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Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

9 6.9
A landlocked country in Central Asia next to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China, independent since 1991
  • proper noun
  • /ˈkɪrɡɪzˌstæn/
: Kirguistán
  • About 50 percent of Kyrgyzstan's budgetary expenditures had been financed in the past by subsidies from Moscow.
  • Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan
  • Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan
  • Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

This is in the book that was stopped on the tarmac in Kyrgyzstan, right?

Examples

  • In 1991, Kyrgyzstan declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

  • Mr Biden asked Mr Putin to deploy American troops in Central Asian countries, in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

  • With GDP growing by 1 percent in 1995, there were signs that the economy of Kyrgyzstan was beginning to recover.

    Academic text (1998)
  • We remember the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.

  • The article begins by providing an overview of the economic changes in Kyrgyzstan since it gained political independence in 1991.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Moreover, Kyrgyzstan was the first Central Asian state to commit itself to wide-ranging market reforms.

    Academic text (1998)
  • In Kyrgyzstan, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev broke a promise to Moscow to close the U.S. air base there.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Like the new state of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan had no notion of nationhood before 1991.

    Academic text (2000)
  • The newly independent states of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan all have cultivated what we call cognitive nationalism.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Unlike Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, in Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, the IRP has had a considerably smaller following.

    Academic text (1994)

Synonyms

Kirghizstan
vsKyrgyzstan
2 8.0

A landlocked country in Central Asia now officially called Kyrgyzstan

describes the country by its standard modern name instead
Kirghizia
vsKyrgyzstan
1 9.7

A former name for Kyrgyzstan used until 1991

refers to the nation now by its modern independent name
Kirgizia
vsKyrgyzstan
  • Literature
1 9.6

A former name for Kyrgyzstan used during the Soviet era

uses the current post-1991 name instead
Kirgiz
vsKyrgyzstan
1 8.8

An alternative spelling of Kyrgyzstan, the landlocked country in Central Asia

refers to the same country but uses the standard current spelling
Kyrgyz Republic
vsKyrgyzstan
  • Formal
1 7.5

The official name of Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked country in Central Asia

is the regular country name used in everyday references
Kirgizstan
vsKyrgyzstan
1 6.7

A country in Central Asia, also called Kyrgyzstan, known for its high mountains

is the standard modern name used after independence in 1991

Surface Forms

Kyrgyzstan main

Morphology

Kyrgyzstan = Kyrgyz (semi-transparent) = Kyrgyz + stan

The structure 'Kyrgyz' + '-stan' clearly signals a place name formed with a place-name suffix, but the suffix '-stan' (meaning 'land of') may not be familiar or productive for all learners.

Etymology

Kyrgyzstan comes from the people called the Kyrgyz and the Persian ending -stan, which means 'land', as in Pakistan. A helpful way to remember it is that Kyrgyz may come from a word for 'forty' and a story about 'forty tribes' joining together, so Kyrgyzstan is the 'land of the Kyrgyz' or the 'land of the forty'.