Turkic · ISO 639-3 tur · tr
Turkish Language Türkçe
Turkish is a Turkic language spoken by about 82 million people in 12 countries. It is an official language of Türkiye and Cyprus. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Turkish is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Turkish
Language family
- Turkic
- Common Turkic
- Oghuz
- Nuclear Oghuz
- West Oghuz
- Turkish
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Turkish language
Turkish (Türkçe) is spoken by about 82 million people, which makes it the 22nd most spoken language in the world — just behind Swahili (82 million) and ahead of Caribbean Javanese (82 million). It belongs to the Turkic language family and, more precisely, to the West Oghuz group within the Oghuz branch.
Where is Turkish spoken?
Turkish is used in 12 countries. The largest communities live in Türkiye (78 million), Germany (2.1 million), Bulgaria (746,092), Cyprus (303,721) and Uzbekistan (226,427). More than half of the population speaks it in Türkiye — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Turkish: Türkiye 93% (78 million), Germany 2.5% (2.1 million), Bulgaria 11% (746,092), Cyprus 23% (303,721), Uzbekistan 0.6% (226,427) and Netherlands 1.2% (213,268).
Turkish is an official language in 2 countries: Türkiye and Cyprus.
Writing system and status
Turkish is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are South Azerbaijani, North Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqa'i and Azerbaijani.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 tr, ISO 639-3 tur.
Frequently asked questions about Turkish
How many people speak Turkish?
Where is Turkish spoken?
In which countries is Turkish an official language?
What language family does Turkish belong to?
What is Turkish called in Turkish?
Is Turkish 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.