Turkish/Turkic Languages, Online Teaching, and Opportunities
During and After the Pandemic:
What Did Pandemic Teach Us?

By Prof. Timur Kocaoğlu, Michigan State University – Panelist

The theme of the 2022 International Mother Language Day (February 21) is by UNESCO, “Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities”, encourages to explore the potential role of technology to advance multilingual education and support the development of quality teaching and learning for all.
The above provided 2022 theme of the IMLD modified into, “Learning Turkish and Turkic Languages on Digital Environment in the United States: Challenges and Opportunities.” 
The session presented an academic panel discussion on February 20, 2022, which explored on the UNESCO’s laid out theme on the following two points:
• Enhancing the role of teachers in the promotion of quality multilingual teaching and learning in correlation with teaching Turkish and Turkic Languages in the United States
• Reflecting on technologies and its potential to support multilingual teaching and learning along with presented challenges.

I would like to greet everyone in several languages:

Welcome!, Hoş geldiniz!, Hoş geldiniz!, Xoş gəldiniz!,

Xoş geldiñiz!, Xuş kélibsiz!, Xuş képsiz!, Qoş kéldiñiz!,

Qoş kéldiñiz!, Xuş kildegez!, Rәхiм itеgеz!, Acırbas!,

Bazlıx sizge!, Üörbüt kél!, Kiлĕрех!

I have greeted you in 15 languages and all these 14 languages out of English belong to the different Turkic literary languages. Actually there are 21 Turkic literary languages and about 20 Turkic spoken languages (without having a literary Language). It is not finished, because each of these 41 Turkic languages also have their own dialects. We don’t know exact numbers of the total dialects of these all 41 languages together, but I think there would be more than 4 thousand dialects of all those 21 literary and about 20 spoken Turkic languages. Because of this, we don’t have a total database or a comparative dictionary of all Turkic languages, an important task and project which awaits its compilers in the future. Because a complex computer software needs to handle ca. 10 to 15 million words (with both similar and different meanings).

We can classify the Turkic literary and spoken languages several ways. First by the number of speakers for each Turkic literary language. The following chart has two collumns: First column for Turkic literary languages having speakers more one million and the second for the Turkic literary languages having speakers less than a million:

The following chart lists eight of the Turkic spoken languages and their countries:

Another classification would be the list of the Turkic literary languages according to which historical branch of the Turkic language tree they belong:

These 21 Turkic literary languages are divided into six groups based on their phonetical and grammatical differences with each other:

1. KARLUK GROUP: Uzbek, Uyghur [total: 50 to 55 millions]
2. OGUZ GROUP: Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Gagauz [total: 125 millions]
3. KIPCHAK GROUP: Tatar, Bashkir, Crimean Tatar, Nogay, Kazakh, Kara-Kalpak, Kyrgyz, Kumuk, Karachay-Balkar, Karay [total: 30 to 35 millions millions]
4. SIBERIAN GROUP: Tuvin, Khakass, Altay [total: 300,000]
5. YAKUT GROUP: Yakut [total: 600,000]
6. BULGHAR GROUP: Chuvash [total: 1,5 millions]

The following map shows the location of the speakers of various Turkic languages in the vast Central Eurasia more than 22 million square kms (8,495,000 square miles):

The Turkic languages are spoken by ca. 230 million people, mostly in Asia (Central Asia, northern Afghanistan, the Xinjiang province in northwestern China, Russia’s Asian parts including Siberia), the Middle East (Iran, northern Iraq, Saudi Arabia), Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Russia’s caucasus regions), and Europe (northeastern Greece, Macedonia, Kosova, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Rumenia, Russia’s European parts: Tataristan, Bashkiria, Chuvash republic, and Lithuania).

There are 7 independent countries which have a Turkic language as their official language: Turkey (Turkish), Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani), Kazakistan (Kazakh), Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz), Turkmenistan (Turkmen), Uzbekistan (Uzbek), and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Turkish). There are also 7 Turkic autonomous republics within the Russian Federation: Tataristan (Tatar), Bashkiria (Bashkir), Chuvashia (Chuvash), Altay (Altay), Khakass (Khakass), Tuva (Tuvin), Yakutia (Yakut).

The Turkic langage family belongs to the Ural-Altay language family as follows:

Ural-Altaic Languages (Total 68 languages)

1. Uralic Languages and 2) Altaic Languages

1. Uralic Languages

Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Cheremish, Samoyed, Hanti-Mansi, and many more

• Altaic Languages

Turkic, Mongolian, Tunguz, Manchu, Korean, Japanese, and many more

The Ural-Altaic language family has about 68 languages which were spoken by a total number of more than ca. 500,000 speakers

Turkish also belongs to one of the three different grammatical types of languages in the world called “Agglutinative type languages”:

1. Isolating Languages:
Chinese, Tibetan Languages

2. Inflected Languages:
Indo-European, Semitic, African languages

3. Agglutinative Languages:
Turkic, Mongolian, Korean, Japanese, Hungarian, Finnish, Dravidian, Bask, Native American Languages

Turkish is an agglutinative type language according to its grammatical structure. Belonging to the Agglutinative type languages, a single Turkish word exactly look like a train with its train engine at the front and all other compartments (suffxes) attached to the end of the train engine.

Turkish Puzzle Train

A Turkish word can be longer with 13 suffixes attached at the end of a word which can be a noun or a verb. By adding a single suffix, a noun can be changed into a verb (also a verb into a noun) in Turkish. One of the best example of this can be as follows:

Turkish:           Amerikalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmısınız?

