions in the 11th century, which carried Oghuz dialects into Anatolia and Persia, accelerating dialectal splits among branches like Oghuz, Kipchak, and Karluk.^[15] External influences were limited but included early Sogdian and Chinese loanwords, setting the stage for later integrations.^[12] During the Middle Turkic period, triggered by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, languages like Chagatai became prominent literary standards in Central Asia, reflecting greater regional specialization.^[14]^[12] The Kipchak branch incorporated substantial Mongol loanwords due to the Golden Horde's dominance, while Karluk and Oghuz varieties absorbed Persian and Arabic vocabulary through Islamic conversion and cultural exchange, evident in texts like the 11th-century Diwan Lughat al-Turk.^[16]^[17] This period also featured the transition to Arabic script around the 10th–11th centuries, replacing the earlier runic (Orkhon-Yenisei) system and enabling broader literary production under Islamic patronage.^[12] In the modern period, beginning in the late 19th century, colonial and Soviet policies profoundly shaped standardization and script reforms. Russian imperial and Soviet administrations imposed Cyrillic alphabets on many Turkic languages in the 1930s–1940s, such as in Kazakh and Uzbek, to promote Russification and administrative unity, while Turkey adopted a Latin-based script in 1928 to modernize and secularize Ottoman Turkish.^[16] These changes, alongside nation-building efforts, led to codified standards for major languages like Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Kazakh, with ongoing shifts—such as Kazakhstan's planned transition to Latin by 2031 as of 2025—reflecting post-Soviet identity assertions.^[18] Overall, these periods illustrate how geopolitical movements and orthographic adaptations transformed a shared linguistic heritage into diverse yet interconnected modern varieties.^[14]

Classification

Major branches

The Common Turkic languages, also known as Shaz-Turkic, are traditionally subdivided into four major branches based on genealogical classification: the Oghuz (southwestern), Kipchak (northwestern), Karluk (southeastern), and Siberian (northeastern) branches.^[1] These divisions reflect the primary internal structure of the family following its early binary split from the Oghur (Bulgharic) branch around the 1st century BCE.^[1] The Oghuz branch comprises languages such as Turkish and Azerbaijani, spoken primarily in Anatolia, the Caucasus, and parts of Iran.^[19] The Kipchak branch includes Kazakh and Tatar, distributed across Central Asia and the Volga-Ural region.^[19] The Karluk branch features Uzbek and Uyghur, centered in Central Asia and Xinjiang.^[19] The Siberian branch encompasses Yakut and Tuvan, located in Siberia and the Sayan region.^[19] These branches are delineated by bundles of shared isoglosses, including phonological developments like vowel shifts and consonant changes, as well as morphological innovations such as alterations in verbal conjugations and case marking.^[20] For instance, the Oghuz branch is characterized by innovations like the loss of intervocalic Proto-Common-Turkic *b- (e.g., yielding forms without the consonant in certain derivations) and systematic shifts in gutturals, such as *g- > y- in initial positions. Kipchak languages share features like the development of rounded front vowels from earlier unrounded ones in specific environments, alongside innovations in nominal pluralization.^[20] Karluk varieties exhibit vowel reductions and mergers not found elsewhere, coupled with unique adverbial formations.^[19] Siberian languages display innovations such as the preservation of certain Proto-Turkic diphthongs and distinct evidential mood developments.^[1] Relative chronology, informed by linguistic reconstruction and historical records, places the initial divergence of Oghuz and Kipchak around the 8th century CE, coinciding with the Old Turkic period documented in Orkhon inscriptions, followed by the separation of Karluk and Siberian branches in subsequent centuries amid migrations.^[6] Bayesian phylolinguistic modeling supports this sequence, estimating the North-South Siberian split around 474 CE (95% credible interval: 7 BCE–809 CE) and later nodes for Oghuz-Kipchak-Karluk clustering post-650 CE.^[1] The Arghu branch, primarily represented by Khalaj spoken in central Iran, is regarded as a minor or debated independent lineage within Common Turkic, retaining archaic features like conservative consonant clusters that distinguish it from the major branches.^[21] This classification stems from its descent from Old Turkic Arghu dialects, with phonological and morphological traits setting it apart, though its exact position remains under discussion due to substrate influences.^[21]

