The Languages Of Turkey
Turkey’s geography and history make it a crossroads of tongues. Bridging Europe and Asia, Türkiye is often seen through the lens of one language – Turkish – but its true linguistic map is far richer. In fact, the government notes that roughly 70 other languages and dialects survive on Turkish soil. Turkish itself is the official and dominant tongue – the first language of roughly nine out of ten Turks – but many communities still speak ancestral languages in private, in worship, or in local media. These languages come from several families: aside from the Turkic group (to which Turkish belongs), one finds Indo-European tongues (Kurdish, Armenian, Greek), Semitic ones (Arabic, the Aramaic languages of Syria/Aleppo), and various Caucasian languages (Laz, Georgian, Circassian).
The Dominant Voice: The Turkish Language (Türkçe)
What is the Main Language of Turkey?
The clear answer is Turkish (Türkçe). It is the sole official language of the Republic (as Article 3 of Turkey’s Constitution explicitly states), and it is by far the most widely spoken mother tongue. Government sources estimate that about 90% of the population now speak Turkish as their first language. Turkish permeates daily life and all institutions: it is used in government, media, education and the courts. Aside from Turkish, no other language has any official status nationwide. (Indeed, a human-rights watchdog notes that Turkey’s 1923 Treaty of Lausanne protections were ultimately limited in practice to Armenian, Greek Orthodox and Jewish communities.) In short, Turkish functions as the country’s unifying tongue – the “glue” of national communication – even though many citizens also know other languages at home or in their communities.
Turkish’s size and role are considerable. Globally it is among the world’s top 20 languages: on the order of 90 million people speak it (including nearly the entire population of Türkiye, plus Turkish diaspora in Europe and Central Asia). It is the first language for roughly 85–90% of Turks, a proportion that rises above 95% in much of Anatolia. In cosmopolitan Istanbul and other large cities, there is a smattering of bilingualism (especially among younger people and immigrants), but practically everyone in public life uses Turkish. In short, Turkish dominates Turkey’s linguistic landscape the way Arabic dominates Egypt or Hindi India: it is the common language that all citizens share.
The History and Evolution of Turkish
From Old Anatolian to Ottoman Turkish
Turkish’s roots lie in the Turkic languages of Central Asia. Medieval Turks brought their language into Anatolia in the 11th century under the Seljuk dynasty. That earliest form, often called Old Anatolian Turkish, was already evolving under new influences. As the Seljuks and later the Ottoman Empire expanded, the language absorbed a flood of Arabic and Persian words (due to Islam and contact with the Arab world) and began to be written in a Perso-Arabic script. By the Ottoman period, the literary and administrative form known as Ottoman Turkish had emerged: a version of Turkish whose vocabulary was heavily infused with words of Arabic and Persian origin. Ottoman Turkish was written in the Arabic alphabet and was intelligible mainly to educated elites; it was famously opaque to ordinary village folk, who continued to speak a more colloquial Turkish with far fewer foreign loans. In other words, the language of the empire’s courts and divans was different in character from the language of commoners, even though they shared a Turkish base.
This situation changed abruptly in the early 20th century. After the Republic was founded in 1923, a strong language reform movement was launched to create a new Modern Turkish. The reforms’ first dramatic act came in 1928, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Turkey’s leader) decreed that the Arabic script be scrapped in favor of a Latin-based alphabet that more closely matched Turkish pronunciation. Overnight, most Turks who had grown up reading Ottoman script had to learn new letters. At the same time, a purification campaign began: thousands of Arabic and Persian loanwords were replaced with new words or revived old Turkish roots.
The centerpiece of that effort was the Turkish Language Association (Türk Dil Kurumu), founded under Atatürk’s patronage in 1932. Its scholars systematically searched for Turkish equivalents of foreign terms. Within a few years the share of purely Turkic words in the lexicon jumped dramatically. According to official records, before 1932 roughly 35–40% of Turkish words were of Turkic origin (the rest being Arabic, Persian, or other borrowings), whereas by the mid-20th century over 75% of the vocabulary was “native” Turkish. (In practical terms, older people often continued using familiar loanwords while younger generations adopted the new coinages. The sudden change even produced a slang term: “younger Turkish” for the reformed speech.) In any case, the net result of these reforms was to sever the written language from its Ottoman predecessor: Ottoman Turkish and Modern Turkish became effectively two different forms, one Arab-Persian-inflected and written in Arabic letters, the other leaner and written in Latin letters.
What is the Difference Between Turkish and Ottoman Turkish?
In summary, Ottoman Turkish was the elite language of the Ottoman Empire, steeped in centuries of Arabic and Persian influence and written in the Arabic script. It was so unlike the vernacular that even many Turks could not fully understand official documents without special schooling. Modern Turkish, by contrast, is generally “unaccented” by foreign loans and is written in a Latin alphabet introduced in 1928. Thus, a scholar translates Ottoman legal documents not only by converting script but often by translating many words into modern equivalents. In everyday terms, a modern Turkish person might recognize some Ottoman words, but would find an Ottoman-era text almost unintelligible without a dictionary.
