Turkmen is the official language of the Republic of Turkmenistan, the former Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. It is a member of Southern Turkic group of languages which includes Turkish, Tartar, Crimean, and Azerbaijani. It is estimated that there are about 3 million Turkmen speakers living in the word today, the majority of which, about 2 million, live in Turkmenistan. Numerous speakers also live in Afghanistan, Iran, and to a lesser degree, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Germany, and the Untied States. Turkmen is actually more of a broad label that refers to an array of dialects which differ phonologically and morphologically. For the sake of convenience, they are often corralled into general groups: the major or central dialects and the peripheral dialects. Chowdur, Arsari, Goklen, Sarik, Salir, Teke and Yomut are regarded as the most important of all the Turkmen dialects.