From 2002 to 2018, there were actually more than 75 million people who spoke Turkish as their native language. It is among the most widespread of the family of Turkic languages. It is the official language of Turkey, Cyprus, and Northern Cyprus. Turkish is also spoken in many other countries, including Syria, Greece, Romania, Kosovo, and Iraq.
Turkish used to have many loanwords from Persian and Arabic. Still, the Turkish Language Association successfully removed many of them from the modern vocabulary. They were replaced by words derived from Turkic origins and Old Turkish terms that lay dormant for centuries.