The script change alone created a deep divide between generations. As Britannica notes, the only immediate impact of the 1928 reform was to transcribe existing words in new letters – it took further effort in the 1930s to purge the vocabulary. By the late 1930s, books and newspapers had largely shed their Arabic-script heritage. Thus “Ottoman Turkish” and “Modern Turkish” refer not to different languages per se but to successive registers of Turkish: the former densely laced with Arab-Persian loans and in an Arabic alphabet, the latter in Latin script with most of those loanwords replaced.
The Turkish Language Reform: Atatürk’s Revolution
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), the republic’s founder, personally championed this language transformation. He famously said that a nation without its own language has no soul, and he backed legislation to build a new linguistic identity for Turkey. In practice this meant sweeping policies enacted under Atatürk’s direction: the abolition of the Arabic script in 1928 and the founding of the Turkish Language Association in 1932. The Association (Türk Dil Kurumu) was charged with “simplifying” Turkish and coining new terms. It collected and codified older Turkic words from history and sometimes invented or promoted replacements for foreign terms. Over decades its work effectively gave Turkey a more “Turkish-sounding” vocabulary.
A contemporary official summary attests to the change: before the reforms, only about 35–40% of Turkish words were of pure Turkish origin (with the rest being Arabic or Persian). Today that share is around 75–80%. Even Atatürk himself had to adjust: he grew up speaking Ottoman-style Turkish but became a champion of the new language. The cumulative effect was a “clean slate” for the written language: modern Turkish texts use little in common with pre-1930 Ottoman prose, aside from the grammar and core roots. Those who grew up after 1930 learned only the modern alphabet and hundreds of newly revived Turkish words, which made them verbally and literarily distinct from older generations.
Who was Atatürk and What Did He Do for the Turkish Language?
To be clear, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the wartime hero and founding president of the Republic of Turkey. Among his sweeping reforms, the language reform stands out as profoundly symbolic. Atatürk wanted a language that was accessible to ordinary people and free of foreign domination. He pushed through the alphabet change and supported linguists in rewriting Turkey’s dictionaries. Many street names, technical terms and scholarly words were replaced with Turkish roots under his administration. This was sometimes called a “revolution” in culture – in effect, Atatürk declared a new linguistic identity for the nation.
His legacy endures whenever Turks spell their names in ‘modern letters’ and argue about grammar, in contrast to the scrips and words of the Ottoman past. The Türk Dil Kurumu (Turkish Language Association) still carries his vision forward. In sum, thanks to Atatürk’s reforms, Türkiye now has a “language of the people” in both everyday and official registers. The venerable man who founded the republic and his language engineers made Turkish the living, official tongue that it is today.
What Language Family is Turkish In?
Turkish is not related to the Indo-European or Semitic families that dominate the West and Middle East. It belongs instead to the Turkic (Altaic) family of languages. More precisely, Turkish is an Oghuz Turkic language (the southwestern branch of the Turkic group). Its closest relatives are languages like Azerbaijani (Azeri), Turkmen, Qashqai and Gagauz – all variations of Turkic speech. As Britannica explains, Turkish is “the major member of the Turkic language family” in the Altaic group. In other words, Turkish is a cousin to Kazakh, Uzbek or Kyrgyz, not to Arabic or Persian.
This also means Turkish is not an Arabic language at all – despite centuries of borrowing from Arabic. Arabic belongs to the Semitic branch of Afro-Asiatic languages, whereas Turkish stems from a different stock entirely. Ottoman Turkish was filled with Arabic loanwords, but those were learned words, not evidence of family ties. Today we explain that contrast by noting Turkish’s Turkic grammar and core vocabulary; any resemblance to Arabic is purely superficial (loanwords, religious phrases).
Key Characteristics of the Turkish Language
Turkish has some distinctive features worth noting. It is an agglutinative language, meaning that words often build up by stringing together suffixes for tense, case, possession, etc. It also exhibits vowel harmony, in which vowels within a word tend to be “matched” in frontness or rounding (though we need not go into full detail here). Its basic sentence order is Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) – the verb comes at the end. Turkish also has no grammatical gender: nouns and adjectives do not change form based on masculine/feminine. In short, compared to English or most European tongues, Turkish grammar is more regular (no gender, no articles) but uses long agglutinated words. According to linguistic descriptions, “some distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination” and its syntax is SOV. These traits are shared with its Turkic cousins.
For example, a single Turkish word like evlerinizden (“from your houses”) packs in root + plural + possessive + ablative suffixes, all strung together. The rule-driven sound harmony (e.g. evlerimiz but kapılarımız, differing vowels) is often a surprise to outsiders. These features give Turkish its very regular logic; once the suffix patterns are learned, the grammar is almost mechanically consistent. They also set Turkish apart from neighbors like Persian (which has some suffixes) or Arabic (which uses roots and patterns differently). In practice, these grammatical traits are embedded in every simple sentence a Turk speaks.
What Are the Main Dialects of Turkish?
Within Turkey, Istanbul Turkish has been deliberately promoted as the standard dialect. Modern Standard Turkish is explicitly based on the speech of Istanbul’s educated classes. If you learn “proper” Turkish, it will sound very much like the way people talk in Istanbul (and the national news media).
