Karakalpak Folklaw - Alpamis

Karakalpak folklore is rich in epics. Epics such as "Alpamysh", "Qirq qiz", "Qoblan", "Mastposhsho" have been very important in the spiritual and cultural life of the Republic. Known to Kazakhs and Karakalpaks as "Alpamis". It is also recounted by a number of other Turkic peoples, as well as Tajiks. The tale of Alpamysh was supplanted in ninth-tenth centuries from Altay mountains to Syr-darya river by the Oghuz Turks, where the story line continued on independently and became part of the Salor-Kazan tale, one of the main characters in the Book of Dede Korkut. The epic acquired its final form between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Alpamish is one of the best known Turkic epics from among a total of well over 1,000 recorded epics among the Mongolian and Turkic language families by international scholars  was printed no less than 55 times between 1899 and 1984. It was published in the Soviet Union in 1939, 1941, and 1949, 1957, 1958 and 1961. The entry in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, second edition (1952), praises the epic as "a national saga of valour, courage and detestation of the enemies", "one of the best examples of Uzbek heroic epos", "rich in aphorisms, expressive metaphors and proof of the wealth of the Uzbek popular poetic language. In 1999, at the request of Uzbekistan's delegation to UNESCO the "Thousandth anniversary of the popular epic Alpamysh" was celebrated.  

Good References 1. Berdaq. Shejire. – Nókis: Qaraqalpaqtan, 1993. 2. Qaraqalpaq tiliniń tusindirme sózligi. 4 tomlıq. 1-tom. – Nókis: Qaraqalpqstan, 1982. 3. Qaraqalpaq folklori. Kóp tomliq. 1-8 tomlar. – Nókis: Qaraqalpq

Source: Wikipedia

Uzbekistan - Temporary suspension of Flights and Intercity movements

Uzbekistan Airways has temporary suspending domestic scheduled flights. The cancellation went into effect at 24 March 2020. This includes Tashkent – Nukus 10 weekly and Tashkent – Urgench 11 weekly and Tashkent > Urgench > Bukhara > Tashkent 6 weekly. All airport operations and air traffic are suspended until at least 10 May. 

Intercity and interregional vehicular movement has also been restricted. Intracity movement in private vehicles is prohibited without special permits in the capital Tashkent, Nukus (Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic) and provincial capitals. These permits are only issued to certain categories of people, including diplomatic and emergency services personnel, and those working in the healthcare industry. 

Turan Plains (Lowlands)

 The Turan lowlands are extensive lowland plains in southwestern Kazakhstan and the north-western parts of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It is bounded by the Saryarqa (Kazakh uplands) in the north, the outliers of the Tien Shan, Pamir, and Alay mountains in the east, the Kopet-Dag Range in the south, and the Caspian Sea to the the west it is transversed by the lower courses of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya both of which drain into the Aral Sea. 

The plain encompasses two deserts, separated by the valley of the Amu Darya the Karakum and the Kyzylkum. The deserts comprise fine-grained sedimentary rocks overlain by extensive sand dunes and sand sheets.

The relief of the Turan Lowland is characterized by the alternation of accumulative lowlands and plains with relatively weakly dissected table plateaus the Usturt, Krasnovodsk and the Zaunguz Karakum. Most of the Turan Lowland has a sharply continental, desert climate.
the southern part has a more subtropical climate. 

Vegetation is  sparse, comprising xerophytic (drought-resistant) scrubs and short grasses. There are seasonal pasture lands in the margins of the deserts and irrigated agricultural land along rivers and oasis within the basin.

Source: Various Encyclopedia

Kipchak Languages

An accurate representation of the areas in which Turkic languages are spoken.

  Southwestern (Oghuz)

  Southeastern (Karluk) 

   Khalaj (Arghu) 

   Northwestern (Kipchak) 

   Chuvash (Oghur)

   Northeastern (Siberian)

The Kipchak languages (also known as the Kypchak, Qypchaq or the Northwestern Turkic languages) are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family spoken by approximately 31.3 million people in much of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, spanning from Ukraine  to China. 

Some of the most widely spoken languages in this group are Kazakh , Kyrgyz and Tatar.

The Kipchak languages may be broken down into four groups, based on geography and shared features: Note: Languages in bold are still spoken today.

Proto-Turkic	Common Turkic	Kipchak	Kipchak–Bulgar (Uralian, Uralo-Caspian)	·         Bashkir ·         Tatar ·         Old Tatar language †
			Kipchak–Cuman (Ponto-Caspian)	·         Karachay-Balkar ·         Kumyk ·         Karaim ·         Krymchak ·         Urum* ·         Crimean Tatar ·         Cuman †
			Kipchak–Nogai (Aralo-Caspian)	·         Kazakh ·         Karakalpak ·         Siberian Tatar ·         Nogai
			Kyrgyz–Kipchak (Kyrgyz)	·         Kyrgyz
			South Kipchak	·         Fergana Kipchak †

*Note: Kipchak–Cuman base, but have been heavily influenced by Oghuz languages.

There are some 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples. The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded.

Number	Name	Status	Native speakers	Main Country
1	Kazakh language	Normal	14,000,000	Kazakhstan
2	Tatar language	Normal	5,500,000	Russia
3	Kyrgyz language	Normal	5,000,000	Kyrgyzstan
4	Bashkir language	Vulnerable	1,500,000	Russia
5	Karakalpak language	Normal	650,000	Uzbekistan
6	Crimean Tatar language	Endangered	600,000	Russia * (previously Ukraine SSR)
7	Kumyk language	Vulnerable	450,000	Russia
8	Karachay-Balkar language	Vulnerable	400,000	Russia
9	Siberian Tatar language	Endangered	100,000	Russia
10	Nogai language	Definitely endangered	100,000	Russia
11	Krymchak language	Critically endangered	200	Israel
12	Karaim language	Critically endangered	100	Ukraine
Total	Kipchak languages		31,300,000

The Kipchak languages share a number of features that have led linguists to classify them together. Some of these features are shared with other Common Turkic languages; others are unique to the Kipchak family. These include:

• Loss of initial *h (preserved only in Khalaj), *d to /j/ (e.g. *hadaq > ajaq "foot").
• Extensive labial vowel harmony (e.g. olor vs. olar "them")
• Frequent fortition (in the form of assibilation) of initial */j/ (e.g. *jetti > ʒetti "seven")
• Diphthongs from syllable-final */ɡ/ and */b/ (e.g. *taɡ > taw "mountain", *sub > suw "water")

 Bibliography

• Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Ágnes (1998). The Turkic Languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08200-5.
• Menges, Karl H. (1995). The Turkic Languages and Peoples (2nd ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03533-1.
• Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kipchak". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
•  Dybo A.V., Chronology of Türkic languages and linguistic contacts of early Türks, Moscow, 2007, p. 766, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-03-11. Retrieved 2005-03-11. (In Russian)
• https://www.ethnologue.com/
• https://glottolog.org/

Source

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipchak_languages