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Home » Most Spoken Languages » 🇹🇷 Turkish #20 Most Spoken Language (91M speakers)

🇹🇷 Turkish #20 Most Spoken Language (91M speakers)

Turkish (Türkçe)

Oghuz Turkic • Latin alphabet • SOV (flexible)
Number of Speakers (est.)
Native ~75–85M • Total ~90–100M+
TürkiyeNorthern Cyprus (TRNC)Diaspora (Europe, MENA)
Family / Branch
Turkic languages → Oghuz branch (related to Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Gagauz)
Mutual intelligibility: medium–high
Writing System
Latin alphabet (Script Reform 1928). 29 letters: Ç Ğ I İ Ö Ş Ü; no Q/W/X.
Capital I / small ıCapital İ / small i
Typical Word Order
SOV, agglutinative morphology, postpositions (rather than prepositions)
Vowel harmonyConsonant lenition
ISO Codes
ISO 639-1: tr • 639-2: tur • 639-3: tur
Standard: Istanbul dialect
Difficulty (for English speakers)
Medium–Hard: once morphology “clicks,” fluency ramps up quickly
Regular spellingTransparent phoneme–grapheme mapping
Quick Overview

Turkish is an agglutinative language in the Oghuz branch of Turkic. Grammatical information stacks as suffixes: ev-ler-im-de “in my houses.” Vowel harmony selects suffix vowels (-i/ı/u/ü) to match the word’s last vowel.

Sound & Spelling Tips
  • Vowel harmony: if the last vowel is front (e, i, ö, ü), suffix vowels are front; if back (a, ı, o, u), suffix vowels are back: ev-e, okul-a.
  • Four-way suffixes: -i/ı/u/ü (e.g., accusative: ev-i, kapı-y-ı, okul-u, gönül-ü).
  • Ğ (soft g): lengthens/softens the preceding vowel; never word-initial: dağ, soğuğu.
  • Lenition: final p/ç/t/k → b/c/d/ğ before vowel-initial suffixes: kitap → kitabı, ağaç → ağacı, renk → rengi.
  • Fortis context (t/d): after ç f h k p s ş t choose -ta/-te, -tan/-ten: ağaç-ta, renk-ten.
Grammar Snapshot
  • Cases: nominative (bare), accusative -(i), dative -(e), locative -(de), ablative -(den), genitive -(in), equative -ce/-ca.
  • Possession: ev-im, ev-in, ev-i…
  • Person/tense (git- “go”): git-ti-m, git-ti-n, git-ti…
  • Register: sen (informal), siz (formal/plural).
  • Word order: Ben bugün okul-a git-ti-m. (SOV); constituents move for focus/emphasis.
Dialects & Variation

The standard is Istanbul-based; regional varieties (Aegean, Black Sea, Eastern Anatolia…) differ in pronunciation and some vocabulary. Close affinity with Azerbaijani and Turkmen, especially in written form.

History (Very Short)
  • Old Turkic → Middle Turkic → Ottoman Turkish (Arabic/Persian influence),
  • 1928: Latin script adoption, language reform, modern orthography.
Sample & Breakdown

Bugün okula hızlıca gittim.
bugün okul-a hızlı-ca git-ti-m
today school-DAT quick-ADV go-PAST-1SG

Playful mouthful: Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdan mısınız?
A tongue-in-cheek example used to showcase agglutination; not common in real life.

Common Phrases
Merhaba (Hello)Günaydın (Good morning)Nasılsınız? (How are you?) Teşekkür ederim (Thank you)Lütfen (Please)Görüşürüz (See you)

Merhaba! (Hello) • Nasılsınız? (polite) • Teşekkür ederim (Thank you) • İyi günler (Have a nice day)

Interesting Notes
  • Dotted vs dotless I: I/ı and İ/i are distinct letters.
  • No prefixes, suffix heaven: grammar is largely built with suffix chains.
  • Transparent orthography: generally written as pronounced, with limited exceptions.
Suffix Wizard (Simple Rules)

Type a noun and pick a suffix: the wizard applies basic vowel harmony + d/t choice and y-buffer. (Try kapı “door”, okul “school”, ağaç “tree” …)

Note: This is a lightweight model; it catches common alternations like kitap→kitabı, but won’t cover every exception.

Learning Tips
  • Chunk suffix chains together: -(e) → -(de) → -(den).
  • Practice daily phrases with audio: Merhaba, nasılsınız?
  • Drill “find the last vowel” to speed up harmony decisions.
Numbers (1–10)

bir, iki, üç, dört, beş, altı, yedi, sekiz, dokuz, on

Common Borrowings

Arabic, Persian, French, and English have all left traces: kitap (Ar.), pencere (Per.), komite (Fr.), blog (Eng.).