How other countries switched to Latin writing. What does Kazakhstan's transition to the Latin alphabet mean? Kazakh language switches to Latin alphabet
President Nazarbayev signed decree No. 569 “On the translation of the Kazakh language alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin script” on October 26. The transition is intended to be gradual (until 2025), but the process has begun - Kazakhstan is abandoning the Cyrillic alphabet. What does it look like?
So, it's done. The Kazakh language has officially switched to the Latin alphabet. The very next morning, a desperately brave official of the district akimat (administration), in a hurry to go down in history, sent a Latinized request. In the provincial city of Aktau, having overtaken both capitals, road signs were changed in the evening. And in Astana, a book printed in Latin was presented - either about the first president, or by the president himself, this will become clear after someone manages to read it...
The project had many opponents. The worse such an opponent knew the Kazakh language, the more vehemently he defended the Cyrillic script. The most desperate signs of a global geopolitical catastrophe, revealed in the transition to the Latin alphabet, would, of course, not be able to put together two words in Kazakh.
There were doubters among the Kazakhs themselves. Their fears boiled down to the fact that the rapid change of font, if it would lead to anything, would most likely lead to confusion, chaos and pointless waste.
Cynics, of course, immediately assumed that it was for the sake of these expenses - senseless for some, but very meaningful for others - that the language reform was started.
Fans of historical conspiracy theories - some with delight, others with horror - saw in the rejection of the Cyrillic script something that, most likely, was not intended: the country’s final departure from the post-Soviet geopolitical system. Whether under pan-Turkic or Atlantic flags is not important. Timid objections - where is Astana and where is the Atlantic - few reassured anyone. As well as a very unfashionable reminder in modern Kazakhstan that the languages of the Turkic language group were translated from Arabic script to Latin in the late 1920s by the decision of Comrade Stalin. Who, as you know, knew a lot about linguistics.
There was no serious talk about returning to Arabic writing: the first (and so far only) president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is also a scientist and is unlikely to have any illusions about the readiness of his fellow citizens for such efforts.
As a result, only one difficulty remained on the path of the reformers: there are significantly more sounds in the Kazakh language than letters of the Latin alphabet. There are two known ways to solve this problem - diagraphic, when a specific sound is conveyed by a combination of several letters, and diacritic, in which each sound has its own letter with a diacritic symbol. In many languages, for example in German and French, both of these methods coexist peacefully.
Supporters of the transition to the Latin alphabet were divided into two camps and began the eternal dispute between pointed and blunt-ended people. When the intensity of passions began to go off scale beyond the academic mark, thunder struck. It turned out that eggs would not be served at all. By the highest decision, the third option, previously not considered by anyone, was chosen - apostrophic.
Having recovered from the shock, both camps stopped arguing and united into a coalition, the goals of which, no matter how noble - protecting ana tili, the native language, from bureaucratic arbitrariness - are so unattainable.
At first it turned out that not a single search engine is able to recognize a word separated by an apostrophe, and therefore the entry into the world information space declared by the reformers did not take place - they entered the wrong door.
Then it was discovered that the new version lacks the sounds “ts”, “ya” and “sch”, which purists do not consider originally Kazakh... But what to do with words like “constitution” or “civilization” that are rooted in the language?
Along the way, information came to light that the main developer of the reform was hiding in Turkey some time ago, having been accused of stealing some astronomical sum... However, as his supporters rightly point out, this circumstance has nothing to do with linguistics itself.
Such is the difficult beginning of romanization in Kazakhstan. Does the coalition of yesterday's opponents have a chance? Let's be realistic: they are illusory. Because the authority of Elbasy, the father of the nation, as Nursultan Nazarbayev is officially called, is so indisputable that if he proposed to translate the Kazakh language, for example, into the knotted script of the Incas, this idea would immediately have a lot of ardent sympathizers. And the happy old professor, who discovered many years ago that the Indians descended from the Kazakhs, will be replaced on national news by joyful schoolchildren with ropes in their hands.
Or vice versa.
