The new Kazakh alphabet, based on the Latin script, was approved by the decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

“I decide to approve the attached alphabet of the Kazakh language, based on the Latin script,” says the decree published on the website of the head of state on October 27.

The Cabinet of Ministers of the republic should form a national commission, as well as ensure the transition of the Kazakh language from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin script. The government has been given a deadline until 2025 to implement the project.

We will remind, earlier Nazarbayev ordered the government to create a detailed schedule for the translation of the state language into Latin. As early as 2018, the country will begin training specialists and teaching aids for teaching the new alphabet.

It should be noted that the translation of the national language from the Cyrillic into the Latin alphabet was carried out earlier by Moldova, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. According to experts, the experience of Azerbaijan can be considered the most successful - having overcome the difficulties of the transition period rather quickly, the country switched to a new writing system. But in Uzbekistan, the translation into the Latin alphabet took place only partially - the population continues to actively use the familiar Cyrillic alphabet.

In Kyrgyzstan, they also talk about the need to switch to the Latin alphabet. For example, a deputy from the Ata Meken faction, Kanybek Imanaliev, made such an initiative earlier. However, this idea met with criticism from the head of state - according to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic Almazbek Atambayev (whose term expires on November 30), the arguments of the supporters of the Latin alphabet sound unconvincing.

“Every time the desire to change the alphabet is given a new explanation. For example, this is the reason: the Latin alphabet is the alphabet of all developed countries, the transition to the Latin alphabet will help the development of the country's economy. But did the fact that they use hieroglyphs hindered Japan and Korea? " - said the politician, speaking at the international forum "Altai civilization and related peoples of the Altai language family." At the same time, the use of the Latin alphabet in a number of African countries did not at all help them escape from poverty, the politician added.

According to Atambayev, another popular argument, according to which this measure will help unite the Turkic peoples, is also untenable. “For hundreds of centuries, the Turkish language already in the 19th century had little resemblance to the language of the Turkic kagans,” Atambayev said.

Wint of time

For their part, the Kazakh authorities explain the rejection of the Cyrillic alphabet with the requirements of the era.

“The transition to the Latin alphabet is not a whim, it is the spirit of the times. When I talk about an able-bodied state, I am talking about able-bodied citizens. You need to know the international language - English, because everything that is advanced is based on it, ”Nursultan Nazarbayev said.

In addition, Astana believes that this measure will help unite the Kazakh community, including those Kazakhs who live abroad.

Let us recall that until the 10th century, the population of the territories of modern Kazakhstan used the ancient Turkic script, from the 10th to the 20th century, for almost a thousand years, the Arabic script was used. The spread of the Arabic script and language began against the background of the Islamization of the region.

In 1929, by a decree of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Latinized Unified Turkic alphabet was introduced in the Kazakh territories.

Note that in the 1920s, the young Turkish Republic switched to the Latin alphabet - this decision was made by Kemal Ataturk as part of a campaign to combat clericalism.

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In the 1930s, Soviet-Turkish relations deteriorated markedly. According to a number of historians, this cooling was one of the factors that prompted Moscow to abandon the use of the Latin alphabet in the national republics. In 1940, the USSR adopted a law "On the translation of Kazakh writing from Latinized to a new alphabet based on Russian graphics."

It should be noted that the idea of ​​turning to "common Turkic roots" is most actively promoted by Ankara, which over the past decades has been striving to attract the former Soviet republics into its orbit of influence. The ideas of Pan-Turkism, actively propagated by the Turkish side, serve as a tool for the implementation of Ankara's ambitious plans. Let us remind you that the concept of Pan-Turkism was first formulated in the newspaper "Perevodchik-Terdzhiman", published in Bakhchisarai by publicist Ismail Gasprinsky at the end of the 19th century.

The creation of a single Turkic alphabet is an old dream of the ideologists of Turkic unity; such attempts have been made more than once. One of the most successful dates back to 1991 - as a result of the international scientific symposium held in Istanbul, a unified alphabet was created for the Turkic peoples. It is based on the Latin graphics of the Turkish alphabet. The new alphabet was adopted in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. True, subsequently Baku introduced a number of changes to the Turkic alphabet, and Tashkent and Ashgabat completely abandoned it.

Although Kazakhstan takes an active part in Turkic integration projects (for example, it is a member of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States. - RT) and cooperates in a number of areas with Ankara, it is not worth exaggerating Turkish influence in Central Asia, experts say.

