The Turkic languages are a group of languages spoken across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia and Siberia.
Turkic languages are spoken as native languages by some 200 million people.
Turkic languages by subfamily
The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2022) and were rounded:[1][2]
The Turkic languages are a
language family of at least 35 [3] documented languages, spoken by the
Turkic peoples. The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:[1][2]
An endangered language, or moribund language, is a
language that is at risk of falling out of use as its speakers
die out or
shift to speaking another language.
Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "
dead language".
26 endangered Turkic languages exist in World. The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:[4][5][6]
Western/Khemchik River (It is influenced by Altai)
Central (the geographical centrality of this dialect meant it was similar to the language spoken by most Tuvans, whether or not exactly the same). Forms the basis of the standard and literary language and includes:
Ovyur
Bii-Khem
Northeastern/Todzhi (it is spoken near the upper course of the Bii-Khem River by the
Tozhu Tuvans. The speakers of this dialect utilize nasalization. It contains a large vocabulary related to hunting and reindeer breeding not found in the other dialects).
Historically in
Central Asia there was a distinction between
sedentary, called
Sart or
Taranchi, and
nomadic peoples (regardless of the ethnic group and language). Many times it was used confusingly because it was a generic word for several peoples and their languages (mainly
Iranians or
Turkics) and also because it had different meanings at different historical times (had shifting meanings over the centuries). Strictly it was not an ethnic or linguistic definition but one of a lifestyle. (strong Iranian substrate)
Aqnogai (White or Western Nogai), by the
Kuban River, its tributaries in
Karachay–Cherkessia, and in the
Mineralnye Vody District. Qara-Nogai and Nogai Proper are very close linguistically, whereas Aqnogai is more different.
Urum (closely related to
Crimean Tatar and spoken by Turkish-speaking
Greeks of Southeastern Ukraine and Georgia, etymological related to the Turkish name for Rome - Rûm / Urum, associated with the name of the
East Roman Empire, mainly
Greek in language) (
Greek substrate)
Danube Bulgar (extinct in the 10th c. AD assimilated by the Slavic language of the Seven Slavic Tribes, that was close to
Old Church Slavonic, but they chose the name Bulgarian as an ethnonym and also for their language because of the origins of much of their ruling class or political elite that was Turkic)
Unclassified languages that may have been Turkic or members of other language families
Hunnic / Xiongnu (?)
Hunnic /
Hunnish - the language or languages of the
Huns (there are several hypotheses about their language)
Xiongnu - the language or languages of the
Xiongnu (may be the same as the
Hunnic language, a closely related one, or not related at all) (there are several hypotheses about their language)
Jie - the language of the
Jie (in today's Northern China), might be a dialect of the
Xiongnu language. (possibly the earliest attested Turkic language, or a
Yeniseian language)
Keraite - the language or languages of the
Keraites (in today's Central Mongolia) (Mongolized after
Temüjin, called
Chinggis Khan, conquest in the 13th century) (
Qarai Turks, the Kerey Kazakh group of the middle zhuz
Argyns, the Kireis, a group of the
Kyrgyz and many
Torghut may descend from them) (there are several hypotheses about their language)
Old Naiman - the language or languages of the old
Naimans (in today's Western and Southwestern Mongolia) (Mongolized after
Temüjin, called
Chinggis Khan, conquest in the 13th century) (Naiman, however, is the Mongol name for the numeral eight) (there are several hypotheses about their language)
Pannonian Avar - the language or languages of the
Pannonian Avars (there are several hypotheses about their language)
Tuoba - the language of
Tuoba and possible related to Turkic languages.[7]
Possible Mixed languages
Äynu / Aini (Äynú) (could be a mixed language) (Turkic
cryptolect with a mainly
Iranian vocabulary and
Turkic grammar, spoken by the
Äynu people, a different people from the
Uyghur)
^Holcombe, Charles (2001). The Genesis of East Asia: 221 B.C. - A.D. 907. p. 132.
Akhatov G. Kh. 1960. "About the stress in the language of the Siberian Tatars in connection with the stress of modern Tatar literary language" .- Sat *"Problems of Turkic and the history of Russian Oriental Studies." Kazan. (in Russian)
Akhatov G.Kh. 1963. "Dialect West Siberian Tatars" (monograph). Ufa. (in Russian)
Baskakov, N.A. 1962, 1969. Introduction to the study of the Turkic languages. Moscow. (in Russian)
Boeschoten, Hendrik & Lars Johanson. 2006. Turkic languages in contact. Turcologica, Bd. 61. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
ISBN3-447-05212-0
Clausen, Gerard. 1972. An etymological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Deny, Jean et al. 1959–1964. Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.