Languages of Turkey

The following table lists the mother tongues of people in Turkey by percentage of their speakers.

Ethnologue lists many minority and immigrant languages in Turkey some of which are spoken by large numbers of people.

Languages by number of speakers in Turkey (with Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale)[13][14]

Language	Dialect or variety	Speakers	Status (EGIDS)[a]	Notes
Turkish		66,850,000 (2006)	1 (National)
Kurdish	Northern Kurdish	8,130,000 (2014)	3 (Wider communication)	3,000,000 monolinguals
Zazaki	Southern Zazaki	1,500,000 (1998)	5 (Developing)
	Northern Zazaki	184,000 (2014)	4 (Educational)
Arabic	North Levantine Arabic	1,130,000 (2014)	3 (Wider communication)
	Modern Standard Arabic	686,000 (2015)	4 (Educational)	Non-indigenous
	North Mesopotamian Arabic	520,000 (2014)	6a (Vigorous)	Do not read Arabic
	Other Mesopotamian Arabic	101,000 (2014)		Non-indigenous
Kabardian		1,000,000 (2005)	5 (Developing)	Non-indigenous
Azerbaijani		540,000 (2014)	5 (Dispersed)
Romani	Balkan Romani	500,000 (1985)	6a (Vigorous)	Non-indigenous
Domari			8b (Nearly extinct)
Turkish Sign Language		400,000 (1998)	6a (Vigorous)
Bulgarian	Pomak Bulgarian	351,000 (2014)	5 (Dispersed)
Balkan Gagauz Turkish		327,000 (1993)	7 (Shifting)
Adyghe		316,000 (2014)	5 (Dispersed)	Non-indigenous
Greek	Pontic Greek	5,000 (2009)	7 (Shifting)
	Standard Modern Greek	3,600 (2014)	5 (Dispersed)
Georgian		151,000 (2014)	6b (Threatened)
Crimean Tatar		100,000 (2014)	5 (Developing)	Non-indigenous
Albanian	Tosk Albanian	66,000 (2014)	6b (Threatened)	Non-indigenous
	Gheg Albanian		5 (Dispersed)
Armenian		61,000 (2014)	6b (Threatened)
Abkhaz		44,000 (2014)	6b (Threatened)	Non-indigenous
Ossetian	Digor Ossetian	37,000 (2014)	5 (Developing)	Non-indigenous
Tatar			5 (Dispersed)	Non-indigenous
Lazuri		20,000 (2007)	6b (Threatened)
Aramaic	Turoyo	15,000 (2014)	6b (Threatened)
	Hértevin	1,000 (1999)	6a (Vigorous)
	Other Syriac varieties		9 (Dormant)
Ladino		13,000 (2007)	7 (Shifting)	Non-indigenous
Turkmen			5 (Dispersed)	Non-indigenous
Bosnian		4,500 (2013)	6b (Threatened)	Non-indigenous
Uzbek	Southern Uzbek	3,800 (2014)	5 (Dispersed)	Non-indigenous
Kyrgyz			5 (Dispersed)	Non-indigenous
Uyghur			5 (Dispersed)	Non-indigenous

Not included in the report by Ethnologue is the Megleno-Romanian language, spoken by the Megleno-Romanians, who number around 5,000 in the country.[15]

a^ Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) of Ethnologue:
0 (International): "The language is widely used between nations in trade, knowledge exchange, and international policy."
1 (National): "The language is used in education, work, mass media, and government at the national level."
2 (Provincial): "The language is used in education, work, mass media, and government within major administrative subdivisions of a nation."
3 (Wider Communication): "The language is used in work and mass media without official status to transcend language differences across a region."
4 (Educational): "The language is in vigorous use, with standardization and literature being sustained through a widespread system of institutionally supported education."
5 (Developing): "The language is in vigorous use, with literature in a standardized form being used by some though this is not yet widespread or sustainable."
6a (Vigorous): "The language is used for face-to-face communication by all generations and the situation is sustainable."
6b (Threatened): "The language is used for face-to-face communication within all generations, but it is losing users."
7 (Shifting): "The child-bearing generation can use the language among themselves, but it is not being transmitted to children."
8a (Moribund): "The only remaining active users of the language are members of the grandparent generation and older."
8b (Nearly Extinct): "The only remaining users of the language are members of the grandparent generation or older who have little opportunity to use the language."
9 (Dormant): "The language serves as a reminder of heritage identity for an ethnic community, but no one has more than symbolic proficiency."
10 (Extinct): "The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language."

  Provinces with Turkish speakers in majority   Provinces with Turkish speakers in plurality   Provinces with Kurdish speakers in plurality   Provinces with Kurdish speakers in majority

• 
  Turkish- and Kurdish-speaking pluralities
• 
  Turkish-speaking population
• 
  Kurdish-speaking population
• 
  Arabic-speaking population
• 
  Zaza-speaking population
• 
  Circassian-speaking population
• 
  Greek-speaking population
• 
  Armenian-speaking population
• 
  Georgian-speaking population
• 
  Laz-speaking population
• 
  Pomak-speaking population
• 
  Bosnian-speaking population
• 
  Albanian-speaking population
• 
  Hebrew-speaking population

A 1901 postcard depicting Galata in Constantinople (Istanbul), showing signage in Ottoman Turkish, French, Greek, and Armenian

Turkey has historically been the home to many now extinct languages. These include Hittite, the earliest Indo-European language for which written evidence exists (circa 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE when the Hittite Empire existed). The other Anatolian languages included Luwian and later Lycian, Lydian and Milyan. All these languages are believed to have become extinct at the latest around the 1st century BCE due to the Hellenization of Anatolia which led to Greek in a variety of dialects becoming the common language.

Urartian belonging to the Hurro-Urartian language family existed in eastern Anatolia around Lake Van. It existed as the language of the kingdom of Urartu from about the 9th century BCE until the 6th century. Hattian is attested in Hittite ritual texts but is not related to the Hittite language or to any other known language; it dates from the 2nd millennium BCE.

In the post-Tanzimat period French became a common language among educated people, even though no ethnic group in the empire natively spoke French.[18] Johann Strauss, author of "Language and power in the late Ottoman Empire," wrote that "In a way reminiscent of English in the contemporary world, French was almost omnipresent in the Ottoman lands."[19] Strauss also stated that French was "a sort of semi-official language",[20] which "to some extent" had "replaced Turkish as an 'official' language for non-Muslims".[21] Therefore late empire had multiple French-language publications, and several continued to operate when the Republic of Turkey was declared in 1923. However French-language publications began to close in the 1930s.[22]

• Demographics of Turkey
• Citizen speak Turkish!

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Languages of Turkey.

• European Commission, ed. (2005-11-09). "Turkey 2005 Progress Report".
• Turgut, Üveys Mücahit (May 2007). "A CONCEPTUAL HISTORY OF ULUS IN THE CONTEXT OF NATION-BUILDING AND LANGUAGE POLICIES IN TURKEY" (PDF). - Thesis submitted to Istanbul Sehir University