Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Оғыз тілдері" in Kazakh language version.
The Turkic languages may be classified, using linguistic, historical, and geographic criteria, into a southwestern (SW), a northwestern (NW), a southeastern (SE), and a northeastern (NE) branch. Chuvash and Khalaj form separate branches.
The southwestern, or Oghuz, branch comprises three groups. The West Oghuz group (SWw) consists of Turkish (spoken in Turkey, Cyprus, the Balkans, western Europe, and so on); Azerbaijani (Azerbaijanian; Azerbaijan, Iran); and Gagauz (Moldova, Bulgaria, and so on). The East Oghuz group (SWe) consists of Turkmen (Turkmenistan and adjacent countries) and Khorāsān Turkic (northeastern Iran). A southern group (SWs) is formed by Afshar and related dialects in Iran and Afghanistan.
Oghuz languages were earlier grouped into Turkish (of Turkey), Azeri, and Turkmen, but recent research has modified this simple picture. Today we may provisionally distinguish the following languages: Turkish of Turkey (including Crimean Osmanli and Balkan dialects, such as Gagauz), Azeri, “Afsharoid” dialects (spoken east and south of the provinces of Azerbaijan; there is a broad area of either transitional Azeri-“Afsharoid” dialects or of mixed territories between Qazvīn and Ḵalajestān, but south of a line Hamadān-Qom, including Qašqāʾī and Aynallū, “Afsharoid” dialects dominate; Afshar is also spoken in Kabul), Khorasan Turkic (northeastern Iran, Turkmenistan and northwestern Afghanistan), and Turkmen (in Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan and close to the southeastern shore of the Caspian Sea).
