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Turkmenistan
The Written Language
Beginning in the eighteenth century, Turkmen poets and chroniclers
used the classical Chaghatai language, which was written in Arabic
script and reflected only occasional Turkmen linguistic features.
Famous poets who wrote in this language include Mammetveli Kemine
(1770-1840), Mollanepes (1810-62), and the most honored literary
figure, Magtymguly (1733?-90?), whose legacy helped mold Turkmen
national consciousness. In the years 1913-17, periodicals were
published in Chaghatai. Two reforms of this script undertaken
in 1922 and 1925 were designed to reflect features of the spoken
Turkmen language. From 1928 to 1940, early Soviet Turkmen literature
was written in a Latin alphabet that accurately reflected most
of its features. Since 1940, standard Turkmen has been written
in the Cyrillic script.
In the mid-1990s, language policy in independent Turkmenistan
has been marked by a determination to establish Turkmen as the
official language and to remove the heritage of the Russian-dominated
past. The 1992 constitution proclaims Turkmen the "official language
of inter-ethnic communication." In 1993 English was moved ahead
of Russian as the "second state language," although in practical
terms Russian remains a key language in government and other spheres.
That same year, President Niyazov issued a decree on the replacement
of the Cyrillic-based alphabet with a Latin-based script that
would become the "state script" by 1996. Some publications and
signs already appear in this Latin script, but its full implementation
will not occur until after the year 2000. The new alphabet has
several unique letters that distinguish it from those of Turkey's
Latin alphabet and the newly adopted Latin scripts of other republics
whose dominant language is Turkic.
Other steps were taken to erase the Russian linguistic overlay
in the republic. A resolution was adopted in May 1992 to change
geographic names and administrative terms from Russian to Turkmen.
As a result, the names of many streets, institutions, collective
farms, and buildings have been renamed for Turkmen heroes and
cultural phenomena, and the terminology for all governmental positions
and jurisdictions has been changed from Russian to Turkmen.
Data as of March 1996
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