PROFILE
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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: 19980928
Posted: 19980929
Checked: 19981112
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