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,Кызласов И. Л., Рунические письменности евразийских степей (Kyzlasov I.L. Runic scripts of Eurasian steppes), Восточная литература (Eastern Literature), Moscow, 1994, pp. 80 on, , with further bibliography. 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.Tchoroev (Chorotegin) 2003, p. 110.Pozzi & Janhunen & Weiers 2006, p. 113.

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 +Kyrgyz vowel phonemes Front Backunrounded roundedunrounded roundedCloseMidOpen() 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. +Vowel Harmony (Peace Corps Method)Open vowelsShiftClose vowels Example wordsА (A) ⟷Ы (I)аттарыбыздан (attarıbızdan) "from our names"⟵У (U)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 +Kyrgyz consonant phonemes Labial Dental/alveolar Post-alveolar Dorsal Nasal Plosive Affricate Fricative * Approximant 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.Russia Suspends Dairy Products From Kyrgyzstan After Calls In Bishkek To Drop Cyrillic Script. Radio Free Europe, 21 April 2023. Retrieved 22 June 2023

+Comparison of Kyrgyz alphabetsCyrillicBrailleArabicÇaŋalip Latin (1928–⁠1938)А а⠁اA aБ б⠃بB ʙВ в⠺ۋV vГ г⠛گ ع*G g, Ƣ ƣД д⠙دD dЕ е⠑ەE eЁ ё⠡ي+و(يو)Jo joЖ ж⠚جÇ ç (Ƶ ƶ from 1938)З з⠵زZ zИ и⠊ئI iЙ й⠯يJ jК к⠅ك ق*K k, Q qЛ л⠇لL lМ м⠍مM mН н⠝نN nҢ ң⠽ڭꞐ ꞑ / Ŋ ŋО о⠕وO oӨ ө⠌ۅƟ ɵП п⠏پP pР р⠗رR rС с⠎سS sТ т⠞تT tУ у⠥ۇU uҮ ү⠧ۉY yФ ф⠋فF fХ х⠓حH hЦ ц⠉(ت+س (تسTs tsЧ ч⠟چC cШ ш⠱شŞ şЩ щ⠭ -ŞÇ şçЪ ъ⠷ - -Ы ы⠮ىЬ ьЬ ь⠾ - -Э э⠪ەE eЮ 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. Case Nouns in Kyrgyz take a number of case endings that change based on vowel harmony and the sort of consonant they follow (see the section on phonology).

CaseUnderlying formPossible forms"boat""air""bucket""hand""head""salt""eye"Nominative —кемеабачелекколбаштузкөзGenitive -NIn -нын, -нин, -дын, -дин, -тын, -тин, -нун, -нүн, -дун, -дүн, -тун, -түнкеменин абанын челектин колдун баштын туздун көздүнDative -GA -га, -ка, -ге, -ке, -го, -ко, -гө, -көкемеге абага челекке колго башка тузга көзгөAccusative -NI -ны, -ни, -ды, -ди, -ты, -ти, -ну, -нү, -ду, -дү, -ту, -түкемени абаны челекти колду башты тузду көздүLocative -DA -да, -де, -та, -те, -до, -дө, -то, -төкемеде абада челекте колдо башта тузда көздөAblative -DAn -дан, -ден, -тан, -тен, -дон, -дөн, -тон, -төнкемеден абадан челектен колдон баштан туздан көздөн

Normally the decision between the velar (, ) and uvular ( and ) pronunciation of and is based on the backness of the following vowel—i.e. back vowels imply a uvular rendering and front vowels imply a velar rendering—and the vowel in suffixes is decided based on the preceding vowel in the word.

Pronouns Kyrgyz has eight personal pronouns:

+ Personal pronouns singular plural 1st person Мен (Men) Биз (Biz) 2nd person Сен (Sen) Силер (Siler) Сиз (Siz) Сиздер (Sizder) 3rd person Ал (Al) Алар (Alar)

The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart. Singular pronouns (with the exception of сиз, which used to be plural) exhibit irregularities, while plural pronouns don't. Irregular forms are highlighted in bold.

+Declension of pronouns Singular Plural 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd NomменсенсизалбизсилерсиздераларAccменисенисиздианыбиздисилердисиздердиалардыGenменинсенинсиздинанынбиздинсилердинсиздердиналардынDatмагасагасизгеагабизгесилергесиздергеаларгаLocмендесендесиздеандабиздесилердесиздердеалардаAblменденсенденсизденанданбизденсилерденсиздерденалардан

In addition to the pronouns, there are several more sets of morphemes dealing with person.

+Morphemes indicating person pronounscopulaspresent tensepossessive endingspast/conditionalimperative1st sgмен-mIn-mIn-(I)m-(I)m-AyIN 2nd sg сен-sIŋ-sIŋ-(I)ŋ-(I)ŋ—, -GIn сиз-sIz-sIz-(I)ŋIz-(I)ŋIz-GIlA3rd sgал—-t-(s)I(n)—-sIn1st plбиз-BIz -BIz -(I)bIz-(I)K-AlI,-YlI 2nd pl силер-sIŋAr-sIŋAr-(I)ŋAr-(I)ŋAr сиздер-sIzdAr-sIzdAr-(I)ŋIzdAr-(I)nIzdAr3rd plалар—-(I)şAt-(s)I(n)—-sIn, -IşsIn

Verbs Verbs are conjugated by analyzing the root verb: 1) determine whether the end letter is a vowel or consonant 2) add appropriate suffix while following vowel-harmony/shift rules. +Simple present tense conjugations (Peace Corps)Per. PronounVowel Consonant1st sgМен -м -м 2nd pl Сен -йс<ң -йс<ң Сиз -йс<з -йс<з3rd sgАл -йт -йт1st plБиз -йб>з -<б>з 2nd pl Силер Сиздер3rd plАлар

Subordinate clauses To form complement clauses, Kyrgyz nominalises verb phrases. For example, "I don't know what I saw" would be:

The sentence above is also an excellent example of Kyrgyz vowel harmony; notice that all the vowel sounds are front vowels.

Several nominalisation strategies are used depending on the temporal properties of the relativised verb phrase: -GAn(dIK) for general past tense, -Ar for future/potential unrealised events, and -A turgan(dɯq) for non-perfective events are the most common. The copula has an irregular relativised form экен(дик) which may be used equivalently to forms of the verb бол- be (болгон(дук), болор). Relativised verb forms may, and often do, take nominal possessive endings as well as case endings.

Sample text Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:Kyrgyz edition of Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Cyrillic script Arabic script 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.

See also BGN/PCGN romanization of Kyrgyz Kyrgyz people Romanization of Kyrgyz

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