English:           Are you one of those who we were unable to Americanize?

Amerika-lı-laş-tır-a-ma-dık-lar-ı-mız-dan-mı-sın-ız?

(The word “Amerika” plus 13 Turkish suffixes)

The following example shows how these suffixes make changes in the meaning of a word step by step as follows:

Amerika                                                          : America

Amerika-lı                                                      : American

Amerika-lılaş                                                 : Becoming American (Americanizing)

Amerika-lılaştır                                             : to make one American (to Americanize)

Amerika-lılaştırama                                      : unable to make American

Amerika-lılaştıramadık                                : one who we were unable to make American

Amerika-lılaştıramadıklar                           : those who we were unable to make American

Amerika-lılaştıramadıklarımız                    : one of those who we were unable to make American

Amerika-lılaştıramadıklarımızdan         : from one of those who we were unable to make American

Amerika-lılaştıramadıklarımızdanmı      : are from one of those who we were unable to make American

Amerikalı-laştıramadıklarımızdanmısın   : Were you (singular) from one of those who we were unable to make American (Americanize)

Amerikalı-laştıramadıklarımızdanmısınız   : Were you (plural) from one of those who we were unable to make American (Americanize)

Turkish and all other Turkic languages have the same structure, but some of the suffixes differ from Turkic language to another one: The following example compares two of the Turkic languages to show which of the suffixes are same and which ones are different from each other

(Differences are highlighted as bold letters):

Turkish               : Amerika-lı-laş-tır-a-ma-dık-lar-ı-mız-dan-mı-sın-ız?

Uzbek                  : Amerika-lı-laş-tır-al-ma-gan-lar-ı-mız-dan-mı-sız?

Many large emigree groups of both Turks of Turkey and other Turkic peoples from Caucasus and Central Asia live in many countries in Europe and Canada, US, Latin, and South American continent. I don’t know the exact number of Turks of Turkey and other Turkic peoples in the United States. In the last thirty years after the demise of the Soviet Union, many different Turkic peoples have come and settled in the US.

Teaching Turkish/Turkic Languages in the US

The best source for the locations of the academic teaching of Turkish/Turkic languages in various US universities is the website of AATT (The Amerıcan Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages): https://www.aatturkic.org/aatt

• This information is dated as of 2018!   –

TURKISH IN 45 UNIVERSITIES
Amherst College. Amherst, MA [Five Colleges Consortium]
Boston University, Boston, MA
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
Brown University, Providence, RI
Columbia University, New York, NY
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Duke University, Durham, NC
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
George Washington University, Washington DC
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Hampshire College, Amherst, MA [Five Colleges Consortium]
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN – Turkish Flagship Program
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Mount Holyoke, South Hadley, MA [Five Colleges Consortium]
New York University, New York, NY
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Portland State University, Portland, OR
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Smith College, Amherst, MA [Five Colleges Consortium]
Stanford University, Stanford, CA
State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY
Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA [Five Colleges Consortium]
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
University of Texas, Austin, TX
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Yale University, New Haven, CT

AZERBAIJANI IN 4 UNIVERSITIES
*Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
*University of Texas, Austin, TX
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

KAZAKH IN 7 UNIVERSITIES
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
*Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
*University of California, Berkeley, CA
*University of Iowa, Ames, IA
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
*University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

KIRGIZ IN 1 UNIVERSITY
*University of Washington, Seattle, WA

TATAR IN 2 UNIVERSITIES
*Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
*University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

UZBEK  IN 10 UNIVERSITIES
Arizona State University
Columbia University, New York, NY
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
*University of Iowa, Ames, IA
*University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

UYGHUR IN 1 UNIVERSITY
University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

«Online Courses» as Distance Learning vs. Face to Face Courses During Pandemic Covid19 Since March 11, 2020: My personal experience at Michigan State University

Despite the sudden move to Online Courses my students in both Turkish and Uzbek courses had no major problems or complaints. The same applies to my International relations course with 25 students too. After two weeks, my students seemed to be more enthusiastic in the usage of various online resources that we had not much used before during the face to face classroom courses. Their success levels didn’t drop in the online classes compared to the face-to-face classes

Other professors and instructors have also acknowledged these points for their own classes.

My personal journey of languages: Mother Tongue & others

1947: Born in Istanbul of a Central Asian Turkic family of Uzbek origin, father born in Bukhara (Central Asia/ Uzbekistan), arrived Istanbul in early 1923. Mother born in Kabil, Afghanistan, her parents from (Central Asia). Both parents were multilingual in Uzbek, Turkish, and Persian

1947-1951: Istanbul learned Turkish and Uzbek at home

1951-1957: Went to Peshawar, Pakistan with parents, spend summers in Kabil, Afghanistan

Elementary 1-3^rd classes at a British school: Convent High School

Studied both Urdu and English at school, spoke Persian, Turkish, and Uzbek at home.

1957-1971: Back to Istanbul, Turkey (elementary 4-5^th classes, Middle School, High School, and Istanbul University, Tturkish Language and Literature

1972-2022: USA, Germany, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, USA Studied and used: Turkish, Uzbek, Uyghur, Kazakh, Tatar, and other Turkic languages, Russian, Persian, German

_ . _

            Broşür/Booklet:

            https://lightmillennium.org/events/2022/imld-turkish-turkic-languages-booklet-v7-final.pdf
           
www.lmglobal.org | www.lightmillennium.org | www.ataa.org