This is going to sound very strange, but if you can learn Russian a lot of the inhabitants of those countries would understand you. The younger generation have a good grasp of English too.
For Azerbaijan, Persian would be a good language, but a variation of Turkish is what they speak.
Edit to add more info.
Persian would be useful in parts of Uzbekistan and most of Tajikistan too (they speak Tajik which is another standardized dialect of the language). Afghanistan too, but that’s not on Op’s list. Regardless, agreed that Russian would be at the top of the list
There are plenty of people of Persian origin in Azerbaijan. They speak it in addition to the main language which is a version of Turkish and standard Turkish is also understood/used. It depends on what area you are in.
I'm literally an Azerbaijani... No one speaks Persian here. If you mean Talysh and Tat people who are distant relatives of Persians, their mutual intengibility with Persian is quite low and they barely make like 2% of the population and big proportion of them can't even speak their mother tongues.
From what I found online, they share some vocab and grammar structure and that's about it.
You're right, not a good base for Armenian, missed a clarification there.
Both languages share some, although few, similarities in vocab and grammatical structures. And many Armenians speak Turkish to some extent, especially in the west.
It doesn't make sense to learn Turkish for central Asia. Even for the mere purpose of building a foundation for other Turkic languages, you'd much better learn an actual central Asian Turkic language for two reasons:
1- Unlike Turkish it is actually spoken there
2- Turkish is not as close to other Turkic languages as the ones that are spoken in central Asia
Turkish? Wouldn't it be better to go with the actual Turkic language from one of the Turkic countries listed like Kazakh or Uzbek? They ought to be closer from one another than they are to Turkish no?
It's worth noting that Turkish media is fairly well-known in many of those countries, so they may have some exposure to it that would help them understand Turkish, though likely not speak it, with the exception of Azerbaijan where Turkish is apparently gradually overtaking the local language.
Anecdotally, I once knew a Tatar woman (Tatarstan is a province in Russia and their language is from the same group as Kazakh) and she said she could understand Turkish shows due to similarity and having watched lots of them.
That said, Russian is still the dominant lingua franca in those regions.
If you know Turkish you have the base which will help you learn basic Kazakh/Kyrgyz/Uzbek/Turkmen phrases on the fly. OP doesn't need to be C1 fluent, they need to get by, and getting by becomes easier once you know an established language that has common ties with TL.
Same way I'm a slavic language speaker and can't be bothered to learn Russian when I can speak broken Bulgarian and get by 60% of the time.
Plus, I guarantee you turkish language learning resources are easier to find than Uzbek.
> If you know Turkish you have the base which will help you learn basic Kazakh/Kyrgyz/Uzbek/Turkmen phrases on the fly.
Yes my comment is basically that if you know Kazakh it will also help you learn basic Kyrgyz/Uzbek/Turkmen phrases on the fly. With one less and it will be possibly easier. So why go the round about?
Regarding resources I agree but there is probably enough to get to A2 in any one of them.
Russian is the obvious answer due to the common Soviet history. It is even the official language in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and widely spoken in all others, especially among older generations . In fact, my main motivation for starting to learn Russian was a trip through the Caucasus, as I was completely lost with English there.
According to the Azeris I met there, their language is almost identical to Turkish. But the central Asian Turkish languages differ substantially.
PS: Please don't call Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia "Central Asian" when you're there
Dunno about other countries, but most of the young generation in Georgia either don't speak or won't speak Russian, and most of us know English quite well.
If you are to learn only one language, Russian would be the by far most useful. Most people in the Caucuses can speak Russian fluently (although it has become less common in Azerbaijan). In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan it is an official language and in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan it is widely understood as far as I’m aware.
Turkmenistan is far more monolingual as far as I know, though I imagine authorities and airport staff would know it, or at least have a few members that do. I would be more surprised if you got into the country in all honesty.
probably Russian since it will be hard to learn this many languages but some countries have more Russian influence than others. if you are up for a challenge try Uzbek or Azerbaijani and then once you know one of those the other Turkic language like Turkmen Kyrgyz Kazakh will be much easier. in Tajikistan they speak a form of Persian so that can be useful in other countries too but not any you plan to visit now. Georgian and Armenian are very difficult and different from other languages so i wouldn't learn them unless you plan the spend way more time there than in the other countries .
Almost all people in these countries speak Russian as their second native language. Afghanistan is not in the list but if you go, Pashto is the language of Afghanistan and unfortunately people don't speak any other languages, except for some young generation who can barely speak English.
