Teaching Turkish Language In the World

Other than native speakers, there are also first language, second language and foreign language speakers of the Turkic language dialects. It has been determined that Turkish has speakers in many countries all over the world. According to the Ethnologue Survey, there are 34 countries other than the Turkish Republic where Turkish speakers live. The recent collapse of the former Soviet Union and the Gulf War have brought a heightened focus to the importance of the Turkish Republic and to speakers of Turkic languages. These developments led to the establishment of new educational institutions for the purpose of teaching Turkish. New departments at the universities were also established, and courses at private teaching institutions were opened in the Turkic Republics and other countries.

At the present time, there are 87 countries where Turkish is taught in secondary schools. These courses were developed according to the Turkic population and the demand for Turkish language courses. The countries where Turkish is taught in at least one secondary school are: USA, Afghanistan, Germany, Angola, Argentina, Albania, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia Herzogevina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina-Faso, Myanmar, Chad, Czech Republic, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Philippines, France, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, The Republic of South Africa, South Korea, Georgia, India, the Netherlands, Iraq, the Great Britain, Japan, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Kazakstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Hungary, Madagascar, Macedonia, Malawi, the Maldives, Malaysia, Malian, Mexico, Mongolia, Moldova, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Pakistan, Papua, New Guinea, Poland, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Taiwan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Jordan, Vietnam and Yemen.

In some countries Turkish is taught at private educational institutions as well as at secondary schools. There are 46 countries where Turkish is taught at private educational institutions. The countries are: USA, Germany, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia Herzogevina, Bulgaria, Algeria, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, the Netherlands, Iraq, the Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Iceland, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Colombia, Latvia, Lithuania, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Egypt, Mongolia, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Chile, Turkmenistan, Vietnam and Greece.

Educational courses are conducted in the Turkish language at universities in nine countries. These countries are: Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia Herzogevina, Georgia, Iraq, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, and Turkmenistan.

There are Turkology departments in 28 countries where Turkish is taught and Turkish language and literature studies are conducted. These countries are: Germany, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia Herzogevina, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Sweden, Japan, Cameroon, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Colombia, Kosovo, Lithuania, Hungary, Egypt, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen.  

Conclusion

Today the Turkic language is a world language spoken within a 12 million square kilometer area by 220 million people. The origins of the language, which has 600,000 words in its vocabulary, date back to the oldest periods of history, and now it is studied and taught in almost one hundred countries. Turkish, a branch of the Turkic language, has been influenced by many languages including Chinese, Persian, Arabic and Hungarian, and more than 11,000 loanwords have been borrowed only from Turkish. More than 20,000 loanwords have been brought in and adapted from the Turkic languages to the other languages. Many Turkic words of origin have been taken from categories of clothing, food, and the military. In addition, many Turkic origin place names, where Turkic origin people lived throughout history, are still used today in world languages.

Turkic language is one of the most widespread and deep-rooted languages in the world and has made many significant contributions to world languages. Furthermore, as an important world language, Turkic is taught in many parts of the world and is also a subject of great interest and academic research.

Prof. Şükrü Halûk Akalın

Translated by Gülzemin ÖZRENK AYDIN