Kazakh language

Kazakh
Kazakh
қазақ тілі; qazaq tili; Template:Rtl-lang
Pronunciation	[qɑˈzɑq tɘˈlɘ]
Native to	Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan
Region	Turkestan, Dzungaria, Anatolia, Khorasan, Fergana Valley
Native speakers	15 million (2016)
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak Kipchak–Nogai Kazakh; ; ; ;
Writing system	Kazakh alphabets (Cyrillic script, Latin, Arabic script, Kazakh Braille)
Official status
Official language in	Kazakhstan; Russia Altai Republic; China Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture; Collective Security Treaty Organization;
Regulated by	Kazakh language agency
Language codes
ISO 639-1	kk
ISO 639-2	kaz
ISO 639-3	kaz
Glottolog	kaza1248
Linguasphere	44-AAB-cc
	The Kazakh-speaking world: regions where Kazakh is the language of the majority regions where Kazakh is the language of a significant minority
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Kazakh (natively қазақ тілі, қазақша, qazaq tili, qazaqşa, Template:Rtl-lang, Template:Rtl-lang; pronounced [qɑˈzɑq tɘˈlɘ]) belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages. It is closely related to Nogai, Kyrgyz, and especially Karakalpak. Kazakh is the official language of the Republic of Kazakhstan and a significant minority language in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, China and in the Bayan-Ölgii Province of Mongolia. Kazakh is also spoken by many ethnic Kazakhs through the former Soviet Union (approximately 500,000 in Russia according to the 2002 Russian Census), Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, and Germany.

Like other Turkic languages, Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony.

Geographic distribution

The Kazakh language has its speakers (mainly Kazakhs) spread over a vast territory from the Tian Shan to the western shore of Caspian Sea. Kazakh is the official state language of Kazakhstan, in which nearly 10 million speakers are reported to live (based on the CIA World Factbook's estimates for population and percentage of Kazakh speakers). In China, more than one million ethnic Kazakhs and Kazakh speakers reside in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang.

Writing system

Today, Kazakh is written in Cyrillic in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, while more than one million Kazakh-speakers in China use an Arabic-derived alphabet similar to the one that is used to write Uyghur.

The oldest known written records of languages closely related to Kazakh were written in the Old Turkic alphabet. However, it is not believed that any of these varieties were direct predecessors of Kazakh. Modern Kazakh has historically been written using versions of the Latin, Cyrillic and Arabic scripts.

In October 2006, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the President of Kazakhstan, brought up the topic of using the Latin alphabet instead of the Cyrillic alphabet as the official script for Kazakh in Kazakhstan.^[2]^[3] A Kazakh government study released in September 2007 said that Kazakhstan could feasibly switch to a Latin script over a 10- to 12-year period, for a cost of $300 million.^[4] The transition was halted temporarily on December 13, 2007, with President Nazarbayev declaring: “For 70 years the Kazakhstanis read and wrote in Cyrillic. More than 100 nationalities live in our state. Thus we need stability and peace. We should be in no hurry in the issue of alphabet transformation”.^[5] However, on January 30, 2015, the Minister of Culture and Sports Arystanbek Mukhamediuly announced that a transition plan was underway, with specialists working on the orthography in order to accommodate the phonological aspects of the language.^[6] On April 12, 2017, President Nazarbayev ordered the authorities to transcribe the Kazakh alphabet into Latin by the end of the year, thereby signalling the end of the Cyrillic alphabet as the official script for Kazakh.^[7]^[8]

