Turkish, Kurdish, and Uyghur

Abstract

Turkic language communities of Russian and Tatar background appeared in the 1920s with the émigré diaspora led by Bashkir political activist Muhammed Kurbangaliev. Turkey and Japan established close political relations in the 1890s. The first mosque was established in 1924 in Tokyo with a school for Japan’s Muslims (1927), and publications in Turkish and Arabic. Turkish is studied widely in universities and spoken in ethnic shops and restaurants. Trans Asian migrant flows have led to a Japanese language culture in the Ordu province of Turkey. Trilingual Kurds (Kurdish, Turkish, and Japanese) and Uyghur-Chinese speakers live in small communities mostly in the Tokyo area. Kurdish and Uyghur are taught informally by activists to the children of ethnic families, and spoken in shops and restaurants. Courses in these languages are offered at some universities. Diasporic trilingualism is common in these communities.