Between Vernacular Speech and Classical Literary Tradition: The Layered Formation of Written Afghan Turkmen

Abstract

Afghan Turkmen is part of the story of the Turkmen language and its literature. Afghan Turkmen is similar to the Turkmen spoken in Turkmenistan. Its written works developed in a place where many different languages mixed. Afghan Turkmen writers used Turkmen dialects, Persian, Uzbek, and old Asian styles of writing. Experts have looked into these features by speaking with people who speak the language, by looking at the grammar, and by reading books that were published. These studies often focus on the features of Afghan Turkmen on their own. Do not put them all together. This article brings all those features together using a way of looking at them. It says that written Afghan Turkmen can be understood by looking at four parts that overlap: the local dialect part, the part that is like Standard Turkmen, the part that comes from Chagatai and Uzbek writing, and the part that uses words and styles from Arabic and Persian. This article is a summary based on existing writings, not a study done in the field. It mainly uses Muhammad Salih Rasekh’s study of Afghan Turkmen dialects and the work of Rıdvan Öztürk and Savaş Şahin on written texts, grammar, dialects, and how the language is used in writing. The analysis shows that some forms that are seen as not standard compared to Standard Turkmen can still be organized and have a history within the way Afghan Turkmen is written. So written differences are better seen as a result of languages mixing, old ways of writing different dialects, the education people have, and the way the written language is still changing.