Karakalpak language

Karakalpak (Karakalpak: Qaralqalpaq tili) is a Turkic language spoken by Karakalpaks in Karakalpakstan. It is divided into two dialects, Northeastern Karakalpak and Southwestern Karakalpak. It developed alongside Noghai and neighbouring Kazakh languages, being markedly influenced by both. Typologically, Karakalpak belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, thus being closely related to and highly mutually intelligible with Kazakh and Noghai.^[2][3][4]

Karakalpak
Qaraqalpaq tili, Қарақалпақ тили, قاراقالپاق تىلى
Karakalpak in Latin, Cyrillic, and Perso-Arabic Nastaliq scripts.
Native to	Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan,Karakalpakstan
Region	Republic of Karakalpakstan
Ethnicity	Karakalpaks
Native speakers	870,000 (2019)^[1]
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak Kipchak–Nogai Karakalpak
Writing system	Karakalpak alphabet (Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic script)
Official status
Official language in	Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	kaa
ISO 639-3	kaa
Glottolog	kara1467
Map showing locations of Karakalpak (red) within Uzbekistan
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.

Classification

Karakalpak is a member of the Kipchak branch of Turkic languages, which includes Kazakh, Bashkir, Tatar, Kumyk, Karachay, Nogai and Kyrgyz. Due to its proximity to Turkmen and Uzbek, some of Karakalpak's vocabulary and grammar has been influenced by Uzbek and Turkmen. Like the vast majority of Turkic languages, Karakalpak has vowel harmony, is agglutinative and has no grammatical gender. Word order is usually subject–object–verb.

Geographic distribution

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

Official status

Karakalpak has official status in the Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic.

Dialects

Ethnologue identifies two dialects of Karakalpak: Northeastern and Southwestern. Menges mentions a third possible dialect spoken in the Fergana Valley. The Southwestern dialect has /tʃ/ for the Northeastern /ʃ/.

Phonology

Karakalpak has 25 native consonant phonemes and regularly uses four non-native phonemes in loan words. Non-native sounds are shown in parentheses.

 

Karakalpak vowels, from Menges (1947:?)

Consonants

		Labials	Alveolar	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m ⟨m/м⟩	n ⟨n/н⟩		ŋ ⟨ń/ң⟩
Stop	voiceless	p ⟨p/п⟩	t ⟨t/т⟩		k ⟨k/к⟩	q ⟨q/қ⟩
	voiced	b ⟨b/б⟩	d ⟨d/д⟩		ɡ ⟨g/г⟩
Affricate			(t͡s ⟨c/ц⟩)	(t͡ʃ ⟨ch/ч⟩)
Fricative	voiceless	(f ⟨f/ф⟩)	s ⟨s/с⟩	ʃ ⟨sh/ш⟩	x ⟨x/х⟩		h ⟨h/ҳ⟩
	voiced	(v ⟨v/в⟩)	z ⟨z/з⟩	ʒ ⟨j/ж⟩	ɣ ⟨ǵ/ғ⟩
Approximant			l ⟨l/л⟩	j ⟨y/й⟩	w ⟨w/ў⟩
Rhotic			r ⟨r/р⟩

Vowels

	Front		Back
	spread	rounded	spread	rounded
Close	i ⟨i/и⟩	y ⟨ú/ү⟩	ɯ ⟨ı/ы⟩	u ⟨u/у⟩
Mid	e ⟨e/е⟩	œ ⟨ó/ө⟩		o ⟨o/о⟩
Open	æ ⟨á/ә⟩		a ⟨a/а⟩

Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony functions in Karakalpak much as it does^{[clarification needed]} in other Turkic languages. Words borrowed from Russian or other languages may not observe rules of vowel harmony, but the following rules usually apply:^{[What are the rules for Karakalpak words?]}

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

Vocabulary

Personal pronouns

	Singular	Plural
1st person	мен/men 'I'	бизлер/bizler 'we'
2nd person	сен/sen 'you'	сизлер/sizler 'you (pl.)'
3rd person	ол/ol 'he/she/it'	олар/olar 'they'

Numbers

1. бир – bir – 1
2. еки – eki – 2
3. үш – úsh – 3
4. төрт – tórt – 4
5. бес – bes – 5
6. алты – altı – 6
7. жети – jeti – 7
8. сегиз – segiz – 8
9. тоғыз – toǵız – 9
10. он – on – 10

• жүз – júz – 100
• мың – mıń – 1000
• миллион – million – 1000000

Writing system

 

March 2006. A photo laboratory in Nukus – with the signboard written in Karakalpak language using the Latin alphabet.

