Karakalpak language

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Karakalpak
Qaraqalpaq tili, Қарақалпақ тілі
Spoken in: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Russia 
Region: Karakalpakstan
Total speakers: 412,000 (1993)
Language family: Altaic
 Turkic
  Kypchak
   Kypchak-Nogay
    Karakalpak 
Official status
Official language of: Karakalpakstan
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: kaa
ISO/FDIS 639-3: kaa 

Map showing locations of Karakalpak (red) within Uzbekistan

Karakalpak is a Turkic language mainly spoken by Karakalpaks in Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan), as well as by Kazakhs, Bashkirs and Nogay. Ethnic Karakalpaks who live in the wiloyatlar of Uzbekistan tend to speak local Uzbek dialects.

Contents

[edit] Classification

Karakalpak is a member of the Kypchak Turkic family of languages, which includes Tatar, Kumyk, and Kazakh in addition to Karakalpak. The Kipchak family is a subgroup of the Turkic languages, which most linguists believe to be member of an Altaic language family. Within the Kipchak Turkic family, Karakalpak is most closely related to Kazakh and Nogai. Due to its proximity to the Uzbek language, much of the vocabulary and grammar has an Uzbek influence.

Like Finnish, Hungarian, and Turkish, Karakalpak has vowel harmony, is agglutinative and has no grammatical gender. Word order is usually Subject Object Verb.

[edit] Geographic Distribution

Karakalpak is spoken mainly in the Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic of Uzbekistan. Approximately 2,000 people in Afghanistan speak Karakalpak and smaller diaspora in other parts of Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and other parts of the world speak Karakalpak as well.

[edit] Official Status

Karakalpak has official status in the Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic.

[edit] Dialects

The Ethnologue identifies two dialects of Karakalpak: Northeastern and Southeastern. Menges mentions a third possible dialect spoken in the Fergana Valley.

[edit] Sounds

[edit] Consonants

Karakalpak has 21 native consonant phonemes and regularly uses 4 non-native phonemes in loan words. Non-native sounds are shown in parentheses.

Consonant phonemes
  Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plosive p b t d     k g q      
Affricate     (ʦ)   (ʧ)              
Fricative (f) (v) s z ʃ ʒ x ɣ     h  
Nasal m n     ŋ        
Flap/Tap     r                
Lateral     l                
Approximant w     j            

[edit] Vowels

Karakalpak vowels

[edit] Vowel Harmony

Vowel harmony functions in Karakalpak much as it does in other Turkic languages. Words borrowed from Russian or other languages may not observe rules of vowel harmony, but the following rules usually apply:

Vowel May be followed by:
a a, ɯ
æ e, i
e e, i
i e, i
o a, o, u, ɯ
œ e, i, œ, y
u a, o, u
y e, œ, y
ɯ a, ɯ

[edit] Vocabulary

[edit] Personal Pronouns

men I, sen you (singular), ol he, she, it, that, biz we, siz you (plural), olar they

[edit] Numbers

bir 1, eki 2, u'sh 3, to'rt 4, bes 5, altı 6, jeti 7, segiz 8, tog'ıs 9, on 10, ju'z 100, mın' 1000

[edit] Writing system

Karakalpak was written in the Arabic alphabet and in Persian until 1928, in the Latin alphabet (with additional characters) from 1928 to 1940, after which the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced. Following Uzbek independence in 1991 the decision was made to drop Cyrillic and to revert to the Latin alphabet. Whilst the use of Latin script is now widespread in Tashkent, its introduction into Karakalpakstan remains gradual. The Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are shown below with their equivalent representations in the IPA. Cyrillic letters with no representation in the Latin alphabet are marked with asterisks.

Cyrillic Latin IPA     Cyrillic Latin IPA     Cyrillic Latin IPA
Аа Aa a     Ққ Qq q     Фф Ff f
Әә A'a' æ     Лл Ll l     Хх Xx x
Бб Bb b     Мм Mm m     Ҳҳ Hh h
Вв Vv v     Нн Nn n     Цц* ts ʦ
Гг Gg g     Ңң N'n' ŋ     Чч* sh ʧ
Ғғ G'g' ɣ     Оо Oo o     Шш SHsh ʃ
Дд Dd d     Өө O'o' œ     Щщ* sh ʃ
Ее Ee e     Пп Pp p     Ъъ*    
Ёё* yo jo     Рр Rr r     Ыы ɯ
Жж Jj ʒ     Сс Ss s     Ьь*    
Зз Zz z     Тт Tt t     Ээ Ee e
Ии İi i     Уу Uu u     Юю* yu ju
Йй Yy j     Үү U'u' y     Яя ya ja
Кк Kk k     Ўў Ww w          

[edit] References

Menges, Karl H. (1947). Qaraqałpaq Grammar. Morningside Heights, New York: King's Crown Press.

Johanson, Lars and Csató, Éva Ágnes (1998). The Turkic Languages. London: Routledge.

[edit] External links

v  d  e
Turkic languages
West Turkic
Bolgar Bolgar* | Chuvash | Hunnic* | Khazar*
Chagatay Aini2| Chagatay* | Ili Turki | Lop | Uyghur | Uzbek
Kypchak Baraba | Bashkir | Crimean Tatar1 | Cuman* | Karachay-Balkar | Karaim | Karakalpak | Kazakh | Kipchak* | Krymchak | Kumyk | Nogay | Tatar | Urum1
Oghuz Afshar | Azerbaijani | Crimean Tatar1 | Gagauz | Khorasani Turkish | Ottoman Turkish* | Pecheneg* | Qashqai | Salar | Turkish | Turkmen | Urum1
East Turkic
Khalaj Khalaj
Kyrgyz-Kypchak Altay | Kyrgyz
Uyghur Chulym | Dolgan | Fuyü Gïrgïs | Khakas | Northern Altay | Shor | Tofa | Tuvan | Western Yugur | Sakha / Yakut
Old Turkic*
Notes: 1 Listed in more than one group, 2 Mixed language, * Extinct