A report on Central Asia, Kazakhs and Xinjiang
Xinjiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is a landlocked autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest of the country at the crossroads of Central Asia and East Asia.
- Xinjiangқазақ, qazaq,, pl. қазақтар, qazaqtar, ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; казахи) are a Turkic ethnic group, who mainly inhabit the northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts of Uzbekistan and Russia, as well as China (Northern Xinjiang) and Mongolia (Bayan-Ölgii Province) in Eurasia.
- KazakhsAfter expansion by Turkic peoples, Central Asia also became the homeland for the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tatars, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, and Uyghurs; Turkic languages largely replaced the Iranian languages spoken in the area, with the exception of Tajikistan and areas where Tajik is spoken.
- Central AsiaIt is home to a number of ethnic groups, including the Turkic Uyghur, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, the Han, Tibetans, Hui, Chinese Tajiks (Pamiris), Mongols, Russians and Sibe.
- XinjiangThe Russian geographer Nikolaĭ Khanykov questioned the latitudinal definition of Central Asia and preferred a physical one of all countries located in the region landlocked from water, including Afghanistan, Khorasan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uyghuristan (Xinjiang), and Uzbekistan.
- Central AsiaThe Kazakh language is a member of the Turkic language family, as are Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Uyghur, Turkmen, modern Turkish, Azeri and many other living and historical languages spoken in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Xinjiang, and Siberia.
- Kazakhs5 related topics with Alpha
Kazakhstan
3 linksKazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental landlocked country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe.
By the 16th century, the Kazakhs emerged as a distinct Turkic group, divided into three jüz.
While it was part of the Russian Empire, Kazakhstan lost some of its territory to China's Xinjiang province, and some to Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan autonomous republic during Soviet years.
Turkic peoples
2 linksThe Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of Central, East, North, South and West Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.
Some of the most notable modern Turkic-speaking ethnic groups include the Turkish people, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Uyghurs, Turkmens, Volga Tatars, Kyrgyz people and Yakuts.
Chinese Turkestan remained part of the People's Republic of China.
Uyghur language
2 linksThe Uyghur or Uighur language ( ئۇيغۇر تىلى, Уйғур тили, Uyghur tili, Uyƣur tili, or ئۇيغۇرچە, Уйғурчә, Uyghurche, Uyƣurqə,, CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known as Eastern Turki), is a Turkic language, written in a Uyghur Perso-Arabic script, with 25 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China.
Middle Turkic languages, through the influence of Perso-Arabic after the 13th century, developed into the Chagatai language, a literary language used all across Central Asia until the early 20th century.
Of the other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, those populous enough to have their own autonomous prefectures, such as the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz, have access to schools and government services in their native language.
Kazakh language
2 linksKazakh or Qazaq (Latin: qazaqsha or qazaq tılı, Cyrillic: қазақша or қазақ тілі, Arabic Script: قازاقشا or قازاق ٴتىلى,, ) is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia.
Kazakh is the official language of Kazakhstan and a significant minority language in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, north-western China and in the Bayan-Ölgii Province of western Mongolia.
Speakers of Kazakh (mainly Kazakhs) are spread over a vast territory from the Tian Shan to the western shore of the Caspian Sea.
Kyrgyz people
1 linksThe Kyrgyz people (also spelled Kyrghyz, Kirgiz, and Kirghiz) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, primarily Kyrgyzstan.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, European writers used the early Romanized form Kirghiz – from the contemporary Russian киргизы – to refer not only to the modern Kyrgyz, but also to their more numerous northern relatives, the Kazakhs.
With the rise to power, the center of the Kyrgyz Khaganate moved to Jeti-su, and brought about a spread south of the Kyrgyz people, to reach Tian Shan mountains and Xinjiang, bringing them into contact with the existing peoples of western China, especially Tibet.