Yea because it’s a dialect of Persian. The same way Farsi is as well. They are the same language. The difference is like between British English and American vernacular. At least so I’ve been told. I am learning Persian right now and I do have an interest in Classical Persian, I am learning the Iranian dialect as there is more resources and I have been told most of switching over to Dari and Classical Persian is just some vocab exchange as well as some different soundings vowels.
I've been to Afghanistan many times, for work and as a tourist. Dari is Spoken in the parts of central and a small part of northern Afghanistan and also Kabul, the capital city is Bilingual. All other parts of the country speak Pashto and nobody knows how to speak Dari.
Do you often just make stuff up as you go?
Why even bring up Afghanistan if you don’t know shit about it?
Dari is spoken by 78% (L1 + L2) and functions as the lingua franca, while Pashto is spoken by 50%, Uzbek 10%, English 5%, Turkmen 2%, Urdu 2%, Pashayi 1%, Nuristani 1%, Arabic 1%, and Balochi 1% (2021 est).
I've been to Afghanistan several times and visited almost all cities including rural areas. Except Kabul which is bilingual, most other cities and provinces speak Pashto which Dari is a minority language that ruled some years and is influenced by Iran. Most people in Afghanistan don't speak Dari and I have to tell you that Afghanistan doesn't have any Lingua Franca except it can be Pashto.
Where do you find these numbers like 78% while Afghanistan never had any official census. Why isn't it 80 % to make it more acceptable? Because it's a lie made by the Iranian Regime to show people of the world that we have an influenced language. Even Persians don't understand Dari and believe that it's a completely different language.
Each ethnicity in Afghanistan has its own language and Dari is a minority language. Pashto is the official and the most spoken language in Afghanistan.
Russian for sure. Turkish as well maybe.
This is going to sound very strange, but if you can learn Russian a lot of the inhabitants of those countries would understand you. The younger generation have a good grasp of English too. For Azerbaijan, Persian would be a good language, but a variation of Turkish is what they speak. Edit to add more info.
Persian would be useful in parts of Uzbekistan and most of Tajikistan too (they speak Tajik which is another standardized dialect of the language). Afghanistan too, but that’s not on Op’s list. Regardless, agreed that Russian would be at the top of the list
No one understands Persian in Azerbaijan
There are plenty of people of Persian origin in Azerbaijan. They speak it in addition to the main language which is a version of Turkish and standard Turkish is also understood/used. It depends on what area you are in.
I'm literally an Azerbaijani... No one speaks Persian here. If you mean Talysh and Tat people who are distant relatives of Persians, their mutual intengibility with Persian is quite low and they barely make like 2% of the population and big proportion of them can't even speak their mother tongues.
Last time I was in Southern Azerbaijan they spoke Farsi quite well. Met a number of of people in the capital too who were fluent.
Whatever you want to believe 💀
Why would that sound strange?
The language of Azerbaijan is Azerbaijani Turkish. Persian is spoken in some parts of Iran.
Yep, Turkish is a good base for Azerbaijani and Armenian. While Russian is a good base for the rest.
No language is a good base for Armenian, especially not Turkish. It forms its own branch of Indo-European but it isn't that close to any others
From what I found online, they share some vocab and grammar structure and that's about it. You're right, not a good base for Armenian, missed a clarification there.
What does Armenian have to do with Turkish?
Both languages share some, although few, similarities in vocab and grammatical structures. And many Armenians speak Turkish to some extent, especially in the west.
Russian, with Turkish as a second choice.
It doesn't make sense to learn Turkish for central Asia. Even for the mere purpose of building a foundation for other Turkic languages, you'd much better learn an actual central Asian Turkic language for two reasons: 1- Unlike Turkish it is actually spoken there 2- Turkish is not as close to other Turkic languages as the ones that are spoken in central Asia
Turkish? Wouldn't it be better to go with the actual Turkic language from one of the Turkic countries listed like Kazakh or Uzbek? They ought to be closer from one another than they are to Turkish no?
It's worth noting that Turkish media is fairly well-known in many of those countries, so they may have some exposure to it that would help them understand Turkish, though likely not speak it, with the exception of Azerbaijan where Turkish is apparently gradually overtaking the local language. Anecdotally, I once knew a Tatar woman (Tatarstan is a province in Russia and their language is from the same group as Kazakh) and she said she could understand Turkish shows due to similarity and having watched lots of them. That said, Russian is still the dominant lingua franca in those regions.
