| Languages of Turkey | |
|---|---|
| Official language(s) | Turkish |
| Minority language(s) | Kurdish, Zaza, Arabic, Laz [1] |
| Main immigrant language(s) | Albanian, Bosnian, Pomak/Bulgarian |
| Main foreign language(s) | English 17%, German 4%, French 3%[2] |
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:
| “ | No language other than Turkish shall be taught as a mother tongue to Turkish citizens at any institutions of training or education. Foreign languages to be taught in institutions of training and education and the rules to be followed by schools conducting training and education in a foreign language shall be determined by law. The provisions of international treaties are reserved. | ” |
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".[3]
| Language | Numbers | Classification | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turkish | 46,300,000 (1987) | Turkic (Oghuz) | Numbers are certainly higher now |
| Northern Kurdish | 3,950,000 (1980) | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Western) | also known as Kurmanji |
| Dimli | 1,000,000 (1998/1999) | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Western) | one of the Zaza languages |
| Kabardian | 1,000,000 (2005) | North Caucasian languages (aka Caucasic) | |
| South Azerbaijani | 530,000 | Turkic (Oghuz) | |
| North Mesopotamian Arabic | 400,000 (1992) | Semitic languages (Arabic) | |
| Balkan Gagauz Turkish | 327,000 (1993) | Turkic (Oghuz) | |
| Bulgarian | 300,000 (2001) | Indo-European (Slavic) | |
| Adyghe | 278,000 (2000) | North Caucasian languages | |
| Kirmanjki | 140,000 | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Western) | one of the Zaza languages |
| Armenian | 40,000 (1980) | Indo-European (Armenian languages) | |
| Georgian | 40,000 (1980) | South Caucasian languages | |
| Laz | 30,000 (1980) | South Caucasian languages | |
| Domari | 28,500 (2000) | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan) | |
| Balkan Romani | 25,000 | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan) | |
| Serbian | 20,000 (1980) | Indo-European (Slavic) | |
| Tosk Albanian | 15,000 (1980) | Indo-European (Albanian) | |
| Abaza | 10,000 (1995) | North Caucasian languages | |
| Ladino | 8,000 (1976) | Indo-European (Romance) | spoken by the descendants of Jewish refugees from Spain |
| Pontic | 4,540 (1965) | Indo-European (Greek) | spoken on the shores of the Black Sea, most speakers were moved to Greece in the 1920s |
| Greek | 4,000 (1993) | Indo-European (Greek) | most speakers were moved to Greece in the 1920s |
| Abkhaz | 4,000 (1980) | North Caucasian languages | |
| Turoyo | 3,000 (1994) | Semitic languages (Aramaic) | |
| Crimean Turkish | 2,000 | Turkic (Oghuz) | actual number is unknown |
| Southern Uzbek | 1,980 (1982) | Turkic (Uyghuric) | |
| Kyrgyz | 1,140 (1982) | Turkic (Western) | (aka Kirghiz) |
| Hértevin | less than 1,000 (1999) | Semitic languages (Aramaic) | |
| Turkmen | 920 (1982) | Turkic (Oghuz) | |
| Kazakh | 600 (1982) | Turkic (Western) | |
| Uyghur | 500 (1981) | Turkic (Eastern) | |
| Kumyk | few villages | Turkic (Western) | |
| Tatar | handful | Turkic (Western) | |
| Osetin | ?? | Indo-European (Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern) | |
| Turkish Sign Language | ? | Sign languages | Numbers are unknown though likely to number in the thousands |
| Syriac | extinct | Aramaic | liturgical language |
| Ubykh | extinct | North Caucasian | became extinct in the 1990s |
Turkey has historically been the home to many now extinct languages. These include the Hittite language, 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.
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