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Kyrgyz language

Not to be confused with Fuyu Kyrgyz language.
Kyrgyz
Кыргыз тили
قىرعىز تىلى‎
Kyrgyz written in Cyrillic and Perso-Arabic scripts
Pronunciation[qɯɾʁɯzˈtʃɑ]
Native toKyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, China
RegionCentral Asia
EthnicityKyrgyz
Native speakers
5.15 million (2009 census)[1]
Turkic
Dialects
Kyrgyz alphabets (Cyrillic script, Perso-Arabic script, Kyrgyz Braille) Historically, Old Turkic script
Official status
Official language in
 Kyrgyzstan
 China
Organisations:
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1ky
ISO 639-2kir
ISO 639-3kir
Glottologkirg1245
Linguasphere44-AAB-cd
Places where Kyrgyz is spoken
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A speaker of the Kyrgyz language in traditional dress, recorded on the Chunkurchak pasture on the outskirts of Bishkek during an interview
Azim, a speaker of the Kyrgyz language, recorded in Taiwan

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.

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]

  1. ^ Kyrgyz at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Кызласов И. Л., Рунические письменности евразийских степей (Kyzlasov I.L. Runic scripts of Eurasian steppes), Восточная литература (Eastern Literature), Moscow, 1994, pp. 80 on, ISBN 978-5-02-017741-3, with further bibliography.
  3. ^ Altynbayev, Kanat. "Kyrgyzstan considers switch to Latin alphabet from Cyrillic". Caravanserai. Retrieved 2022-07-29.


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