The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are traditionally considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.

Characteristics
See also: Proto-Turkic language and Turkic peoples

History
The first established records of the Turkic languages are the 8th century Orkhon inscriptions by the Göktürks, recording the Old Turkic language, which were discovered in 1889 in the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia. The Compendium of the Turkic Dialects (Ottoman Turkish: Divânü Lügati't-Türk), written during the 11th century by Kaşgarlı Mahmud of the Kara-Khanid Khanate, constitutes an early linguistic treatment of the family. The Compendium is the first comprehensive dictionary of the Turkic languages and also includes the first known map of the Turkic speakers' geographical distribution. It mainly pertains to the Southwestern branch of the family.
The Codex Cumanicus (12th - 13th centuries) concerning the Northwestern branch is another early linguistic manual, between Kipchak language and Latin, used by the Catholic missionaries sent to the Western Cumans inhabiting a region corresponding to present-day Hungary and Romania. The earliest records of the language spoken by Volga Bulgars, the parent to today's Chuvash language, are dated to 13th - 14th centuries.

Early written records
With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages (c. 6th - 11th centuries), Turkic languages, in the course of just a few centuries, spread across Central Asia, stretching from Siberia (the Sakha Republic) to the Mediterranean (Seljuk Turks). Various elements from the Turkic languages have passed into Hungarian, Persian, Urdu, Russian, Chinese and to a lesser extent, Arabic.

Geographical expansion and development
For centuries, the Turkic speaking peoples have migrated extensively and intermingled continuously, and their languages have been influenced mutually and through contact with the surrounding languages, especially the Iranian, Slavic, and Mongolic languages.
Geographically and linguistically, the languages of Southwestern, Northwestern, and Southeastern subgroup belong to the central Turkic languages, while the Northeastern and Khalaj languages are the so-called peripheral languages.

Southwestern (Oghuz)
Northwestern (Kypchak)
Southeastern (Uyghur)
Northeastern (Siberian Turkic)
Chuvash (Oghur, Bulghar/Bolgar)
Khalaj (Arghu) Classification
¹Crimean Tatar and Urum are historically Kypchak languages, but have been so heavily influenced by Oghuz languages that it is difficult to classify them definitively as either Oghuz or Kypchak.
²Aini is a mixed language with Uyghur grammar and Persian vocabulary, and is spoken exclusively by adult men, almost as a cryptolect.
³Khalaj is surrounded by Oghuz languages, but exhibits a number of features that classify it as non-Oghuz.

Proto-Turkic

• Southwestern (Oghuz)
  
  
  
  • Pecheneg (extinct)
    Western
    
    
    
    • Turkish
      Azerbaijani
      Gagauz
      Ottoman Turkish (extinct)
      Eastern
      
      
      
      • Turkmen
        Khorasani Turkish
        Southern
        
        
        
        • Afshar
          Qashqai
          Salar
          Crimean Tatar¹
          Urum¹
          Northwestern (Kypchak)
          
          
          
          • Kipchak (extinct)
            Western
            
            
            
            • Karachay-Balkar
              Kumyk
              Karaim
              Kypchak-Cuman (Kypchak-Oghuz, Ponto-Caspian) languages
              
              
              
              • Cuman (extinct)
                Krymchak
                Northern
                
                
                
                • Kypchak-Bolgar languages
                  
                  
                  
                  • Tatar
                    Bashkir
                    Baraba
                    Southern (Aralo-Kaspian)
                    
                    
                    
                    • Kypchak-Nogay languages
                      
                      
                      
                      • Kazakh
                        Karakalpak
                        Nogay
                        Kyrgyz-Kypchak group
                        
                        
                        
                        • Kyrgyz
                          Altay
                          Crimean Tatar¹
                          Urum¹
                          Southeastern (Uyghur, Chagatay, Karluk)
                          
                          
                          
                          • Old Turkic (extinct)
                            Chagatay (extinct)
                            Western
                            
                            
                            
                            • Uzbek
                              Eastern
                              
                              
                              
                              • Uyghur
                                
                                
                                
                                • Aini²
                                  Lop
                                  Ili Turki
                                  Northeastern (Siberian Turkic)
                                  
                                  
                                  
                                  • Northern
                                    
                                    
                                    
                                    • Sakha / Yakut
                                      Dolgan
                                      Southern
                                      
                                      
                                      
                                      • Tuvan
                                        Khakas
                                        Shor
                                        Fuyü Gïrgïs
                                        Chulym
                                        Tofa
                                        Western Yugur (Yellow Uyghur)
                                        Bolgar
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                        • Khazar (extinct)
                                          Bolgar (extinct)
                                          Hunnic (extinct)
                                          Chuvash
                                          Khalaj³ Further reading
                                          
                                          Altaic languages
                                          Proto-Turkic language
                                          Old Turkic
                                          Middle Turkic
                                          Orkhon script