“The translation of the Kazakh language into Latin is welcomed by Ankara, the Turkish side has long been promoting the idea of ​​a common Turkic alphabet in the Latin alphabet, but Turkish influence has many constraints that cannot be overcome with the help of only linguistic measures,” said the head of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan Department of the Institute of CIS Countries in an interview with RT Andrey Grozin. - Of course, Ankara is interested in creating additional incentives for the consolidation of the Turkic world, in which it plays a leading role. However, in this case, the role of Turkey should not be overestimated. "

"The fate of Ukraine"

Let's remind, according to the Constitution of Kazakhstan, the state language of the republic is Kazakh, and Russian is officially used "on a par with Kazakh" in state bodies.

“The state takes care of creating conditions for the study and development of the languages ​​of the people of Kazakhstan,” says the basic law of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The reform of the alphabet will affect only the Kazakh language, the authorities of the republic emphasize.

“I would especially like to emphasize once again that the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet in no way affects the rights of the Russian-speaking, Russian and other languages. The status of the use of the Russian language remains unchanged, it will function in the same way as it did before, ”the press service of the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan quotes the words of Nursultan Nazarbayev.

• Nursultan Nazarbaev
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• Kremlin Pool / Global Look Press

It should be noted that the leadership of the republic considers any initiatives to prohibit or restrict the use of the Russian language in the country as harmful and dangerous.

“Suppose that we prohibit by law all languages ​​except Kazakh. What awaits us then? The fate of Ukraine, ”Nazarbayev told Khabar TV in 2014. According to the politician, the role of the Kazakh language grows naturally along with the growth of the number of Kazakhs.

"Is it necessary to forcefully bring everyone to the Kazakh language, but at the same time lose independence in bloodshed, or is it prudent to solve problems?" - added the head of the republic.

According to Andrei Grozin, the innovations will partly affect the Russian-speaking population, because now all schoolchildren will have to learn the state language in a new transcription.

“True, the level of teaching the Kazakh language in the country was not high before, and ethnic Russians do not speak it particularly well. Therefore, for the Russian-speaking residents of Kazakhstan, in fact, the changes will not be very noticeable, ”the expert noted.

According to Grozin, the fact that no public opinion polls have been conducted in Kazakhstan on such an important topic as changing the alphabet raises certain doubts.

“Appraisals were voiced only by individual representatives of the creative intelligentsia and public figures,” Grozin explained. - But there is no data on what opinion about the new alphabet prevails among the population. This may indicate that the country's authorities understand that the level of approval of the reform among the population is very low. "

Astana values ​​relations with Moscow, the Kazakh leadership emphasizes that Russia "remains the number one partner for Kazakhstan, both in politics and in the economy." Today Kazakhstan and Russia are working together in a number of integration projects - SCO, CSTO, Customs and Eurasian Economic Union. There is a visa-free regime between the countries, according to the 2010 census, 647 thousand ethnic Kazakhs live in Russia, about 20% of the population of Kazakhstan are Russians.

However, when it comes to a shared past, Astana changes the tone of its statements. For example, Nazarbayev's speech delivered in 2012 at the Kazakh-Turkish business forum held in Istanbul made a big resonance.

“We live in the homeland of the entire Turkic people. After the last Kazakh khan was killed in 1861, we were a colony of the Russian kingdom, then the Soviet Union. For 150 years, Kazakhs have almost lost their national traditions, customs, language, religion, ”the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan said.

Nazarbayev repeated these theses in a milder form in his keynote article published in April 2017. According to the Kazakh leader, the 20th century taught the Kazakhs "largely tragic lessons", in particular, "the natural path of national development was broken" and "the Kazakh language and culture were almost lost." Today, Kazakhstan must abandon those elements of the past that hinder the development of the nation, the article says.

The translation of the alphabet into the Latin alphabet will allow Astana to implement this plan, experts say. True, the practical result of the introduction of such measures may not be development, but a split of the nation.

"The discussion about the transition to the Latin alphabet began in Kazakhstan in the mid-2000s, so there is no surprise in this decision," Dmitry Alexandrov, an expert on Central and Central Asian countries, explained in an interview with RT. - But for the Kazakh society, this step can turn into very ambiguous consequences. This will lead to the creation of a serious barrier between generations. "

According to the expert, the body of literature published in the Soviet and post-Soviet times will not be republished - it is simply impossible. Therefore, the result of the reform will be to restrict the access of Kazakhstanis to their own cultural heritage.

• Graduates of one of the Almaty schools during the celebration of the "Last Call"
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• Anatoly Ustinenko

“The experience of other countries has shown that not only old people, but even people of 40-50 years old cannot retrain to a new transcription,” said Andrei Grozin. "As a result, the knowledge they have accumulated will remain with them, regardless of their ideological orientation."

