Kazakh, a Turkic language spoken primarily in Kazakhstan, shares linguistic roots and similarities with several other languages within the Turkic family. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Kazakh are Kyrgyz, Uyghur, Uzbek, Tatar, and Turkmen.
- Kyrgyz (94.7)
Spoken primarily in Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz is perhaps the closest relative to Kazakh. Both languages belong to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic language family and share significant vocabulary, grammar structures, and phonetics. The mutual intelligibility between Kyrgyz and Kazakh is quite high, allowing speakers of one language to understand the other with relative ease. - Uyghur (92.0)
In the Xinjiang region of China, the Uyghur people speak a language that is another close relative of Kazakh. Uyghur shares many lexical and grammatical similarities with Kazakh. Both languages have been influenced by Arabic, Persian, and Russian due to historical and cultural interactions. - Uzbek (89.3)
Uzbekistan borders Kazakhstan. Its language Uzbek is also quite similar to Kazakh. While there are notable differences in phonology and vocabulary due to various historical influences, Uzbek shares a considerable amount of linguistic features with Kazakh. Both Turkic languages have also absorbed words from Persian and Arabic. - Tatar (88.1)
Spoken by the Tatar people in Russia, this language belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic language family, like Kazakh. Tatar and Kazakh share similar grammatical structures, vocabulary, and phonological characteristics. This is because there have been many interactions between the Tatars and Kazakhs in the past. - Turkmen (83.1)
Turkmenistan is another Central Asian country. Its official language, Turkmen, is also a Turkic language. Despite belonging to a different branch, Turkmen and Kazakh share significant similarities in vocabulary, syntax, and phonology. There have been many cultural exchanges among Turkic-speaking peoples.
(to be considered for the list, the language must be spoken by at least one million people)