Beyond that, several regional and other dialects exist. For instance, descendants of former Ottoman subjects in the Balkans (Rumelia) brought back variants of Turkish. The language spoken in western Turkey (the Aegean region) and around Ankara tends to be very close to the standard, while there are recognizable differences in more rural areas. Even within Anatolia one can distinguish at least three broad dialect zones: western, central, and eastern Anatolian Turkish (the eastern one includes the Black Sea coast in the north). There are also distinctive forms like Cypriot Turkish in northern Cyprus, and smaller groups such as the nomadic Yörük communities with their own lexicon.
Linguist sources list a few named varieties. For example, Rumelian Turkish is spoken by older families whose roots go back to Ottoman-era migrations from the Balkans. Cypriot Turkish (Kıbrıs Türkçesi) is the Turkish of Cyprus, with its unique accent and some Greek borrowings. The central city of İzmir and the Aegean coast have an Aegean dialect with certain vowel changes and word endings. In the Black Sea region, some villages (especially among the Zaza or Laz minorities) have their own Turkish-based dialects.
In short, if you visit different parts of Turkey you might notice minor pronunciation or vocabulary differences. But none of these regional dialects is wildly different from standard Turkish – they are mostly mutually intelligible. Modern media and transportation have steadily homogenized speech. Still, it is accurate to say standard Turkish is rooted in Istanbul speech, and that Turkish dialects from Rumelia (Thrace) and Cyprus are recognized varieties.
Officially Recognized Minority Languages: The Legacy of Lausanne
Turkey’s only officially recognized minority languages today stem from the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. That treaty granted protections to only three non-Muslim groups: the Greek Orthodox (Rums), the Armenians, and the Jews. In effect, it guaranteed these communities the right to use their own languages in religious services, schools, and private life. No other ethnic or religious group (such as Kurds, Circassians, etc.) was covered by the treaty. Thus, legally speaking, Greek, Armenian and Hebrew (for Jews) have a special status.
In modern Turkey, this means Greek, Armenian and Jewish (Judeo-Spanish Ladino) have some cultural and limited educational rights, even though none are official at the state level. For example, Lausanne gave Rums the freedom to run their own schools, and it has been interpreted to mean that schools can teach Greek or Armenian language and religion. In practice, however, restrictions on minority education, and the demographic decline of these communities, have narrowed the usage of those languages. We will look at each of these recognized languages below.
Armenian (Հայերեն)
Armenian holds a long history in Anatolia. From the medieval period onward, Armenians spoke various dialects across the region. Under Lausanne, Armenians of Turkey retained the right to use Armenian in worship and private schooling. Today, however, Turkey’s Armenian community is small (often estimated at 30,000–60,000 people) and largely urban. Most live in Istanbul and a few other cities. Virtually all still speak Turkish as their everyday language. Western Armenian (the dialect of Turkey’s Armenians) survives mostly in church and at home among the older generation. UNESCO classifies Western Armenian in Turkey as “definitely endangered”. According to one source, only about 18% of Turkish Armenians use Western Armenian at home, with the rest having shifted to Turkish. Nonetheless, the language endures as a cultural touchstone: bilingual newspapers (like Agos) and a handful of minority schools publish some Armenian, and the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul still gives sermons in Armenian. Thus Armenian is still spoken by a small minority and retains legal protection, even if almost all members of the community also speak fluent Turkish.
Greek (Ελληνικά)
Greek has ancient roots in Anatolia from Byzantine and Ottoman times. After the 1923 population exchange, most Anatolian Greeks left Turkey, but a few Greek-speaking communities remained. Under Lausanne, they are officially recognized: the treaty expressly protected the Greek Orthodox minority (usually called “Rum” in Turkish) and their rights to use Greek. In today’s Turkey, only a few thousand ethnic Greeks remain, mainly in Istanbul and on the islands of Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos). Modern Greek is still used in church services and in the Greek minority schools in Istanbul (where Greek language classes continue). In some Black Sea villages of Trabzon and Rize, there are elderly speakers of the Pontic Greek dialect (called Romeyka). Romeyka is especially noteworthy: it is an extremely archaic form of Greek with strong links to Ancient Greek, and is considered highly endangered. Although spoken only by a few villagers now, it has captured academic interest as a living relic of Greek’s past.
Legally, Greek is “protected” because of Lausanne. (Today the Turkish constitution still broadly safeguards minority worship and education rights, so the Greek community can teach Greek language and religion under community auspices.) In practice the number of native Greek speakers is very small. In recent decades, only a tiny remnant of the once-large Anatolian Greek world still speaks Greek in Turkey. Most members of the Greek Orthodox community today are bilingual in Turkish, and very few outside Istanbul speak fluent Greek.
