Turkmen (, , , or , , , ) is a Turkic language of the Oghuz branch spoken by the Turkmens of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. It has an estimated 4.7 million native speakers in

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

(where it is the official language), and a further 359,000 speakers in northeastern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and 1.2 million people in northwestern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, where it has no official status. Turkmen is also spoken to lesser varying degrees in Turkmen communities of

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

and

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

and by diaspora communities, primarily in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Turkmen is a member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages. It is closely related to Azerbaijani, Gagauz, Qashqai, and Turkish, sharing varying degrees of

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intelli ...

with each of those languages. However, the closest relative of Turkmen is considered Khorasani Turkic, spoken in northeastern regions of Iran and with which it shares the eastern subbranch of Oghuz languages, as well as Khorazm, the Oghuz dialect of Uzbek spoken mainly in Khorezm along the Turkmenistan border. Elsewhere in Iran, the Turkmen language comes second after the Azerbaijani language in terms of the number of speakers of Turkic languages of Iran. The standardized form of Turkmen (spoken in Turkmenistan) is based on the Teke dialect, while Iranian Turkmen use mostly the Yomud dialect, and Afghan Turkmen use the Ersary variety. The Turkmen language, unlike other languages of the Oghuz branch, preserved most of the unique and archaic features of the language spoken by the early Oghuz Turks, including phonemic

vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many ...

. Iraqi and Syrian "Turkmen" speak dialects that form a continuum between Turkish and Azerbaijani, in both cases heavily influenced by

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and Persian. These varieties are not Turkmen in the sense of this article.

Classification

Turkmen is a member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic family of languages, together with Turkish and Azerbaijani, with which it shares a relatively high degree of

. However, an arguably closer language to Turkmen is Khorasani Turkic, with which it shares the eastern subbranch of the Oghuz languages, and also Khorazm, spoken mainly in northwestern Uzbekistan. Turkmen has vowel harmony, is agglutinative and has no grammatical gender. Word order is subject–object–verb. Written Turkmen today is based on the Teke (Tekke) dialect. The other dialects are Nohurly, , , Hasarly, Nerezim, , Salyr, Saryk, and . The Teke dialect is sometimes (especially in

) referred to as "Chagatai", but like all Turkmen dialects it reflects only a limited influence from classical Chagatai.

Comparison with other Turkic languages

Turkmen has dental fricatives and unlike other Oghuz Turkic languages, where these sounds are pronounced as and . The only other Turkic language with a similar feature is Bashkir. However, in Bashkir and are two independent phonemes, distinct from and , whereas in Turkmen and are the two main realizations of the common Turkic and . In other words, there are no and phonemes in Turkmen, unlike Bashkir, which has , , and .

Turkmen vs. Azerbaijani

The 1st person personal pronoun is "men" in Turkmen, just as in Azerbaijani, whereas it is "ben" in Turkish. The same is true for demonstrative pronouns "bu", where sound "b" is replaced with sound "m". For example: . In Turkmen, "bu" undergoes some changes just as in: . Here are some words with a different pronunciation in Turkmen and Azerbaijani that mean the same in both languages:

Turkmen vs. Turkish

was first to recognize Turkmenistan's independence on 27 October 1991, following the

Dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

and to open its embassy in Ashgabat on 29 February 1992. Sharing a common history, religion, language and culture, the two states have balanced special relations based on mutual respect and the principle of "One Nation, Two States". Turkmen language is very close to Turkish with regard to linguistic properties. However, there are a couple of differences due to regional and historical reasons. Most morphophonetic rules are common in Turkmen and Turkish languages. For instance, both languages show vowel harmony and consonant mutation rules, and have similar suffixes with very close

semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

.Ahmet Cuneyd Tantug. ''A MT System from Turkmen to Turkish Employing Finite State and Statistical Methods''. Istanbul Technical University. 2008. p.2 Here are some words from the Swadesh list in Turkmen and Turkish that mean the same in both languages:

Phonology

Writing system

Turkmen written language was formed in the 13–14th centuries.Languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation and neighboring states (in Russian), Vol.3; 2005. Nauka (Science). p. 138 During this period, the

Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet, or the Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is a unicase, unicameral script written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most ...

was used extensively for writing. By in the 18th century, there had been a rich literary tradition in the Turkmen language. At the same time, the literacy of the population in their native language remained at low levels; book publishing was extremely limited, and the first primer in the Turkmen language appeared only in 1913, while the first newspaper ("Transcaspian native newspaper") was printed in 1914. The Arabic script was not adapted to the phonetic features of the Turkic languages. Thus, it did not have necessary signs to designate specific sounds of the Turkmen language, and at the same time there were many letters to designate

sounds that were not in the Turkmen language. During the first years after the establishment of the Soviet power, the Arabic alphabet of Turkmen under the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

was reformed twice, in 1922 and 1925. In the course of the reforms, letters with diacritics were introduced to denote Turkic phonemes; and letters were abolished for sounds that are absent in the Turkmen language.Chariyarov B. ''Issues of improvement of the alphabets of Turkic languages of USSR''. 1972. Nauka (Science) pp. 149–156 The Turkmens of Afghanistan and Iran continue to use Arabic script. In January 1925, on the pages of the republican newspaper , the question of switching to a new,