Young generations will no longer know the past: it is simply impossible to transfer to the new graphics the entire volume of literature written in more than 70 years.

“In the same Uzbekistan, many intellectuals are already turning to the authorities with a request to return the old alphabet - over the years that have passed since the reform, a cultural and ideological abyss has formed between generations. In such cases, we are talking about a split in society that is no longer on the basis of ethnicity. Dividing lines are growing within the titular ethnic group - and this is a very dangerous tendency. The authorities of Kazakhstan declare that the goal of the reform is "modernization of consciousness", but if it happens, it will only be among the younger generation. It is also about rejecting the Soviet past. It is no secret that the entire main body of literature of all Central Asian republics is associated with the Cyrillic period, and only a very small number of texts were created in the “Arab” period, ”the expert summed up.

On October 26, he signed a decree on the translation of the Kazakh alphabet from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin script. The head of state decided to form a National Commission for the translation of the alphabet into the Latin alphabet, and a phased transition, in accordance with this document, should be ensured until 2025.

Now the country uses the Kazakh alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet, it includes 42 letters. At the end of September 2017, work was completed on a new alphabet based on the Latin alphabet and consisting of 32 letters. According to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the idea of ​​switching to the Latin script originated from the moment Kazakhstan gained independence, and the transition of the Kazakh script to the Latin script has always remained under his special control.

About what the final decision on the transition to the Latin alphabet means, who is interested in this, how it will affect ordinary citizens and whether in this case we are talking about the demonstrative distance of Kazakhstan from the Russian world, IA REGNUM told the head of the department of Central Asia and Kazakhstan of the Institute of CIS countries Andrey Grozin.

What does the signing of a decree on the translation of the Kazakh language into Latin script mean? How feasible are the announced plans?

This idea is not new, he had been hatching this idea for a long time - for the first time officially the translation of the Kazakh language into Latin was announced back in April. That is, it looks like the current workflow. Moreover, in the same spring settings of Akorda (p the residence of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan - approx. IA REGNUM ) it was said that the alphabet should be developed by the end of the year, that is, there is even a slight ahead of schedule. How the transfer of education to the Latin script in 2022 and the full transition to it in 2025 will be organized is a big question.

In theory, if the president survives that period and is able to govern the country, which is highly doubtful, despite the achievements of modern gerontology and elite medicine, then this course will continue to be followed. How it will continue after it, one can only guess.

It is possible that everything will be the same as it happened in Uzbekistan, where they switched to the Latin script more than two decades ago, but even the signs are still in Cyrillic. You can't jump over certain things. There is a problem of a cultural and civilizational nature. Of course, there are some successes among the Uzbeks and, especially, among the Turkmens. But there is a mono-national environment, it is easier to conduct such experiments on humans. In Kazakhstan, everything is much more complicated.

Will the question affect the Russian-speaking population?

Yes, all high-ranking officials on every corner say that this is a purely Kazakh affair, it will not affect the Russians in any way, but this is slyness. The Kazakh language is the state language. All children study it in schools, regardless of their ethnicity. Children - Russian, Korean, Tatar, German - will learn Kazakh in Latin transcription if everything goes as planned. That is, it will touch in the most direct way. On the other hand, who will pay for it? The transition to the Latin alphabet will be paid from taxes. And taxes will be collected from everyone, regardless of their ethnicity. Everyone will throw in a new paragraph in future history textbooks.

I doubt that this will somehow directly affect the Russian citizens of Kazakhstan. By and large, just as they have not watched Kazakh television, they will not. They don't care what letters something is signed there. If you didn’t know how to read in Cyrillic, then you won’t learn in Latin - there is no motivation. In the everyday sense, the transition to the Latin alphabet for Russian speakers will not affect in any way, especially the older generation - those who have already graduated from schools, universities and have already somehow got a job.

Is it possible, in connection with the rejection of the Cyrillic alphabet, to talk about the squeezing out of the Russian language and the desire of the President of Kazakhstan to distance himself from Russia?

The process of "Kazakhization" is in full swing. The expulsion of the Russian language from the cultural space was also ten years ago, and will continue in ten years, regardless of what kind of graphics the state language will have. I don't see any prospects for new pressures and new persecutions.

Maybe, on the contrary, in order to soften the impression of such innovations, they can spend some money on the development of culturally distinctive autonomies, they will pay for songs and dances in kokoshniks again. This can be done in order to reduce the critical potential in the Russian media. It is already low, few people are interested in the essence of this problem at all, everyone thinks that this is the business of the Kazakhs.