Jewish Languages: Ladino and Hebrew
The Jewish minority of Turkey is another Lausanne-protected group (as Jews). Historically, most were Sephardic Jews who came from Spain in 1492, and they spoke Ladino (also called Judeo-Spanish). Ladino is essentially medieval Castilian Spanish mixed with Hebrew and some Turkish loanwords. In Ottoman times it was widely spoken by Jews in Salonica, Istanbul, Izmir, and elsewhere. Today, only a handful of older Turkish Jews still speak Ladino fluently (almost entirely in Istanbul and Izmir). UNESCO categorizes Ladino as “critically endangered”. Most Jewish young people in Turkey grew up speaking Turkish, not Ladino, but they still learn some Ladino folk songs and idioms.
Hebrew (modern Israeli Hebrew) was never a communal vernacular for Turkish Jews; they used it only in synagogue and study. Under Lausanne, the Jewish community’s rights include the use of Hebrew in religious education. Indeed, there are Jewish schools in Istanbul where classes in Hebrew and Jewish studies continue (alongside Turkish). But apart from religious functions, Hebrew remains largely dormant as a home language.
What is Ladino (Judeo-Spanish)? It is the old Spanish dialect brought by the Sephardic Jews exiled from Spain. For centuries Ladino was written in Hebrew script and spoken in Ottoman lands with only minor changes from 15th-century Castilian. Today it is a heritage language: very few children learn it, and its speaker numbers have plummeted. Linguists note that Ladino retains many archaic Spanish features (pronunciations and words) that disappeared in Spain long ago. As one source reports, Ladino is now classified as critically endangered, with most of its remaining speakers in their seventies or older. In Turkey, it survives modestly: a few community centers and festivals teach it, and there are radio programs and occasional publications in Ladino. But it is not widely spoken in daily life anymore; most Turkish Jews today use Turkish or Hebrew instead.
The Unofficial Giant: The Kurdish Languages
What is the Second Most Spoken Language in Turkey?
Kurdish is by far the largest minority language in Turkey. Estimates generally put it at roughly 15–20% of the population, making it the country’s second most common first language after Turkish. That would translate to something like 10–12 million native Kurdish speakers (out of about 70 million Turks, per recent demographics). The exact figure is hard to pin down because the Turkish government no longer collects ethnic stats, but surveys and expert analyses all agree that Kurds form the single largest minority group. No other language comes close to Kurdish in sheer number of speakers.
Kurdish in Turkey is not monolithic – it consists mainly of Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish) and to a lesser extent Zazaki (Zaza). Both are part of the Indo-European family (the Kurdish languages are Iranian, related to Persian). Neither is Turkic. Kurmanji is the predominant Kurdish dialect, used by the vast majority of Kurds in Turkey. (In fact, Kurmanji is the standard Kurdish taught and broadcast on Kurdish media.) Zazaki is spoken by a sizable Zaza minority, often in the eastern provinces.
Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish)
Kurmanji (Kurmancî) is the principal Kurdish dialect of Turkey. It belongs to the Western Iranian branch of Indo-European (in the same larger family as Persian). Thousands of years ago, Kurdish and Persian split off from a common ancestor, so Kurmanji is linguistically closer to Farsi than to Turkish. Kurmanji is spoken widely across southeastern and eastern Anatolia: provinces like Mardin, Şırnak, Diyarbakır, Hakkari, Siirt and others have very high percentages of Kurdish speakers. In these areas, Kurdish is often the majority home language even today.
Many urban Kurds in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and other big cities also speak Kurmanji in their families or neighborhoods (they are typically bilingual in Turkish as well). The Kurmanji spoken in Turkey is intelligible to Kurds in northern Syria and northern Iraq, but it has its own local accent and some unique words. Because Kurmanji has the most speakers and a standard written form, it is often simply called “the Kurdish language” in news or studies, but one should remember it is one branch among Kurdish varieties.
Zazaki (Dimli)
The Zaza people of Turkey speak Zazaki (also called Dimlî or Kirmanckî). It is linguistically related to Kurdish but somewhat distinct. Zazaki is also an Iranian language (part of a Zaza–Gorani subgroup within the Northwestern Iranian languages). For this reason, many linguists debate whether Zazaki is a dialect of Kurdish or a separate, closely related language. Some Kurdish speakers consider Zazas simply a Kurdish subgroup, while some Zazas assert a distinct identity. From an outsider’s perspective, Zazaki shares many features with Kurdish but is not mutually intelligible with Kurmanji; it is sometimes classified as a sister language.
Zazaki is mainly spoken in eastern Anatolian provinces such as Tunceli (Dersim), Bingöl, Elazığ, and parts of Diyarbakır. The total number of Zazaki speakers in Turkey is usually estimated between 1 and 3 million. This makes Zazaki a significant minority language, although smaller than Kurmanji. Zazaki speakers often are bilingual in Turkish (especially the younger generation), and like Kurds in general they have faced the same political pressures. (Notably, Turkey’s earlier bans on “Kurdish” speech were interpreted to include Zaza as well.) Today Zazaki has a literary presence – some newspapers and books are published in it – but it remains endangered as a written language. In short, Zazaki is part of the broader Kurdish linguistic community in Turkey, yet it maintains its own identity. It is not a Turkic dialect at all, but a separate Iranian-language thread in the tapestry.