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

was raised. After the first All-Union Turkological Congress in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

(February–March 1926), the State Academic Council under the People's Commissariat of Education of the Turkmen SSR developed a draft of a new alphabet. On 3 January 1928, the revised new Latin alphabet was approved by the Central Executive Committee of the Turkmen SSR. At the end of the 1930s, the process of the Cyrillization of writing began throughout the USSR. In January 1939, the newspaper "Sowet Türkmenistany" published a letter from teachers in Ashgabat and the Ashgabat region with an initiative to replace the Turkmen (Latin) script with Cyrillic. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen SSR instructed the Research Institute of Language and Literature to draw up a draft of a new alphabet. The teachers of the Ashgabat Pedagogical Institute and print workers also took part in the development of the new writing system. In April 1940, the draft alphabet was published. In May 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the Turkmen SSR adopted a resolution on the transition to a new alphabet of all state and public institutions from 1 July 1940, and on the beginning of teaching the new alphabet in schools from 1 September of the same year. After the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, in January 1993, a meeting was held at the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan on the issue of replacing the Cyrillic with the Latin alphabet, at which a commission was formed to develop the alphabet. In February, a new version of the alphabet was published in the press. On 12 April 1993, the Mejlis of Turkmenistan approved a presidential decree on the new alphabet.

Grammar

Turkmen is a highly agglutinative language, in that much of the grammar is expressed by means of suffixes added to nouns and verbs. It is very regular compared with many other languages of non-Turkic group. For example, "from the villages" can be analysed as "village", -lar (plural suffix), -dan (ablative case, meaning "from"); "I am taking" as ''al'' "take", (present continuous tense), ''-yn'' (1st person singular). Another characteristic of Turkmen is vowel harmony. Most suffixes have two or four different forms, the choice between which depends on the vowel of the word's root or the preceding suffix: For example, the ablative case of is "from the villages" but, the ablative case of "dogs" is "from the dogs".

Directives and speech levels

Levels of respect or formality are focused on the final suffix of commands, while in normal sentences adding -dyr can increase formality.

Literature

Turkmen literature comprises oral compositions and written texts in Old Oghuz Turkic and Turkmen languages. Turkmens are direct descendants of the Oghuz Turks, who were a western

Turkic people Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members ...

that spoke the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. The earliest development of the Turkmen literature is closely associated with the literature of the Oghuz Turks. Turkmens have joint claims to a great number of literary works written in Old Oghuz and Persian (by Seljuks in 11-12th centuries) languages with other people of the Oghuz Turkic origin, mainly of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

and

. These works include, but are not limited to the Book of Dede Korkut, Zöhre Tahyr, Gorogly, Layla and Majnun, Yusuf Zulaikha and others. There is general consensus, however, that distinctively modern Turkmen literature originated in the 18th century with the

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

of Magtymguly Pyragy, who is considered the father of the Turkmen literature. Other prominent Turkmen poets of that era are (Magtymguly's father), Mollanepes, Nurmuhammet Andalyp, Mämmetweli Kemine, , , and Gurbanally Magrupy.

Vocabulary

Numbers

Note: Numbers are formed identically to other Turkic languages, such as Turkish. So, eleven (11) is "on bir" (). Two thousand seventeen (2017) is (two-thousand-ten-seven).

Colors

Basic expressions

Example

The following is Magtymguly's (of the Turkmen) poem with the text transliterated into Turkmen (Latin) letters, whereas the original language is preserved. Second column is the poem's Turkish translation, third one is the Azerbaijani translation, while the last one is the English translation.

Turkmen in Iran

Irani Turkmens speak a dialect of Turkmen in the province of Golestan. It is mutually intelligible with the Turkmen dialects in Afghanistan, and is written in the Nastaliq script.

Notes

References

Bibliography

*Garrett, Jon, Meena Pallipamu, and Greg Lastowka (1996). "Turkmen Grammar". www.chaihana.com.

External links

Turkmen grammar and orthography rules (Turkmen)
(''in Turkmen'')
Turkmen – English Dictionary with searchable reverse dictionary

Turkmen – English / English – Turkmen Dictionary (a)

Turkmen – English / English – Turkmen Dictionary (b)

Turkmen – English Dictionary

* ttp://www.omniglot.com/writing/turkmen.htm Omniglot page on Turkmen
Turkmen language online transliteration

Ajapsozluk.com Ever-growing dictionary of Turkmen language

Turkmen<>Turkish dictionary
(Pamukkale University) {{DEFAULTSORT:Turkmen Language Turkic languages Agglutinative languages Languages of Turkmenistan Turkic languages of Afghanistan Languages of Iran Languages of Pakistan Languages of Russia Oghuz languages