Cyrillic script	Arabic script	Latin script	English translation
Барлық адамдар тумасынан азат және қадыр-қасиеті мен құқтары тең болып дүниеге келеді. Адамдарға ақыл-парасат, ар-ождан берілген, сондықтан олар бір-бірімен туыстық, бауырмалдық қарым-қатынас жасаулары тиіс.	بارلىق ادامدار تۋمىسىنان ازات جانە قادىر-قاسيەتى مەن كۇقىقتارى تەڭ بولىپ دۇنيەگە كەلەدى. ادامدارعا اقىل-پاراسات، ار-وجدان بەرىلگەن، سوندىقتان ولار ٴبىر-بىرىمەن تۋىستىق، باۋىرمالدىق قارىم-قاتىناس جاساۋلارى ٴتيىس.‎	Barlık adamdar tuwmasınan azat jäne kadır-kasıyeti men kuktarı teŋ bolıp düniyege keledi. Adamdarga akıl-parasat, ar-ojdan berilgen, sondıktan olar bir-birimen tuwıstık, bawırmaldık karım-katınas jasawları tiyis.	All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Phonology

Kazakh exhibits tongue-root vowel harmony, with some words of recent foreign origin (usually of Russian or Arabic origin) as exceptions. There is also a system of rounding harmony which resembles that of Kyrgyz, but which does not apply as strongly and is not reflected in the orthography.

Consonants

The following chart depicts the consonant inventory of standard Kazakh;^[9] many of the sounds, however, are allophones of other sounds or appear only in recent loan-words. The 18 consonant phonemes listed by Vajda are in bold—since these are phonemes, their listed place and manner of articulation are very general, and will vary from what is shown. The borrowed phonemes /f/, /v/, /ɕ/, /t͡ɕ/ and /x/, only occur in recent mostly Russian borrowings, and are shown in parentheses [ ] in the table below.

In the table, the elements left of a divide are voiceless, while those to the right are voiced.

Kazakh consonant phonemes
	Labials		Dental/ Alveolar		Palato- alveolar		Alveolo- palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Nasal	m ⟨м⟩		n ⟨н⟩					ŋ ⟨ң⟩
Plosive	p ⟨п⟩	b ⟨б⟩	t ⟨т⟩	d ⟨д⟩				k ⟨к⟩	ɡ ⟨г⟩	q ⟨қ⟩
Affricate							[t͡ɕ] ⟨ч⟩
Fricative	[f] ⟨ф⟩	[v] ⟨в⟩	s ⟨с⟩	z ⟨з⟩	ʃ ⟨ш⟩	ʒ ⟨ж⟩	[ɕ] ⟨щ⟩	[x] ⟨х⟩			ʁ ⟨ғ⟩	h ⟨һ⟩
Approximant			l ⟨л⟩				j ⟨й⟩	w ⟨у⟩
Trill			r ⟨р⟩

Vowels

Kazakh has a system of nine phonemic vowels, three of which are diphthongs. The rounding contrast and /æ/ generally only occur as phonemes in the first syllable of a word, but do occur later allophonically; see the section on harmony below for more information.

According to Vajda, the front/back quality of vowels is actually one of neutral versus retracted tongue root.^{[citation needed]}

Per convention, rounded vowels are presented to the right of their unrounded counterparts. Phonetic values are paired with the corresponding character in Kazakh's Cyrillic alphabet.

Kazakh vowel phonemes
	−RTR ("Front")		+RTR ("Back")
Diphthongised	/i̯ɘ/, ⟨е⟩	/œ~ø/, ⟨ө⟩		/u̯o/, ⟨о⟩
Close	/ɘ~ɪ/, ⟨i⟩	/ʉ/, ⟨ү⟩	/ə/, ⟨ы⟩	/ʊ/, ⟨ұ⟩
Open	/æ/, ⟨ә⟩		/ɑ/, ⟨а⟩

Morphology and Syntax

Kazakh is generally verb-final, though various permutations on SOV (subject–object–verb) word order can be used.^[10] Inflectional and derivational morphology, both verbal and nominal, in Kazakh, exists almost exclusively in the form of agglutinative suffixes. Kazakh is a nominative-accusative, head-final, left-branching, dependent-marking language.