The History of the Kurdish Language in Turkey
For much of the 20th century, Kurdish language use was heavily restricted in Turkey. In fact, during the early republic and especially after the 1980 military coup, the state banned Kurdish in most public forms. Kurdish radio and TV broadcasts were illegal until the 1990s, and publishing in Kurdish was forbidden. Speaking Kurdish in public could lead to arrest; as one source notes, after the 1980 coup Turkey “officially prohibited” the use of Kurdish. Even place names and personal names had to be Turkified by law. The government’s rationale was national unity and fears of separatism, so Kurdish was effectively pushed out of the public sphere for decades.
Beginning around 1991, these bans began to ease under international pressure. The first Kurdish language books and newspapers appeared legally, and a limited amount of Kurdish media was allowed. By the early 2000s, private Kurdish TV and radio channels operated (with some content still monitored). A landmark change occurred in 2009 when the state broadcaster TRT launched TRT Kurdî, Turkey’s first national Kurdish-language channel. This signaled official acceptance that Kurdish could be used on public airwaves. In 2012, Prime Minister Erdoğan announced that Kurdish could be offered as an elective course in schools, which led to the first Kurdish classes being taught in public schools in 2013. Even universities began opening Kurdish-language departments (in 2011 two universities started such programs).
Despite these reforms, Turkish remains the only official language. Kurdish is not an official language of any province or the state. Politically, speaking Kurdish was long stigmatized, and for many years any public use of the language outside a very limited context could be challenged as “supporting separatism”. For example, even writing municipal websites in Kurdish was ruled unconstitutional by Turkish courts a decade ago. Today the situation is relatively relaxed: in much of the southeast you will hear Kurdish on shop signs, hear it on local radio, and see some bilingual Kurdish–Turkish signs (especially near the Syrian border). Many local TV stations run Kurdish programs. But national institutions still operate in Turkish. In summary, Kurdish in Turkey today enjoys far more recognition than in the past (with dedicated TV and some schooling), but it has never received formal status equal to Turkish.
Is Kurdish an Official Language in Turkey?
No. Article 3 of the Turkish Constitution plainly states that “the language of the country is Turkish”. Kurdish, like all other minority languages, has no official standing in state affairs. This means all government business and primary education is in Turkish. Kurdish is taught in minority church schools and can appear in some private/public media, but it is not used by government offices or compulsory schooling. In practice, this is often a point of contention: Kurds sometimes press for more rights to use their own language in public services, whereas the official stance remains that Turkish must dominate.
The situation thus contrasts strongly with some other multilingual countries. For example, Switzerland or Canada have multiple official languages. Turkey has none of that: its constitution, court decisions and laws all reinforce Turkish as the sole public language. (This was also true at Lausanne; the treaty did not list Kurdish because the Kurds were classified as Muslims and not given minority status.) So despite its millions of speakers, Kurdish is not an official language anywhere in Turkey.
Other Significant Minority Languages of Turkey
Beyond Kurdish, several other minority languages have substantial speaking communities in Turkey today. Most of these are indigenous or long-established: for example Arabic in the southeast and various Caucasian languages along the Black Sea. We consider the major ones in turn.
Do People in Turkey Speak Arabic?
Yes. Arabic speakers form a small but important minority. By some counts, about 2 million people (roughly 1.2% of the population) in Turkey speak Arabic as their ancestry’s language. These communities are concentrated in the provinces bordering Syria and Iraq – for instance, cities like Hatay (Antakya), Mardin, Şanlıurfa, and others in southern Turkey have significant Arabic-speaking populations. In the 1960 census only 1.25% of Turks were classified as mother-tongue Arab (mostly in provinces like Hatay, where over one-third were Arabic-speaking). Today that share is higher due to demographic changes, especially the arrival of millions of Syrian refugees since 2011. Indeed, Turkey now hosts about 3.6 million Syrians, most of whom speak Levantine Arabic at home. In some southern cities Arabs have become a sizable community by number: for example, by 2018 about 20% of Hatay’s population was Syrian (Arabic-speaking) refugees.
The Arabic in Turkey is mainly the North Levantine dialect (similar to Damascus or Aleppo speech). In Hatay province, a North Levantine dialect with unique local features is still used. In Mardin and Urfa, a Mesopotamian Arabic (akin to northern Iraqi speech) survives among older villagers. All these dialects are mutually intelligible with those of neighboring Syria and Iraq. Outside the Southeast, Arabic is rarely heard except among immigrant communities. It has no official status (unlike pre-20th-century eras), but the government does recognize some Arabic broadcasting and there are Arabic-language media and mosques. In practical terms, a Turkish Arab will often be bilingual in Turkish. For example, many younger Arabs in Gaziantep or Kilis speak only Turkish. However, in towns like Antakya (near Aleppo) older inhabitants still converse in Arabic daily, and you’ll see bilingual Arabic–Turkish signs in those areas.
The Caucasian Languages of Turkey
Several Caucasian languages are spoken in Turkey, all due to historical migration from the Caucasus in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The main ones are Lazuri, Georgian and Circassian (Adyghe), though each is spoken by a relatively small population.
