This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2018) |
Languages of Kyrgyzstan | |
---|---|
Official | Kyrgyz (national/state language) Russian (official and interethnic) [1] |
Main | Kyrgyz |
Indigenous | Dialects of Kyrgyz language |
Minority | Tajik; Uzbek; Uyghur |
Immigrant | Turkic languages |
Foreign | English; Arabic (coming with Islam); Chinese; French |
Signed | Russian Sign Language |
Keyboard layout | |
Source | [2] |
Alphabet | Kyrgyz alphabets Kyrgyz Braille |
Kyrgyzstan is one of four former Soviet republics in Central Asia to have Russian as a de jure official language. The Kyrgyz language was adopted as the official language in 1991. After pressure from the Russian and other minorities in the country, the republic adopted Russian as an official language as well in 1997, to become an officially bilingual country.
The languages of government in Kyrgyzstan are Russian as the official and inter-ethnic language and Kyrgyz as the state/national language.
Kyrgyz is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch, closely related to Kazakh, Karakalpak, and Nogay Tatar. It was written in the Arabic alphabet until the twentieth century. Latin script was introduced and adopted in 1928, and was subsequently replaced on Stalin's orders by Cyrillic script in 1941. As a result of the pending language reform in neighboring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan will be the only independent Turkic-speaking country in a few years that exclusively uses the Cyrillic script. [3]
According to the 2009 census, [4] 4.1 million people spoke Kyrgyz as native or second language and 2.5 million spoke Russian as native or second language, with 482,000 specifically identifying as native speakers. [5] Russian is the most widely spoken second language, followed by Kyrgyz and Uzbek.
Russian TV media enjoy enormous popularity in Kyrgyzstan, especially in Russian-speaking city of Bishkek and Chüy Region. Russian media outlets have an enormous impact on public opinion in Kyrgyzstan, especially in areas such as human rights and international political developments. [6] The Russian dialects spoken in Kyrgyzstan are referred to as Kyrgyz(stani) Russian.
Many business and political affairs are carried out in Russian. Russian was the primary language of the government of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic for decades. Until recently, Kyrgyz remained a language spoken at home and was rarely used during meetings or other events. However, most parliamentary meetings today are conducted in Kyrgyz, with simultaneous interpretation available for those who do not speak Kyrgyz. However a great number of Russian-speaking residents of Kyrgyzstan have left since independence.
Following the 2005 Tulip Revolution, educational reforms in 2007 required that Kyrgyz become a required subject in non-Kyrgyz-language schools, and that Russian become a required subject in schools with a language of instruction other than Russian. [5] The Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, one of the top universities of Kyrgyzstan, is a Russian-medium institution and therefore fluency in Russian is still extremely valuable in higher education.
Uzbek is spoken by approximately 850 thousand residents of Kyrgyzstan and is the second most spoken native language, ahead of Russian and behind Kyrgyz.[ citation needed ]
In 2011, Almazbek Atambayev won a highly contested elections marked by irregularities by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSEC). The Atambayev government subsequently banned graduating high school students from taking exit examinations in Uzbek, or any language other than Kyrgyz or Russian. [5]
Aside from Turkic languages, Tajik, an Iranian language, is also spoken by some.
Language name | Native speakers | Second-language speakers | Total speakers |
---|---|---|---|
Kyrgyz | 3,830,556 | 271,187 | 4,121,743 |
Russian | 482,243 | 2,109,393 | 2,591,636 |
Uzbek | 772,561 | 97,753 | 870,314 |
English | 28,416 | 28,416 | |
French | 641 | 641 | |
Other | 277,433 | 31,411 |
In Bishkek, Both Kyrgyz and Russian are spoken in the country. In cities people use both Russian and Kyrgyz, outside of cities mostly speak Kyrgyz is spoken but many have some command of Russian. [7]
The history of the Kyrgyz people and the land now called Kyrgyzstan goes back more than 3,000 years. Although geographically isolated by its mountainous location, it had an important role as part of the historical Silk Road trade route. Turkic nomads, who trace their ancestry to many Turkic states such as the First and Second Turkic Khaganates, have inhabited the country throughout its history. In the 13th century, Kyrgyzstan was conquered by the Mongols; subsequently it regained independence but was invaded by Kalmyks, Manchus, and Uzbeks. In 1876, it became part of the Russian Empire, remaining in the USSR as the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic after the Russian Revolution. Following Mikhael Gorbachev's democratic reforms in the USSR, in 1990 pro-independence candidate Askar Akayev was elected president of the SSR. On 31 August 1991, Kyrgyzstan declared independence from Moscow, and a democratic government was subsequently established.
Uzbek, formerly known as Turki, is a Karluk Turkic language spoken by Uzbeks. It is the official and national language of Uzbekistan and formally succeeded Chagatai, an earlier Karluk language also known as "Turki", as the literary language of Uzbekistan in the 1920s.
Kyrgyz 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.
Dungan is a Sinitic language spoken primarily in Kazakhstan, Russia and Kyrgyzstan by the Dungan people, an ethnic group related to the Hui people of China. Although it is derived from the Central Plains Mandarin of Gansu and Shaanxi, it is written in Cyrillic and contains loanwords and archaisms not found in other modern varieties of Mandarin.
Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia, lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the capital and largest city of the country. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and China to the east and southeast. Ethnic Kyrgyz make up the majority of the country's 7 million people, followed by significant minorities of Uzbeks and Russians.
The Kyrgyz language is written in the Kyrgyz alphabet, a modification of Cyrillic. There is no commonly accepted system of romanization for Kyrgyz, i.e. a rendering of Kyrgyz in the Latin alphabet. For geographic names, the Kyrgyz government adopted the BGN/PCGN romanization system.
The Kyrgyz alphabets are the alphabets used to write the Kyrgyz language. Kyrgyz uses the following alphabets:
The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Greek alphabet was altered by the Etruscans, and subsequently their alphabet was altered by the Ancient Romans. Several Latin-script alphabets exist, which differ in graphemes, collation and phonetic values from the classical Latin alphabet.
Almazbek Sharshen uulu Atambayev is a Kyrgyz politician who served as the President of Kyrgyzstan from 1 December 2011 to 24 November 2017. He was Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan from 17 December 2010 to 1 December 2011, and from 29 March 2007 to 28 November 2007. He served as Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) from 30 July 1999 to 23 September 2011.
The languages of the Soviet Union consist of hundreds of different languages and dialects from several different language groups.
The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic or Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. It was also known by the names Kyrgyzstan and Soviet Kyrgyzstan in the Kyrgyz language, and as Kirghizia and Soviet Kirghizia in the Russian language. Landlocked and mountainous, it bordered Tajikistan and China to the south, Uzbekistan to the west and Kazakhstan to the north. The Kirghiz branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union governed the republic from 1936 until 1990.
The majority language of Uzbekistan is the Uzbek language. However, many other native languages are spoken in the country. These include several other Turkic languages, Persian and Russian. The official language of government according to current legislation is Uzbek, while the Republic of Karakalpakstan has the right to determine its own official language. Russian and other languages may be used facultatively in certain public institutions, such as notary services and in contact between government institutions and citizens, and the choice of languages in individual life, interethnic communication and education is free. In practice, alongside Uzbek, Russian remains the language most used in public life. There are no language requirements for the citizenship of Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan–Russia relations are the relations between the two countries, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Russia has an embassy in Bishkek and a consulate in Osh, and Kyrgyzstan has an embassy in Moscow, a consulate in Ekaterinburg, and a vice-consulate in Novosibirsk.
Kazakhstan–Kyrgyzstan relations refers to the bilateral diplomatic relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Bilateral relationships between the countries, which share a border, are very strong and Kyrgyz and Kazakh are very close in terms of language, culture and religion. Kyrgyz-Kazakh relationships have always been at very high level and economic and other formal connections of two countries have been greeted with strong appreciation by both nations since the two share a lot in common.
The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), formerly called the Turkic Council or the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, is an intergovernmental organization comprising all but one of the internationally recognized Turkic sovereign states: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan; while Hungary and Turkmenistan are observers. Its overarching aim is promoting comprehensive cooperation among the Turkic peoples. First proposed by Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2006, it was founded on 3 October 2009 in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan. The General Secretariat is located in Turkey's Istanbul.
Tyntchtykbek Kadyrmambetovich Tchoroev (Chorotegin) (Kyrgyz: Тынчтыкбек Чороев, is a Kyrgyz historian, publicist and journalist. President of the Kyrgyz History Society, Doctor of History, Professor of the Kyrgyz State National University named after Jusup Balasagyn. Tchoroev is well known as an independent history researcher, Turkologist and journalist. Until September 2011, he worked as a broadcaster at Radio Azattyk, i.e. Kyrgyz Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He was chairman of the Board of the Muras Foundation under the Office of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic.
A constitutional referendum was held in Kyrgyzstan on 27 June 2010 to reduce presidential powers and strengthen democracy in the wake of the riots earlier in the year. Parliamentary elections followed on 10 October 2010.
Sooronbay Sharip uulu Jeenbekov is a Kyrgyz politician who served as the 5th President of Kyrgyzstan from 2017 until his resignation in 2020, following a week of protests. Prior to that he served as the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan from April 2016 to August 2017.
The spread of the Latin script has a long history, from its archaic beginnings in Latium to its rise as the dominant writing system in modernity. The ancestors of Latin letters are found in the Phoenician, Greek, and Etruscan alphabets. As the Roman Empire expanded in classical antiquity, the Latin script and language spread along with its conquests, and remained in use in Italy, Iberia, and Western Europe after the Western Roman Empire's disappearance. During the early and high Middle Ages, the script was spread by Christian missionaries and rulers, replacing the indigenous writing systems of Central Europe, Northern Europe, and the British Isles.
Uzbek literature refers to the literature produced and developed in the Republic of Uzbekistan with additional literary works contributed by the Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan people of Central Asia. Influenced by Russian and Turkish literature, Uzbek is predominantly written in the Uzbek language with its roots in Chagatai language, one of the widely accessible languages in the region from 14th to 20th century. In Uzbek literature, Chagatai plays an important role as a reference point.