Subgroups and languages

The Common Turkic languages are traditionally classified into four main subgroups: Oghuz (Southwestern), Kipchak (Northwestern), Karluk (Southeastern), and Siberian (Northeastern). These subgroups encompass the majority of living Turkic languages, excluding the divergent Oghuric branch represented by Chuvash. Each subgroup exhibits shared innovations, such as specific phonological shifts or morphological features, while individual languages within them show varying degrees of mutual intelligibility.^[22]^[6] The Oghuz subgroup comprises languages spoken primarily in western and southwestern Eurasia, characterized by innovations like the preservation of certain proto-vowel distinctions. Key languages include Turkish, with approximately 90 million speakers (as of 2025) mainly in Turkey and diaspora communities;^[23] Azerbaijani, spoken by about 30 million people in Azerbaijan, Iran, and surrounding regions; and Turkmen, with around 7 million speakers in Turkmenistan and adjacent areas. Other members encompass smaller languages and dialects such as Gagauz, spoken by roughly 150,000 people in Moldova, Ukraine, and Bulgaria, and Khorasani Turkic in northeastern Iran. These languages generally exhibit high mutual intelligibility within the subgroup.^[22]^[6]^[19] The Kipchak subgroup, or Northwestern Turkic, features languages distributed across Central Asia, the North Caucasus, and Eastern Europe, marked by developments like the fronting of certain back vowels. Major languages are Kazakh, with over 14 million speakers (as of 2022) in Kazakhstan and China; Kyrgyz, spoken by about 5 million in Kyrgyzstan and neighboring countries; Tatar, with approximately 5.5 million speakers in Russia and Central Asia; and Bashkir, numbering around 1.5 million in Russia. Subgroups include the Nogai languages (spoken by about 100,000 in the North Caucasus and Dagestan) and the Karachay-Balkar languages (around 300,000 speakers in Russia). Crimean Tatar and Karaim represent Western Kipchak varieties, with smaller speaker bases of about 500,000 and fewer than 100 respectively (as of 2023). The extinct Pecheneg language, spoken by nomadic groups in Eastern Europe until the 12th century, is considered an early Kipchak variety. Mutual intelligibility is moderate to high among core Kipchak languages like Kazakh and Kyrgyz.^[22]^[6]^[19] The Karluk subgroup, known as Southeastern or Uyghur-Karluk Turkic, includes languages from Central Asia with features like the merger of certain proto-consonants. Prominent examples are Uzbek, spoken by approximately 35 million people (as of 2023, including second-language speakers) in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan; and Uyghur, with about 10 million speakers mainly in China's Xinjiang region. Ili Turki, a smaller language spoken by fewer than 100 people in Xinjiang, represents a distinct variety, classified as endangered. The Illakhani dialect, associated with historical Chagatai influences, persists in limited forms among Uyghur communities. Languages in this subgroup show significant mutual intelligibility, particularly between Uzbek and Uyghur.^[22]^[6]^[19] The Siberian subgroup, or Northeastern Turkic, consists of languages spoken in Siberia and the Russian Far East, distinguished by innovations such as extensive vowel harmony variations. Key languages include Sakha (Yakut), with around 450,000 speakers in Russia's Sakha Republic; Tuvan, spoken by about 280,000 in Tuva; and Khakas, with approximately 60,000 speakers in Khakassia. The Altay languages form a subgroup with around 70,000 speakers across dialects like Northern, Southern, and Kumandin; Dolgan, a variety of Sakha, has approximately 5,000 speakers (as of 2020) in northern Siberia. Many Siberian Turkic languages, such as Tofa (fewer than 100 speakers) and Chulym (under 100), are endangered or nearly extinct due to assimilation pressures. Mutual intelligibility within this subgroup is generally low, reflecting greater internal diversity.^[22]^[6]^[19]