The reform is fraught with many pitfalls, which, according to observers, can result in many social problems - even a split in society. According to linguists, the abandonment of the Cyrillic alphabet does not mean the displacement of the Russian language, although with a high degree of probability it will lead to this in the long term. About the intricacies of language policy in the post-Soviet space - in the material of RT.
Kazakhstan must switch from Cyrillic to Latin by 2025. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, addressed the government of the republic with such a proposal. To this end, he instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to develop a corresponding plan by the end of 2018. The head of Kazakhstan announced this in an article published on the portal of the country’s government.
Kazakhstan switched to the Cyrillic alphabet in 1940. According to Nazarbayev, at that time such a step was of a political nature. Now, the President of Kazakhstan continues, in accordance with modern technologies, environment and communications, the country needs the Latin alphabet.
From the late 1920s until 1940, the Latin alphabet was used in Kazakhstan - this writing is known as Yanalif or the New Turkic alphabet. However, in the forties, Soviet philologists developed new look alphabet, which is still used in Kazakhstan today.
The Latin version of the Kazakh alphabet is still used today, albeit by a small number of groups. For example, it is in use among the Kazakh diasporas in Turkey and a number of Western countries.
Now Kazakh philologists will have to develop a unified standard for the new Kazakh alphabet and graphics in a short time.
In addition, starting next year, the President of Kazakhstan proposed to begin training specialists in the Latin alphabet and begin developing school textbooks.
“Cyrillic is our intellectual heritage and, naturally, we will use it. But we will still have to switch to the Latin alphabet by 2030-2040, this is a requirement of the time and the development of technology,” said Deputy Imanaliev.
Political subtext
The transition to the Latin alphabet in Kazakhstan does not mean oppression of the Russian-speaking population, says political scientist Leonid Krutakov.
“This is not persecution of Russians, Kazakhs are defending themselves as a state. But Russians in Kazakhstan will not be discriminated against. And Russia will never be a threat to Kazakhstan. This is simply an attempt to draw a watershed and eliminate the threat to the state structure of Kazakhstan, the collapse scenario or the possible arrival of the “Russian spring,” the expert explained.
Nazarbayev's proposal is not only an attempt to strengthen linguistic self-identification. According to the political scientist, Astana makes it clear that it would like rapprochement with Ankara.
“Therefore, for Nazarbayev, this transition is, on the one hand, a way of rapprochement with Turkey, with the Turkic people, a direction of movement towards that branch of civilization, and on the other, building a kind of cultural barrier or distance between Russian culture and Kazakh culture,” continues Krutakov.
You absolutely should not perceive this step as an act of aggression towards Russia and its culture, since this is not at all beneficial for Astana. She would like to maintain these contacts, Krutakov is sure.
“Kazakhstan is not going to start a conflict with Russia. After all, this is a transit country. The only route for Kazakh oil to Europe is the Russian CPC (Caspian Pipeline Consortium - RT) and the second route to Asia through Turkmenistan, Tajikistan. To go against Russia, you need to have a common border either with Turkey or with Europe, but they don’t have it,” the political scientist concluded.
"Linguistically not justified"
According to Andrei Kibrik, a leading researcher at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Astana’s decision has no practical meaning, since the language functions quite effectively within the Cyrillic alphabet.
In addition, according to the specialist, there is no need to draw direct parallels between the rejection of the Cyrillic alphabet for the graphic execution of the national Kazakh language and the rejection of the Russian language in general.
“We must understand that language and the writing that serves it are two different things. If people are accustomed to using oral Russian in everyday life, then the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet does not directly affect the use of Russian, but there may be a delayed impact in the future, when a generation grows up that is unfamiliar with the Cyrillic alphabet. For them, ignorance of the Cyrillic alphabet blocks access to written Russian text, even if they speak spoken Russian,” explained a representative of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Moreover, according to Andrey Kibrik, the ordinary population of Kazakhstan will be placed in very uncomfortable conditions, many will only lose from such a transition.
