Can Uyghur, Turkish and Uzbek speakers understand each other and Turkic languages such as Turkmen, Kazakh, Tatar, and others? In this episode we showcase some of the similarities and test the degree of mutual intelligibility between Uyghur, Uzbek and Turkish. Instead of a list of words and sentences, Ismael (Uyghur speaker), Fotima (Uzbek speaker), and Melih (Turkish speaker) will each read statements/paragraphs in their respective languages to see how well they can understand one another.
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The Turkish language, which is also referred to as Istanbul Turkish, is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with most of its native speakers living in Western Asia, and significant group of speakers in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Ottoman Turkish, which was a variation of the Turkish spoken today, influenced many parts of Europe during the time that the Ottoman Empire expanded. When the modern Turkish republic was established, one of Atatürk's Reforms consisted of changing the Ottoman Turkish alphabet with a Latin alphabet. Today, Turkish is recognized as a minority language in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Iraq, Macedonia, and Romania.
The Uyghur (also known as Uighur) language (ئۇيغۇر تىلى‎ / ئۇيغۇرچە) is a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Being part of the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family, it is closely related Uzbek. Aside from the similarities with Turkic languages, Uyghur has had a lot historical influence from Arabic and Persian and in more recent times it has been influenced by Russian and Mandarin Chinese. Uyghur uses a modified Arabic-derived writing system, however, unlike Arabic, it is mandatory in Uyghur to mark all the vowels.
Uzbek is the first official and only declared national language of Uzbekistan and is spoken primarily in Central Asia. It is the second-most widely spoken Turkic language after Turkish.
The Turkic languages consist of over 35 different documented languages, originating from East Asia. Turkish has the highest number of native speakers out of all Turkic language. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility among the various Oghuz languages, which include Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, Balkan Gagauz Turkish and Oghuz-influenced Crimean Tatar.