Kyrgyz language is part of the Turkish language family. It is spoken by around 4 million people in the world. 2.5 million of them live in Kyrgyzstan, the rest live in China (near Xianjiang), Mongolia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The language is very similar to Kazakh.
There are three Kyrgyz dialects: the one of the north (which serves as the basis of the modern language), the one of the south-east, and the one of the south-west.
Kyrgyz language is celebrated every year on 23 September, in honor of the 1989 law which gave it an official status in the country.
Until the 20th century, Kyrgyz was written using the Arabic alphabet. It is still used in China. In 1940 however, Kyrgyz switched to the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, with the addition of three letters. The choice of the alphabet is a great political debate today.