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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 6010 days ago 6 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Turkish | Message 1 of 17 09 June 2008 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd like to open a discussion about what we could consider to be the most useful languages for working and living in Central Asia. By this, I mean specifically the post-soviet republics (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan). Clearly, the number one regional language is Russian. Russian is still the professional language and it very widely used in almost any urban setting. Even in places where Russian is rarely used and many people are not able to actively speak the language, you can at least make yourself understood in Russian.
However, after Russian, what is the most useful language for working in the region as a whole? Learning one of the local languages will be useful inside a specific country and have some carry over, since they are all (except for Tajik) Turkic language. Yet, speaking Kazak in Turkmenistan might not be too useful. Additionally, most people, especially anyone who is educated or working in a professional capacity, will probably be happy to speak with you in Russian. I'm currently studying Turkish, with the idea that it is potentially more useful for working in the region as a whole than learning one of the local languages. One, it is closely related to most of the regional languages, with varying degrees of intelligibility. Knowing Turkish will make learning a local language (Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Turkmen, etc) much easier, should one need to learn it. Second, Turkish is a popular foreign language in the region. There are many schools and universities founded by Turkish organizations, and most of the graduates of these institutions come out speaking Turkish. Also, there is a good deal of Turkish business and investment in the region. After Russian and English, it seems to be one of the most widely learned foreign languages in the region. Anyway, perhaps I'm mistaken. Maybe it would be a better use of my time to just work on Uzbek? Perhaps an argument can be made for Farsi. Any opinions? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6663 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes  Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 2 of 17 10 June 2008 at 4:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not an expert on Central Asia, but from what I've heard is that you can get around with Russian but that it's losing ground to Turkish as foreign language.
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| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6766 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 3 of 17 10 June 2008 at 5:47am | IP Logged | ||
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I'd say:
Russian Turkish (for all the reasons you gave, plus it's mutually intelligible with Azeri) Persian (same language as Tajik and Dari) Hindi-Urdu Chinese Those would make you a linguistic superhero in Central Asia. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jalalabat05 Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6010 days ago 6 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Turkish | Message 4 of 17 10 June 2008 at 6:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't say that Turkish is gaining ground on Russian. It's a popular second or third language, but, in my experience at least, people in Central Asia don't speak Turkish as anything but a second language. Russian is still a major language of both professional and everyday affairs. It's lost some ground, but will still be important into at least the near future (perhaps like English in India). It's also everywhere in the media (movies, newspapers, books, etc). I'd rank languages in Central Asia such: a local language(Uzbek, Kazakh, etc) and/or Russian depending on the location in a country, then English, then Turkish, then German (believe it or not, I've noticed many people studying German, probably as a result of the Soviet educational system.) Chinese is gaining ground, but the influence of the Chinese language and culture is still surprisingly small, giving the geographic proximity.
However, after Russian, I'm hoping that Turkish will prove the most useful for me of any one of the local languages, as I hope to work in the region as a whole (not just a specific country in the region.) Also, Turkish will help me learn any local language, once I find myself needing them in a specific country. Captain Haddock, I'm interested in why you chose Hindi-Urdu as a useful language in the region. Are you defining the geographic boundaries of "Central Asia" a little differently. Although there are some India/Pakistani students in the region, I haven't noticed much use for these languages in at least the post-Soviet parts of Central Asia. If we include Afghanistan and Pakistan...well, of course, it's a different story. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Russianbear Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6773 days ago 358 posts - 422 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, Ukrainian Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 17 10 June 2008 at 8:44am | IP Logged | ||
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If I had to pick one useful Central Asian language to learn, I'd probably pick Tajiki(/Farsi). It would be nice to know the language of both Afghanistan and Iran, and even if one doesn't consider them Central Asia, then Tajiki can be said to be very useful outside of Central Asia. But if one wants to pick one local language that would be the most useful only in the former Soviet Central Asian republics, then (after Russian) Uzbek is probably the one since it seems to have the most speakers according to Wikipedia. I also think the usefulness of Uzbek language isn't limited to Uzbekistan. I also remember reading that Tajiki language(/dialect) was losing ground to Uzbek in Uzbekistan, while the opposite wasn't true in Tajikistan. Edited by Russianbear on 10 June 2008 at 8:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6270 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 6 of 17 10 June 2008 at 9:04am | IP Logged | ||
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Tajik is (probably) relatively easy to learn, as an Indo-European language. I suspect Russian will continue to be useful in that region for a while yet.
A French journalist who spoke Turkish and visited Afghan mojahedin in Pakistan who were fighting Soviet troops in the early 1980s reported that he could converse at a basic level with the Uzbeks among them, using Turkish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zhiguli Senior Member Canada Joined 6439 days ago 176 posts - 221 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 7 of 17 10 June 2008 at 10:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Obviously Russian is still the main language, and in urban areas it's not uncommon for the local ethnic Turkic population to speak it natively or at least better than their "own" language. If any language is poised to replace it, it's English. Turkish might seem like a natural choice because of its genetic relationship but I don't see it replacing either of these languages anytime soon. From conversations with Uzbeks and Kazakhs I get the impression that other "world" languages like German/French or Korean/Chinese are seen as more useful for business than Turkish. In fact in some places Turkish companies have gotten a bad reputation:
http://roberts-report.blogspot.com/2006/10/tengiz-riots-what -is-at-heart-of.html Besides that, some groups seem to share a mutual dislike for each other. Not long ago I had a conversation with an Uzbek girl about Kazakhs (as it happens, in Russian), I innocently said that I might want to learn Kazakh, and her response was something to the effect of - why would you want to do that? Kazakhs are dirty, ill-mannered, dishonest, etc etc. I've heard other stories about foreigners trying to use, say, Kyrgyz, when speaking to Uzbeks and getting dirty looks in return. Purely anecdotal, but something to be aware of. As for matters of mutual intelligibility, it really depends. It's largely a myth that Turkic languages are mutually intelligible - this only applies within a given subgroup. Turkish/Azeri/Turkmen share about 80-90% common vocabulary, when comparing the Oguz family to Kipchak languages like Kazakh and Kyrgyz the proportion is much lower, somewhere around 50-60%. Still a good discount, but not enough to make things significantly easier. Incidentally, a lot of this common vocabulary has its source in Persian/Arabic. Turkish made an effort to purge itself of such loans, with the result that it shares less vocabulary with, say, Azeri or Uzbek, where it seems like almost every other word is a Persian/Arabic loan. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6766 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 8 of 17 10 June 2008 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Yeah, I was simply including Afghanistan and Pakistan, which I'm pretty sure count as Central Asia. But, as you say, the language is clearly less useful if you're mainly interested in only the CIS states. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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