Turkic
Turkic , group of languages forming a subdivision of the Altaic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages (see Uralic and Altaic languages ). The Turkic group of languages has a total of some 125 million speakers in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Central Asia, and parts of Russia and China. Turkish , the official language of Turkey, is the most important of these tongues and has the largest number of speakers, some 50 million, chiefly in Turkey. Other major Turkic languages include Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Tatar, Kazakh, Uigur, Turkmen, Chuvash, and Kyrgyz. The Turkic languages have been assigned to various groupings, an acceptable arrangement being the division into Southern (Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, and Chuvash), Eastern (Uzbek and Uigur), and Western (Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Tatar, and others). Such a classification is tentative, and more definite grouping awaits the results of further research. Like the other Uralic and Altaic languages, the Turkic tongues are characterized by agglutination and exhibit vowel harmony. They are also noted for an abundance of participles and gerunds. Several different scripts were used in the distant past by the Turkic-speaking peoples, but following their association with Islam in the 9th cent. AD, they largely turned to the Arabic alphabet. After 1939, however, the Turkic-speaking peoples in the republics of the former USSR used modified versions of the Cyrillic alphabet. In the mid-1990s a number of the newly independent republics (Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan) began to switch to Roman script; Kazakhstan began moving toward use of the Latin alphabet in 2006. The Russian republic of Tatarstan began its own switch in 2000, but Russian law subsequently mandated use of Cyrillic-based alphabets. Turkic-speakers in Chinese territory also use the Roman alphabet. In Turkey proper the change to a modified Roman alphabet was made in 1928.
Bibliography: See N. A. Baskakov, The Turkic Languages of Central Asia (1954); G. L. Lewis, Turkish Grammar (1967); K. H. Menges, The Turkic Languages and Peoples: An Introduction to Turkic Studies (1968).
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Turkic languages in contact.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 11/1/2007; 182 words
; 9783447052122 Turkic languages in contact. Ed. by Hendrik Boeschoten...Paperback Turcologica; v.61 PL22 Turkic languages are spoken from Western Europe...settings and the influence of Turkic languages. Topics include their place...
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The Turkic Speaking Peoples: 1,500 Years of Art and Culture from Western China to the Balkans.(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: The Middle East; 10/1/2007; ; 191 words
; [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE TURKIC SPEAKING PEOPLES 1,500 YEARS OF ART AND CULTURE FROM...culture, from the classification of Turkic languages to art and architecture, from pre-Islam...range from the classification of Turkic languages to religion, literature, the arts...
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TURKEY: TURKIC SUMMIT OPENS IN ISTANBUL.(Brief Article)
Newspaper article from: IPR Strategic Business Information Database; 4/30/2001; 72 words
; ...seventh summit of Turkic-speaking states opened in Istanbul on 26 April, Turan reported. Leaders stressed the importance of Turkic languages and Turkic cooperation, but Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akaev and Uzbekistan Parliamentary speaker Erkin Halilov addressed...
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Exploring the eastern frontiers of Turkic.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 2/1/2007; 97 words
; ...lexical, onomastic, and historical issues of non-Muslim Turkic languages and dialects spoken in South Siberia and in neighboring...Mongolia and China. All of them are socially dominated by non-Turkic languages, and many are acutely endangered and not sufficiently recorded...
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Intercultural aspects in and around Turkic literatures; proceedings.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 11/1/2007; 186 words
; ...and under different historical circumstances, and also written in a selection of non-Turkic languages which were/are in contact with Turkic languages and literatures. Two of the papers are in French, the remaining 16 in English. A sampling...
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Without Right and Left.
Magazine article from: The Middle East; 12/1/1993; 700+ words
; ...the Nestorian Christians from what is now southeastern Turkey). Abolished 40 years ago, in favour of Cyrillic (like the Turkic languages of Soviet Central Asia before), this long, straggly and Arabic looking script is now seen widely in shops and offices of...
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The Lost Country.
Magazine article from: The Middle East; 12/1/1993; 700+ words
; ...the Nestorian Christians from what is now southeastern Turkey). Abolished 40 years ago, in favour of Cyrillic (like the Turkic languages of Soviet Central Asia before), this long, straggly and Arabic looking script is now seen widely in shops and offices of...
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Romantic Encounters: Writers, Readers, and the 'Library for Reading.'(Book review)
Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 7/1/2008; ; 700+ words
; ...brand of orientalism (in which, of course, Senkovskii, as the holder of the St Petersburg University Chair of Arabic and Turkic languages, was an expert, as were his alter egos, 'Osip Morozov' the orientalist travel writer, and 'Tiutiul'dzhiu-Oglu-Mustafa-Aga...
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Turkic
Book article from: Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes
Turkic • bathypelagic , magic, tragic • neuralgic , nostalgic • lethargic , Tajik •Belgic •...heptarchic, hierarchic, monarchic, oligarchic •psychic • sidekick • dropkick •synecdochic • Turkic • Alec , cephalic, encephalic, Gallic, ...
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Turkic languages
Book article from: World Encyclopedia
Turkic languages Branch of the Altaic family of languages. Dividied into six or seven separate subclasses, Turkish is the most important...
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Turks
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
term applied in its wider meaning to the Turkic-speaking peoples of Turkey, Russia, Central...social organization. The Avars were probably Turkic; they and the Magyars certainly had adopted the Turkic tribal organization when they appeared in...
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Gaspirali, Ismail Bey
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Russian History
...modernist, or jadid, movement among Russian Turkic peoples. Ismail Bey Gaspirali was born...quality of life for Crimean Tatars and other Turkic peoples, who were mostly adherents of...upon him the need for reconsideration of Turkic cultural norms, perspectives, and aspirations...
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Khazars
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Russian History
KHAZARS A nomadic Turkic-speaking tribal confederation and an offshoot...an empire or kaghanate, the highest form of Turkic political organization. The kaghan or its leader was apparently of Turkic origin and had supreme secular and sacred...
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