Languages of Turkey
Encyclopedia
The official language of Turkey
is Turkish
though Ethnologue
lists many minority languages some of which are spoken by large numbers of people.
According to Article 42 of the Constitution of Turkey
:
This provision has been criticized by Human Rights Watch
who claim that ethnic minorities face restrictions in the use of their languages. They further observe that "the Turkish government accepts the language rights of the Jewish, Greek and Armenian minorities as being guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. But the government claims that these are Turkey's only minorities, and that any talk of minority rights beyond this is just separatism".
, the earliest Indo-European language for which written evidence exists (circa 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE when the Hittite Empire existed). The other Anatolian languages
included Luwian and later Lycian
, Lydian
, and Milyan, . All these languages are believed to have become extinct at the latest around the 1st century BCE due to the Hellenization
of Anatolia
which led to Greek in a variety of dialects becoming the common language.
Urartian
belonging to the Hurro-Urartian language family
existed in eastern Anatolia around Lake Van
. It existed as the language of the kingdom of Urartu
from about the 9th century BCE until the 6th century. Hattian
is attested in Hittite ritual texts but is not related to the Hittite language or to any other known language; it dates from the 2nd millennium BCE.
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
is Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
though Ethnologue
Ethnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
lists many minority languages some of which are spoken by large numbers of people.
According to Article 42 of the Constitution of Turkey
Constitution of Turkey
This article relates to a current event. See also the Turkish constitutional referendum, 2010The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey is Turkey's fundamental law. It establishes the organization of the government and sets out the principles and rules of the state's conduct along with its...
:
This provision has been criticized by Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
who claim that ethnic minorities face restrictions in the use of their languages. They further observe that "the Turkish government accepts the language rights of the Jewish, Greek and Armenian minorities as being guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. But the government claims that these are Turkey's only minorities, and that any talk of minority rights beyond this is just separatism".
| Language | Numbers | Classification | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,... |
46,300,000 (1987) | Turkic Turkic languages The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken... (Oghuz Oghuz languages The Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family, are spoken by more than 110 million people in an area spanning from the Balkans to China.-Linguistic features:... ) |
Numbers are certainly higher now |
| Northern Kurdish | 3,950,000 (1980) | Indo-European Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia... (Indo-Iranian Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan, Iranian and Nuristani... , Iranian Iranian languages The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples.... , Western Western Iranian languages The Western Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages, attested from the time of Old Persian .The two sub-branches are:*Northwestern Iranian languages*Southwestern Iranian languages... ) |
also known as Kurmanji |
| Dimli Dimli Dimli is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in eastern Turkey. According to Ethnologue, the language is a part of the northwestern group of the Iranian section of the Indo-European.... |
1,000,000 (1998/1999) | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Western) | one of the Zaza languages |
| Kabardian Kabardian language The Kabardian language, also known as East Circassian , is a Northwest Caucasian language, closely related to the Adyghe language. It is spoken mainly in the Russian republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia and in Turkey and the Middle East... |
1,000,000 (2005) | North Caucasian languages North Caucasian languages North Caucasian languages is a blanket term for two language phyla spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey: the Northwest Caucasian family and the Northeast Caucasian family North Caucasian languages (sometimes called simply Caucasic as opposed to Kartvelian, and to avoid confusion with... (aka Caucasic) |
|
| South Azerbaijani | Turkic (Oghuz) | ||
| North Mesopotamian Arabic North Mesopotamian Arabic North Mesopotamian Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken north of the Hamrin Mountains in Iraq, in northwestern Iran in northern Syria, and in southeastern Turkey... |
400,000 (1992) | Semitic languages Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa... (Arabic Arabic languages The Arabic language family consists of*Classical Arabic and its descendants, including** Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial varieties of Arabic **The various Judeo-Arabic languages **Maltese... ) |
|
| Balkan Gagauz Turkish | 327,000 (1993) | Turkic (Oghuz) | |
| Bulgarian Bulgarian language Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the... |
300,000 (2001) | Indo-European (Slavic Slavic languages The 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.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic... ) |
|
| Adyghe Adyghe language Adyghe language , also known as West Circassian , is one of the two official languages of the Republic of Adygea in the Russian Federation, the other being Russian. It is spoken by various tribes of the Adyghe people: Abzekh, Adamey, Bzhedugh; Hatukuay, Kemirgoy, Makhosh; Natekuay, Shapsigh; Zhane,... |
278,000 (2000) | North Caucasian languages | |
| Kirmanjki | 140,000 | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Western) | one of the Zaza languages |
| Armenian Armenian language The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora... |
40,000 (1980) | Indo-European (Armenian languages) | |
| Georgian Georgian language Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad... |
40,000 (1980) | South Caucasian languages South Caucasian languages The Kartvelian languages are spoken primarily in Georgia, with a large group of ethnic Georgian speakers in Russia, the United States, the European Union, and northeastern parts of Turkey. There are approximately 5.2 million speakers of this language family worldwide.It is not known to be related... |
|
| Laz Laz language The Laz language is a South Caucasian language spoken by the Laz people on the Southeast shore of the Black Sea... |
30,000 (1980) | South Caucasian languages | |
| Domari Domari language Domari is an Indo-Aryan language, spoken by the Dom people across the Middle East, mainly in Iran and Egypt, but significant numbers of speakers are also found in India where they are known as Domba.... |
28,500 (2000) | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family... ) |
|
| Balkan Romani | 25,000 | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan) | |