Karakalpak was written in the Arabic and Persian script until 1932, in the Latin script from 1928 to 1940, after which Cyrillic was introduced. Following Uzbekistan's independence in 1991, the decision was made to drop Cyrillic and revert to the Latin alphabet. Whilst the use of Latin script is now widespread in Tashkent, its introduction into Karakalpakstan remains gradual.^[5]

The Cyrillic, Latin, and Arabic alphabets are shown below with their equivalent representations in the IPA. Cyrillic letters with no representation in the Latin alphabet are marked with asterisks. The last changes to the new Karakalpak alphabet were made in 2016: instead of letters with apostrophes, letters with acutes were introduced.^[6]

Cyrillic	Latin	Arabic	IPA
А а	A a	ا / ‍ـا	/a/
Ә ә	Á á	ە / ـە	/æ/
Б б	B b	ب	/b/
В в	V v	ۋ	/v/
Г г	G g	گ	‌ /ɡ/
Ғ ғ	Ǵ ǵ	ع	/ɣ/
Д д	D d	د	/d/
Е е	E e	ە / ـە	/e/
Ё ё*	yo	یو	/jo/
Ж ж	J j	ج	/ʒ/
З з	Z z	ز	/z/
И и	I i	ى / ىـ	/i/
Й й	Y y	ي / يـ	/j/
К к	K k	ك	/k/
Қ қ	Q q	ق	/q/
Л л	L l	ل	/l/
М м	M m	م	/m/
Н н	N n	ن	/n/
Ң ң	Ń ń	ڴ	/ŋ/
О о	O o	و	/o/
Ө ө	Ó ó	و	‌/œ/
П п	P p	پ	‌/p/
Р р	R r	ر	‌/r/
С с	S s	س	/s/
Т т	T t	ت	/t/
У у	U u	وُ	/u/
Ү ү	Ú ú	وُ‌‌‌	‌ /y/
Ў ў	W w	ۋ	/w/
Ф ф	F f	ف	‌/f/
Х х	X x	ح	‌/x/
Ҳ ҳ	H h	ه / هـ	‌ /h/
Ц ц	C c	تس	/ts/
Ч ч	Ch ch	چ	/tʃ/
Ш ш	Sh sh	ش	/ʃ/
Щ щ*	sch	شش	/ʃtʃ/
Ъ ъ*
Ы ы	Í ı	ى / ىـ	/ɯ/
Ь ь*
Э э	E e	ە / ـە	/e/
Ю ю*	yu	يوُ	/ju/
Я я	ya	يا	‌/ja/

Before 2009, C was written as TS; I and Í were written as dotted and dotless I.^[7]

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights^[8]

Karakalpak text

English translation

Барлық Barlıq адамлар adamlar өз óz қәдир-қымбаты qádir-qımbatı және jáne ҳуқықларында huqıqlarında еркин erkin ҳәм hám тең teń болып bolıp туўылады. tuwıladı. Оларға Olarǵa ақыл aqıl ҳәм hám ҳүждан hújdan берилген berilgen болып, bolıp, бир-бирине bir-birine туўысқанлық tuwısqanlıq руўхындағы ruwxındaǵı қатнаста qatnasta болыўы bolıwı тийис. tiyis. Барлық адамлар өз қәдир-қымбаты және ҳуқықларында еркин ҳәм тең болып туўылады. Оларға ақыл ҳәм ҳүждан берилген болып, бир-бирине туўысқанлық руўхындағы қатнаста болыўы тийис. Barlıq adamlar óz qádir-qımbatı jáne huqıqlarında erkin hám teń bolıp tuwıladı. Olarǵa aqıl hám hújdan berilgen bolıp, bir-birine tuwısqanlıq ruwxındaǵı qatnasta bolıwı 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.

Poets

• Ájiniyaz
• Berdaq Ǵarǵabay Ulí
• Kúnxoja
• Ibrayim Yusupov

See also

References

1. Karakalpak at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)  
2. "Karakalpak". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
3. "Karakalpak language and alphabet". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
4. "Glottolog 4.8 - Kara-Kalpak". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
5. Birgit Schlyter (2012). "Language Policy and Language Development in Multilingual Uzbekistan". In Schiffman, Harold (ed.). Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors. Brill. p. 192.
6. . Каракалпакский государственный университет им. Бердаха (in Kara-Kalpak). Archived from the original on 2017-12-24. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
7. Karakalpak Cyrillic – (Old / New) Latin transliterator
8. "Karakalpak (Қарақалпақ тили / Qaraqalpaq tili / قاراقالپاق تىلى)". omniglot. Retrieved 2023-08-19.

Bibliography

• Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Ágnes, eds. (1998), The Turkic Languages, London: Routledge, ISBN 9780415082006, OCLC 40980286
• Menges, Karl H. (1947), Qaraqałpaq Grammar, Translated from German by Leora P. Cunningham, New York: King's Crown Press, OCLC 3615928

 

Kara-Kalpak edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia