Kyrgyz language

Kyrgyz^[i] is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia. Kyrgyz 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.

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Kyrgyz
Кыргыз тили قىرعىز تىلى‎
Kyrgyz written in Cyrillic and Perso-Arabic scripts
Pronunciation	[qɯɾʁɯzˈtʃɑ]
Native to	Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, China
Region	Central Asia
Ethnicity	Kyrgyz
Native speakers	5.15 million (2009 census)[1]
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak Kyrgyz–Kipchak Kyrgyz
Dialects	Pamiri Kyrgyz
Writing system	Kyrgyz alphabets (Cyrillic script, Perso-Arabic script, Kyrgyz Braille) Historically, Old Turkic script
Official status
Official language in	Kyrgyzstan  China Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture Organisations:  Organization of Turkic States  Collective Security Treaty Organization
Recognised minority language in	Uzbekistan  Tajikistan
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ky
ISO 639-2	kir
ISO 639-3	kir
Glottolog	kirg1245
Linguasphere	44-AAB-cd
Places where Kyrgyz is spoken
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Kyrgyz was originally written in Göktürk script,^[2] 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.^[3]

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 three distinct varieties; Northern and Southern Kyrgyz.^[4]

Language should not be confused with Old Kyrgyz (Yenisei Kyrgyz) language which classified as a member of the South Siberian branch of Turkic languages. The successor of the Yenisei Kyrgyz language today are the Khakas in Russian Federation and Fuyu Kyrgyz in Northeastern China.^[5][6][7]

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. Persian and Arabic vocabulary loaned to the Kyrgyz language, but to a much lesser extent than Kazakh, Uzbek and Uyghur.

Kyrgyz is divided into two main dialects, Northern and Southern. Northern having more Mongolian loanwords and Southern having more Uzbek ones. Standard Kyrgyz is based on Northern Kyrgyz.^[8] There is also a third smaller dialect called Pamiri Kyrgyz.^[9]

/a/ appears only in borrowings from Persian or when followed by a front vowel later in the word (regressive assimilation), e.g. /ajdøʃ/ 'sloping' instead of */ɑjdøʃ/.^[11] In most dialects, its status as a vowel distinct from /ɑ/ is questionable.^[12]

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

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.^{[14][15][8][16][17]}

Historically the Old Turkic Script was the first script used to write Kyrgyz.^[18]

The Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan use a Cyrillic alphabet, which uses all the Russian letters plus ң, ө and ү. Though 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, Russia suspended dairy exports to Kyrgyzstan after a proposal by the chairman of Kyrgyzstan's National Commission for the State Language and Language Policies, Kanybek Osmonaliev, to 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.^[19]

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 substutes.^[18]

This section does not cite any sources. (January 2008)

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:^[21]

Cyrillic script

Бардык адамдар өз беделинде жана укуктарында эркин жана тең укуктуу болуп жаралат. Алардын аң-сезими менен абийири бар жана бири-бирине бир туугандык мамиле кылууга тийиш.

Arabic script

باردىق ادامدار ۅز بەدەلينده جانا وُقوُقتارىندا ەرکین جانا تەڭ ۇقۇقتۇۇ بولۇپ جارالات. الاردىن اڭ-سەزیمی مەنەن ابئییری بار جانا بئرى-بئرینه بئر توُوُعاندىق مامئلە قىلوُوُعا تئییش.

Latin script

Bardyk adamdar öz bedelinde jana ukuktarynda erkin jana teng ukuktuu bolup jaralat. Alardyn ang-sezimi menen abiiri bar jana biri-birine bir tuugandyk mamile kyluuga tiish.

IPA transcription

[pɑɾtɯ́χ ɑtɑmtɑ́ɾ ɵ́s petélɪnté t͡ɕɑnɑ́ ʊχʊ̆χtʰɑ́ɾɯntɑ́ eɾkʰɪ́n t͡ɕɑnɑ́ tʰéŋ ʊχʊ̆χtʰúː poɫʊ́p t͡ɕɑɾɑɫɑ́t ‖ ɑɫɑɾtɯ́n ɑ́ŋ‿sezɪmɪ́ menén ɑβɪjɪɾɪ́ pɑ́ɾ t͡ɕɑnɑ́ pɪɾɪ́‿βɪɾɪné pɪ́ɾ tʰuːʁɑntɯ́χ mamɪlé qɯɫuːʁɑ́ tʰɪjɪ́ɕ ‖]

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.

• BGN/PCGN romanization of Kyrgyz
• Kyrgyz people
• Romanization of Kyrgyz