Kyrgyz language

thumb|A speaker of the Kyrgyz language in traditional dress, recorded on the Chunkurchak pasture on the outskirts of Bishkek during an interview

thumb|Azim, a speaker of the Kyrgyz language, recorded in [[Taiwan]]

Kyrgyz is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia. It is the official language of Kyrgyzstan and a significant minority language in the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, China and in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan. There is a very high level of mutual intelligibility between Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and Altay. A dialect of Kyrgyz known as Pamiri Kyrgyz is spoken in north-eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Kyrgyz is also spoken by many ethnic Kyrgyz through the former Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Turkey, parts of northern Pakistan, and Russia.

Kyrgyz was originally written in Göktürk script, gradually replaced by the Perso-Arabic alphabet (in use until 1928 in the USSR, still in use in China). Between 1928 and 1940, a Latin-script alphabet, the Uniform Turkic Alphabet, was used. In 1940, Soviet authorities replaced the Latin script with the Cyrillic alphabet for all Turkic languages on its territory. When Kyrgyzstan became independent following the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, a plan to adopt the Latin alphabet became popular. Although the plan has not been implemented, it remains in occasional discussion.

Classification

Kyrgyz is a Common Turkic language belonging to the Kipchak branch of the family. It is considered to be an East Kipchak language, forming a subfamily with the Southern Altai language within the greater Kipchak branch. Internally, Kyrgyz has two distinct varieties; Northern and Southern Kyrgyz.

Kyrgyz should not be confused with Old Kyrgyz (Yenisei Kyrgyz), which is a member of the South Siberian branch of Turkic languages. The living successor languages of Yenisei Kyrgyz are the Khakas language in the Russian Federation and the Fuyu Kyrgyz language in Northeastern China.

History

In 925, when the Liao dynasty defeated the Yenisei Kyrgyz and expelled them from the Mongolian steppes, some Ancient Kyrgyz elites settled in Altai and Xinjiang where they mixed with the local Kipchaks, resulting in a language shift.

After the Mongol conquest in 1207 and a series of revolts against the Yuan dynasty, Kyrgyz-speaking tribes started to migrate to Tian Shan, which was already populated by various Turco-Mongol tribes. As Chaghatai Ulus subjects, the Kyrgyz converted to Islam. This resulted in the Kyrgyz language absorbing Persian and Arabic loanwords, but to a much lesser extent than Kazakh, Uzbek and Uyghur.

Dialects

Kyrgyz is divided into two main dialects, Northern and Southern. The Northern dialect has more Mongolian loanwords while the Southern one has more Uzbek ones. Standard Kyrgyz is based on Northern Kyrgyz. There is also a third smaller dialect called Pamiri Kyrgyz.

Phonology

Vowels

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Kyrgyz vowel phonemes

! rowspan=2|

!colspan=2 | Front

!colspan=2 | Back

|- style="vertical-align: center; font-size: x-small; height: 3em"

!unrounded || rounded

!Close

!Mid

!Open

|()

appears only in borrowings from Persian or when followed by a front vowel later in the word (regressive assimilation), e.g. 'sloping' instead of . In most dialects, its status as a vowel distinct from is questionable.

Vowel harmony

The United States Peace Corps trains its volunteers using a "Left-Right Shift" method when carrying out language training in Kyrgyzstan.

{| class="wikitable"

|+Vowel Harmony (Peace Corps Method)

!Open vowels

!Shift

!Close vowels

!Example words

| rowspan="2" |А (A)

|⟷

|Ы (I)

|аттарыбыздан (attarıbızdan) "from our names"

|⟵

| rowspan="2" |У (U)

| rowspan="2" |колдорубуздан (koldorubuzdan) "from our hands"

|О (O)

|⟶

|Ө (Ö)

|⟷

|Ү (Ü)

|көлдөрүбүздөн (köldörübüzdön) "from our lakes"

|Э (Е)

|⟷

|И (İ)

|иттерибизден (itteribizden) "from our dogs"

The strict vowel harmony system causes some notable phonotactical restrictions in vowels:

A word can only contain one vowel from each column, so if a word has Ö in its initial syllable, it will not contain A, O or E. And, since Ö points at Ü, the word also won't contain I, U or İ.
This system effectively makes the only distinction of vowels in non-initial syllables by height.

Some notable exceptions include the long rounded vowels (/oː/ /uː/ /øː/ /yː/), which can appear in suffixes regardless of roundedness of the previous vowels (although still following the front-back row harmony), and back rounded vowels, which unround to A after U, therefore creating the following order of vowels in a word with O in its initial syllable: O → U → A ↔︎ I

Consonants

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Kyrgyz consonant phonemes

! colspan="2" |

! Labial

! Dental/<br />alveolar

! Post-<br />alveolar

! Dorsal

! colspan="2" | Nasal

! rowspan="2" | Plosive

! rowspan="2" |Affricate

| ||

! rowspan="2" | Fricative

| *

| ||

! colspan="2" | Approximant

! colspan="2" | Trill

/x/ only occurs in loanwords.

Lexicon

Kyrgyz has spent centuries in contact with numerous other languages, and as such has borrowed extensively from them. These languages include: Uzbek, Oirat, Mongolian, Russian, and Arabic.

Orthography

Historically the Old Turkic Script was the first script used to write Kyrgyz.

The Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan use a Cyrillic alphabet, which uses all the Russian letters plus ң, ө and ү. In the Xinjiang region of China, an Arabic alphabet is used. Between 1928 and 1940, a Latin alphabet was used for many minority languages in the USSR, including Kyrgyz. There have been attempts after 1990 to introduce other Latin alphabets which are closer to the Turkish alphabet, e.g. the Common Turkic Alphabet. There are political shades to the Cyrillic-Latin debate. In April 2023 the chairman of Kyrgyzstan's National Commission for the State Language and Language Policies, Kanybek Osmonaliev, announced that Kyrghyz would change the alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin to bring the country in line with other Turkic nations. Osmonaliev was reprimanded by President Sadyr Japarov, who later clarified that Kyrgyzstan had no plans to replace the Cyrillic alphabet.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+Comparison of Kyrgyz alphabets

!Cyrillic

!Braille

!Arabic

!Çaŋalip Latin

(1928–⁠1938)

|А а

|⠁

|ا

|A a

|Б б

|⠃

|ب

|B ʙ

|В в

|⠺

|ۋ

|V v

|Г г

|⠛

|گ

ع*

|G g, Ƣ ƣ

|Д д

|⠙

|د

|D d

|Е е

|⠑

|ە

|E e

|Ё ё

|⠡

|ي+و(يو)

|Jo jo

|Ж ж

|⠚

|ج

|Ç ç (Ƶ ƶ from 1938)

|З з

|⠵

|ز

|Z z

|И и

|⠊

|ئ

|I i

|Й й

|⠯

|ي

|J j

|К к

|⠅

|ك

ق*

|K k, Q q

|Л л

|⠇

|ل

|L l

|М м

|⠍

|م

|M m

|Н н

|⠝

|ن

|N n

|Ң ң

|⠽

|ڭ

|Ꞑ ꞑ / Ŋ ŋ

|О о

|⠕

|و

|O o

|Ө ө

|⠌

|ۅ

|Ɵ ɵ

|П п

|⠏

|پ

|P p

|Р р

|⠗

|ر

|R r

|С с

|⠎

|س

|S s

|Т т

|⠞

|ت

|T t

|У у

|⠥

|ۇ

|U u

|Ү ү

|⠧

|ۉ

|Y y

|Ф ф

|⠋

|ف

|F f

|Х х

|⠓

|ح

|H h

|Ц ц

|⠉

|(ت+س (تس

|Ts ts

|Ч ч

|⠟

|چ

|C c

|Ш ш

|⠱

|ش

|Ş ş

|Щ щ

|⠭

| -

|ŞÇ şç

|Ъ ъ

|⠷

| -

|Ы ы

|⠮

|ى

|Ь ь

|⠾

| -

|Э э

|⠪

|ە

|E e

|Ю ю

|⠳

|ي+ۇ(يۇ)

|Ju ju

| Я я

|⠫

|ي+ا(يا)

|Ja ja

Morphology and syntax

Kyrgyz follows a subject-object-verb word order, Kyrgyz also has no grammatical gender with gender being implied through context. Kyrgyz lacks several analytic grammatical features that English has, these include: auxiliary verbs (ex: to have), definite articles (ex: the), indefinite articles (ex: a/an), and modal verbs (ex: should; will), dependent clauses, and subordinating conjugations (ex: that; before; while). Kyrgyz instead replaces these with various synthetic grammatical structures.

; Cyrillic script:

; Arabic script: <span style="font-size:110%;line-height:1.35;" dir="rtl"></span>

; Latin script:

; IPA transcription:

; English translation: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Notes

References

Bibliography

Krippes, Karl A. (1998). Kyrgyz: Kyrgyz-English/English-Kyrgyz: Glossary of Terms. Hippocrene Books, New York. .
Library of Congress, Country Studies, Kyrgyzstan.
Comrie, Bernard. 1983. The languages of the Soviet Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beckwith, Christopher I. 1987/1993. "The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia." Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tchoroev, Tyntchtykbek. 2003. The Kyrgyz.; in: The History of Civilisations of Central Asia, Vol. 5, Development in contrast: from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century /Editors: Ch. Adle and Irfan Habib. Co-editor: Karl M. Baipakov. – UNESCO Publishing. Multiple History Series. Paris. – Chapter 4, p. 109–125. ().

External links

Language Policies, Attitudes, and Beliefs in Kyrgyzstan
El-Sozduk – English-Kyrgyz online dictionary, phrasebook, Android app
Ferdinand, S. & Komlósi, F. 2016. Vitality of the Kyrgyz Language in Bishkek. IJORS, 5/2, pp. 210–226.
Kyrgyz language
Root Vowels and Affix Vowels: Height Effects in Kyrgyz Vowel Harmony
"事前学習補助教材Кыргыз тили （キルギス語）" (Kyrgyz exercises; Archive) - Japan International Cooperation Agency
The Talking Kyrgyz Phrasebook
Кыргыз тили – Kyrgyz language resources (in Russian)
Кербен Translit – Easy Kyrgyz-Cyrillic–Latin converter
Kyrgyz Cyrillic–Arabic–Latin converter
Kyrgyz–Russian–English Dictionary
Kyrgyz Latin Alphabet
Kyrgyz-Turkish Dictionary
Kyrgyz<>Turkish dictionary (Pamukkale University)
Russian-Kyrgyz Kyrgyz-Russian Dictionary
Kyrgyz – Apertium