- Laz (Lazuri): This is a South Caucasian (Kartvelian) language closely related to Georgian. It is traditionally spoken along Turkey’s northeastern Black Sea coast (in Rize and Artvin provinces) by the Laz ethnic group. The Laz have lived there for centuries, even before Ottoman times. Lazuri is now endangered: UNESCO classifies it as such. Most Laz people are now bilingual in Turkish and often shift to Turkish in public life. Only a minority, mostly older villagers, remain fluent in Laz.
- Georgian: Some ethnic Georgians also live in Artvin, the eastern part of the Black Sea region. Their native language is Georgian (another Kartvelian tongue), though most communities have largely assimilated linguistically. In a few villages by the border with the country of Georgia, elderly people still speak Georgian. (In addition, there are some Black Sea Pontic Greek villages where people speak a dialect of Greek; these are different from Georgian but share the region.) Overall, Georgian as a home language in Turkey is very limited in scope today.
- Circassian (Adyghe/Kabardian): In the 1860s–1870s, many Circassians were expelled from the Caucasus into the Ottoman Empire. Large waves settled in parts of central and western Turkey. Today there are perhaps several hundred thousand Turks of Circassian descent (often identified by surname or community organizations), though fluency in the original language is much rarer. Circassian in Turkey typically refers to two closely related Northwest Caucasian languages: Adyghe (West Circassian) and Kabardian (East Circassian). These languages are famous for their many consonants and complex phonetics. According to one description, many Circassians in Turkey speak Adyghe or Kabardian at home, but the number of everyday speakers is dwindling as Turkish dominates younger generations. There are community efforts (language classes, folk events) to keep Circassian alive, but it remains endangered in Turkey.
Each of these Caucasian languages is a small community language today. The Turkish government has no special policy for them beyond general minority rights. In practice, they are spoken by shrinking, often isolated communities. For a foreign visitor, the names Laz, Georgian and Circassian signal that a region once had Caucasus migrants. You might, for example, meet a Laz farmer in Rize who greets you in Turkish with a few Laz words mixed in. But for all practical purposes outside those villages, Caucasian languages are a hidden layer of Turkey’s history.
Other Turkic Languages
Apart from Turkish itself, a couple of other Turkic languages appear. The most notable is Gagauz, spoken by the Gagauz people (a Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christian group mainly found in Moldova). Turkey has a very small Gagauz presence, typically among migrants or families who moved from the Balkans. Gagauz is closely related to Turkish and was influenced by Balkan languages. It is similar enough that a Turkish speaker can somewhat understand it (with practice). Nowadays, Gagauz in Turkey usually speak Turkish in daily life, with Gagauz used mostly at home among the oldest generation.
Another Turkic variety occasionally heard is Azerbaijani (Azeri). Due to Turkey’s border with Azerbaijan and long cultural ties, some ethnic Azerbaijanis live in eastern provinces like Iğdır. These communities traditionally speak the Azerbaijani Turkic dialect (which is mutually intelligible with Turkish but has distinct features). However, many of them have shifted to speaking Turkish. There is no census data on Azeri speakers in Turkey, but estimates suggest only tens of thousands remain.
In summary, the only Turkic mother tongue of note is Turkish itself; other Turkic tongues (like Gagauz or Azeri) exist in Turkey but only among small groups.
The Aramaic Legacy: What is Syriac?
Finally, Turkey’s southeast preserves a tiny branch of the Semitic (Aramaic) family. The indigenous Christian communities of Tur Abdin and nearby areas historically spoke Neo-Aramaic languages descended from ancient Syriac (Aramaic). The two main ones are Turoyo (Surayt) and Sureth (Chaldean Syriac). These are the liturgical languages of the Syriac Orthodox and Chaldean churches, respectively, but some people also spoke them at home.
For example, Turoyo (sometimes simply called “Surayt”) is a western Neo-Aramaic language. It was once the everyday speech of many Syriac Christians in and around Mardin. An estimate from 2017 puts the total number of Turoyo speakers (in Turkey and Syria combined) at about 250,000. Most of those are now in Europe due to migration, but the language persists among a dwindling community in Tur Abdin. Central Neo-Aramaic (Sureth) is spoken by Assyrian Christians (often Catholics or Orthodox) around Midyat, but there are probably fewer than 10,000 speakers left in Turkey.
These Aramaic dialects are severely endangered. Virtually all younger Assyrians in Turkey have grown up speaking Turkish (or Kurdish, in some villages) as their first language, using Syriac only in liturgy or at home with elders. Nevertheless, cultural efforts (schools, publications, media) keep a reminder that these are local languages of great antiquity. In daily life, Arabic is more commonly used even by these communities.
So Syriac, in the broad sense, refers to the family of modern Aramaic languages of Turkey’s Christian minorities. Their numbers are tiny and declining, but they represent the legacy of one of the world’s oldest living languages in this region. (Indeed, Syriac/Aramaic was once the lingua franca of the Near East.) Today, though, one would more likely hear Arabic or Turkish from a Syriac Christian than Syriac, except in church.
Endangered and Immigrant Languages
Are There Endangered Languages in Turkey?
