# Fuyu Kyrgyz language

Fuyu Kyrgyz (Fuyü Gïrgïs, Fu-Yu Kirgiz), also known as Manchurian Kirghiz, is a critically endangered Turkic language, and as gɨr.gɨs, Gïrgïs, Kyrgysdar is an ethnonym of the Turkic unrecognized ethnic group in China. Despite the name, the Fuyu Kyrgyz language is not closely related to the Kyrgyz language, which is of Kipchak origin. The Fuyu Kyrgyz language is more similar to the Western Yugur language and the Abakan Turkic languages. The Fuyu Kyrgyz were relocated from the present day Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture by the Qing government nearly 200 years ago.
In 1761, after the Dzungars were defeated by the Qing, a group of Yenisei Kirghiz were deported (along with some Öelet or Oirat-speaking Dzungars) to the Nonni (Nen) river basin in Manchuria/Northeast China. The Kyrgyz in Manchuria became known as the Fuyu Kyrgyz, but many have become merged into the Mongol and Chinese population. Chinese and Oirat replaced Oirat and Kirghiz during the period of Manchukuo as the dual languages of the Nonni-based Kyrgyz.
The Fuyu Kyrgyz language is now spoken in northeastern China's Heilongjiang province, in and around Fuyu County, Qiqihar (300 km northwest of Harbin) by a small number of passive speakers who are classified as Kyrgyz nationality. Fuyu County as a whole has 1,400 Fuyu Kyrgyz people.

## Speakers

In 1980, Fuyu Girgis was spoken by a majority of adults in a community of around a hundred homes. However, many adults in the area have switched to speaking a local variety of Mongolian, and children have switched to Chinese as taught in the education system.

## Phonology

Although a complete phonemic analysis of Girgis has not been done, Hu and Imart have made numerous observations about the sound system in their tentative description of the language. They describe Girgis as having the short vowels noted as "a, ï, i, o, ö, u, ü" which correspond roughly to IPA [a, ə, ɪ, ɔ, œ, ʊ, ʉ], with minimal rounding and tendency towards centralization. Vowel length is phonemic and occurs as a result of consonant-deletion (Girgis /pʉːn/ vs. Kyrgyz /byɡyn/ 'today'). Each short vowel has an equivalent long vowel, with the addition of /e/. Girgis displays vowel harmony as well as consonant harmony. The consonant sounds in Girgis, including allophone variants, are [p, b, ɸ, β, t, d, ð, k, q, ɡ, h, ʁ, ɣ, s, ʃ, z, ʒ, dʒ, tʃ, m, n, ŋ, l, r, j]. Girgis does not display a phonemic difference between the stop set /p, t, k/ and /b, d, ɡ/; these stops can also be aspirated to [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] in Chinese loanwords.

## Sample text

A song in the Fuyu Kyrgyz language:
dax diben šabim am, dabendar baarsen γaxen jap, γairen jaxse buurul adim (in), γaaneng dibes dabim am? γap diben šabim am, γapxandar baarsen γaxen jap, γairen jaxse buurul adim (in), γaaneng dibes dabim am? ib diben šabim am, ečikter baarsen γaxen jap, γairen jaxse buurul adim (in), γaaneng dibes dabim am? say diben šabim am, sanderdar baarsen γaxen jap, γairen jaxse buurul adim (in), γaaneng dibes dabim am? bulux diben šabim am, belterdar baarsen γaxen jap, γairen jaxse buurul adim (in), γaaneng dibes dabim am? γer diben šabim am, γergestar baarsen γaxen jap, γaren jaxse buurul adim (in), γaaneng dibes dabim am?