Basic Information about the Kyrgyz Language
The Kyrgyz language is the state language of the Kyrgyz Republic. According to the latest census (2016), the number of people in the country who consider Kyrgyz their native language exceeds 4 million. Additionally, Kyrgyz is spoken by ethnic Kyrgyz living in Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Turkey, and other countries. The Kyrgyz language includes not only the literary normative language but also dialects and colloquial speech. There are three major dialects of the Kyrgyz language: northern, southeastern, and southwestern, within which local varieties and sub-dialects are distinguished. The northern dialect covers the northern part of Kyrgyzstan, including the Naryn, Talas, Issyk-Kul, and Chui regions, while the southeastern and southwestern dialects cover the territory of southeastern and southwestern Kyrgyzstan.
The first classification of Kyrgyz dialects was made by I. A. Batmanov in 1938. In his work "Northern Dialects of the Kyrgyz Language," I. A. Batmanov divides Kyrgyz dialects into northern and southern groups. He further subdivides the northern dialects into separate territorial varieties based on geographical and linguistic criteria: Talas-Chatkal dialects, dialects of the lower Chui Valley, dialects of the northern shores of Issyk-Kul (from Kungoy Ala-Too to Tyup), dialects of the Issyk-Kul basin, Naryn dialect, Atbash dialect, and dialects of the Kochkor and Jumgal valleys. In the south, the scholar separately identifies the group of içkiliks but does not give a specific name to its dialects. K. K. Yudakhin (1944) adheres to the same classification (northern and southern dialects with the içklik subgroup), highlighting not only territorial but also tribal dialects. B. M. Yunusaliev divides Kyrgyz dialects into three groups: 1. Northern, which includes the Talas dialect, Chui-Tian-Shan dialect, northern dialects of the Issyk-Kul valley, as well as a mixed dialect (bordering between northern and southern dialects) spoken by Kyrgyz living in the Ketmen-Tyube and Toguz-Torou valleys; 2. Southeastern (southern and northwestern dialects); 3. Southwestern (içklik dialect).
The classifications by J. Mukambayev, E. Abduldayev, and other dialectologists do not contradict each other but rather complement and clarify the classification features of Kyrgyz dialects. The differences between dialects within the same group are minor, so there is no misunderstanding among dialect speakers.
The main norms of the literary language were formed based on the northern dialect. The Kyrgyz language belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages. However, it possesses many features that are not characteristic of other Kipchak-Turkic languages.
For example, it has the laws of labial vowel harmony typical for the Altai language, the lexemes lack the phonemes v, f, hu, as in the Altai language, etc.
Therefore, N. A. Baskakov distinguishes the Kyrgyz and Altai languages into one subgroup, calling it the Kyrgyz-Kipchak subgroup of Turkic languages.
According to the refined classification of Turkic languages using morphological linguostatistics (Murdak, 2002, pp. 727-729, 733, 734, 737): Kyrgyz, along with Altai, Khakas, Shor, Chulym, Sargyugur, Tuvan, Tofalar, and Yakut languages, form a special group of Siberian languages.
The Kyrgyz language has a complex and lengthy history of formation and development. Its evolution is closely linked to the history and culture of the people mentioned in historical sources as early as the 2nd century BC.
The substrate of the modern Kyrgyz language, according to N. A. Baskakov, consisted of "ancient Kyrgyz dialects of the Yenisei Kyrgyz, mixed in their ethnic composition, which left such language monuments as ancient Yenisei inscriptions" (Baskakov, 1969, p. 225), "the ancient Kyrgyz language - the language of the ancient Kyrgyz who lived on the Yenisei and led a large tribal union, leaving monuments of their writing in the form of tomb inscriptions - epitaphs" (Baskakov, 1969, p. 339). The ancient Kyrgyz language, possessing common features with the ancient Oghuz and ancient Uyghur languages, also had its characteristic features, which S. E. Malov pointed out. As he noted, the ancestors of modern Tofalars, Tuvans, Yakuts, and Khakas were closely related to the Kyrgyz, as well as the Kimaks and Kipchaks. All these peoples, except for the Kyrgyz themselves, Kimaks, and Kipchaks, have preserved ancient features of their languages to this day; in particular, all of them belong to the so-called d/t -> z/s languages, in contrast to the older r-languages and the newer i-languages.
E. R. Tenishev asserts that the ancient Kyrgyz literary language (8th—12th centuries), known from the monuments of runic writing in the Yenisei basin, was a d-language (adaq, - leg, tsod - to put). The scholar believes that the ancient Kyrgyz literary language did not coincide with the colloquial language. They occupied positions of distant kinship: "...if the literary language was a d-language, then the colloquial language was a z-language (azats - leg, koz - to put)" (Tenishev, 1997, p. 5).
There is no consensus regarding the history of the development of the Kyrgyz language, but researchers generally agree on one point - it was formed in the environment of Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia and Southern Siberia. Thus, Prof. B. M. Yunusaliev asserts that "in its main features, the common Kyrgyz (or national Kyrgyz) language was formed during the prolonged community of ancestors - carriers of the modern Kyrgyz language and the southern Altai dialect" (Yunusaliev, 1959, p. 33).
B. M. Yunusaliev identified three main stages in the development and formation of the language: 1) ancient Kyrgyz language - until the 9th-10th centuries; 2) Kyrgyz language in the 10th-16th centuries; 3) modern Kyrgyz language - from the 16th century to the present day. Academics B. O. Oruzbaeva (Oruzbaeva, 2004, p. 119), E. R. Tenishev (Tenishev, 1997, p. 28) consider the history of the language's development in three periods: Yenisei-Irtysh (5th-12th centuries) - ancient; Altai (13th-14th centuries) - middle; Tian-Shan (15th-16th centuries) - new. The established scientific opinion on the three stages of language development requires further clarification with the involvement of data from history, geography, archaeology, and linguistics. Nevertheless, scholars agree that the formation of the modern national language coincides with the period of the formation of the modern ethnicity and settlement in the current territory (early 15th century and late 16th century).
History of the Kyrgyz Literary Language
Ancient Manuscript Tradition in Kyrgyzstan
Ancient Kyrgyz Language. Morphology
Ancient Kyrgyz Language. Phonetics