“As for the everyday use of language, such a transition simultaneously makes the population illiterate. People cannot read the signs at the bus stop on their native language. Countries that have little to lose can afford this kind of experimentation, but I don’t think Kazakhstan is among them. Many graphics, such as French, Chinese, have large number shortcomings, but so many texts are written on them that no one encroaches on these systems,” the expert said.
Experience of post-Soviet countries
“Azerbaijan or Uzbekistan have already gone through this transition, you can look at their experience. Azerbaijan somehow adapted gradually; at the beginning, people looked at the new inscriptions in a daze and did not understand anything, but gradually they got used to it. They just came quite radically. But in Uzbekistan the situation is different: nominally the transition has been completed, but the Cyrillic alphabet retains its position. Many documents still exist in the Cyrillic version,” Kibrik explained.
It should be noted that in Azerbaijan, the process of transition to a new alphabet was quite successful, as it was supported by large financial investments and a well-thought-out gradual strategy. Simultaneously with office work, they translated teaching aids in kindergartens, then in schools and universities, and later all the media switched to the Latin alphabet. At the same time, according to statistics, in Azerbaijan, slightly less than 30% of the population speaks spoken Russian, but it is almost never used in everyday life.
Experts do not consider the experience of Uzbekistan successful. The new graphics divided two generations: it was difficult for older people to adapt to the new reading rules, they found themselves in information isolation, and for the younger generation, books and all those publications published in Cyrillic over the past 60 years became inaccessible.
Changing mentality
Political scientist and analyst Alexander Asafov points out that if the government of Kazakhstan plans to receive some political bonuses from the transition to the Latin script, then such changes do not bode well for ordinary people; they will only face difficulties.
"All countries former USSR apply various aspects of distancing: both in the cultural and linguistic environment. They experiment with their ancient history. Of course, the transition to the Latin alphabet has primarily political implications, because such a transition is usually associated with enormous difficulties for native speakers in existing form. It's not just about changing signs. This is a change in the mentality of society,” he explained.
Such reforms contain many hidden problems, overcoming which requires the careful work of many specialists: from teachers to philologists.
“The most important problem is the transfer of document flow to a new script. In addition, there will be colossal problems in education. This will mean reformatting education and the loss of Kazakh specialists from the general Russian-speaking field of specialists. In fact, they will be deprived of the opportunity to integrate with Russian education,” the analyst emphasized.
He also recalled the experience of Poland, where the actual transition of the population to the Latin alphabet took place over “a couple of centuries,” while philologists had to invent new letters in order to adapt the new graphics to the phonetics of the language.
Russian language in the former USSR
One way or another, the change in the removal of the Cyrillic alphabet from everyday life leads to a decrease in the role of Russian culture and language in people’s lives, and this in the post-Soviet space actually means cutting off the country from intercultural communication with many countries. Political scientist Alexander Asafov points to this.
“In other post-Soviet countries, the Russian language is a way of intercultural communication. This is the cementing language of Soviet culture. This is the language of culture. He will remain that way. Even English cannot replace it. That is, when an Estonian and a Kazakh meet, they speak Russian,” he explained.
In fact, with the displacement of the Cyrillic alphabet, the cultural and historical basis of the unity of a large number of people will be undermined.
It is interesting that in the post-Soviet space only Belarus gave the Russian language the status of a state language. In Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and South Ossetia it is the official language, and in Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine it is the language of interethnic communication. In Georgia and Armenia, the status of the Russian language is not formally defined, but in fact it has the status of a foreign language.
Why do people in Russia stick to their own script and not change it to the more common and seemingly more technically convenient Latin alphabet?
Peter's reforms
In Russia, attempts to translate the Cyrillic alphabet into Latin have been made more than once. This began under Peter I with the reform of the civil alphabet, when the Cyrillic spelling was brought closer to the Latin one and both the “Greek” letters - xi, psi, omega, and some Slavic ones - big and small yus disappeared from the alphabet.
