Tatar is a Turkic language spoken primarily in Tatarstan and neighboring regions of Russia. It is a member of the Kipchak branch of the Turkic language family. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Tatar are Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Kazakh, and Turkmen.
- Uyghur (91.6)
Spoken by millions in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, Uyghur is part of the Karluk branch of the Turkic family. Though it’s not Kipchak like Tatar, Uyghur shares key vocabulary. In addition, both use agglutinative morphology, vowel harmony, and a subject-object-verb word order. Cultural and historical trade routes also contributed to mutual influence, especially during the medieval period. - Kyrgyz (90.6)
Kyrgyz primarily spoken in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz and Tatar share lexical overlap, although regional vocabulary and phonetic shifts can set them apart. The phonology of Kyrgyz is \considered more conservative compared to Tatar’s more Russian-influenced sounds. - Uzbek (88.9)
Uzbek has been heavily influenced by Persian and Russian. Despite that, Tatar and Uzbek share similar grammatical structures, vocabulary, and phonological characteristics. This is because there have been many interactions between the Tatars and Uzbeks in the past. - Kazakh (88.1)
Uzbekistan also borders Kazakhstan. Uzbek and Tatar are also similar to Kazakh. While there are notable differences in phonology and vocabulary due to various historical influences, Kazakh shares a considerable amount of linguistic features with Tatar. However, Kazakh absorbed more words from Persian and Arabic. - Turkmen (83.0)
Turkmenistan is another Central Asian country. Its official language, Turkmen, is also a Turkic language. Despite belonging to a different branch, Turkmen and Tatar 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)