Turkmen is a part of the Turkic language group and an official language of Turkmenistan. There are also significant Turkmen-speaking minorities in Iran and Afghanistan. It is mutually intelligible with Turkish.
Over the years, Turkmen has been written with several scripts – first with Arabic, then Latin, then Cyrillic, before reverting back to Latin script.
In 2002 President Niyazov of Turkmenistan decided to rename both the months of the year and the days of the week. The days of the week are: First Day (Monday), Young Day (Tuesday), Favourable Day (Wednesday), Justice Day (Thursday). Friday remained largely unchanged but Saturday became “Spiritual Day” and Sunday “Rest Day”.