Declension of nouns
Case	Morpheme	Possible forms	кеме "ship"	ауа "air"	шелек "bucket"	сәбіз "carrot"	бас "head"	тұз "salt"
Nom	—	—	кеме	ауа	шелек	сәбіз	бас	тұз
Acc	-NI	-ні, -ны, -ді, -ды, -ті, -ты, -н	кемені	ауаны	шелекті	сәбізді	басты	тұзды
Gen	-NIŋ	-нің, -ның, -дің, -дың, -тің, -тың	кеменің	ауаның	шелектің	сәбіздің	бастың	тұздың
Dat	-GA	-ге, -ға, -ке, -қа, -не, -на	кемеге	ауаға	шелекке	сәбізге	басқа	тұзға
Loc	-DA	-де, -да, -те, -та	кемеде	ауада	шелекте	сәбізде	баста	тұзда
Abl	-DAn	-ден, -дан, -тен, -тан, -нен, -нан	кемеден	ауадан	шелектен	сәбізден	бастан	тұздан
Inst	-Men	-мен(ен) -бен(ен) -пен(ен)	кемемен	ауамен	шелекпен	сәбізбен	баспен	тұзбен

Pronouns

Kazakh has eight personal pronouns:

Personal pronouns
Singular		Plural
Kazakh (transliteration)	English	Kazakh (transliteration)	English
Мен (Men)	I	Біз (Biz)	We
Сен (Sen)	You (singular informal)	Сендер (Sender)	You (plural informal)
Сіз (Siz)	You (singular formal)	Сіздер (Sizder)	You (plural formal)
Ол (Ol)	He/She/It	Олар (Olar)	They

The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart. Singular pronouns (with the exception of сіз, which used to be plural) exhibit irregularities, while plural pronouns don't. Irregular forms are highlighted in bold.

Declension of pronouns
Nom	мен	сен	сіз	ол	біз	сендер	сіздер	олар
Acc	мені	сені	сізді	оны	бізді	сендерді	сіздерді	оларды
Gen	менің	сенің	сіздің	оның	біздің	сендердің	сіздердің	олардың
Dat	маған	саған	сізге	оған	бізге	сендерге	сіздерге	оларға
Loc	менде	сенде	сізде	онда	бізде	сендерде	сіздерде	оларда
Abl	менен	сенен	сізден	одан	бізден	сендерден	сіздерден	олардан
Inst	менімен	сенімен	сізбен	онымен	бізбен	сендермен	сіздермен	олармен

In addition to the pronouns, there are several more sets of morphemes dealing with person.

Morphemes indicating person
	pronouns	copulas	possessive endings	past/conditional
1st sg	мен	-MIn	-(I)m	-(I)m
2nd sg	сен	-sIŋ	-(I)ŋ	-(I)ŋ
2nd formal sg	сіз	-sIz	-(I)ŋIz	-(I)ŋIz
3rd sg	ол	—	-(s)I(n)	—
1st pl	біз	-MIz	-(I)mIz	-(I)K
2nd pl	сендер	-sIŋdAr	-(I)ŋ	-(I)ŋ
2nd formal pl	сіздер	-sIzdAr	-(I)ŋIz	-(I)nIz
3rd pl	олар	—	-(s)I(n)	—

Tense, aspect and mood

Kazakh may express different combinations of tense, aspect and mood through the use of various verbal morphology or through a system of auxiliary verbs, many of which might better be considered light verbs. The present tense is a prime example of this; progressive tense in Kazakh is formed with one of four possible auxiliaries. These auxiliaries "отыр" (sit), "тұр" (stand), "жүр" (go) and "жат" (lie), encode various shades of meaning of how the action is carried out and also interact with the lexical semantics of the root verb: telic and non-telic actions, semelfactives, durative and non-durative, punctual, etc. There are selectional restrictions on auxiliaries: motion verbs, such as бару (go) and келу (come) may not combine with "отыр". Any verb, however, can combine with "жат" (lie) to get a progressive tense meaning.