Yes – many of Turkey’s minority languages are classified as endangered. UNESCO and other linguists highlight several:
- Western Armenian (spoken by the Armenian minority) is listed as “definitely endangered” in Turkey. (As noted above, only a small fraction of Armenians use it natively now.)
- Pontic Greek (Romeyka) is considered endangered or critically endangered. This ancient Greek dialect survives in perhaps a few dozen villages and is unknown to outsiders.
- Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) among Turkey’s Jews is “critically endangered”. With only a few elderly speakers left, it may vanish entirely within a generation.
- Lazuri is endangered. Younger Laz nearly all speak only Turkish.
- Zazaki is “threatened” due to language shift; many Zazas now speak Kurdish or Turkish instead.
- Turoyo/Sureth (the Aramaic dialects) are endangered – a few thousand Turkish Assyrians still speak them, but virtually all the young generation do not.
In short, most of Turkey’s smaller ethnic languages are at risk. Urbanization, schooling in Turkish, and assimilation pressures tend to erode these tongues. Some municipalities and activists have campaigned to teach these languages in schools, but official support has been limited. Despite UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage listings (for example, Turkey’s whistled language was added in 2017), the practical trend is that many minority languages are spoken only by the old.
What Are the Immigrant Languages in Turkey?
Turkey’s modern population also includes languages brought by immigrants or settled diaspora. These include:
- Balkan languages: Descendants of Ottomans from the Balkans may still use Bosnian, Albanian, Bulgarian or Romani dialects at home. For instance, Bosniak and Pomak communities in the Thrace region keep their languages to some extent.
- Central Asian and Caucasus languages: Small communities from former USSR republics – such as Uzbek, Turkmen, Kazakh, or Chechen – have immigrated to Turkey. These people usually settle in cities and often speak Turkish as much or more than their native tongues.
- Middle Eastern tongues: In addition to Kurdish (treated above) and Arabic (above), there are smaller groups of speakers of Persian (Iranian Azeris or Kurds, or Afghan/Tajik labor migrants). Russian is spoken by some emigrants from ex-USSR republics.
- European languages: Some Turkish citizens speak German or French as heritage languages, due to family ties abroad. (Millions of Turks have lived in Germany as guest workers; their children or returnees often speak German fluently.) These, however, are not indigenous communities but transnational linkages.
To summarize, immigrant languages in Turkey add another layer of diversity. They are not officially tracked, but linguistically one can find dozens of such languages in Turkey’s cities. Their use depends on recent migration patterns – for example, the influx of Central Asians, Middle Eastern refugees, or labor migrants. None of these is on a nationwide scale, though German and Russian in particular can be heard in certain districts of Istanbul or Ankara where diaspora communities live.
Foreign Languages in Turkey: English, German, and More
Is English Widely Spoken in Turkey?
English is the leading foreign language in Turkey today, but its prevalence varies widely. English is taught starting in primary schools and is the dominant second language in higher education. However, actual speaking ability is uneven. Large cities (Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir) and tourist destinations have many English speakers. According to the EF English Proficiency Index, Turkey has a moderate level of English skills (ranked 65th out of 116 countries, just above the global average). In major metropolises, younger professionals and those in commerce often speak English fairly well. In tourist areas (Antalya, Cappadocia, Ephesus), shopkeepers, guides and hotel staff usually know basic English.
By contrast, in small towns and rural areas English is much rarer. In the eastern provinces (Near Kurdish or Arabic-speaking regions), surveys find English proficiency is very low. For example, EF’s 2020 data show that Southeastern Anatolia (Şanlıurfa, Mardin, etc.) scored only 451 on English proficiency, well below cities like Istanbul (503). In plain terms: if you travel to a village in eastern Turkey expecting English, you will most likely need Turkish or a translator. But in big cities you can often get by with English, especially among youth.
Can You Get By with English in Turkey?
For a tourist or foreigner, English is usually sufficient in urban Turkey. Most signs in Istanbul or Izmir have English translations in hotels, restaurants and public transport. Many younger Turks have a working knowledge of English, so asking for directions or ordering food is often possible in English. However, patience is needed: outside the big cities and tourist zones, English may be minimal. In rural areas, few speak it, and staff in local markets or small guesthouses often know only Turkish. It’s wise to learn some basic Turkish phrases or carry a phrasebook if venturing off the beaten path. But overall, yes – English is the lingua franca for tourism and international business in Turkey.
The Role of German, French, and Russian
German: Due to decades of labor migration to Germany (starting in the 1960s), many Turkish families have relatives in Germany. An estimated 3–4 million Turkish-origin people live in Germany, and this flows back: returning immigrants often bring German. Thus German is surprisingly widespread among older Turks and those with ties to the diaspora. It is still taught in some schools, and German business ties remain strong (the two countries have close trade and cultural links).
French: French used to be widely taught as a foreign language in the mid-20th century (it was once the language of diplomacy). Today, French is mainly spoken by specialists. Some universities, engineers or classicists know French. But its popularity has waned; English has largely supplanted it in Turkish schools and offices.