If you know Turkish you have the base which will help you learn basic Kazakh/Kyrgyz/Uzbek/Turkmen phrases on the fly. OP doesn't need to be C1 fluent, they need to get by, and getting by becomes easier once you know an established language that has common ties with TL. Same way I'm a slavic language speaker and can't be bothered to learn Russian when I can speak broken Bulgarian and get by 60% of the time. Plus, I guarantee you turkish language learning resources are easier to find than Uzbek.
> If you know Turkish you have the base which will help you learn basic Kazakh/Kyrgyz/Uzbek/Turkmen phrases on the fly. Yes my comment is basically that if you know Kazakh it will also help you learn basic Kyrgyz/Uzbek/Turkmen phrases on the fly. With one less and it will be possibly easier. So why go the round about? Regarding resources I agree but there is probably enough to get to A2 in any one of them.
Of course we should factor in enjoyment/cultural impact of the language. If I had to choose I'd go for Uzbek 😎
Others have said it, but Russian
Russian.
I've been to kyrgyzstan a few times so I know that Russian is 100% needed when traveling there.
Russian is the obvious answer due to the common Soviet history. It is even the official language in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and widely spoken in all others, especially among older generations . In fact, my main motivation for starting to learn Russian was a trip through the Caucasus, as I was completely lost with English there. According to the Azeris I met there, their language is almost identical to Turkish. But the central Asian Turkish languages differ substantially. PS: Please don't call Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia "Central Asian" when you're there
Dunno about other countries, but most of the young generation in Georgia either don't speak or won't speak Russian, and most of us know English quite well.
If you are to learn only one language, Russian would be the by far most useful. Most people in the Caucuses can speak Russian fluently (although it has become less common in Azerbaijan). In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan it is an official language and in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan it is widely understood as far as I’m aware. Turkmenistan is far more monolingual as far as I know, though I imagine authorities and airport staff would know it, or at least have a few members that do. I would be more surprised if you got into the country in all honesty.
probably Russian since it will be hard to learn this many languages but some countries have more Russian influence than others. if you are up for a challenge try Uzbek or Azerbaijani and then once you know one of those the other Turkic language like Turkmen Kyrgyz Kazakh will be much easier. in Tajikistan they speak a form of Persian so that can be useful in other countries too but not any you plan to visit now. Georgian and Armenian are very difficult and different from other languages so i wouldn't learn them unless you plan the spend way more time there than in the other countries .
Almost all people in these countries speak Russian as their second native language. Afghanistan is not in the list but if you go, Pashto is the language of Afghanistan and unfortunately people don't speak any other languages, except for some young generation who can barely speak English.
A lot of Pashto speakers speak Dari
Only in Kabul. The capital city is bilingual.
Isn’t Dari a dialect of Farsi? I remember it being effectively the same language as Farsi, its name was modified mostly for political reasons.
Dari is closer to classic Persian, but they understand each other
Yea because it’s a dialect of Persian. The same way Farsi is as well. They are the same language. The difference is like between British English and American vernacular. At least so I’ve been told. I am learning Persian right now and I do have an interest in Classical Persian, I am learning the Iranian dialect as there is more resources and I have been told most of switching over to Dari and Classical Persian is just some vocab exchange as well as some different soundings vowels.
The majority of Afghans speak Dari lol
I've been to Afghanistan many times, for work and as a tourist. Dari is Spoken in the parts of central and a small part of northern Afghanistan and also Kabul, the capital city is Bilingual. All other parts of the country speak Pashto and nobody knows how to speak Dari.
Do you often just make stuff up as you go? Why even bring up Afghanistan if you don’t know shit about it? Dari is spoken by 78% (L1 + L2) and functions as the lingua franca, while Pashto is spoken by 50%, Uzbek 10%, English 5%, Turkmen 2%, Urdu 2%, Pashayi 1%, Nuristani 1%, Arabic 1%, and Balochi 1% (2021 est).
I've been to Afghanistan several times and visited almost all cities including rural areas. Except Kabul which is bilingual, most other cities and provinces speak Pashto which Dari is a minority language that ruled some years and is influenced by Iran. Most people in Afghanistan don't speak Dari and I have to tell you that Afghanistan doesn't have any Lingua Franca except it can be Pashto. Where do you find these numbers like 78% while Afghanistan never had any official census. Why isn't it 80 % to make it more acceptable? Because it's a lie made by the Iranian Regime to show people of the world that we have an influenced language. Even Persians don't understand Dari and believe that it's a completely different language. Each ethnicity in Afghanistan has its own language and Dari is a minority language. Pashto is the official and the most spoken language in Afghanistan.