World Turkic Language Family Day
Next: December 15, 2026
Words carved in stone, still spoken.
The story
Where it comes from
UNESCO's General Conference, meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in 2025, proclaimed 15 December World Turkic Language Family Day, on a proposal from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan. The date recalls 15 December 1893, when the Danish linguist Vilhelm Thomsen announced that he had deciphered the alphabet of the Orkhon inscriptions, among the oldest written records of the Turkic languages. The family includes Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Turkmen and Uzbek, among others, and the day celebrates their shared heritage.
How it's celebrated
UNESCO first marked the day in December 2025, so its customs are still young. It is meant to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and to help preserve oral traditions, such as the great epics passed down by storytellers. Anyone can join in by learning a few words of a Turkic language, listening to a recording of an epic, or reading about the old runic script on the Orkhon stones.
Did you know
- The Orkhon inscriptions are carved on 8th-century memorials to the ruler Bilge Khan and his brother Kul Tegin in Mongolia's Orkhon Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004.
- Mongolia's World Heritage nomination file describes the ancient Turks as the first Central Asian people to create their own script.
- The Kyrgyz epic trilogy Manas, Semetey, Seitek was added to UNESCO's list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2013.
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