In addition, Peter initially removed the letters “i” and “z” from the alphabet, leaving their Latin analogues - i (and decimal) and s (green), but then returned them. Ironically, Latin letters subsequently disappeared from the Russian alphabet.
Reform of the People's Commissariat for Education
In the 19th century, issues of translating the Cyrillic alphabet into the Latin alphabet were raised mainly by immigrants from Poland, which was part of Russian Empire, explaining this by “the ugliness and inconvenience of the Russian font,” fortunately, few people listened to them. Under Nicholas I, a reverse reform was also invented - the Polish Cyrillic alphabet, but in the end everyone remained with their own.
Creeping Latinization received new impetus after the revolution. The People's Commissariat of Education under the leadership of Lunacharsky developed whole program on translating the languages of the peoples of Russia into Latin. He even received Lenin's support on this issue, since unification is one of the main components of communist ideology. So, for example, when setting Soviet power The European system of weights and measures was immediately adopted, and the country switched to the European calendar.
Stalin's choice
Stalin did not like the idea of using the Latin alphabet in the Russian language, and in 1930 a short resolution was issued on this matter: “Invite the Main Science to stop working on the issue of Latinization of the Russian alphabet.” However, the translation of the languages of the peoples of the USSR into Latin continued. In total, in the period from 1923 to 1939, more than 50 languages were translated into Latin (in total, 72 peoples had written languages in the USSR in 1939).
Among them were not only languages that did not have a written language at all and needed it, but also, for example, Komi-Zyrian, which already had its own alphabet on a Cyrillic basis, compiled back in the 14th century by Saint Stephen of Perm. But this time everything worked out fine. After the adoption of the Constitution of 1936, it was decided to return to the Cyrillic alphabets and give up the Latin alphabet.
Perestroika
After the collapse of the USSR, some republics that became independent switched to the Latin alphabet. In this reform, Moldova was guided by the Latinized Romania, which, by the way, had Cyrillic writing until late XIX century. Some Turkic-speaking republics - Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, for which Türkiye became a reference point, also switched to the Latin alphabet.
Kazakhstan also announces a phased transition to the Latin alphabet. Rumor has it that the new Ukrainian authorities are planning to transfer the Ukrainian language to the Latin alphabet.
Why don't we move on?
Firstly, the Latin alphabet is simply not suitable for conveying the sound structure of Russian and Slavic languages in general. There are only 26 characters in it, in Cyrillic there are 33. Slavic peoples who switched to the Latin alphabet, for example, the Poles, have to additionally use diacritics. In addition, digraphs, that is, letters with double spelling, are widespread. For example, in the Latin alphabet there is no separate letter for the sound “sh”.
The system of Latin and Cyrillic vowels is also different, the vowels - yu, ya, ё, е, ы - do not have Latin analogues, to write them you will have to use either diacritics or double spelling, which will significantly complicate the language.
Secondly, and no less important, the Cyrillic alphabet is part of the national cultural code. Over the more than thousand-year history of its existence, a huge number of cultural monuments have been created on it. After replacing the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet, Cyrillic texts will turn into foreign texts for native speakers; special education will be required to read them.
Not only books written in Cyrillic will have to be changed; all cultural monuments will become inaccessible for reading - from inscriptions on icons to autographs. A new reader will not even be able to read the surname PUSHKIN: he will mistake “u” for “y”, “n” for “ha”, “i” for an inverted “en”, the letters “p” and “sh” will simply be entered into his into a stupor.
In general, no joy of recognition. The same applies to other peoples of Russia who use the Cyrillic alphabet, who will lose all their limited literature, and if the translation from Cyrillic to Latin can be done automatically using special programs, then it will take many years to recreate the cultural component. The culture of such Latinized peoples will actually start from scratch.
Thirdly, writing is a kind of marker of a people, suggesting its uniqueness. Bringing all alphabets to a common denominator will deprive peoples of this uniqueness, the next step will be the introduction of a global language, and in a globalized world, where all people speak the same language, that is, and think almost the same way, according to the same schemes, life will become much more boring.