Linguistic Features

Phonology

The phonology of Common Turkic languages is characterized by a systematic sound structure that emphasizes harmony and relative simplicity in inventories, shared across branches while exhibiting branch-specific variations. A defining feature is vowel harmony, which requires vowels within a word to agree in certain articulatory properties, primarily backness (front vs. back) and, to varying degrees, rounding (rounded vs. unrounded).^[24] This process ensures phonological cohesion, with suffixes adapting to the root vowel's features; for instance, in Turkish (an Oghuz language), the plural suffix appears as -ler after front-voweled roots like ev 'house' (yielding evler 'houses'), but as -lar after back-voweled roots like dağ 'mountain' (yielding dağlar 'mountains').^[25] In Kazakh (a Kipchak language), similar patterns hold, with nine Proto-Turkic vowels preserved as a, ä, e, i, o, ö, ü, u, ı, influencing harmony across backness and labialization.^[24] Three main types of opposition underpin this harmony: backness (e.g., a vs. ä), labialization (unlabialized like a vs. labialized like o, ö), and roundness (narrow, wide, or medium variants).^[24] The consonant inventory in Common Turkic languages typically comprises 20–30 phonemes, featuring a symmetrical set of stops (/p, b, t, d, k, g, q/), nasals (/m, n, ŋ/), liquids (/l, r/), and glides (/j, w/), alongside fricatives such as /f, s, ʃ, x, ɣ/ and affricates like /tʃ, dʒ/.^[26]^[27] Fricatives /f, s, ʃ/ are widespread, often with palatal variants influenced by adjacent vowels, while affricates reflect Proto-Turkic origins and appear in roots like Turkish çocuk 'child' (/tʃ/ realization).^[27] Velar-uvular distinctions are common, with uvulars (/q, ʁ/) alternating with velars (/k, g/) based on vowel backness due to harmony, as seen in Kazakh where /q/ pairs with back vowels and /k/ with front ones.^[28] Borrowed sounds like /f/ and /v/ may appear in loanwords but are integrated into native patterns.^[25] Prosodic features support the agglutinative nature of these languages, with word stress typically fixed on the final syllable of the root or prosodic word, often shifting rightward with suffixes but insensitive to syllable quantity in core cases.^[27]^[26] In Turkish, this results in patterns like ev-ler stressed on the final syllable, with exceptions for unstressable suffixes that retrogress stress.^[27] Vowel reduction is minimal or absent in unstressed positions, preserving full vowel quality to maintain harmony, though epenthetic vowels may insert to avoid clusters in some contexts.^[26] Variations across branches reflect historical and contact influences. In the Oghuz branch (e.g., Turkish), labial vowel harmony is restricted to high vowels and shows root-internal disharmony with unmarked vowels like /i, e, a, o, u/, diverging from the fuller systems in other branches.^[29] Siberian Turkic languages, such as Kazakh, exhibit strengthened uvular consonants (/q, ʁ/) due to substrate effects from pre-Turkic populations, enhancing dorsal contrasts tied to vowel backness.^[28] In Karluk languages like Uzbek, overall vowel harmony weakens, with suffixes less consistently adapting (e.g., kitob-lar 'books' ignoring root rounding), influenced by Persian and Russian contact.^[25]

Grammar

Common Turkic languages are characterized by their agglutinative morphology, in which grammatical relations are primarily expressed through the addition of suffixes to stems, allowing for a high degree of transparency and regularity in word formation.^[30] For nouns, suffixes indicate case, such as the nominative (unmarked, -ø), genitive (-nıŋ), and dative (-ğa/-ge), while possessive suffixes denote ownership, for example, the first-person singular -ım in forms like Turkish ev-im ("my house").^[30] Verbs similarly agglutinate suffixes for tense and aspect, including the simple past marker -dı/-di/-du/-dү/-dı (vowel harmony-dependent), as in Kazakh kel-di ("came").^[30] This suffixation system adheres to phonological constraints like vowel harmony, ensuring suffixes harmonize with the stem's vowels, though the specifics of harmony vary across languages.^[30] Syntactically, Common Turkic languages lack grammatical gender and definite or indefinite articles, relying instead on context or demonstratives for specificity.^[30] The canonical word order is subject-object-verb (SOV), as seen in Turkish constructions like Ali kitabı okudu ("Ali book read" = "Ali read the book").^[30] Prepositions are absent; instead, postpositions follow nouns to express spatial, temporal, or relational meanings, such as Turkish için ("for") in ev için ("for the house").^[30] Questions are typically formed by adding the interrogative particle -mı/-mi/-mu/-mү (harmonizing with the stem), placed at the end of the sentence, as in Turkish Gidiyor mu? ("Is he/she going?").^[30] Branch-specific grammatical traits further diversify the family while maintaining core Common Turkic patterns. For instance, future tense marking differs between branches: Kipchak languages often use -acak/-ecek, whereas Oghuz languages employ -ecek/-acak, both appended to the verb stem to indicate intention or prediction, as in Turkish gidecek ("will go") versus similar forms in Kazakh.^[31] In Siberian Turkic languages, evidentiality is prominently grammaticalized, distinguishing firsthand (direct) from reported or inferred (indirect) information through dedicated verbal suffixes, such as Tuvan's -DÏ for witnessed past events (e.g., kel-di: "I saw him come") and -GAn for non-witnessed ones (e.g., kel-gan: "He reportedly came").^[32] These evidential markers integrate with tense-aspect systems, enhancing the expression of epistemic modality in narrative and conversational contexts.^[32]

