ABSTRACT
A strict terminological distinction should be drawn between Turkic, the name of a language family, and Turkish, the name of a language. Although Turkish is by far the largest language (in terms of number of speakers) in the Turkic family, it accounts for only some 40 per cent of the total number of speakers of Turkic languages. The main geographic locations of Turkic languages are: (1) Turkey (Turkish), (2) the USSR and Iran: the Caucasus and northwestern Iran (e.g. Azerbaidjani), Soviet Central Asia, Kazakhstan and southern Siberia (e.g. Uzbek, Kazakh, Turkmenian, Kirghiz) and on the Volga (e.g. Tatar). One Turkic language (Yakut) is spoken in northern Siberia. (More than one Soviet citizen in ten is a native speaker of a Turkic language). In addition, there are substantial Turkic-speaking communities in northwestern China (Uighur and Kazakh).
