i recently noticed that a lot of people i talk to call kazakhstan "kazakhistan." that is, they add a short i sound in betweeen the "kazakh" and the "stan." mrs. noz and i were talking about it the other day and she said, "well that's how all the other stans work," meaning they all have an "i" before the "stan." she's right:
afghanIstan
pakIstan
turkmenIstan
uzbekIstan
tajikIstan
okay, not kyrgyzstan. so she's almost right. (i wonder if anyone says "kyrgyzistan"?)
and i guess if we start including non-independent stans like bashkortostan, tatarstan and karakalpakstan there are even more counter examples.
actually, it was only in writing this post that i learned that karkalpakstan doesn't have an "i" in it. i've been pronouncing it wrong for the past 5 years (to the extent it comes up). in fact, i think that's how i was pronouncing it when i was in karakalpakstan. i know that's how i spelled it. bad me!