Progressive Aspect in the Kazakh Present Tense
Kazakh	Aspect	English translation
Жеймін	non-progressive	"I eat."
Жеп жатырмын	progressive	"I am eating [right now]."
Жеп отырмын	progressive/durative	"I am [sitting and] eating." / "I have been eating."
Жеп тұрмын	progressive/punctual	"I am [in the middle of] eating [this very minute]."
Жеп жүрмін	habitual	"I eat [lunch, everyday]"

While it is possible to think that different categories of aspect govern the choice of auxiliary, it is not so straightforward in Kazakh. Auxiliaries are internally sensitive to the lexical semantics of predicates, for example, verbs describing motion:

Selectional Restrictions on Kazakh Auxiliaries

Kazakh	Gloss	Auxiliary Used	English translation
Суда балық жүзеді Suw-da balıq jüz-e-di	water-LOC fish swim-PRES-3	Ø (present/future tense used)	"Fish swim in water" (general statement)
Суда балық жүзіп жатыр suw-da balıq jüz-ip jatır	water-LOC fish swim-CNVB AUX.3	жат－ to lie, general marker for progressive aspect.	"The/A fish is swimming in the water"
Суда балық жүзіп жүр suw-da balıq jüz-ip jür	water-LOC fish swim-CNVB AUX.3	жүр – "go", dynamic/habitual/iterative	"The fish is swimming [as it always does] in the water"
Суда балық жүзіп тұр suw-da balıq jüz-ip tur	water-LOC fish swim-CNVB AUX.3	тұр – "stand", progressive marker to show the swimming is punctual	"The fish is swimming in the water"
* Суда балық жүзіп отыр suw-da balıq jüz-ip otır	water-LOC fish swim-CNVB AUX.3	отыр – "sit", ungrammatical in this sentence, отыр can only be used for verbs that are stative in nature	The fish has been swimming Not a possible sentence of Kazakh*

In addition to the complexities of the progressive tense, there are many auxiliary-converb pairs that encode a range of aspectual, modal, volitional, evidential and action- modificational meanings. For example, the pattern -ып көру, with the auxiliary verb көру (see), indicates that the subject of the verb attempted or tried to do something (compare the Japanese てみる temiru construction).

Annotated text with gloss

Meniñ Qazaqstanım

Менің Қазақстаным	Meniñ Qazaqstan-ım	My Kazakhstan
Алтын күн аспаны	altın kün aspan-ı	The golden sun in the sky
[ɑltən kʉn ɑspɑˈnə]	gold sun sky-3.POSS
Алтын дән даласы	altın dän dala-sı	The golden corn of the steppe
[altən dæn dɑlɑˈsə]	gold corn steppe-3.POSS
Ерліктің дастаны	erlik-tiñ dastan-ı	The legend of courage
[jerlɘkˈtɘŋ dɑstɑˈnə]	courage legend-GEN epic-3.POSS-NOM
Еліме қарашы!	el-im-e qara-şı	Just look at my country!
[jɘlɘˈmʲe qɑrɑˈʃə]	country-1SG.ACC look-IMP
Ежелден ер деген	ejel-den er de-gen	Called heroes since time in memorium
[jɘʑʲɘlˈdʲen jɘr dʲɪˈɡʲen]	antiquity-ABL hero say-PTCP.PST
Даңқымыз шықты ғой	dañq-ımız şıq-tı ğoj	Our glory, emerged!
[dɑɴqəˈməz ʃəqˈtə ʁoj]	glory-1PL.POSS.NOM emerge-PST.3 EMPH
Намысын бермеген	namys-ı-n ber-me-gen	Without losing their honor
[nɑməˈsən bʲermʲeˈɡʲen]	honor-3.POSS-ACC give-NEG-PTCP.PST
Қазағым мықты ғой	Qazağ-ım mıqtı ğoj	Mighty are my Kazakh people!
[qɑzɑˈʁəm məqˈtə ʁoj]	Kazakh-1SG.POSS strong EMPH
Менің елім, менің елім	meniñ el-im, meniñ el-im	My country, my country
[mʲɘˈnɘŋ jɘˈlɪm, mʲɘˈnɘŋ jɘˈlɪm]	1SG.GEN my country (2x)-1SG.NOM
Гүлің болып, егілемін	gül-iñ bol-ıp, e.g.-il-e-min	As your flower, I am rooted in you
[ɡʉˈlɘŋ boˈləp, jɘɡɘlʲɘˈmɪn]	flower-2SG.NOM be-CNVB, root-PASS-PRES-1SG
Жырың болып төгілемін, елім	jır-ıñ bol-ıp, tög-il-e-min, el-im	As your song, I will be sung abound
[ʒəˈrəŋ boˈləp tœɡɪlˈʲɘmɪn, jɘˈlɪm]	song-2SG.NOM be-CNVB, sing-PASS-PRES-1SG, country-1SG.POSS.NOM
Туған жерім менің – Қазақстаным	tuw-ğan jer-im meniñ – Qazaqstan-ım	My native land – My Kazakhstan
[tuwˈʁan ʒeˈrɪm mʲɘnɘŋ qɑzɑqˈstɑnəm]	birth-PTCP-PST place-1SG.POSS.NOM 1SG.GEN – Kazakhstan-1SG.POSS.NOM