In fact, there are problems here that are little talked about, including in Kazakhstan itself. For example, the national patriots shouted back in the spring that “it's good, at last we are getting rid of one more legacy of the colonial past, away from the Russian world, closer to the progressive Latin alphabet”. But they were quickly corrected "from above" so that they would not stupidly utter what should not be said. You can think about it as much as you like, but chatting on blogs is already superfluous. This wave quickly passed, but in fact, this is how things stand, this step is a symbolic turn from Russia to the side. And where - to Turkey, Europe or the States - is another question. Most likely, now this direction is not "to", but "from".

However, I do not think that it is necessary to focus on a certain "anti-Russian" character. In fact, for Nazarbayev, for example, this is not an anti-Russian step and a desire to demonstrate even greater independence or increase the distance. In my opinion, he rather creates for himself one more "Pharaoh's pyramid" and writes another chapter for history textbooks. And his entourage takes advantage of this.

Who and how?

This is partly needed by a part of potential elites. These are not necessarily those who, according to Bolashak (international educational scholarship of the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev - approx. IA REGNUM) studied at Oxford, although for most of them too. These are attempts by a new part of the elite - deputies, assistants, and so on - to squeeze the old elite. In addition to the “pyramids” and chapters in history books, for the current initiator of this transition, this is an intra-elite struggle, which has always been and always will be in Kazakhstan. New alliances are likely to be formed along these lines of intergenerational division. The desire to oust the old elite and in their place bring new, "progressive" and "technologically advanced", who are imprisoned under Ankara, some under Brussels, some under Washington.

To what extent is such a transition necessary and justified? Nursultan Nazarbayev said that "in general, the society supports." What can be the consequences of the implementation of the announced plans?

The problem is that the generations of the titular nation are now split. Those who are 40-50 years old, for the most part, will not learn Kazakh, this is a historical practice. The lines of division will no longer pass between ethnic groups that exist in Kazakhstan and are only expanding, but between the Kazakhs themselves, in terms of generational indicators, as happened in Uzbekistan.

There, children who graduated from school 5-10 years ago are simply not able to read Uzbek texts in Cyrillic. That is, everything that their fathers-mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers live with is no longer interesting for them, it does not matter. Conversely, the older generation is not able to learn Uzbek in Latin. Hence the polyphony in the proposals of the Uzbek intellectuals to play back and return to the Cyrillic script. That is, the intergenerational gap, which already always exists in all societies, in this case in Kazakhstan will only worsen.

The population is told that it will be easier for their children to learn English, the keyboard is sharpened for English. This is, of course, a kindergarten. Any critic, any linguist will explain in a nutshell that the keyboard is not a reason to redo the entire writing system. And English is taught in Russia somehow.

All the talk that this is a step towards modernization, in order to build a new society, new people with new values ​​- more pragmatic and more modern, more IT-oriented - in the absolute, if everything goes as planned maybe become a reality. But this will only work with a part of society - with young people who will be raised according to new programs in new linguistic conditions, in a new environment and for new tasks. And the rest, say, three-quarters of society do not automatically fit into this new "ideal world."

Who will rewrite everything that has accumulated since 1940, when the Kazakh was finally transferred to the Cyrillic script? What difficulties can be assumed in this direction?

They said about the allocation of 115 million dollars, but this is ridiculous, so that the society does not irritate. The bill will go into billions, which will have to be spent until 2020. Signboards to rewrite, documents to forward, which, by the way, will have to be done by everyone, regardless of ethnicity, as well as to put up with extortions that will be at the local and regional level in order to rewrite.

All this is an endless edge for enthusiasts to share money, but there is not enough room for all these enthusiasts, there are plenty of people willing. It is clear that this is a certain niche, a "feeding trough", but this is a problem, as in Kyrgyzstan - there are many ambitions, there are many who wish, but there are not enough portfolios.

I am not inclined to believe that nothing will come of it. He (Nursultan Nazarbayev, - approx. IA REGNUM) transferred. Although it has punched such holes in budgets, it has eaten up so much money that could theoretically go to the citizens of the country. Here, about the same thing - a large "Panama" stretched out in time and drank in advance with indulgence from possible checks. For all these preparatory activities, explanatory work, and so on, huge sums can be written off. This is a big drinking field with very vague responsibilities for how these funds will be spent. There is also a large corruption component in the commissions that will write lists for translations of artists, a large corruption component for local officials.

