1.

Very, very few people in America have learned or speak Turkmen. The growing importance of Central Asia has created a real shortage of experts in Turkmen politics, economics, and society. Those who study Turkmen can find careers in a variety of fields including translation and interpreting, academia, consulting, foreign service and intelligence, journalism, and many others. 2. Turkmen is spoken not just in Turkmenistan, but also in Afghanistan and even more widely in Iran, where the Turkmen are an important ethnic minority. Turkmen can also be a gateway language to accessing the Turkic languages spoken by millions of people in the former Soviet Union, China, and the Caucasus, including Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Turkish, Kazakh, Tatar, and Uyghur. These regions are of vital strategic importance in the world today! 3. Turkmenistan is one of the largest countries in Central Asia and possesses the worlds fourth largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil resources. The United States is considered to be Turkmenistans most prominent trade partner. Pipelines from Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and Turkey are considered major strategic highways. As business partnerships with Turkmenistan and the USA grow, this creates a demand for educated Americans who are fluent in Turkmen. 4. Turkmenistan is a region of numerous archeological sites of great interest. The Turkmen cities of Nisa, Anau, and Merv have been declared as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO and were once part of the ancient Bronze Age Bactria-Margian Archeological Complex and later the Scythian, Greek, Persian, and Arab empires.

TOP FIVE REASONS WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW TURKMEN

5. Learning Turkmen is fun! The grammar of Turkmen is consistent and the spelling is phonetic. Yes, learning Turkmen can be challenging, but dont forget the points you wont have to worry about: noun gender, adjectives agreement, or irregular verbs. Best of all, by learning Turkmen you will get to know the Turkmen people, immerse yourself in their rich cultural heritage, and experience their way of life and the values they share.

WHERE IN THE U.S.A CAN YOU LEARN TURKMEN?

The Summer Workshop in Slavic, East European and Central Asian Languages (SWSEEL) at Indiana University offers intensive courses of Turkmen. For more information, visit their website at http://www.indiana.edu/~swseel or contact them via email at swseel@indiana.edu.

Uzbeks are the most numerous Turkic people in Central Asia. They predominantly mostly live in Uzbekistan, a landlocked country of Central Asia that shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south. Many Uzbeks can also be found in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.

TURKMEN WHO SPEAKS UZBEK?

WHERE CAN YOU OBTAIN RESOURCES FOR LEARNING TURKMEN?

The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for learning and teaching Central Asian languages. For more information, visit our website at http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar. The Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center (IAUNRC) at Indiana University has a wide variety of Turkmen books, videos, CDs, DVDs, costumes, and artifacts. The center lends and ships these materials for use in the classroom free of charge. For more information, visit their website or http://www.indiana.edu/~iaunrc or contact them via email at iaunrc@indiana.edu.
718 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 Phone: (812) 856-1230 Fax: (812) 856-1206 E-mail : celcar@indiana.edu Web site: http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar

Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR)

WHO ARE THE TURKMEN?

Turkmen are the Turkic people who mostly live in Turkmenistan, a resource-rich country in southwestern Central Asia situated between Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea. Turkmen minorities are also found in Iran, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan.

Turkmen is mostly based on the Teke and Yomut dialects.

WHAT ALPHABET DO THE TURKMEN USE?

Similar to other Central Asian Turkic languages, Turkmen has been written in a number of alphabets. Old Turkic, a predecessor of all Turkic languages including Turkmen, was recorded in runic script. After their conversion to Islam, the Turkmen people used the Arabic script in their writing. Under Soviet rule, Turkmen first adopted the Latin script. Later, in 1940, the Latin script was abolished and Turkmen switched to Cyrillic, as did almost all other peoples in the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Latin script was reintroduced. Today Turkmen people who live in Turkmenistan and in other post-Soviet states use a modified Latin script, while those who live in Iran and Afghanistan use the Arabic script.

WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS TURKMEN?

Turkmen belongs to the Turkic group of languages, which includes languages such as Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkish, Uyghur, and Tatar. Turkic languages have been spoken for many centuries across vast territory from the Balkans to China. Turkmen belongs to the East Oghuz sub-branch of the Turkic languages, and can be mutually intelligible with Azerbaijani and Turkish. In other ways, however, it is similar to Uzbek. Like all of the classic Turkic languages, it has vowel harmony and agglutinative grammar. Vowel harmony means that the vowels of the suffixes change to fit the vowels in the stem, and that vowels in the stems all fall into certain classes. Agglutinative grammar means that each distinctive suffix indicates only one meaning and that these suffixes can be freely attached to the word stem one after another in a set order. Turkmen vocabulary has been influenced by Arabic, Persian, and Russian. However, after the collapse of the Soviet-Union, many Russian loanwords in Turkmen were replaced with the original Turkmen ones. Major dialects include Yomut, Teke, Salir, Sarik, Goklen, Arsari, and Chowdur. Modern written

WHAT IS TURKMEN CULTURE LIKE?

Traditionally, Turkmen are nomadic people who for centuries were known for their horsemanship. The Turkmen horse, AkhalTeke, was bred for war and raiding and is considered to be one the oldest surviving horse breeds. Amazingly resilient and tough, they became part of Turkic oral epics, legends and myths. It is said that the Chinese called them Heavenly Horses and waged wars just to acquire a few of them. Owning such a horse was a dream of every noble Greek and Roman. Today, the Akhal-Teke breed is Turkmenistans national emblem and source of cultural pride for the Turkmen people.

As were other nomadic cultures of Central Asia, Turkmen culture was violently transformed by Soviet collectivization policies and the accompanying laws that limited the freedom of movement and restricted nomadism. However, the Turkmen still retained much of their distinctive culture. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many aspects of traditional culture have been revived. One important art form of the Turkmen is carpet-weaving. World-famous Turkmen rugs and carpets are known in the West as Bukhara rugs. Turkmen carpets are usually made of sheep or camel wool and are hand-woven. They stand out for their rich colors, original patterns, high quality and durability. Traditionally, Turkmen people are a family and community oriented society. Each individual is usually identified with reference to his or her family and lineage. Similar to other Central Asian societies, many Turkmen live in extended families, and it is not surprising to see two or three generations living under the same roof. Within families, age is the most important determinant of a persons status. The elderly are highly respected and it is customary to consult with them before making important decisions.