Turkmen Language Guide

Official language in
Turkmenistan
Also spoken in
Afghanistan, Iran
Script
Latin
Speakers
2.7M (1989)

Where it's spoken

Under the Constitution of Turkmenistan, Turkmen is the state language, and all citizens are guaranteed the use of their native language. Standard Turkmen was formed in the Soviet period mainly on the basis of the dialects of the Teke and Yomut groups, but it is not identical with any single dialect. A Peace Corps language manual notes that Uzbek has influenced the speech and vocabulary of Turkmen spoken in the eastern part of the country. This app's card for "Do you need a bag?" notes that shop staff will often ask it in Russian instead.

Turkmen is also spoken in Iran, where a study of speakers of Iranian Turkmen describes increasing influence from Persian from the older generation to the younger one.

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Script & pronunciation

Turkmen is written in an alphabet based on the Latin script: near the end of the 20th century the parliament of Turkmenistan, the Mejlis, approved a presidential decree on the new Turkmen alphabet, and the decree set its introduction less than three years later. Before that, standard literary Turkmen had been written in a modified Cyrillic script since the first half of the 20th century.

The Unicode CLDR locale data lists the Turkmen letters as a, b, ç, d, e, ä, f, g, h, i, j, ž, k, l, m, n, ň, o, ö, p, r, s, ş, t, u, ü, w, y, ý and z, with c, q, v and x only as auxiliary letters. For example, Bagyşlaň ("Excuse me") contains ş and ň, and Iňlis dilini bilýärsiňizmi? ("Do you speak English?") contains ň and ý.

Most of this app's cards have no romanization. Where a card does have a romanization, it is the same Latin text split with hyphens, as in Ba-gyş-laň for Bagyşlaň.

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Grammar essentials

In a normal Turkmen sentence the subject comes first, the object second, and the verb or predicate last. In Men türkmen dilini bilmeýärin ("I can't speak Turkmen"), the verb bilmeýärin comes at the end.

To ask a yes/no question, the particle -my or -mi is added to the predicate, as in Barmy? ("Do you have it?"), Mugtmy? ("Is it free?") and Iňlis dilini bilýärsiňizmi? ("Do you speak English?"). Turkmen words may contain only front vowels or only back vowels, and this app's card Maýda puluňyz ýokmy? ("Do you have anything smaller?") notes that because ýok has a back vowel, the back-vowel form -my is chosen.

In the present-future and definite past tenses, a verb is negated by inserting -ma or -me after the verb stem and before the tense suffix; this app's card Men türkmen dilini bilmeýärin notes that -meý- marks the negation in bilmeýärin. The card Düşünemok ("I don't understand") gives the negative present ending -emok. The word gerek ("needed") is negated with däl instead, as in Maňa gerek däl ("I don't need it"). To say what you have or do not have, this app's cards use bar and ýok, as in Bronym bar ("I have a reservation") and Bronym ýok ("I don't have a reservation").

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Politeness & etiquette

Turkmen has two words for "you": sen is the singular, familiar "you", and siz is the plural "you" as well as the polite singular "you". According to a Peace Corps language manual, siz is in order when addressing someone older or an acquaintance, and being addressed with sen by no means implies that answering with sen is appropriate; its rule of thumb is to use siz always, at least until you know more about the nuances of the two pronouns. This app's card Iňlis dilini bilýärsiňizmi? notes that -siňiz is the polite plural and that you should always use the plural with strangers, and the card Men seni söýýärin ("I love you") is marked for someone close, not for elders or strangers.

The bare verb stem is a familiar or impolite command; to make the command polite, -yň or -iň is added to a stem ending in a consonant and -ň to a stem ending in a vowel. Compare Göni gidiň. ("Go straight ahead.") with Çepe bur. ("Turn left."), whose card notes that bur is the simple imperative and adds a polite form. This app's card Garaşyň, haýyş edýärin ("Please wait") uses the polite imperative. The cards say to use Sag boluň ("Thank you") rather than Sag bol ("Thanks / Bye") with an elder. In Bagyşlaň ("Excuse me"), the card notes that the final -ň marks politeness to strangers, and Haýyş edýärin ("Please") can be added to any request.

The manual describes Salam as a less formal greeting used between friends, colleagues and relatives who see each other regularly, answered with Salam, while a longer greeting from Arabic meaning "peace be upon you" is common in more formal situations, such as when people first meet. It is not uncommon for people to ask about the health and well-being of family members and the state of the household. A common and polite way to address elders is with kinship terms: the word for "older brother" is used like "sir", and the word for "aunt" like "ma'am".

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