Distribution and Usage

Geographic spread

The Common Turkic languages, encompassing branches such as Oghuz, Kipchak, and Karluk, are primarily spoken across a vast expanse of Eurasia, with core concentrations in Central Asia, Anatolia, Siberia, and Xinjiang. In Central Asia, languages like Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Turkmen predominate in countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, reflecting the region's role as a historical crossroads for Turkic-speaking nomads.^[14] Anatolia serves as the heartland for Turkish, the most widely spoken Common Turkic language, extending into parts of Cyprus and adjacent areas.^[33] Siberian Turkic languages, including Yakut and various Altai dialects, are distributed across Russia's expansive northern territories from the Yenisei River eastward.^[14] In China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Uyghur represents a key Karluk branch language spoken by indigenous communities in the Tarim Basin and surrounding oases.^[14] This broad yet discontinuous geographic spread traces back to historical migrations originating in the steppes of Mongolia and southern Siberia around the 6th century CE, when Proto-Turkic speakers, as part of nomadic confederations like the Göktürks, expanded westward through the Eurasian steppe.^[15] These movements, driven by conquests, trade routes, and pressures from neighboring empires such as the Mongols, carried Turkic languages across Central Asia into the Caucasus, Anatolia, and Eastern Europe by the medieval period, fragmenting their distribution amid diverse linguistic landscapes.^[34] Later waves, including the Oghuz migrations in the 11th century, further solidified presences in Anatolia and the Balkans following the Seljuk expansions.^[35] Beyond these core regions, significant diaspora communities maintain Common Turkic languages in peripheral areas. Turkish-speaking populations persist in the Balkans, particularly in Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Kosovo, as remnants of Ottoman-era settlements and subsequent migrations.^[36] In Russia's Volga-Ural region, Tatar (a Kipchak language) is spoken by communities centered in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, forming ethnic enclaves with deep historical roots in the Golden Horde's legacy.^[37] Uyghur speakers also form notable diaspora groups in Kazakhstan, where around 300,000 individuals (as of 2024) trace their origins to mid-20th-century migrations from Xinjiang, concentrating in urban centers like Almaty.^[38]^[39] The formation of modern nation-states has profoundly shaped the territorial boundaries of Common Turkic languages, often aligning them with independent republics post-Soviet dissolution in 1991, such as the standardized use of Kazakh in Kazakhstan and Uzbek in Uzbekistan.^[40] In Turkey, state policies since the early 20th century have centralized Turkish as the national language, influencing its spread within Anatolia while marginalizing minority dialects.^[33] Additionally, Turkish migrant populations in the European Union, particularly in Germany and the Netherlands, have established linguistic enclaves through labor migrations since the 1960s, adapting to host country policies while preserving community use.^[41]

Speaker demographics

The Common Turkic languages are spoken by approximately 180–200 million people worldwide, including both native and second-language users, making them one of the largest language families by speaker population.^[42] Turkish, the most widely spoken, has around 82 million native speakers, primarily in Turkey, while Uzbek follows with about 40 million native speakers, concentrated in Uzbekistan and neighboring regions.^[43]^[44] Other major languages like Kazakh, Azerbaijani, and Uyghur contribute significantly to this total, with speaker numbers reflecting the family's broad distribution across Eurasia. In terms of vitality, many Common Turkic languages remain robust, serving as official or national languages in countries such as Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan, where they are used in education, media, and government. For instance, Turkish and Kazakh are considered stable and vital, with institutional support ensuring their continued transmission to younger generations.^[45] However, several smaller varieties face endangerment, particularly in Russia and China, due to assimilation pressures and low speaker numbers. Northern Altai, for example, is classified as endangered with limited intergenerational transmission, while Tofa is critically endangered, spoken by around 70 elderly individuals (as of 2020).^[46] Multilingualism is prevalent among Turkic speakers, often involving dominant regional languages that influence daily communication and cultural practices. In former Soviet states, bilingualism with Russian is widespread, stemming from historical policies that promoted it as a lingua franca, while in Central Asia and Iran, Persian (or Tajik) serves a similar role in cross-ethnic interactions. In Xinjiang, China, Uyghur speakers commonly use Chinese in official and educational contexts alongside their native tongue. Diglossia also occurs in certain communities, where standardized forms (often based on literary varieties) contrast with spoken dialects, as observed in the Turkish-speaking population of Western Thrace, Greece.^[47] Speaker demographics have shown varied trends over recent decades. In Turkey and Azerbaijan, numbers have grown steadily due to population increases and strong national policies promoting language use, with Turkish speakers benefiting from Turkey's expanding diaspora and media influence. Conversely, Soviet-era Russification policies led to significant declines in many Turkic languages in Central Asia and Siberia, reducing native proficiency through education in Russian and urban migration.^[48] Post-1991, following the Soviet Union's dissolution, revival efforts in independent states like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have bolstered usage through language reforms, curriculum integration, and cultural initiatives, countering earlier losses and fostering renewed vitality. As of 2025, Kazakhstan has intensified efforts to increase Kazakh language use in public sectors, aiming for 80% coverage in education.^[49]^[50]

