Languagle #22: Turkmen
Arkalaşan dag aşar
"Those who support each other will get over the mountain."
What it means
People who support one another can get over any mountain. What is impossible for one person alone becomes possible with help.
How to say it
ar-ka-la-SHAN DAG a-SHAR
Turkmen stresses the last syllable of a word. ş is said sh.
Word by word
- Arkalaşan ar-ka-la-SHAN: those who back each other up (arka, back)
- dag dag: mountain
- aşar a-SHAR: crosses over
Arka means 'back', so the word is, quite literally, about having each other's backs.
Where it was found
Turkmen calls a proverb a nakyl. The English comes from Atavatan Türkmenistan's project translating Turkmen proverbs.
Similar sayings
- Kazakh: Бір жеңнен қол шығар, бір жағадан бас шығар. Let the hands come out of one sleeve and the heads out of one collar. (Languagle #5)
How to recognise Turkmen
Turkmen uses a Latin alphabet with ä, ç, ň, ö, ş, ü, ý and ž. The ň and ý are the best clues: no other language in the game uses them. In Turkmen, y is a vowel (like the Turkish ı) and ý is the consonant y. Turkish has ğ and the dotless ı, and Azerbaijani has ə, none of which Turkmen uses.
About the Turkmen language
Turkmen is a Turkic language spoken by around 7 million people in Turkmenistan, Iran and Afghanistan. It belongs to the Oghuz branch of Turkic, so it is related to Turkish and Azerbaijani. In Turkmenistan it has been written in a Latin alphabet since the 1990s, replacing Cyrillic, while Turkmen speakers in Iran and Afghanistan use an Arabic-based script.
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