The World of Languages · Turkic
Turkish · Türkçe
An agglutinative language where suffixes stack up like Lego. It has been written in a Latin alphabet since Atatürk's 1928 reform.
- 86 million native speakers
- 94 million speakers in total
- Latin script
- FSI Category III · 44 weeks
- Official in 2 countries
Where Turkish is spoken
Tap or hover over a country. Colours show the language's status, based on Unicode CLDR territory data (population estimates mix sources and years).
Top countries by speakers
- TürkiyeOfficial language · 78M (93%)
- Germany · AlmanyaWidely spoken · 2.1M (2.5%)
- Bulgaria · BulgaristanWidely spoken · 746k (11%)
- Cyprus · KıbrısOfficial language · 304k (23%)
Key numbers
- Native (L1) speakers
- 86 million
- Second-language (L2) speakers
- 7 million
- Total speakers
- 94 million
- Source
- Ethnologue (2026), via Wikipedia
Turkish at a glance
Turkish (Türkçe [ˈtyɾctʃɛ] , Türk dili [ˈtyɾc dilɪ], also known as Türkiye Türkçesi 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languages of Cyprus. Significant smaller groups of Turkish speakers also exist in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece, other parts of Europe, the South Caucasus, and some parts of Central Asia, Iraq, and Syria. Turkish is the 21st-most spoken language in the world.
To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish—the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire—spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Perso-Arabic script-based Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with the Latin script-based Turkish alphabet.
From the Wikipedia article Turkish language (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Name in Turkish
- Türkçe
- Family
- TurkicCommon TurkicOghuzNuclear OghuzWest Oghuz
- Writing system
- Latin alphabet (29 letters, including ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü)
- Direction
- Left to right
- Official in
- Türkiye, Cyprus
- Codes
- ISO 639-3
tur· Glottolognucl1301· Q256 - Writing sample
Bütün insanlar hür, haysiyet ve haklar bakımından eşit doğarlar. Akıl ve vicdana sahiptirler ve birbirlerine karşı kardeşlik zihniyeti ile hareket etmelidirler.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights…”
Linguistic profile
How hard is Turkish for English speakers?
The US Foreign Service Institute puts Turkish in Category III: about 44 weeks (1100 class hours) of full-time study to reach professional working proficiency.
Source: FSI language learning timelines. See all languages ranked: hardest · easiest.
Feature values from the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS Online, CC BY 4.0).
The Turkish script
Latin alphabet (29 letters, including ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü). Tap a character to hear it (your device reads the letter name or sound).
Standard letters from Unicode CLDR exemplar characters.
Useful Turkish phrases with pronunciation
Numbers 1–10
- bir
- iki
- üç
- dört
- beş
- altı
- yedi
- sekiz
- dokuz
- on
Days of the week
- Mon Pazartesi
- Tue Salı
- Wed Çarşamba
- Thu Perşembe
- Fri Cuma
- Sat Cumartesi
- Sun Pazar
Everyday words
- water su
- cat kedi
- dog köpek
- coffee kahve
- beer bira
- bread ekmek
- book kitap
Phrases and words checked against Wiktionary; days and months from Unicode CLDR. Audio uses your browser's built-in Turkish voice when available.
Dialects and varieties
Istanbul Turkish
Turkey (standard)
The basis of the standard language used on TV and in schools.
Black Sea dialects
Trabzon and the coast
Known for a distinctive intonation and many Greek loanwords.
Cypriot Turkish
Cyprus
Has its own intonation and many loanwords from Greek and English.
Azerbaijani
Azerbaijan and Iran
A closely related Oghuz Turkic language: Turkish “nasılsın?” is Azerbaijani “necəsən?”
Hear the dialects
Fun words, untranslatables and false friends
keyif
The pleasure of relaxing and savouring the moment, ideally with tea.
hüzün
A collective melancholy; Orhan Pamuk wrote about it as the mood of Istanbul.
kolay gelsin
“May it come easy”: said to someone who is working.
False friends for English speakers
| Turkish | Looks like | Actually means |
|---|---|---|
| roman | Roman | novel |
Curious facts
- Turkish switched from the Arabic script to a Latin alphabet in 1928 under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
- Turkish has vowel harmony: suffix vowels change to match the word, so “in houses” is evlerde but “in rooms” is odalarda.
- One long word can be a whole sentence: Avrupalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınız (“you are apparently one of those we could not Europeanise”).
- There is no grammatical gender. “O” means he, she or it.
- The dotted i and dotless ı are different letters: İstanbul begins with a capital dotted İ.
Famous Turkish-speaking voices
Singers & musicians
Writers & poets
Film & TV
Other famous figures
Descriptions from Wikidata; photos from Wikimedia Commons under the licences shown.
Turkish culture now
Muhteşem Yüzyıl
Turkish historical fiction television series
Diriliş: Ertuğrul
2014 Turkish television series
Winter Sleep (film)
2014 Turkish film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Turkish television drama
Overview of television serials in Turkey
Anatolian rock
Genre of music
Nasreddin
Muslim world folklore character
Learn Turkish on YouTube
Free lessons from teachers and channels with Turkish courses. Videos load only when you press play.
The story of the language
Quick quiz: how well do you know Turkish?
Where to learn Turkish
The Endless Book
Read text you can understand, in the style of your favourite author and genre. About 30 languages.
LangMagicLangMagic Speak
Speaking lessons built around your topics, from materials you choose.
LangMagicLangMagic Meet
A virtual meeting platform built for language lessons, with follow-up exercises.
FreeWikivoyage Turkish phrasebook
Free travel phrasebook with pronunciation guide
FreeWikibooks: Turkish
Free, open textbook
FreeOmniglot: Turkish
Script, pronunciation and useful phrases
FreeWiktionary: Turkish dictionary
Free multilingual dictionary
Sources
- Speaker numbers: Ethnologue (2026), via Wikipedia.
- Countries, populations, alphabets, days and months: Unicode CLDR 46.
- Classification: Glottolog 5.3. Grammar features: WALS Online.
- Introduction: Wikipedia, Turkish language (CC BY-SA 4.0). People and culture: Wikipedia and Wikidata. Images: Wikimedia Commons.
- Writing sample: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1, from the Unicode UDHR collection. Phrases and words: Wiktionary. Difficulty: US Foreign Service Institute.
- Map: Natural Earth via world-atlas (public domain).