Kyrgyz language - Definition and Overview

Wikipedia articles written in this language are located at the

Kyrgyz language Wikipedia

Kyrgyz, also Kirghiz (Кыргыз тили), is a Northwestern Turkic language, and, together with Russian, makes up the official languages of Kyrgyzstan. Its ISO 639 codes are kir and ky. It is close enough to Kazakh that they can be mistaken for each other.

Kyrgyz is spoken by about 5 millions persons in China, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey (Asia) and Uzbekistan. Kyrgyz is written in modified Cyrillic (Kyrgyzstan) and modified Arabic (China) scripts. A Latin script was used between 1928 and 1940 in Kyrgyzstan, and is enjoying official endorsement again, but actual use is sporadic and inconsistent.

The modified Cyrillic alphabet includes these additions:

А Б (В) Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү (Ф) Х Ц Ч Ш Щ (Ъ) Ы (Ь) Э Ю Я

See also: Kyrgyz people