As Turkic Languages Converge, Ever More Speakers of Each are Using Others as Well and Becoming ‘Turkic Cosmopolitans’ -- or ‘Turkpolits’ for Short, Lamazhaa Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 22 – As the Turkic languages converge, Chimiza Lamazhaa, a Tuvan scholar at the Almaty Institute of Turcology and Altaistics says, ever more speakers of each are using the others as well and becoming what should be called “Turkic cosmopolitans’ – or Turkpolits for short. 

            The Turcologist pointed out at a meeting in Kazan of the Fifth International Seminar on Tatar Studies at a Time of Changing Paradigms that many have noted the convergence of Turkic languages but don’t have a term for those who take advantage of this new reality                                                                  (milliard.tatar/news/kak-voznikaet-vyrazenie-russkaya-literatura-tatar-russkaya-literatura-cuvas-i-drugie-8289).

            Her own life experience had prompted her to make this suggestion. “I myself am an ethnic Tuvin who grew up in Turkic-language Tyva,” Lamazhaa said. “Now I work with Kazakh colleagues in Kazakhstan and also with Turcologist colleagues in Kabardino-Balkaria, not to mention constantly growing ties with colleagues from other Turkic language regions.”

            To the extent her proposed word catches on, that will likely spark more interest in the phenomenon both academically and practically, something that some governments as in Central Asia will undoubtedly welcome and that others like that of the Russian Federation will be quite troubled.