ABSTRACT
Introduction Kirghiz belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic. Modern Kirghiz is closely related to Kazakh. In the nineteenth century, the Kazakhs were even called Kirghiz, and the Kirghiz Kara-Kirghiz. The language shares some features with South Siberian Turkic, but it is still unclear whether today' s Kirghiz are direct successors of Old Turkic Kirghiz. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, under the Khanate of Qoqan (p. 28), the Kirghiz and their language were exposed to strong influence from the Persianised Uzbek area. After the Kirghiz territory was conquered by the Russian Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century, Russian influence became predominant in all spheres of life including the linguistic one.
