Language
Turkmen 72%, Russian 12%, Uzbek 9%, other 7%. Nearly 22% of the non-Russian population indicated in the 1995 census that they spoke Russian fluently. According to Ethnologue, up to 50% claim "good knowledge" of Russian. Other languages includes Balochi, which was spoken by 36,600 people in 1995, as well as Persian and Pashto.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Turkmenistan
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The “sayings” of a community, its proverbs, are its characteristic comment upon life; they imply its history, suggest its attitude toward the world and its way of accepting life. Such an idiom makes the finest language any writer can have; and he can never get it with a notebook. He himself must be able to think and feel in that speech—it is a gift from heart to heart.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“Because language is the carrier of ideas, it is easy to believe that it should be very little else than such a carrier.”
—Louise Bogan (1897–1970)