SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN KYRGYZ FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD KYRGYZWHO SPEAKS UZBEK? Саламатсызбы? Менин атым Жон. LEARN MORE ABOUT KYRGYZ SPEAKERS /sah-lah-MAHT-suhz-buh, men-in ah-tuhm JON/ AND THEIR LANGUAGE Uzbeks are the most numerous Tur- [sɑɫɑmɑtsɯzbɯ, menin ɑtʰɯm ʥon] kic people in Central Asia. They pre- Hi. My name is John. 1. Kyrgyz is spoken as a first or second language by over 4.5 million people throughout dominantly mostly live in Uzbekistan, a Сиздин атыңыз ким? Central Asia, most notably in Kyrgyzstan, landlocked country of Central Asia that /sihz-dihn ah-tuhng-uhz KIHM/ China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and [sizdin ɑtʰɯɴɯz kʰim] Afghanistan. Additionally, large populations shares borders with Kazakhstan to the What is your name? of Kyrgyz speakers can be found in Russia, west and north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Turkey, and even the U.S. Иштериңиз кандай? to the east, and Afghanistan and Turk- /ihsh-tehd-ihng-ihz qahn-DAYE/ 2. A member of the Turkic language family, menistan to the south. Many Uzbeks can [iʃteɾiŋiz qʰɑndɑj] Kyrgyz shares many structural similarities How are you doing? to languages such as Turkish, Altay, Uzbek, also be found in Afghanistan, Kazakh- Uyghur, and Turkmen, as well as being Рахмат, жакшы. largely mutually intelligible with Kazakh. stan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmeni- /rahkh-MAHT, jahq-SHUH/ 3. Kyrgyzstan is the only parliamentary stan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autono- [ɾɑχmɑt, ʥɑqʃɯ] democracy in the former Soviet Central mous Region of China. Thanks. Good. Asia. Since gaining Independence in 1991, Сиз кайда турасыз? Kyrgystan has had five presidents, including /sihz qaye-dah tood-AH-suhz/ Roza Otunbayeva, the first woman president [siz qʰɑjdɑ tʰurɑsɯz] in a former-Soviet Central Asian country! Where do you live? 4. Of all the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, the Kyrgyz have preserved their nomadic Мен шаарда турам. culture the best. Visitors to Kyrgyzstan can /mehn shah-ahr-dah tood-AHM/ still visit nomads in yurts amid snowcapped [men ʃɑːɾdɑ tʰuɾɑm] mountains. I live in the city. 5. There are over 88 major mountain ranges in Биздин шаар абдан кооз. Kyrgyzstan, making up about more than 70 /bihz-dihn shah-ahr ahb-dahn qoh-OHZ/ percent of the country’s territory. [bizdin ʃɑːɾ ɑbdɑn qoːz] Our city is very beautiful. ABOUT US Сизге чоң рахмат. The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region /sihz-geh chohng rahkh-MAHT/ (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for [sizɣe ʨoɴ ɾɑχmɑt] learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian Thank you very much. languages. For more information, go to celcar.indiana.edu. Жакшы калыңыз. /jahq-shuh QAH-luhng-uhz/ 238 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, [ʥɑqʃɯ qʰɑlɯɴɯz] Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 Good-bye. Phone: (812) 856-1230 Center for Languages of the E-mail : [email protected] Special thanks goes to Kenjegul Kalieva and Jonathan Washington Website: https://celcar.indiana.edu for their contributions to this pamphlet. Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) suffix added to the meat, fermented mare’s milk (qymyz), and WHO ARE THE KYRGYZ PEOPLE stem indicates only a fermented drink made of millet and/ one meaning; these or other grains (bozo). Other components AND WHERE DO THEY LIVE? suffixes attach to of traditional Kyrgyz food include lamb, Kyrgyz are a traditionally nomadic Turkic the word stem potatoes, bread, rice, noodles, and yogurt. people living in the one after another Similar to other Turko- high mountains in a set order. Mongolic peoples, the of Kyrgyzstan, Over time, Kyrgyz predecessors of the also known as the vocabulary has Kyrgyz had an animistic Kyrgyz Republic. been influenced belief system centered This Central Asian by Persian, Arabic, around the sky deity country shares Mongolian, Tengri. However, borders with and Russian. in the wake of the China, Kazakhstan, Generally, Kyrgyz Mongol empire, most Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. A sizable number is divided into two distinct dialects, the Kyrgyz people adopted of Kyrgyz can also be found in China, Russia, Northern and Southern. Standard Kyrgyz is Islam. Today, almost Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. mainly based upon the Northern dialect. all Kyrgyz are Sunni Muslims, but many Kyrgyz is the mother tongue of the majority Tengristic elements remain in of the population of the Kyrgyzstan. For a WHAT ALPHABET DO KYRGYZ USE? Kyrgyz culture. There has also been a small few decades in the last century, Kyrygz was a Similar to other Central Asian Turkic movement recently to revive ‘0’ among the language spoken at home and was rarely used Kyrgyz. in administration and government. languages, Kyrgyz has been written in a number of alphabets. Textual remains of Storytelling and singing have been practiced However, since Kyrgyzstan became early Turkic varieties from in and around among the Kyrgyz for centuries. The Kyrgyz independent, the importance of this language Kyrgyzstan are attested in a variety of scripts, epic poem Manas is by some measures the increased, and most parliamentary meetings including the Old Turkic runic alphabet, the longest epic song in the world. It has been today are conducted in Kyrgyz. Old Uyghur vertical script, Nestorian and preserved and expanded through the centuries Manichaean scripts, and others. Before Soviet by a special group of Kyrgyz story tellers, rule, Kyrgyz people used the Perso-Arabic called manaschy, who perform excerpts from WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS KYRGYZ? script to write their language. However, the epic story at certain traditional events. Kyrgyz belongs to the Turkic group of under Soviet rule, Kyrgyz adopted the There are also Kyrgyz bards, called aqyn, who languages, which includes languages such Cyrillic script from Russian which Kyrgyz perform various genres — including two- as Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkish, Uyghur, and people living Kyrgyzstan and other post- person lyrical competitions — accompanied Tatar. Turkic languages have been spoken for Soviet states continue to use today. However, by a three- many centuries across vast territory from the Kyrgyz speakers who live in China use the stringed qomuz. Balkans to China. Kygyz is one of the major Perso-Arabic script. Today Manas languages of the Kipchak sub-branch of the remains a Turkic languages. WHAT IS KYRGYZ CULTURE LIKE? keystone of Like many other Turkic languages, Kyrgyz has modern Kyrgyz vowel harmony (vowels of the suffixes change Traditionally, Kyrgyz are pastoral nomads, identity, to fit the other vowels in the stem). Kyrgyz raising horses, sheep, goats, and cattle, and government, is also an agglutinative language, where each some of their favorite foods include horse and ideology.