Poet and linguist K. Tynystanov was born on September 9, 1901—November 6, 1938, in the village of Chyrpykty in the present-day Issyk-Kul district of Issyk-Kul region, in a peasant family. From 1909 to 1912, he studied literacy with a village mullah, from 1913 to 1914—at an Uzbek primary school in the village of Sazanovka, and from 1914 to 1916—at a Russian-native school in the city of Karakol. In 1924, he graduated from the Kyrgyz-Kazakh Institute of Education in Tashkent.In 1923-1924, while studying in his final year at the university, K. Tynystanov collaborated with the editorial offices of the newspaper "Ak jol" and the magazines "Zhas kairat" and "Sana," and was a member of the Kara-Kyrgyz Scientific Commission. In 1924, he was appointed secretary of the Kyrgyz regional department of the Academic Center of the Scientific Commission of the Turkestan Republic, and in 1925, he became the chairman of this department. In August 1925, he was appointed editor of the newspaper "Erkin-Tuu," and from 1927 to 1930, he served as the commissioner of public education of the Kyrgyz ASSR.
In 1928, he organized the magazine "Zhany madaniyat jolunda," where he served as the responsible editor until 1931. From 1930 to 1937, he worked as a research associate, and later as the director of the Kyrgyz Institute of Cultural Construction. During the same years (1932-1937), he taught at the Kyrgyz Pedagogical Institute. Since 1932, he was an associate professor, and from 1936— a professor at this institute.
K. Tynystanov is one of the founders of Kyrgyz writing. He developed the first Kyrgyz alphabet based on Arabic script and actively participated in its replacement with the Latin alphabet, and then with the Russian alphabet. His report, "Basic Principles of Creating a New Alphabet," presented in 1926 at the I Congress of Turkologists in Baku, became a foundational document in the formation and establishment of the new Kyrgyz writing system and was the first scientific discovery in Kyrgyz linguistics.
K. Tynystanov developed the "Project for the Orthography of the Kyrgyz Literary Language" (1934), the first textbooks of the Kyrgyz language "Okuu kitibi" ("Reading Book," 1924), "Chondor uchun alippe" ("Primer for Adults," 1926), "Bizdin til" ("Our Language," 1927), "Kyrgyz tilinin morfologiyasy" ("Morphology of the Kyrgyz Language," 1934), "Kyrgyz tilinin sintaksisi" ("Syntax of the Kyrgyz Language," 1936). He also compiled a dictionary of linguistic terms, published in 1933.
K. Tynystanov's poems began to be published in the early 1920s in Kazakh newspapers published in Tashkent. The first poetry collection "Kasym dyrynyn jiyinagy" ("Collection of Poems by Kasym") was published in 1925 in Moscow. He was the first among Kyrgyz writers to translate the party anthem "Internationale" and the fables of I. A. Krylov into Kyrgyz.
A member of the CPSU since 1924 and a member of the USSR Writers' Union since 1934.
K. Tynystanov was unjustly repressed in 1938 and posthumously rehabilitated in 1957, reinstated in the ranks of the CPSU in 1957.
SEPARATE PUBLICATIONS
in Kyrgyz language:
Okuu kitibi (in Kyrgyz): For 1st grade schools. —Tashkent: Central Asia Publishing House, 1924. —97 p. Reader in Kyrgyz language.
Kasymdyn yrlarynyn jiyinagy. —M.: Central Publishing House of the USSR Peoples, 1925. — 128 p. Collection of poems.
Okuu-zhazuu bil. —M.: Central Publishing House of the Peoples of the Soviet Union, 1927. — 48 p. Primer for adults.
Ene tili: A book introducing sounds and words in the Kyrgyz language: New letter and 1st edition. —F.: Kyrgyzmamabas, 1928. — 58 p. Our native language.
Zhaicy aiyl: A textbook for 1st grade schools. —F.: 1929. —74 p. New village.
Ene tili: A book introducing sounds and words in the Kyrgyz language. — F.: Kyrgyzmamabas, 1929. — 58 p. Our native language.
Ene tili: A book introducing sounds and words in the Kyrgyz language. —F.: Kyrgyzmamabas, 1930. —52 p. Our native language.
Ene tilimiz: For 1st grade schools and for adult learners. —M.: Central Publishing House of the USSR Peoples: Kyrgyzmamabas, 1931. — 126 p. Our native language.
Til sabagy: Workbook in Kyrgyz language for 2nd graders. — F.; Tashkent: Kyrgyzmamabas, 1932. — 52 p. Workbook in Kyrgyz language.
Kyrgyzdyn adabiy tilinin zany dolboru. — F.: Kyrgyzmamabas, 1934. —44 p. Project for the new orthography of the Kyrgyz literary language.
in Russian language:
Project for the new orthography of the Kyrgyz literary language. — F. Kyrgyzgosizdat, 1934. —44 p.
TRANSLATIONS
Songs of the Revolution. —Pishpek: 1926. —20 p.