Languagle #5: Kazakh
Бір жеңнен қол шығар, бір жағадан бас шығар
Bir zhennen qol shyghar, bir zhaghadan bas shyghar
"Let the hands come out of one sleeve and the heads out of one collar."
What it means
A proverb about unity. Everyone's hands come out of one sleeve and everyone's head out of one collar: stand together as one, especially in hard times.
How to say it
bir zheng-NEN qol shuh-GHAR, bir zha-gha-DAN bas shuh-GHAR
Kazakh stresses the last syllable. The q (қ) is a k said from deep in the throat, and gh (ғ) is a soft, gargled g, like a French r.
Word by word
- Бір bir: one
- жеңнен zheng-NEN: from a sleeve (жең, sleeve)
- қол qol: hand, arm
- шығар shuh-GHAR: let it come out
- жағадан zha-gha-DAN: from a collar (жаға, collar)
- бас bas: head
The 'from' ending changes shape, -нен in one word and -дан in the other, to match the sounds of the word it's on. That's typical of Turkic languages.
Where it was found
In Kazakh a proverb is a maqal (мақал). This one is from Kazakh Wikipedia's page on proverbs and sayings.
Similar sayings
- English: United we stand, divided we fall
How to recognise Kazakh
Kazakh uses Cyrillic plus nine extra letters: ә, ғ, қ, ң, ө, ұ, ү, һ and і. The u with a stroke through it (ұ) and the k with a tail (қ) are the best giveaways. Kyrgyz adds only ң, ө and ү, and Mongolian only ө and ү. Bashkir has ә and ң too, but writes its deep k as ҡ, with a stroke on top, and adds ҙ and ҫ. Plain Russian has none of these.
About the Kazakh language
Kazakh is a Turkic language spoken by around 13 million people, mainly in Kazakhstan, with communities in China, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Russia. It belongs to the same branch of Turkic as Kyrgyz and Tatar. In Kazakhstan it is written in Cyrillic, but the government is moving it to a Latin alphabet, while Kazakhs in China use an Arabic-based script. Its oral tradition of proverbs, epic poetry and improvised sung contests (aitys) remains strong.
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