| Serbian Serbian language Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries.... |
20,000 (1980) | Indo-European (Slavic) | |
| Tosk Albanian | 15,000 (1980) | Indo-European (Albanian Albanian language Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece... ) |
|
| Abaza Abaza language The Abaza language is a language of the Caucasus mountains in the Russian Karachay-Cherkess Republic by the Abazins... |
10,000 (1995) | North Caucasian languages | |
| Ladino | 8,000 (1976) | Indo-European (Romance Romance languages The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome... ) |
spoken by the descendants of Jewish refugees from Spain |
| Pontic | 4,540 (1965) | Indo-European (Greek) | spoken on the shores of the Black Sea Black Sea The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean... , most speakers were moved to Greece in the 1920s |
| Greek Greek language Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;... |
4,000 (1993) | Indo-European (Greek) | most speakers were moved to Greece in the 1920s |
| Abkhaz Abkhaz language Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken mainly by the Abkhaz people. It is the official language of Abkhazia where around 100,000 people speak it. Furthermore, it is spoken by thousands of members of the Abkhazian diaspora in Turkey, Georgia's autonomous republic of Adjara, Syria, Jordan... |
4,000 (1980) | North Caucasian languages | |
| Turoyo Turoyo language Turoyo/Surayt is a variety of Aramaic traditionally spoken in eastern Turkey and north-eastern Syria by the Assyrian/Syriac people. Turoyo is to a lesser extent mutually intelligible with Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic.-Etymology:... |
3,000 (1994) | Semitic languages (Aramaic Aramaic language Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,... ) |
|
| Crimean Turkish Crimean Tatar language The Crimean Tatar language is the language of the Crimean Tatars. It is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea, Central Asia , and the Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria... |
2,000 | Turkic (Oghuz) | actual number is unknown |
| Southern Uzbek Uzbek language Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 25.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia... |
1,980 (1982) | Turkic (Uyghuric) | |
| Kyrgyz Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz or Kirgiz, also Kirghiz, Kyrghiz, Qyrghiz is a Turkic language and, together with Russian, an official language of Kyrgyzstan... |
1,140 (1982) | Turkic (Western) | (aka Kirghiz) |
| Hértevin Hértevin language The Hértevin language is a modern Eastern Aramaic or Syriac language. It was originally spoken in a cluster of villages in Siirt Province in southeastern Turkey. Speakers of Hértevin Aramaic have emigrated mostly to the West, and are now scattered and isolated from one another... |
1,000less than 1,000 (1999) | Semitic languages (Aramaic Aramaic language Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,... ) |
|
| Turkmen Turkmen language Turkmen is the national language of Turkmenistan... |
920 (1982) | Turkic (Oghuz) | |
| Kazakh Kazakh language Kazakh is a Turkic language which belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak.... |
600 (1982) | Turkic (Western) | |
| Uyghur Uyghur language Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other... |
500 (1981) | Turkic (Eastern) | |
| Kumyk Kumyk language Kumyk is a Turkic language, spoken by about 365,000 speakers in the Dagestan republic of Russian Federation.... |
1few villages | Turkic (Western) | |
| Tatar Tatar language The Tatar language , or more specifically Kazan Tatar, is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars of historical Kazan Khanate, including modern Tatarstan and Bashkiria... |
1handful | Turkic (Western) | |
| Osetin | 1?? | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern Eastern Iranian languages The Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times .The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian. The largest living Eastern Iranian language is Pashto, with some 50 million speakers between the Hindu Kush mountains in... ) |
|
| Turkish Sign Language Turkish Sign Language Turkish Sign Language is the language used by the deaf community in Turkey. As with other sign languages, TİD has a unique grammar that is different from the spoken languages used in the region.... |
1? | Sign languages | Numbers are unknown though likely to number in the thousands |
| Syriac | 0extinct | Aramaic | liturgical language |
| Ubykh Ubykh language Ubykh or Ubyx is an extinct language of the Northwestern Caucasian group, spoken by the Ubykh people... |
0extinct | North Caucasian | became extinct in the 1990s |
History
Turkey has historically been the home to many now extinct languages. These include the Hittite languageHittite language
Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...
, the earliest Indo-European language for which written evidence exists (circa 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE when the Hittite Empire existed). The other Anatolian languages
Anatolian languages
The Anatolian languages comprise a group of extinct Indo-European languages that were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language.-Origins:...
included Luwian and later Lycian
Lycian
Lycian may refer to:* Anything related to Lycia* Apollo Lyceus, a type of ancient Greek statuary* Lycian language, the language of Lycia* Lycian script, the writing system of Lycian language* Lycian Way, a footpath in Turkey...
, Lydian
Lydian
Lydian may refer to:* Lydian language, an ancient Anatolian language* Lydian script* Lydian mode, one of the modes derived from ancient Greek music* Lydian , a decorative typeface* Lydia, an ancient kingdom in western Anatolia...
, and Milyan, . All these languages are believed to have become extinct at the latest around the 1st century BCE due to the Hellenization
Hellenization
Hellenization is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and, to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon...
of Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
which led to Greek in a variety of dialects becoming the common language.
Urartian
Urartian language
Urartian, Vannic, and Chaldean are conventional names for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu that was located in the region of Lake Van, with its capital near the site of the modern town of Van, in the Armenian Highland, modern-day Eastern Anatolia region of...
belonging to the Hurro-Urartian language family
Hurro-Urartian languages
The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian, both of which were spoken in the Taurus mountains area.-Classification:...
existed in eastern Anatolia around Lake Van
Lake Van
Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes . The original outlet from...
. It existed as the language of the kingdom of Urartu
Urartu
Urartu , corresponding to Ararat or Kingdom of Van was an Iron Age kingdom centered around Lake Van in the Armenian Highland....
from about the 9th century BCE until the 6th century. Hattian
Hattic language
Hattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire....
is attested in Hittite ritual texts but is not related to the Hittite language or to any other known language; it dates from the 2nd millennium BCE.