References

^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2016-02-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ Kazakhstan switching to Latin alphabet
^ Kazakh President Revives Idea of Switching to Latin Script
^ Kazakhstan: Moving Forward With Plan to Replace Cyrillic With Latin Alphabet
^ Kazakhstan should be in no hurry in Kazakh alphabet transformation to Latin: Nazarbayev, Kazinform, December 13, 2007
^ "Kazakh language to be converted to Latin alphabet – MCS RK". Kazinform. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
^ "Kazakh President Orders Shift Away From Cyrillic Alphabet". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
^ From Я to R: How To Change A Country's Alphabet -- And How Not To Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (www.rferl.org). May 16, 2017. Retrieved on 2017-05-18.
^ Some variations occur in the different regions where Kazakh is spoken, including outside Kazakhstan; e.g. ж / ج (where a Perso-Arabic script similar to the current Uyghur alphabet is used) is read [ʒ] in standard Kazakh, but [d͡ʒ] in some places.
^ Beltranslations.com

External links

Online Kazakh cyrillic transliteration www.cesty.in
Kazakh language, alphabet and pronunciation
Aliya S. Kuzhabekova, "Past, Present and Future of Language Policy in Kazakhstan" (M.A. thesis, University of North Dakota, 2003)
Kazakh Cyrillic–Latin–Arabic converter
Russian–Kazakh Kazakh–Russian dictionary
Kazakh language recordings, British Library
Kazakh - Apertium
Kazakh<>Turkish Dictionary
Kazakhstan in the CIA World Factbook
US Peace Corps Kazakh Language Courses transcribed to HTML

[1] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2016-02-19. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[2] Kazakhstan switching to Latin alphabet

[3] Kazakh President Revives Idea of Switching to Latin Script

[4] Kazakhstan: Moving Forward With Plan to Replace Cyrillic With Latin Alphabet

[5] Kazakhstan should be in no hurry in Kazakh alphabet transformation to Latin: Nazarbayev, Kazinform, December 13, 2007

[6] "Kazakh language to be converted to Latin alphabet – MCS RK". Kazinform. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2015.

[7] "Kazakh President Orders Shift Away From Cyrillic Alphabet". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 2017-04-12.

[8] From Я to R: How To Change A Country's Alphabet -- And How Not To Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (www.rferl.org). May 16, 2017. Retrieved on 2017-05-18.

[9] Some variations occur in the different regions where Kazakh is spoken, including outside Kazakhstan; e.g. ж / ج (where a Perso-Arabic script similar to the current Uyghur alphabet is used) is read [ʒ] in standard Kazakh, but [d͡ʒ] in some places.

[10] Beltranslations.com

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