Fuyu Kyrgyz language
Fuyu Kyrgyz (Fuyü Gïrgïs, Fu-Yu Kirgiz), also known as Manchurian Kirghiz, is a 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 people originated in the Yenisei region of Siberia but were relocated into Dzungaria by the Dzungars.
| Fuyu Kyrgyz | |
|---|---|
| Fuyü Gïrgïs | |
| Gĭrgĭs | |
| Pronunciation | [qərʁəs] |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Heilongjiang |
| Ethnicity | Fuyu Kyrgyz, 880 people |
Native speakers | 10 (2007) |
Turkic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
kjh-fyk | |
| Glottolog | fuyu1243 |
| ELP | Manchurian Kirghiz |
Fuyu Kyrgyz is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
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.