The Karluk or Qarluq languages are a sub-branch of the Turkic languages that developed from the varieties spoken by Karluks.
Many Middle Turkic works were written in these languages. The language of the Kara-Khanid Khanate was known as Turki, Ferghani, Kashgari or Khaqani. The language of the Chagatai Khanate was the Chagatai language.
Karluk Turkic was once spoken in the Kara-Khanid Khanate, Chagatai Khanate, Timurid Empire, Mughal Empire, Yarkent Khanate and the Uzbek-speaking Khanate of Bukhara, Emirate of Bukhara, Kokand Khanate, Khiva Khanate, Maimana Khanate.
Classification
Languages
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Uzbek language – spoken by the Uzbeks; approximately 44 million speakers
[Uzbek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
]
Northern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Southern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
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Uyghur language – spoken by the Uyghurs; approximately 8–11 million speakers
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Ili Turki – moribund language spoken by Ili Turks, who are legally recognized as a subgroup of Uzbeks; 120 speakers and decreasing (1980)
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Chagatai – extinct language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia and remained the shared literary language there until the early 20th century.
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Karakhanid – literary language of the Kara-Khanid Khanate that is considered a standard form of Middle Turkic.
[Glottlog 5.0 places this with Old Turkic.]
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Khorezmian Turkic – literary language of the Golden Horde that is considered a preliminary stage of the Chagatai language.
| Proto-Turkic | Common Turkic | Karluk | Western | |
| Eastern | |
| Old |
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Chagatai
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Khorezmian Turkic
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Karakhanid
|
Glottolog v.5.0 refers to the Karluk languages as "Turkistan Turkic" and classifies them as follows:
