Fuyu Kyrgyz language

Not to be confused with Kyrgyz language.
Fuyu Kyrgyz
Fuyü Gïrgïs
Gĭrgĭs
Pronunciation[qərʁəs]
Native toChina
RegionHeilongjiang
Ethnicity880 Fuyu Kyrgyz[1]
Native speakers
10 (2007)[1]
Turkic
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
kjh-fyk
Glottologfuyu1243
ELPManchurian Kirghiz
Manchurian Kirghiz is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Fuyu Kyrgyz (Fuyü Gïrgïs, Fu-Yu Kirgiz), also known as Manchurian Kirghiz, is a critically endangered Turkic language, and as gɨr.gɨs, Gïrgïs, Kyrgysdar is an ethnonym of the Turkic unrecognized ethnic group in China.[4] Despite the name, the Fuyu Kyrgyz language is not closely related to the Kyrgyz language, which is of Kipchak origin. The Fuyu Kyrgyz language is more similar to the Western Yugur language and the Abakan Turkic languages.[5] The Fuyu Kyrgyz were relocated from the present day Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture by the Qing government nearly 200 years ago.[6]

In 1761, after the Dzungars were defeated by the Qing, a group of Yenisei Kirghiz were deported (along with some Öelet or Oirat-speaking Dzungars) to the Nonni (Nen) river basin in Manchuria/Northeast China.[7][8] The Kyrgyz in Manchuria became known as the Fuyu Kyrgyz, but many have become merged into the Mongol and Chinese population. Chinese[clarification needed] and Oirat replaced Oirat and Kirghiz during the period of Manchukuo as the dual languages of the Nonni-based Kyrgyz.[9]

The Fuyu Kyrgyz language is now spoken in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province, in and around Fuyu County, Qiqihar (300 km northwest of Harbin) by a small number of passive speakers who are classified as Kyrgyz nationality.[10] Fuyu County as a whole has 1,400 Fuyu Kyrgyz people.[11]

  1. ^ a b Khakas at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Brown & Ogilvie 2010, p. 1109.
  3. ^ Johanson & Johanson 2003, p. 83.
  4. ^ Hu & Imart 1987.
  5. ^ Hölzl, Andreas (2018). A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond: An ecological perspective. Language Science Press. p. 331. doi:10.5281/zenodo.1344467. ISBN 978-3-96110-102-3. "Despite its name, Fuyu Kyrgyz, spoken in the Helojiang province of Northeastern China, is more closely related to Yellow Uyghur and the other Yenisei Turkic languages than to Kyrgyz as such, which belongs to the Kipchak branch."
  6. ^ Schlesinger, Jonathan (March 18, 2021). "Rethinking Qing Manchuria's Prohibition Policies". Journal of Chinese History. 5 (2): 245–262. doi:10.1017/jch.2020.52. ISSN 2059-1632.
  7. ^ Janhunen 1996, pp. 111–112.
  8. ^ Wurm, Mühlhäusler & Tryon 2011, p. 831.
  9. ^ Janhunen 1996, p. 59.
  10. ^ Hu & Imart 1987, p. 1.
  11. ^ Fuyu County Civil Affairs Bureau 2021.