Kipchak
Northwestern Turkic
Geographic distribution	Central Asia, Russia, Northern Caucasus, Ukraine
Ethnicity	Kipchaks
Linguistic classification	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak
Subdivisions	Kipchak–Bulgar Kipchak–Cuman Kipchak–Nogai Kyrgyz–Kipchak
Language codes
Glottolog	kipc1239
Kipchak–Bulgar   Kipchak–Cuman   Kipchak–Nogai and Kyrgyz–Kipchak

The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq or the Northwestern Turkic languages) are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 28 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanning from Ukraine to China. Some of the most widely spoken languages in this group are Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tatar.

The Turkic languages are a language family of at least 35 ^[1] documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples. The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:^[2][3]

Number	Name	Status	Native speakers	Main Country
1	Kazakh language	Normal	14,000,000	Kazakhstan
2	Tatar language	Normal	5,500,000	Russia
3	Kyrgyz language	Normal	5,000,000	Kyrgyzstan
4	Bashkir language	Vulnerable	1,500,000	Russia
5	Karakalpak language	Normal	650,000	Uzbekistan
6	Crimean Tatar language	Severely endangered	600,000	Ukraine
7	Kumyk language	Vulnerable	450,000	Russia
8	Karachay-Balkar language	Vulnerable	400,000	Russia
9	Siberian Tatar language	Definitely endangered	100,000	Russia
10	Nogai language	Definitely endangered	100,000	Russia
11	Southern Altai language	Definitely endangered	55,000	Russia
12	Krymchak language	Critically endangered	200	Israel
13	Karaim language	Critically endangered	100	Lithuania
Total	Kipchak languages	Normal	28,400,000	Kazakhstan

The Kipchak languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together. Some of these features are shared with other Common Turkic languages; others are unique to the Kipchak family.

• Change of Proto-Turkic *d to /j/ (e.g. *hadaq > ajaq "foot")
• Loss of initial *h (preserved only in Khalaj), see above example

• Extensive labial vowel harmony (e.g. olor vs. olar "them") ^{[citation needed]}
• Frequent fortition (in the form of assibilation) of initial */j/ (e.g. *jetti > ʒetti "seven")
• Diphthongs from syllable-final */ɡ/ and */b/ (e.g. *taɡ > taw "mountain", *sub > suw "water")

The Kipchak languages may be broken down into four groups, based on geography and shared features (languages in bold are still spoken today):

• Kipchak language
• Kipchaks
• Kipchaks in Georgia
• Cuman people
• Cuman language
• Cumania
• Kalpak

• Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Ágnes (1998). The Turkic Languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08200-5.
• Menges, Karl H. (1995). The Turkic Languages and Peoples (2nd ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03533-1.