The Turkic languages are a language family of at least thirty-fivelanguages, spoken by Turkic peoples from Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are proposed to be part of the controversial Altaic language family. Turkic languages are spoken as a native language by some 170 million people and the total number of Turkic speakers, including second-language speakers, is over 200 million. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper, spoken mainly in Anatolia and the Balkans, the native speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers. Characteristic features of Turkish, such as vowel harmony, agglutination, and lack of grammatical gender, are universal within the Turkic family.There is also a high degree of mutual intelligibility among the various Oghuz languages, which include Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, Balkan Gagauz Turkish and Oghuz-influenced Crimean Tatar. The Turkic languages may be divided into six branches (Johanson 1998): Southwestern (Oghuz Turkic) Northwestern (Kipchak Turkic) Southeastern (Karluk Turkic) Northeastern (Siberian Turkic) Oghur Turkic Arghu Turkic A)OGHUZ TURKIC:The Oghuz languages, a major branch of the Turkic language family, are spoken by more than 150 million people in an area spanning from the Balkans to China. -Turkish -Azerbaijani -Balkan Gagauz Turkish(Moldova and Turks in Balkans) -Turkmen -Salar(in China) -Crimean Tatar Turkish(Oghuz+Kıpchak) B)KIPCHAK TURKIC:The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq, or Northwestern Turkic languages) are a branch of the Turkic language family spoken by more than twelve million people in an area spanning from Lithuania to China. -Tatar(in Russia) -Crimean Tatar Turkish(Oghuz+Kıpchak)[Turkey(Eskişehir province),Ukraine] -Kazakh -Kyrgyz -Bashkir(in Russia) -Karaçay-Balkar(in Russia) -Karaim(in Polonia,Lithuinia,Ukraine) -Nogay(in Russia) -Karakalpak(in Kazakhstan) C)KARLUK TURKIC:The Karluk (Qarluk) Turkic, Uyghuric Turkic or Southeastern Common Turkic languages, also referred to as the Karluk languages, are one of the six major branches of the Turkic language family. -Uzbek -Uyghur(in East Turkestan/China) D)SIBERIAN TURKIC:The Siberian Turkic or Northeastern Common Turkic languages are one of six major branches of the Turkic language family. The following table is based upon the classification scheme presented by Lars Johanson. -Sakha(Yakut) -Khakas -Tuvan -Dolgan E)OGHUR TURKIC:The Oghur, or Bulgar languages (also spelled Ogur, Oghur, Oguric; Bulghar, Bolgar, and variants; also known as Lir-Turkic), are a branch of the Turkic language family. They were historically spoken in Old Great Bulgaria (Magna Bulgaria/Onoguria), and later in the Danube Bulgar Khanate (Danube Bulgaria) and Volga Bulgaria. The only extant member of the group is the Chuvash language. The Oghur branch arguably broke off from Common Turkic perhaps as early as 500 BCE.The Oghur group is characterized by the sound correspondences Oghuric l vs. Common Turkic (i.e. non-Oghur-Turkic) š and Oghuric r vs. Common Turkic z, for which reason it is also known as "Lir-Turkic", or "r-Turkic". The name Oghur itself is an example of the r/z isogloss, being cognate with Oghuz in Common Turkic. "dj-Turkic" is also used as a term for Oghur, in reference to a sound change from i- to dj-.Languages from this family were spoken in some of the nomadic tribal confederations, such as those of the Onogurs, Bulgars, and Khazars, and possibly by the Pannonian Avars. -CHUVASH F)ARGHU:Khalaj, also known as Arghu, is a divergent Turkic language spoken in Iran and Azerbaijan.

• published: 04 Sep 2015
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