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[PDF] Research Article Systematization of the Teaching of the Turkic ...
Apr 28, 2024 · The most common Turkic language is certainly Turkish. The other is Azerbaijani, also widespread in north-western Iran (Nahardani et al ...
[13]
Language Contacts (Chapter 10) - Turkic
Aug 13, 2021 · The Arabic-Persian impact on Turkic languages of the Islamic cultural sphere has been extraordinarily intense. Modern languages such as ...
[14]
Turkic States Revive Latin-Based Alphabet to Preserve Linguistic ...
Sep 23, 2024 · With the spread of Islam into Central Asia, the Arabic script began to dominate as the medium for writing Turkic languages, including Kazakh.<|control11|><|separator|>
[15]
The Turkic Language Family (Chapter 3)
Aug 13, 2021 · Turkic is one of the largest language families in the world in terms of territorial extension.<|control11|><|separator|>
[16]
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1422594.pdf
[17]
Turkic languages | Geography, History, & Comparison - Britannica
Historically, they split into two types early on, Common Turkic and Bolgar Turkic. The language of the Proto-Bolgars, reportedly similar to the Khazar language, ...
[18]
Major and Minor Turkic Language Islands in Iran with a Special ...
Jan 1, 2022 · ... as Turkī/Torkī. The only non-Oghuzic Turkic language of Iran is Khalaj, forming an independent Turkic language group, often referred to as Arghu ...<|separator|>
[19]
Classification of Turkic Languages - Brill Reference Works
Thus, taɣ-lị̈ɣ is typical of Sayan Turkic, Khakas, Fuyü, North Altay, Lower Chulym, Kondom, and Lower Tom dialects. Similar forms are Tuvan and Tofan daɣ-lị̈ɣ.1. Languages And Dialects · 5. Genealogical Relatedness · 7. Further Phonetic Features
[20]
[PDF] Vowel Harmony is a Basic Phonetic Rule of the Turkic Languages
Vowel harmony is a basic phonetic rule in Turkic languages, characterized by tree types of vowel opposition based on backness, labialization, and roundness.
[21]
[PDF] comparative phonetics of uzbek and other turkic languages
This article investigates the phonetic features of Uzbek in comparison with Turkish, Kazakh, and. Kyrgyz, focusing on phoneme inventories, vowel harmony, ...
[22]
None
### Summary of Prosody, Consonants, and Vowel Harmony in Kazakh (Representative of Turkic)
[23]
[PDF] TOPICS IN TURKISH PHONOLOGY | Harry van der Hulst
The most well-known process with respect to vowels is vowel harmony, which is extensively discussed in section 2. 1.1.2 Consonants. The consonantal system is as ...
[24]
[PDF] Acoustic Properties for the Kazakh Velar and Uvular Distribution
Many Turkic languages have consonant inventories that include velar and uvu- lar (dorsal) consonants.1 While the specific consonant inventories can vary within ...
[25]
[PDF] Turkish Vowel Harmony and Disharmony - Rutgers Optimality Archive
Turkish vowel harmony is regular between roots and suffixes, but disharmony is extensive within roots, limited to [i,e,a,o,u] vowels. Marked vowels must follow ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[26]
Altaic, Agglutinative, Turkic-speaking - Languages - Britannica
Sep 20, 2025 · Turkic languages use suffixes for grammatical notions, have sound harmony, and are spoken by Turkic peoples, who are part of the Altaic ...
[27]
[PDF] the development history of tense category in turkic languages
... Kipchak language -ar indicator reflects the meaning of the present and future tenses. In the Oghuz languages the grammatical future form -аcак / - аçак is ...Missing: evidentiality | Show results with:evidentiality<|control11|><|separator|>
[28]
[PDF] On the functions of evidential markers in Tuvan narrative texts
The present study deals with evidentiality as a broad category including mirativity, and the evidential markers mentioned in this paper include markers whose ...
