ABSTRACT
Kazakh is the largest South Kipchak (NWs) language. Its closest relatives are Karakalpak, Noghay, and Kipchak Uzbek. Kazakh (ḳazaḳ tịlị ‹қазақ тілі›, ḳazaḳša ‹қазақша›) was called until the early twentieth century Kara-Kirgiz to avoid confusion with Russian ‘cossack’. Kazakh, besides Russian, is one of the official languages of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is also spoken by the Kazakh minority in the northwestern regions of the People’s Republic of China: the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the lli, Altay, and Tarbaghatay regions.