Russian: In recent years, Russian has become more visible. This is partly due to the influx of Russian tourists and some Russian-speaking immigrants (from places like Georgia or Ukraine). On the Mediterranean coast, many signs and menus have Russian versions. Also, energy and trade ties with Russia have fostered a growing interest in learning Russian in business circles. It is far from universal, but you may encounter a Russian phrasebook more often than a French one in tourist spots today.
What is the Business Language in Turkey?
Domestically, Turkish is the business language. Any official contract, service industry transaction or local meeting will be conducted in Turkish. Internationally, Turkish businesspeople typically use English as the main foreign language. Foreign investors and multinational corporations usually conduct negotiations and documentation in English. In dealings with Germany, many executives use German as well. In some sectors (like energy and tourism) Russian is used, and in high-level circles French or Arabic may appear. But for most practical purposes, if you work with Turkish firms, either Turkish or English will suffice.
Other Forms of Communication
What is Turkish Sign Language (TİD)?
Like any country, Turkey has a deaf community that uses its own sign language: Turkish Sign Language (Türkiye İşaret Dili, or TİD). This is a full-fledged language, not simply gesture-for-gesture Turkish. It has its own grammar and vocabulary distinct from spoken Turkish. Turkey passed a disability law recognizing TİD in 2012, requiring state agencies and broadcasters to include sign interpretation. According to estimates, between 166,000 and 333,000 people in Turkey use TİD. These are individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing; each uses the language as their primary mode of communication.
TİD varies somewhat regionally (there are dialect differences between sign schools), but it is generally intelligible nationwide. There is also awareness of Turkish Sign among authorities: for example, sign-language courses have been introduced for educators and public service officials. In daily life, a deaf Turk will mostly use TİD with family or in the community. In major cities, interpreters appear in courts and TV news (especially since 2012 there has been an effort to subtitle national news broadcasts with sign language).
In addition, there are two other small sign languages to note. One is Central Taurus Sign Language (used in a few villages of the Taurus Mountains by a community of three villages), and the other is Mardin Sign Language (used by one large family in Mardin Province). These are separate indigenous sign systems discovered by researchers. But nationwide the dominant sign language is TİD. Its existence means that, in Turkey’s list of living languages, at least one non-verbal language is recognized.
Whistled Languages
Finally, Turkey has a unique form of communication known as the “bird language” of Kuşköy. In the remote village of Kuşköy (meaning “Bird Village”) in northern Turkey’s Giresun Province, people historically used a whistled form of Turkish to communicate across deep valleys. This is not a separate language in grammar – it is essentially Turkish words transformed into whistles at various pitches, which can carry over kilometers.
Kuşköy’s bird-whistling tradition dates back centuries. It was part of daily life until the late 20th century: farmers or shepherds would shout in whistles instead of speech when the distances were too great. Today that tradition survives only in Kuşköy and a few nearby hamlets. UNESCO declared it an Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2017. The last surveys put the number of people still fluent in the whistled language at about 10,000, mostly elder villagers. In practice, this means you might still hear a lone whistle echoing across the mountains around Kuşköy, and the locals have competitions for “best whistler.” But for most Turks (even those a few kilometers away) the bird language has fallen out of everyday use – partly replaced by cell phones and standard Turkish. It remains an intriguing symbol of Turkey’s pastoral past.
Conclusion: A Nation’s Identity in Its Many Voices
Turkey’s linguistic landscape is a reflection of its history and geography. At its heart is the Turkish language – the official national tongue shaped by Republic-era reforms, known for its agglutination and vowel harmony, and spoken by the overwhelming majority of citizens. Yet woven through Turkey’s national narrative are the distinct voices of its minorities and neighbors. Armenian elders still recite prayers in their church tongue, Greeks in Istanbul whisper Pontic dialect secrets, and Turkish Kurds pass down their Kurdish songs in the villages of the southeast. In the Black Sea hills one might hear a whistled greeting, in Mardin a murmur of Syriac, or in a Bursa café a phrase in Bosnian or Crimean Tatar.
These languages carry deep identities. Some are protected by international treaties (Greek, Armenian, Ladino), some have endured underground (Kurdish in Turkish music and politics), and some are on the brink of disappearance (Lazuri or Ladino). Modern pressures – urbanization, mass schooling in Turkish, and the dominance of global culture – push them toward fading. Yet there are also signs of preservation: elective language courses, TV stations, community media, and UNESCO recognition encourage a measure of revival.
Turkey’s future linguistic scene will likely balance the unifying force of Turkish with the desire to honor heritage languages. Government and society may continue to expand small concessions (for example, Kurdish language education or TV programming) to accommodate its mosaic. At the same time, Turkish will remain the indispensable common medium.
In sum, the “languages of Turkey” comprise more than a roster of names – they form a layered, living map of peoples. Understanding Turkey means appreciating that its national identity is expressed in many voices: not only the standardized language of Ankara or Istanbul, but in the softened pitch of a Kuşköy whistle, the melodic liturgy of an Armenian church, the lyrics of a Kurdish folk song, or the warmth of a sign-language greeting. Each of these threads is part of Turkey’s story. By exploring them in detail, we gain a richer picture of what it means to be a Turkish citizen today – one whose country has learned to speak as one, even as it remembers that many languages built it.
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