Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Turkmen

Source: National Commission for UNESCO, Turkeminstan

Profile

Native Name
None

Total Speakers
5,397,500 (1995)

Usage By Country
Official Language: Turkmenistan Home Speakers: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq

Background
Turkmen is spoken in the Republic of Turkmenistan lying on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea and bordering on Iran and Afghanistan, by about 3 million people, over 5 million in all countries (one million speakers are in Iran). Closely related to Turkish, Turkmen is a member of the Turkic branch of the Altaic family of languages. The literary language is based on the Teke dialect and literary tradition is strong. Half of the population claim a good knowledge of Russian. Cyrillic and Arabic scripts are used.

Received 9/28/1998
Posted 9/28/1998
Checked 11/12/1998