Turkic · ISO 639-3 krc
Karachay-Balkar Language Къарачай-Малкъар
Karachay-Balkar is a Turkic language spoken by about 310,400 people in 1 country. It is written in the Cyrillic script.
Where Karachay-Balkar is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Karachay-Balkar language
Karachay-Balkar (Къарачай-Малкъар) is spoken by about 310,400 people, which makes it the 511th most spoken language in the world — just behind Ngazidja Comorian (312,000) and ahead of Mandjak (310,000). It belongs to the Turkic language family and, more precisely, to the Kaukasus Kipchak group within the Kipchak-Turkestan branch.
Where is Karachay-Balkar spoken?
Karachay-Balkar is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Russia (281,642).
Karachay-Balkar is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in Russia.
Writing system and status
Karachay-Balkar is written in the Cyrillic script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Kumyk, Tatar, Bashkir, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Northern Uzbek and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 krc.
Frequently asked questions about Karachay-Balkar
How many people speak Karachay-Balkar?
Where is Karachay-Balkar spoken?
What language family does Karachay-Balkar belong to?
What is Karachay-Balkar called in Karachay-Balkar?
Is Karachay-Balkar an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.