Kumyk (also Qumuq) is a Turkic language, spoken by about 200 thousands speakers (the Kumyks) in the Dagestan republic of Russian Federation.

Yırçı Qazaq (born 1839) is usually considered to be a founder of Kumyk literature. First regular newspapers and magazines 1917-18. Kumyk was written using Arabic script until 1928, Latin script was used in 1928-1938, and Cyrillic since then.

Strongly influenced by Azeri and Dargwa , as well as by Russian during last century.