What are the real reasons for Kazakhstan’s transition to the Latin alphabet, because 33 letters of the Cyrillic alphabet convey the sounds of Kazakh speech much better than 26 letters of the Latin alphabet
Kazakhstan continues to discuss the decree of the country's president, which put an end to long-discussed plans to switch local writing to the Latin alphabet. Nazarbayev has repeatedly stated that Kazakhstan needs the Latin alphabet for the sake of “integration with the most advanced countries,” but a lot of examples show the absurdity of this argument. What are the real reasons for what is happening?
“We are not going anywhere (from Russia), we have seven thousand kilometers of a common border, a common thousand-year history. Why should we leave? – assured the adviser to the Minister of Culture Garifolla Yesim, commenting on the decree of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who approved the next version of the new Kazakh alphabet based on the Latin alphabet the day before.
True, the doctor of philological sciences himself, a specialist in the works of the national poet Abai Garifolla Yesim, most recently bore the surname Yesimov.
The de-Russification of surnames is a trend that has developed since the early 2010s and enjoys support at the level of the Ministry of Culture. The surname of the Kazakh president, however, will not change yet and in the new version will look like Nursultan Nazarbaev, reports the Tengri News portal.
“The eastern leaders of Central Asia have a desire to become Europe, “although they are deep in Asia,” Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, noted in a conversation with the VZGLYAD newspaper, commenting on Nazarbayev’s “elementary” decree.
“The first president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, had this desire. He also introduced the Latin alphabet, but 20 years have passed since then, and half of the signs in Tashkent are still in Cyrillic. Somehow it didn’t work out.”
To justify his reform, Nazarbayev has repeatedly said that the Latin alphabet will help modernize Kazakhstan and accelerate its integration with the most advanced countries, since the Latin alphabet predominates in “world communication systems.”
But is it like that? the real reason? Japan copes without the Latin alphabet The presence of its own and rather complex writing systems does not prevent such close allies of the West as Japan and South Korea from demonstrating phenomenal success in the development of science and technology. On this topic, the Latin alphabet will bring Kazakhstan closer to the Turkic world
Why does Nazarbayev translate the Kazakh language into Latin?
Nazarbayev’s anti-Russian statements cannot be approved, but they can be understood. In the European Union, with which Nazarbayev is so keen to get closer, there are also countries that still write in Cyrillic - this is Bulgaria. Among the three countries that are seriously vying to join the EU, Serbia and Macedonia are also not going to abandon the Cyrillic alphabet. Greece, which has long joined the European Union, also preserves and is proud of its written language.
Even among former Soviet republics Georgia, which has also been knocking on the doors of NATO and the EU for a long time and persistently, does not intend to give up its own unique alphabet. Not even the most pro-Western politician in Georgia would think of suddenly abandoning their own ancient written language for the sake of integration with the West.
Against this background, Nazarbayev’s reasoning looks, to put it mildly, unconvincing.
To modernize and get closer to other developed countries, it is not at all necessary to change the alphabet. Moreover, this brings with it very unpleasant side effects. Philological features According to many philologists, for phonetically rich Turkic languages it is easier to use 33 letters of the Cyrillic alphabet than 26 letters of the Latin alphabet. The Latin alphabet is more adapted to the languages of the Romance and, to a lesser extent, Germanic groups, but already in Slavic languages Eastern Europe problems arise.
It is enough to look at the new Turkmen or Azerbaijani alphabet with an abundance of diacritics (“dots and hooks”) to be convinced that the Latin alphabet does not correspond perfectly to the Turkic languages. “The President is thinking about his legacy and wants to go down in history as the man who created a new alphabet.
The problem is that our president is not a philologist,” noted political scientist Dosym Satpayev. A member of the “language reform” commission, political scientist Aidos Sarym (Sarymov), noted that the new spelling of Kazakh words will complicate work on the Internet: “We are going to modernize the language, but we are cutting off access to the Internet.”
