Kyrgyz grammar

Phonology

Vowel Inventory

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	i	y	ɯ	u
Mid	e	ø		o
Open			ɑ

Consonant Inventory

	Labial	Dental/ alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar/ Uvular
Nasal	m	n			N/ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d			k/q g/ʁ
Affricate			tʃ dʒ
Fricative	f v	s z	ʃ		χ
Trill		r
Approximant		l		j

Nominal Morphology

Case

Nouns in Kyrgyz take a number of case endings that change based on vowel harmony and the sort of consonant they follow (see the section on phonology).

Case	Underlying form	Possible forms	"boat"	"air"	"bucket"	"hand"	"head"	"salt"	"eye"
Nominative	—		кеме	аба	челек	кол	баш	туз	көз
Genitive	-NIn	-нын, -нин, -дын, -дин, -тын, -тин, -нун, -нүн, -дун, -дүн, -тун, -түн	кеменин	абанын	челектин	колдун	баштын	туздун	көздүн
Dative	-GA	-га, -ка, -ге, -ке, -го, -ко, -гө, -кө	кемеге	абага	челекке	колго	башка	тузга	көзгө
Accusative	-NI	-ны, -ни, -ды, -ди, -ты, -ти, -ну, -нү, -ду, -дү, -ту, -тү	кемени	абаны	челекти	колду	башты	тузду	көздү
Locative	-DA	-да, -де, -та, -те, -до, -дө, -то, -тө	кемеде	абада	челекте	колдо	башта	тузда	көздө
Ablative	-DAn	-дан, -ден, -тан, -тен, -дон, -дөн, -тон, -төн	кемеден	абадан	челектен	колдон	баштан	туздан	көздөн

Normally the decision between a velar consonants ([g], [k]) and uvular consonants ([ʀ] and [q]) pronunciation of /г/ and /к/ is based on the backness of the following vowel—i.e. back vowels imply a uvular rendering and front vowels imply a velar rendering—and the vowel in suffixes is decided based on the preceding vowel in the word. However, with the dative suffix in Kyrgyz, the vowel is decided normally, but the decision between velars and uvulars can be decided based on a contacting consonant, for example банк /bank/ 'bank' + GA yields банкка /bankka/, not /bankqa/ as predicted by the following vowel.

Pronouns

Kyrgyz has eight personal pronouns:

Personal pronouns

Singular		Plural
Kyrgyz (transliteration)	English	Kyrgyz (transliteration)	English
Мен (Men)	I	Биз (Biz)	We
Сен (Sen)	You (singular informal)	Силер (Siler)	You (plural informal)
Сиз (Siz)	You (singular formal)	Сиздер (Sizder)	You (plural formal)
Ал (Al)	He/She/It	Алар (Alar)	They

The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart. Singular pronouns (with the exception of сиз, which used to be plural) exhibit irregularities, while plural pronouns don't. Irregular forms are highlighted in bold.

Declension of pronouns

	Singular				Plural
	1st	2nd inf	2nd frm	3rd	1sg	2nd inf	2nd frm	3rd
Nom	мен	сен	сиз	ал	биз	силер	сиздер	алар
Acc	мени	сени	сизди	аны	бизди	силерди	сиздерди	аларды
Gen	менин	сенин	сиздин	анын	биздин	силердин	сиздердин	алардын
Dat	мага	сага	сизге	ага	бизге	силерге	сиздерге	аларга
Loc	менде	сенде	сизде	анда	бизде	силерде	сиздерде	аларда
Abl	менден	сенден	сизден	андан	бизден	силерден	сиздерден	алардан

In addition to the pronouns, there are several more sets of morphemes dealing with person.

Morphemes indicating person

	pronouns	copulas	present tense	possessive endings	past/conditional	imperative
1st sg	мен	-mIn	-mIn	-(I)m	-(I)m	-AyIN
2nd sg	сен	-sIŋ	-sIŋ	-(I)ŋ	-(I)ŋ	—, -GIn
2nd formal sg	сиз	-sIz	-sIz	-(I)ŋIz	-(I)ŋIz	-GIlA
3rd sg	ал	—	-t	-(s)I(n)	—	-sIn
1st pl	биз	-BIz		-(I)mIz	-(I)K	-AyIK
2nd pl	силер		-sIŋAr	-(I)ŋ	-(I)ŋ
2nd formal pl	сиздер		-sIzdAr	-(I)ŋIz	-(I)nIz
3rd pl	алар	—	-(I)şAt	-(s)I(n)	—	-sIn, -IşsIn

Constructions which don't otherwise make sense

Examples of things I'm still trying to figure out

• болот турбайбы
• бергени жатам
• таанытуу болду
• бир нерсе сурайын деген элем
• бул суроо менен кайрылсам дегем
• Америкага окууганы баргысы келет