Fuyu Kyrgyz

About

Fuyu Kyrgyz (also known as Manchurian Kirghiz, Heilongjiang Kirghiz, or Northeast Kirghiz) is the easternmost Turkic language spoken in China and serves as the native tongue of the Fuyu Kyrgyz people. The ancestors of the Fuyu Kyrgyz were the Yenisei Kirghiz (i.e., Khakas people), who were active in the Yenisei River basin and spoke a dialect of the Khakas language. In the 18th century, the Qing dynasty conquered and destroyed the Dzungar Khanate. Consequently, a portion of the Khakas people was relocated by the Qing government to the banks of the Wuyur River, becoming known as the 'Five Clans Kyrgyz of the Wuyur River Bank.' The Khakas dialect they spoke is precisely the Fuyu Kyrgyz language. Due to being surrounded by Mongolian and Han Chinese cultural spheres, combined with factors such as a small population and common intermarriage with other ethnic groups, the Fuyu Kyrgyz language gradually declined over its long-term development.In 1980, there were still about 100 people who spoke this language. At that time, most adults had switched to Mongolian, while children mostly spoke Chinese. According to a 2006 survey, only 22 speakers of Fuyu Kyrgyz remained, with 18 of them living within Fuyu County. By 2017, the population of Fuyu Kyrgyz speakers in Fuyu County had dropped to just 15 people. Among these 15 individuals, only 5 could speak relatively complete sentences, and most of them were over 70 years old. Those who mastered simple sentences and some words were mostly over 60 years old. Today, the Fuyu Kyrgyz people primarily use Chinese as their language for both external and internal communication. While some can also speak Mongolian, their own ethnic language, Fuyu Kyrgyz, has already reached a critically endangered state. Unlike the Kyrgyz people in Xinjiang, the Fuyu Kyrgyz did not historically practice Islam, which is why there are no Arabic loanwords in their language. While there are some Persian loanwords, they are very few and were mostly borrowed…