| Kyrgyz | |
|---|---|
| Кыргыз тили قىرعىز تىلى | |
 Kyrgyz written in Cyrillic and Perso-Arabic scripts | |
| Pronunciation | [qɯɾʁɯzˈtʃɑ] |
| Native to | Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, China |
| Region | Central Asia |
| Ethnicity | Kyrgyz |
Native speakers | 5.15 million (2009 census)[1] |
Turkic
| |
| Dialects | |
| Kyrgyz alphabets (Cyrillic script, Perso-Arabic script, Kyrgyz Braille) Historically, Old Turkic script | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Kyrgyzstan China
|
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ky |
| ISO 639-2 | kir |
| ISO 639-3 | kir |
| Glottolog | kirg1245 |
| Linguasphere | 44-AAB-cd |
 Places where Kyrgyz is spoken | |
Kyrgyz[i] 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.
Kyrgyz was originally written in Göktürk script,[2] gradually replaced by the Perso-Arabic alphabet (in use until 1928 in the USSR, still in use in China). Between 1928 and 1940, a Latin-script alphabet, the Uniform Turkic Alphabet, was used. In 1940, Soviet authorities replaced the Latin script with the Cyrillic alphabet for all Turkic languages on its territory. When Kyrgyzstan became independent following the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, a plan to adopt the Latin alphabet became popular. Although the plan has not been implemented, it remains in occasional discussion.[3]
- ^ Kyrgyz at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Кызласов И. Л., Рунические письменности евразийских степей (Kyzlasov I.L. Runic scripts of Eurasian steppes), Восточная литература (Eastern Literature), Moscow, 1994, pp. 80 on, ISBN 978-5-02-017741-3, with further bibliography.
- ^ Altynbayev, Kanat. "Kyrgyzstan considers switch to Latin alphabet from Cyrillic". Caravanserai. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
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