Turkish belongs to the Turkic language family, and is the most widely spoken language in this family. 43% of Turkic-language speakers have Turkish as their native tongue, with Azeri (15%) and Uzbek (14%) as the next more popular. Turkic languages are spoken across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central, West, and North Asia. Elements like vowel harmony, agglutination, and lack of gender are common in the Turkic languages. Many other Turkic languages, like Azerbaijani and Turkmen, have a high degree of comprehension.
The oldest Turkish writings are stone inscriptions from Mongolia. During the Early Middle Ages, Turkic languages spread through Central Asia, reaching from Siberia to the Mediterranean. During the Ottoman Empire, Turkish as we know it now began to take shape.
Turkish itself draws from several different languages. There is a good degree of influence from Persian and Arabic, even though Turkish uses the Latin alphabet. Cognates from English or other languages are present, but in small numbers. There are several Turkish dialects, like Cypriot Turkish or Edernie, but modern standard Turkish is based on the Istanbul dialect.
I’m not sure that knowing the influences of Arabic and Persian helps me in a major way, as I know neither Arabic, nor Persian. I also do not know any other Turkic languages. Practically, this knowledge doesn’t help me a whole lot. This knowledge does, however, help inform my knowledge of the Turkish culture. The influence of Arabic and Persian is not limited to the field of language, but covers culture and traditions. Again, I don’t know a lot of Arabic or Persian cultural traditions, but I can make some assumptions about social life and culture based on what I do know. It’s very cool to know, though, how old Turkish is and how rich of a history it has.
I think languages change drastically over time as its speaking population changes. There are so many differences between generations already, and it makes sense language would change along with the way they construct their societies and identities. The development of new slang, new words, and new ways of expressing ideas is always in progress, no matter the language. I think it would be very hard for linguists to track these changes, unless they look at the language every few years.
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