Chapter 2. Verbal Morphology of the Kyrgyz Language

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Typologically or morphologically, languages are divided into the following groups: 
amorphous, agglutinating (agglutinative), inflectional, and polysynthetic. According to the 
typological classification, Kyrgyz language refers to agglutinative or agglutinating languages.
They are characterized by a developed system of word-formation and inflectional affixation, a 
single type of declension and conjugation, grammatical uniqueness of affixes, and the absence of 
significant alternations. 
Different affix types mark different linguistic properties. Therefore, morphological analysis is 
one of the crucial steps in automated processing of any language, and in the case of agglutinative 
languages, it is hard to overestimate its importance. Agglutination causes words to acquire 
complex meanings, effectively transforming them into whole phrases. Consider a Kyrgyz word 
“болбогондуктан” which translates into English phrases [because something/someone is/was 
absent] or [because something does/did not go certain way]. Morphological analysis of the word 
reveals the underlying phrase: [бол-бо-гон-дук-тан] → [exist   - exist not  - non 
existing  - nonexistence  - due to nonexistence ]. Obviously, parsing and 
annotating agglutinative languages such Kyrgyz require morphological analysis to deal with such 
cases. 
The Kyrgyz verbal system contains inflection for agreement in person and number and 
does not display agreement for noun-class or canonical grammatical gender. Moreover, it has 
system of person, number, mood, voice, tense and aspects, exhibiting multiple present, past and 
future tenses that are differentiating forms based on evidentiality, durative/iterative, habitual and 
other aspects. The verb stem may be expanded by the passive suffixes, causative suffixes or the 
negation suffix-
BA 
and
 
interrogative suffix –
BY.
In the Kyrgyz language verb is described as a complex part of a speech which indicates an 
action. Kyrgyz verbs, in the infinitive take the following vowels: ‘уу’, ‘үү’, ‘оо’, ‘өө’ (uu, üü, 
oo, öö). Verb can be pronounced differently depending on the phonetic features of the vowel in 
the verbal root. 
Examples of Kyrgyz Infinitives: 

aлуу – [ al’uu] – to take 

баруу – [ bar’uu] – to go 

35 

беүү - [ berüü] – to give 

секирүү – [ sekirüü] – to jump

коргоо – [ kor’goo] - to protect 
In addition to simple verbs composed of a verbal root, Kyrgyz also has many compound 
verbs that are formed in combination with a noun or an adjective. Noun or adjectival 
compliments to a compound verb are usually tied semantically to the verb. 
Examples of Compound Kyrgyz Verbal Infinitives – Noun: 

дем алуу – [dem aluu] - ‘to breath’ (lit.: ‘to take breath’) 

түш көрүү – [tüsh körüü] - ‘to dream’ (lit.: ‘to see dream’) 

жини келүү – [jini kelüü] - ‘to become angry’ (‘jin’- anger) 
Compound Kyrgyz Verbs with Adjectives: 

жакшы көрүү – [jakshy körüü] - ‘to love’ (lit.: to see smth. special in smb.)

жаман көрүү – [jaman körüü] - ‘to detest’ (lit.: to see smth. bad in smb.) 

аман болуу – [aman boluu] - ‘to be healthy’ (‘aman’- save and sound) 

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