Tag: linguistics

On The Mixing Of Languages In Osh

Published on by Mark Jahnke

Osh is unique in many ways, but perhaps one of its most unique aspects is the sheer number of languages that are spoken in its streets. Perhaps only in New York City, New Delhi, Kabul, or Paris are so many languages spoken by so many, but Osh is unique in that so many residents understand every single one of these languages.

Part of this seems to come from Osh’s 3000 year history at the crossroads of trade and empire. Osh’s current demographics reflect some of this history; 48% of its population is Uzbek, 43% Kyrgyz, 3% Russian, 1% Tatar, 1% Tajik, and 4% comes from other linguistic groups, such as Dungans, Karakalpaks, Kazakhs, Uighurs, etc.

Original map from the University of Toronto, with the ethnic group distribution of Central Asia, http://individual.utoronto.ca/s_bahry/Literacy_in_Tajikistan_files/image004.jpg

There are historically two major linguistic groups interacting in Central Asia: the Persian langauges (Farsi, Dari, and Tajik), and the Turkic languages (Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Uiyghur, Turkmen, Azeri, Turkish, Tatar, Karakalpak, and a whole bunch of others). Continue reading “On The Mixing Of Languages In Osh” →

Language Lessons: Kyrgyz Vowel Harmony

Published on by Mark Jahnke

Kyrgyz is an extraordinarily poetic language at times, and nowhere is this more apparent than in its vowel harmony, which is one of the language’s most famous and defining features. But what is it, and how does it work?

Vowel harmony, in essence, is a set of rules that mean that in any truly Kyrgyz word (i.e. isn’t Russian, Persian, Tajik, Uzbek, Arabic, etc.), there will only be two vowels, and they will be of a related sound (i.e. left shift vowels are open-jawed and right-shift vowels are the same sound, with your jaw closed further. Try it with “oh” and “oo” and you can see that your mouth stays mostly in the same position, just closes slightly). It also dictates which vowels will be used in the formation of a suffix. If that sounds confusing, don’t worry. It doesn’t make sense to describe it in text, so I’ll walk us through a few examples. Continue reading “Language Lessons: Kyrgyz Vowel Harmony” →