Some Common Features of the Languages of Central Asia Turks

This paper examines common features in lexicon and grammar of five Turkic languages of Central Asia. The languages that are subject of study are Turkmen, Kirghiz, Kazakh, Özbek, and Uighur. Turkmen is a south-western or Oghuz, Kirghiz a Kipchakized Altai, Kazakh a north-western or Kipchak, while Özbek and Uighur are south-eastern languages. Although these languages belong to different genealogical and geographical groups, due to language contacts and some extralinguistic factors they developed a lot of common features. Among these factors there are historical, religious, geographic, political, climatic and ecological forces. Another important factor is the impact of a common literary Eastern Turkic language called Chaghatai. Direct inheritors of Chaghatai are Özbek and Uighur, but Chaghatai influence is present in the lexicon of all other languages surveyed here. Naturally, common features are not equal in these languages. The features inherited from Common Turkic which manifest themselves in these and many other Turkic languages fall beyond the scope of research.