[29]
Turkish - Article .::. UCLA International Institute
May 3, 2014 · Turkish can be classified into three major historical periods: Old Anatolian Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, and modern Turkish. The modern Turkish ...Missing: Middle | Show results with:Middle
[30]
8.5: Turkic Migrations - Social Sci LibreTexts
Apr 19, 2022 · Beginning with the Xiongnu (209 BCE – 93 CE), a long-term exodus of steppe peoples spread out of Mongolia and into Central Asia. For millennia ...
[31]
The Epic Story of How the Turks Migrated From Central Asia to Turkey
Jun 5, 2016 · Turkic peoples were gradually streaming into most of Central Asia from their original homeland in the Altai mountains of western Mongolia.
[32]
Turkish Interests and Involvement in the Western Balkans: A Score ...
Jul 1, 2011 · Turkish leaders say that up to 10 million Turkish citizens can trace their ancestry to the Western Balkans.7 Several waves of migration during ...
[33]
A. Rorlich - Origin of the Volga Tatars - Kroraina
The Volga Tatars are the westernmost of all Turkic nationalities living in the Soviet Union. Among them, there are two major groups – the Kazan Tatars and ...
[34]
Uyghurs in Kazakhstan - Minority Rights Group
In 1962 between 60,000 and 120,000 Uyghurs and Kazakhs fled into Kazakhstan to avoid repression in China. There are thus two distinct Uyghur minority ...Missing: diaspora | Show results with:diaspora
[35]
[PDF] A Case Study of the International Organization of Turkic Culture ...
May 5, 2013 · The collapse of the Soviet Union marked a watershed in Turkish foreign policy. While. Turkey's importance to Western powers as a member of NATO ...
[36]
(How) will Turkish survive in Northwestern Europe? - Academia.edu
Turkish migrants constitute 0.6% of the EU population, making them the largest non-national group. Language policies impact Turkish language development, ...
[37]
Turkic Languages: Home - Nazarbayev University LibGuides
the total number of Turkic speakers, including second-language speakers, is over 200 million. the Kazakh language is the 4th largest spoken language among ...
[38]
Turkish speaking countries - Languages - Worlddata.info
At just under 90%, Turkish is also the most widely spoken language in Turkey. In total, over 82 million people worldwide speak Turkish as their mother tongue.<|separator|>
[39]
Uzbek speaking countries - Worlddata.info
With 29.1 million speakers, it is the most widely spoken language in Uzbekistan. The total number of native speakers worldwide is estimated at around 40 million ...
[40]
Turkish Language (TUR) - Ethnologue
Turkish is the official national language of Turkey. It belongs to the Turkic language family. It is used as a language of instruction in education.
[41]
Altai, Northern Language (ATV) - Ethnologue
Northern Altai is an endangered indigenous language of the Russian Federation. It belongs to the Turkic language family.
[42]
Tofa alphabet, pronunciation and language - Omniglot
Jul 23, 2025 · In 2010 there were 760 Tofa people, and fewer than 40 of them spoke Tofa fluently. Another 50 or so had some knowledge of the language. Tofa ...
[43]
(PDF) Diglossia features and bilingualism in the Turkish-speaking ...
Sep 26, 2021 · This paper presents some preliminary research observations and remarks on diglossia features, bilingualism and contact-relevant linguistic variables
[44]
Silent Killings: Moscow's War to Wipe Out Turkic Languages in Russia
Sep 5, 2025 · By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, the prestige of Turkic languages had been hollowed out, their future left hanging by a thread. The ...
[45]
The Turkic World is on the Edge of a Historic Revival
Thus, dreams about the unity of the Turkic World remerged once again after the dissolution of the socialist empire and the famous motto “Unity in language, ...