It’s been a while since I did anything about Kyrgyz grammar, but this week, I wanted to explain something that’s both simple and complicated at the same time: Plurals. Let’s take a look! Continue reading “Language Lessons: Plurals in Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Turkish”
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.
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”
