突厥诸语言(Turkic languages)

在从巴尔干半岛到西伯利亚中部的地区中，约有1.35亿人使用的阿尔泰诸语言的二十多种语言。按照传统分法，突厥语被分为四种：一、东南部语支（或称维吾尔语支），包括主要在中国新疆通行的维吾尔语，以及主要在乌兹别克、其他中亚共和国和阿富汗北部通行的乌兹别克语；二、西南部语支（或称乌古思语支），包括土耳其语；在亚塞拜然和伊朗西北部通行的亚塞拜然语；主要在乌克兰和乌兹别克通行的克里米亚塔塔尔语（克里米亚突厥语）；以及主要在土库曼、伊朗北部和阿富汗北部通行的土库曼语。三、西北部语支（或称钦察语支），包括主要在哈萨克、其他中亚共和国和中国西部和蒙古通行的哈萨克语；主要在吉尔吉斯、其他中亚共和国和中国西部通行的吉尔吉斯语；主要在巴什噶尔和俄罗斯邻近地区通行的巴什噶尔语；主要在俄罗斯高加索地区通行的卡拉恰耶－巴尔卡语和库梅克语；以及在立陶宛和西南部乌克兰通行（参阅Karaism）的卡拉伊姆语。四、东北语支（或称阿尔泰语支）包括在额尔齐斯河东北部的西伯利亚地区以及邻近蒙古的包括阿尔泰、哈卡斯、索尔和图瓦地区通行的数种语言和方言；以及主要在雅库特及其邻近地区通行的雅库特语（或称萨哈语）。而在俄罗斯楚瓦什共和国和邻近地区通行的楚瓦什语与其他所有的语言截然不同。所发现的最早的突厥语是在蒙古北部发现的8世纪的墓碑铭，它们是用如尼字母或突厥文字的特殊书写系统写成的。在约900年开始，额尔齐斯河西南部几乎所有的突厥人都被伊斯兰化，突厥语开始采用阿拉伯字母。现今则多采用拉丁字母和西里尔字母。

English version：

Turkic languages

Family of more than 20 Altaic languages spoken by some 135 million people from the Balkans to central Siberia. The traditional division of Turkic is into four groups. The southeastern or Uighur group comprises Uighur, spoken mainly in Xinjiang, China; and Uzbek, spoken mainly in Uzbekistan, other Central Asian republics, and northern Afghanistan. The southwestern or Oğuz (Oghuz) group includes Turkish; Azerbaijani (Azeri), spoken in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran; Crimean Tatar (Crimean Turkish), spoken mostly in Ukraine and Uzbekistan; and Turkmen, used in Turkmenistan, northern Iran, and northern Afghanistan. The northwestern or Kipchak group includes Kazakh, spoken in Kazakhstan, other Central Asian republics, and western China and Mongolia; Kyrgyz (Kirghiz), spoken in Kyrgyzstan, other Central Asian republics, and western China; Tatar; Baskhir, spoken in Bashkortostan and adjacent areas in Russia; Karachay-Balkar and Kumyk, spoken in the Russian Caucasus; and Karaim, with a few speakers in Lithuania and southwestern Ukraine (see Karaism). The northeastern or Altai group comprises a group of languages and dialects spoken in Siberia northeast of the Irtysh River and in adjacent parts of Mongolia, including Altai, Khakas, Shor, and Tuvan; and Yakut (Sakha), spoken in Yakutia and adjacent areas. Distinct from all the other languages is Chuvash, spoken in Russia's Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas. The earliest attestations of Turkic are a group of 8th-century funerary inscriptions of northern Mongolia, in a distinctive writing system called runic script, or Turkic runes. With the Islamicization of nearly all Turkic peoples southwest of the Irtysh beginning c. 900, Turkic languages began to adopt the Arabic alphabet. Today the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets are more extensively used.