Kyrgyz
Info
Chapter 1: Basics
This page will teach you the basics of Kyrgyz, and what to expect during this course. Kyrgyz is a Turkic language, which means it features 7 basic cases, word agglutination, and vowel harmony. However, as a Kipchak language, it has unique features, such as requiring a present tense participle.
Kyrgyz is a fun language to learn, and is useful if you plan to travel to Kyrgyzstan or other parts of Central Asia. It may also be a good introduction to the Cyrillic script. While Kyrgyz is a language with a small speaker base, it is sure to be useful.
Phonetics
Kyrgyz phonetics are fairly typical of Turkic languages and of languages written in Cyrillic. Though sounds can be described in English, we will also Phonetics will be entirely described in the IPA in Chapter 1a.
Agglutination
Kyrgyz word formation, like other Turkic languages, is based on suffixes, which is the principle of agglutination. This can change based on case, verb tense and mood, as well as various grammatical suffixes which extend the meaning of the root word. This will be covered in Chapter 1c.
Vowel Harmony
Kyrgyz word formation also consists of matching up vowels to suffixes. In every case, verb, and grammatical device, vowel harmony are imperative to proper Kyrgyz grammar. Kyrgyz makes this a top priority when making words. This will be covered in Chapter 1d.
History
Kyrgyz is a Kipchak Turkic language, having shared characteristics with Kazakh and Tatar.
Turkish |
Kazakh |
The language is the last of the major national Turkic language without formal latinization (as of 2023). All Kyrgyz is written in either Cyrillic or Arabic. Though, there are some latinizations that will be discussed.
The divide between scripts was mainly caused by USSR occupation. From 1936 to 1991, Kyrgyzstan was a part of the USSR as the Kirgiz SSR. All languages in the USSR and present day Russia are mandated to use cyrillic, though, in the last 3 decades, Turkic languages have been making a shift to Latin. The arabic script was used beforehand, and is still used in Kyrgyz parts of China.
To this day, the most common alphabet is cyrillic, as only about 200,000 ethnic Kyrgyz live in China as compared to Kyrgyzstan's 5 million.
This course will mainly be detailing Kyrgyzstan in the cyrillic script.
Trans-Alay Mountains, Kyrgyzstan