Central Asia

Dari

The Persian variety spoken in Afghanistan, sharing deep roots with Farsi while carrying its own vocabulary and pronunciation.

Tajik

The Persian variety spoken in Tajikistan, written in Cyrillic script with unique vocabulary influenced by Central Asia.

Hazaragi

A distinctive Persian dialect of the Hazara people, with its own verb forms, vocabulary, and cultural identity rooted in central Afghanistan.

Kabuli

also: Kabuli Persian, Kabuli Dari, Kābolī

The Dari variety of Kabul and the prestige basis of standard Afghan Persian as used in broadcast, government, and education. Sociolinguistically dominant across most of eastern and central Afghanistan, with several million speakers.

Herati

also: Herati Persian, Herati Dari, Herātī

The Dari of Herat and the Hari Rud valley in western Afghanistan. Transitional between Kabuli Dari and the Khorasani Persian of north-eastern Iran, with strong Iranian features in vocalism and lexicon. Around two million speakers.

Southern Pashto

also: Kandahari Pashto

The Pashto of southern Afghanistan around Kandahar. Considered the most conservative Pashto variety, retaining retroflex consonants lost in the northern dialects.

Wakhi

also: Wakhi Pamir

A Pamir Iranian language spoken across the Wakhan Corridor where Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and China meet. One of the most archaic Iranian languages, retaining features of Old Iranian lost everywhere else.

Shughni

also: Shughni-Rushani

The largest Pamir Iranian language, spoken across Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan and the Afghan Pamir. Forms a dialect cluster with Rushani, Bartangi, and Roshorvi.

Yaghnobi

also: Yagnobi

An eastern Iranian language of the Yaghnob valley in Tajikistan. The only living descendant of Sogdian, the lingua franca of the medieval Silk Road; critically endangered.

Pashayi

also: Pashai

A cluster of Indo-Aryan languages spoken in eastern Afghanistan, especially Kapisa, Laghman, and Nangarhar. Linguistically a Dardic language, sister to Kashmiri rather than to Hindi.

Siberian Russian

also: Sibirskie govory

The Russian varieties of Western and Central Siberia, descended from northern-Russian settlers. Distinguished by retained okanye, a conservative lexicon, and contact features from indigenous Siberian languages.

Kazakhstani Russian

The Russian of Kazakhstan, used by ethnic Russians and as a second language by many Kazakhs. Based on standard Russian but with regional vocabulary, code-switching, and Kazakh contact features.

Koryo-mar

also: Koryo-mal, Koryo-saram Korean

The Korean variety of the Koryo-saram, descended from communities deported from the Soviet Far East in 1937 to Central Asia. A Hamgyŏng-derived dialect heavily influenced by Russian, now critically endangered.

Dungan

also: Hui Chinese (Central Asia)

A Sinitic language descended from late-19th-century Hui Muslim refugees who fled into the Russian Empire after the Qing-era Hui revolts. Written in Cyrillic, with substantial Russian, Persian, and Turkic loans.

Turkmen

also: Türkmençe

An Oghuz Turkic language spoken across Turkmenistan and adjacent communities in Iran and Afghanistan. The southernmost Central Asian Turkic language.

Uzbek

also: Oʻzbekcha

A Karluk Turkic language and the most-spoken Turkic language after Turkish. The official language of Uzbekistan, with substantial communities across Central Asia, Afghanistan, and the Caucasus.

Kazakh

also: Qazaqşa, Southern Kazakh

A Kipchak Turkic language and the official language of Kazakhstan. The Almaty-area variety, traditionally the southern standard. Currently transitioning from Cyrillic to a Latin-based alphabet.

Northern Kazakh

also: Astana Kazakh

The Kazakh of northern Kazakhstan around Astana and Pavlodar. Closer to Tatar in several lexical and phonological features, with stronger Russian-contact influence.

Western Kazakh

also: Atyrau Kazakh

The Kazakh of western Kazakhstan around Atyrau and Aktobe. The dialect group with the most extensive contact features from Tatar and Bashkir; transitional toward the Volga Kipchak varieties.

Eastern Kazakh

also: Semey Kazakh

The Kazakh of eastern Kazakhstan around Öskemen and Semey, near the Altai border. Carries contact features from Mongolic Oirat and Russian.

Kyrgyz

also: Kyrgyzcha

A Kipchak Turkic language and the official language of Kyrgyzstan. Carries the Manas oral epic, one of the longest oral epic traditions in world literature.

Karakalpak

also: Qaraqalpaqsha

A Kipchak Turkic language closely related to Kazakh, spoken in the autonomous Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan around the Aral Sea.

Uyghur

also: Uyghurche

A Karluk Turkic language of Xinjiang in north-western China. Closely related to Uzbek; written in a Perso-Arabic-based script and the medium of a long literary tradition along the Silk Road.

Tuvan

also: Tyva dyl

A Siberian Turkic language of the Tuva Republic in southern Siberia. Famous outside Russia for the throat-singing tradition of khoomei, deeply tied to the language's pitch and consonant system.

Standard Tibetan

also: Lhasa Tibetan, Bhö-skad

The Lhasa-based standard of Tibetan, used across the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, parts of Sichuan, Qinghai, and the Tibetan diaspora. Tibetan Buddhism's primary liturgical language for centuries.