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Useful Languages in Central Asia | ||
Tags: Asian Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Jalalabat05 Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6013 days ago 6 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Turkish | Message 9 of 17 11 June 2008 at 8:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm still convinced that Turkish makes a good, but not perfect, base for learning any of the regional languages (expect Tajik). Additionally, Turkish opens up several counties outside the region, such as Azerbaijan and (of course) Turkey. Uzbek is probably a good bet too, given the large population and that you can find large Uzbek minorities in most of the countries in Central Asia. Still, the widespread use of Russian makes speaking Uzbek a little unnecessary, and, as was pointed out, the linguistic politics between ethnic groups might diminish Uzbek's usefulness outside of Uzbekistan.
As for the definition of "Central Asia," there isn't an exact consensus as to which countries are included. Some definitions seem to only count former Soviet states. Others count a huge chunk of China, Mongolia, Afghanistan, and even parts of Pakistan and India. Given the political and economic divisions of the last hundred years, I'm inclined to think of the former Soviet states in one category, and everything else in a separate category. Anyway, it's up to debate. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 10 of 17 11 June 2008 at 9:51am | IP Logged | ||
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I am far from a native speaker of Turkish but I have often been able to follow what is said on Azerbaijani TV programmes on satellite.
I don't know about Turkmen, but I think that with Uzbek, Kazakh, Uyghur etc. the grammar is much the same but the vocabulary is too remote from Turkish to be comprehensible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ElfoEscuro Diglot Senior Member United States cyworld.com/brahmapu Joined 6290 days ago 408 posts - 423 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English* Studies: Japanese | Message 11 of 17 12 June 2008 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Phonologically, as well. Uzbek's vowel structure strongly resembles that of Tajiki. Turkmen has developed interdental fricatives. And, of course, all have retained the uvular sounds that Turkish & Azerbaijani lack. A hypothetical lingua franca for Central Asia could be Arabic, since most Central Asians are Muslims. However, as far as I know, nobody in Central Asia even learns Classical Arabic. Perhaps Central Asian Arabic can be revived & used as a new lingua franca. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6149 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes | Message 12 of 17 13 June 2008 at 1:08am | IP Logged | ||
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ElfoEscuro, I find your posts riddled with wikipedia links quite amusing, I don't know why, no offence intended at all
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 14 of 17 13 June 2008 at 7:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Alfa et omega, but 'e never et 'is greens.
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| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6043 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 15 of 17 13 June 2008 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I think that Russian is a must. English is also becoming more useful. After that go for the Turkic language you find most interesting. They are similar so if you end up in a situation where you have to quickly learn another one you should be fine. Or better yet go for the Turkic language that has the most learning resources.
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| ElfoEscuro Diglot Senior Member United States cyworld.com/brahmapu Joined 6290 days ago 408 posts - 423 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English* Studies: Japanese | Message 16 of 17 13 June 2008 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | ||
None taken. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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