THE EFFECT OF RUSSIAN ON KYRGYZ: SOME FINDINGS ON THE BASIS OF SPEAKING LANGUAGE1

Prof. Dr. Abdulselam ARVAS

Peoples who speak Turkic language live in a wide geography from the Chinese border to the Balkans. They dispersed to different geographies and established new states over time. Thus, the Turkic language spread over a wide area. In this sense, linguists generally divide the Turkic language -except for very old times- into two basic groups: Oghuz language and Kipchak language. In countries such as Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, the Oghuz language is dominant. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the Kipchak language is dominant. Apart from these two groups, there is also the Karluk-Uyghur language spoken by Uzbeks and Uyghurs. It looks like a mixture of Oghuz and Kipchak languages. Turkic languages are actually close to each other. For example, Kyrgyz (Kipchak group) and Turkish (Oghuz group) language -apparently- are far from each other however, there is not much difference between the two language groups. In this context, Kyrgyz, which is included in the Kipchak language group, is an important Turkic dialect and is close to the old Turkic language. Therefore, Kyrgyz is important among Turkic languages. However, Russian domination over the Kyrgyz began with Tsarist Russia at the end of the XIX century, and it continued until the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1990. This domination affected the Kyrgyz people in many ways, like other Central Asian Turkic peoples. In this context, perhaps an important problem for Contemporary Kyrgyz is that it is under the influence of Russian. These effects can be listed as follows: Russian is preferred over Kyrgyz, mixed spoken Kyrgyz and Russian, Kyrgyz phrases are formed with Russian logic. In this article, some Russian-originated expressions used in Kyrgyz were focused on. Examples in the article were noted from people speaking the daily language on the street. It has been determined that these examples contradict the Kyrgyz language structure and logic.

Keywords: Kyrgyz, Russian, pattern expressions, language logic, speaking language

DOI:
Publication date: 01.07.2022

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