Language Information

Turkish is the national language of Turkey, and is also spoken by minority groups in Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, and other countries. It is the most important member of the Turkic group of languages which form a branch of the Altaic family. There are about 55 million speakers.

Turkish was originally written in the Arabic script which, though poorly suited to the language, had been in use since the conversion of the Turks to Islam. In 1928 President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk decreed the introduction of a slightly modified version of the Roman alphabet, consisting of twenty-one consonants and eight vowels. In Turkish the letters q, w, and x are absent, while the letter c is pronounced like the English j (e.g., cep—pocket), j like the French j (jale—dew), ç is pronounced ch (çiçek—flower.***

The English words caviar, yogurt, and shish kebab are of Turkish origin. The word tulip comes from a Turkish word for turban, because its flower was thought to resemble a turban. The word meander comes from the ancient name of the Menderes River of western Turkey which was noted for its winding course.

Bulgaria, Cyprus (Republic of), Greece, Macedonia, Turkey.

Family: Altaic
Subgroup: Turkic
Branch: Southwestern (Oghuz)

Writing Sample

Translation

The world is just the soil by itself.
homeland is the ground which our lives exalt.
From giant forefathers to giant children,
Bread and salt.

How then did they ever set foot,
Where my horses gallop, on my homeland?
Or on the villages where I grew up on milk
In the poplar's sleep, in the soil's song, grand?

How then did they ever set foot,
Where I raised my flag, in my country?
By day, on the coolness of the crops.
By night, on the shades of the sycamore tree.

The world is just the soil by itself.
Homeland is the ground which our lives exalt.
Green with our land's forests, blue with her hills,
Even if we die its speed never comes to a halt.

—FAZIL HUSNU DAGLARCA, Homeland