Oriented on making people closer

Since 2000, the Turkmen language has been introduced as a second foreign language in the curriculum of the Department of Near and Middle East Languages of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).

The Turkmen language, which belongs to the Oghuz group of Turkic languages, began to form from the moment of unification of ancient settlements into one nation. The Oghuz Turks bore west in three different groups, they came to Central Asia in the 8th century. Some of them continued their journey through the Urals and Volga to Eastern Europe. The other part, the Oghuz-Seljuks, moved through Iran and Asia Minor.

The closest languages to Turkmen are Azerbaijani and Turkish. However, speech similarity does not exclude specific features of the language, especially since literary Turkmen began to form in the 18th century. The classics of Turkmen poetry Azadi, Makhtumkuli, Seidi, and Kemine wrote in the ancient language.

A great contribution to the development of the Turkmen language was made by the scholar-philologist Muhammad Geldiev. In 1922, he led the work on reforming the Arabic alphabet in relation to the phonetic features of the modern Turkmen language. The point is that the Arabic type was previously used for the Turkmen script, and only in 1929 it was created the Turkmen alphabet based on Latin graphics.

Soon, the Turkmen script again underwent a number of changes. Since 1940, the Cyrillic alphabet with several additional letters has been used for writing. In 1993, a new version of the Turkmen alphabet was published, but another reform was required, and finally, since 2000, the official Turkmen alphabet includes 30 letters based on the Latin alphabet.

The Turkmen language consists of several dialects, and its development continues today. So, the “Explanatory dictionary of the Turkmen language” consisting of 50 thousand words and the “Spelling dictionary of the Turkmen language” were published in 2016. The Publishing Service of Turkmenistan annually publishes works by Turkmen authors from different eras, as well as textbooks and scientific literature with large circulation.

In February 2020, the Turkmen language was officially added to the Google Translate language registry. But how difficult is it to master the Turkmen language?

The linguistic capacities of each person are individual, some people immediately catch the particularities of the Turkmen speech aurally, but for someone it is more convenient to learn the language based on dictionaries and auxiliary training programs. Here, as in any other language, practice plays a significant role. Speak Turkmen and you will be heard.

Selbi CHARYEVA