Actually, the abundance of “hooks” (“The Republic of Kazakhstan” was proposed to be written as Qazaqstan Respy"bli"kasy) became the reason why the first version of the Kazakh Latin alphabet, approved by Nazarbayev in October last year, had to be hastily abandoned. It is possible that the emergency refusal was influenced by the publication in an American newspaper. In January, the New York Times surveyed Kazakh philologists and political scientists, many of whom responded to the new alphabet not only with skepticism, but also with irony.
“When we scientists were the first to learn about this (variant of the alphabet), we were all shocked,” said Erden Kazhibek (Kazhibekov), director of the Institute of Linguistics of the National Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan. A little over a month after the NY Times publication, a new, improved version of the alphabet was officially introduced to Kazakhstan.
What will happen to Pushkin and Abai?
“The first version of the alphabet was criticized by a number of famous scientists and philologists, so we had to make a second one. But it is not yet a fact, by the way, that this option will be final,” Talgat Mamyrayimov, head of the analytical service of Real Politik, noted in a comment to the newspaper VZGLYAD. “And this, by the way,” he believes, “suggests that Nazarbayev is not in a hurry. On the contrary, it is in his interests to delay this issue, because the transition to the Latin alphabet is more of a PR project aimed at collecting political points among the Kazakh electorate and Western countries.”
But it is obvious that this “new, improved” alphabet does not remove the question that arose earlier - what will happen to the cultural heritage of Kazakhstan, in particular, with the huge array of books published “in the Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet” from 1940 to the present? “Of course, there will be problems when switching to the Latin alphabet. The literature that was written in Cyrillic will cease to be in demand, including in political reasons, says Talgat Mamyrayimov. “At the same time, those circles that are oriented towards the West will calmly switch to the Latin alphabet, but those who are oriented towards Russia will experience a kind of culture shock.”
However, as was emphasized during the discussion of language reform, the problem will be solved through new publications. Translations of, say, Shakespeare and Pushkin will be published in a new script, and Abay Kunanbaev and Olzhas Suleimenov will be “translated” into a new alphabet.
Mikhail Moshkin,
Andrey Rezchikov,
Alexey Nechaev
Nursultan Nazarbayev said that the return of Kazakhstan to the Latin alphabet is “This is not only the fulfillment of the wishes of our ancestors, but also the path to the future for younger generations.”
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree approving new version alphabet of the Kazakh language based on Latin graphics. In Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, the alphabets have already been romanized.
History of writing of the Kazakh language
Kazakh belongs to the Turkic group of languages. Until 1929, Kazakhs predominantly used Arabic writing. Under Soviet rule, the graphics of the Kazakh alphabet changed twice: in 1929 it was transferred to the Latin alphabet, and in 1940 - to the Cyrillic alphabet. Currently, the Kazakh alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet consists of 42 letters. The main probable reasons for the transition to the Cyrillic alphabet in 1940 are political.
Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet
Decree on the translation of the Kazakh language alphabet into Latin script
In October 2017, Nazarbayev signed a decree on the gradual transfer of the Kazakh language alphabet to the Latin script until 2025. At the same time, the alphabet of the Kazakh language in the Latin script of 32 letters was approved.
Kazakh Latin alphabet
Regarding whether the transition to the Latin script means a change in the country’s geopolitical orientation, the President of Kazakhstan stated the following:
“Some people, quite unreasonably, saw in this some kind of “evidence” of a change in Kazakhstan’s geopolitical preferences. Nothing of the kind. I will say unequivocally on this matter. The transition to the Latin alphabet is an internal need for the development and modernization of the Kazakh language. There is no need to look for a black cat in a dark room, especially if it has never been there. Let me remind you that in the 20-40s the Kazakh language already used the Latin alphabet. In three of the fifteen union republics of the former USSR, until the very moment of its collapse, the national languages were also in the Latin alphabet.”
“... it is important to remember that in the twentieth century, based on Cyrillic graphics, a huge layer of literary and scientific heritage in Kazakh language. And it is important that this national heritage is not lost for subsequent generations of Kazakhstanis. We will create a State Commission for the translation of the Kazakh language into the Latin script.”
