Turkmen

Turkmen is the national language of Turkmenistan, spoken by about 5 million people in the country and another 2 million people in Afghanistan, Iran, and Russia. It is closely related to Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Uzbek, and is written in a modified Latin alphabet. Turkmen has been the official language of Turkmenistan since 1991, when the country gained independence from the Soviet Union. It is one of the few Turkic languages that is not written in Cyrillic. The Turkmen language is very rich in vowel sounds, with as many as 12 different vowel sounds. The consonants are also very distinct, with a strong emphasis on "h" and "j" sounds. The grammar of Turkmen is relatively simple, with only three tenses (present, past, and future) and two aspects (perfective and imperfective). The word order is typically Subject-Object-Verb. There are a number of dialects of Turkmen, which can be divided into two main groups: Northern and Southern. The Northern dialect is spoken in the capital, Ashgabat, and the Southern dialect is spoken in the rest of the country. Turkmen is a very expressive language, and is often used in poetry and literature. It is also the language of choice for many Turkmen musicians.