Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Kyrgyz

SOURCE

Permanent Mission of the Kyrgyz Republic to the United Nations Office in Geneva

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Kyrgyz

Language Profile

TOTAL SPEAKERS

2,631,420

USAGE BY COUNTRY (OFFICIAL LANGUAGE)

Official Language: Kyrgystan Home Speakers: Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, China and Afghanistan

BACKGROUND

Kyrgyz is spoken principally in the Kyrgyz Republic, which borders on China. Like Turkmen, Uzbek, and Kazakh, it is one of the Turkic languages, belonging to the Altaic family of languages (Kipchak branch). Kyrgyz was written in the Arabic script until 1928 when the Latin alphabet was introduced, which in turn was replaced by the Cyrillic in 1940. The names 'Eastern Kyrgyz' and 'Western Kyrgyz' have been erroneously applied to Kazakh.