A Grammar of Turkish

Turkish is a Turkic language (in the Altaic branch) spoken by some 50 million people, the majority of which live in Turkey, where it is the official national language. It is related to some Chinese and Russian languages. The language is divided into eastern and western dialects (the western portion being composed of a single dialect, Danubian). There are 36 total languages existent in Turkey, and of these two are extinct. This total also includes two different versions of Arabic, and Farsi. Turkey itself is divided into Europe and Asia, with 24 and 12 languages respectively.1 Many of the other Turkic languages in the area form „chains‟ of dialects, with nearby languages being extremely similar (and sometimes even mutually intelligible), and more distant ones being decidedly distinct. This continuum of language makes it difficult to define clear language boundaries (Kornfilt, 1987, pp. 619-620).