Karakalpak | |
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Qaraqalpaq tili, Қарақалпақ тили | |
Native to | Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan |
Region | Karakalpakstan |
Native speakers
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583,410 (2010) |
Turkic
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Official status | |
Official language in
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | kaa |
ISO 639-3 |
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Glottolog | kara1467 |
Map showing locations of Karakalpak (red) within Uzbekistan
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Karakalpak is a Turkic language spoken by Karakalpaks in Karakalpakstan. It is divided into two dialects: Northeastern Karakalpak, Southeastern Karakalpak. The language is closely related to Kazakh.
Karakalpak is a member of the Kypchak branch of Turkic languages, which includes Tatar, Kumyk, Nogai, and Kazakh. Due to its proximity to Uzbek, much of Karakalpak's vocabulary and grammar has been influenced by Uzbek. Like Turkish, Karakalpak has vowel harmony, is agglutinative and has no grammatical gender. Word order is usually subject–object–verb.
Karakalpak is spoken mainly in the Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic of Uzbekistan. Approximately 2,000 people in Afghanistan and smaller diaspora in parts of Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and other parts of the world speak Karakalpak.