In addition, there is a version that this is done in order to distract the population from events and processes that are much more important for the political class... From the same power transit, from a complex economic situation e. All n National patriots in the Kazakh segment of the Internet are fighting around the idea of ​​switching to the Latin alphabet, discuss it, suck, chew. They threw a bone to them, and they pounced, began to gnaw from all sides, everything else fades into the background. Perhaps this is conspiracy theories, but Tazhin ( Marat Tazhin, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, - approx. IA REGNUM) is a well-known manipulator, he feeds them, as it happened in Ukraine, but not quite like that. But they started playing there and let the process take its course. So far, this is not the case in Kazakhstan, all nationally concerned "comrades" under the hood of the National Security Committee are under much stricter control. While this situation is under control.

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev at the end of February approved a new and, most likely, the final version of the alphabet of the Kazakh language based on the Latin script.

In the near future, the office work of the authorities and the media will be transferred to this option, and the Kazakhs will begin to receive documents in which digraphs and diacritics will flaunt instead of the usual Cyrillic letters. Will Russia and Kazakhstan move away because of this?

Turks started

The legislative decision to transfer the Kazakh language to a new schedule was formalized in October 2017, when Nazarbayev signed a relevant decree. The document put an end to the many years of disputes about the need to switch to the Latin alphabet instead of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Discussions about changing the alphabet in Kazakhstan and other countries of Central Asia, which are part of the Turkic world, have been actively conducted since the beginning of the last century. Until the 1920s, all of them predominantly used the Arabic script, which over time ceased to satisfy all the needs of the language.

Initially, the Central Asian states, in order to adapt the alphabet to modernity, took a step towards the Latin script. Turkey turned out to be the leader in this process, which, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, embarked on a course of Westernization. The transition to the Latin alphabet on this path, first of all, simplified communication, however, it also had a political background. Thus, Ankara sought to seize influence from Russia in Central Asia.

In the USSR, they also caught the spirit of the times. In the 1920s - 1930s, a campaign began in the Union to translate the scripts of the country's peoples into Latin script. During this time, 69 languages ​​were Latinized, including Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Turkmen and Uzbek. They received official status by decree of 1929.

But the new alphabet did not last long: already in 1936 it was decided to translate the languages ​​into Cyrillic. The transition campaign ended in 1940. The update made it possible to simplify the workflow and publishing of books, and also made it possible to simultaneously teach Russian and national languages ​​in schools. Cyrillic writing in the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union survived until the 1990s.

It was only with the collapse of the USSR that the debate over the most suitable schedule resumed. As a result, Azerbaijan was the first to change the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin alphabet, then to Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan is in the process.

Nazarbayev also thought about the transition for a long time. Back in 2012, speaking with a message to the people of Kazakhstan, the president said that the country could change the alphabet within 15 years. In the signed decree, the head of state specified this term - it is planned to transfer the language to the new schedule by 2025.

According to the head of state, the purpose of the transition to the Latin alphabet is the modernization of the economy and the development of culture. It is assumed that this will help to obtain cheap investments and loans and will provide an opportunity to join the common Turkic cultural space.

As Vladimir Zhirikhin, Deputy Director of the Institute of CIS Countries, explained in a comment to the Cyrillic columnist, the translation of Kazakh into Latin script is to some extent a desire to simplify the Kazakhs' presence in the Turkic world and strive for standardization. However, the expert did not rule out that there is also a political component in the process. However, according to him, in the comments on this topic, it is clearly exaggerated.

In fact, from the very beginning, Nazarbayev's actions were seen as a change in the political vector and evidence of a gradual withdrawal from Moscow's sphere of influence. But the president of Kazakhstan responded to such interpretations in the same way: they will not stop treating the Russian language with care, we are only talking about the translation of the Kazakh language.

As of the beginning of 2017, Russians in Kazakhstan make up 20.2% of the population. This is the second largest national group in the country, and the Russian language is the first in terms of ownership and distribution there.

This state of affairs, Vladimir Zharikhin is sure, will continue in the coming decades. At the same time, the romanization of document circulation and the media in Kazakhstan will not affect the Russian diaspora in any way: the Kazakh language for its representatives, as a rule, is still incomprehensible. Teaching in Russian in the country remains an integral part of the educational process.

New does not mean good

At the same time, the prospect of an early transition to the Latin script pleases not everyone, both in Kazakhstan and in the Turkic world. For example, President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev, speaking at the forum of Altai civilization, criticized the Kazakh authorities for abandoning the Cyrillic alphabet.

In his opinion, the old graphics allow preserving the historical heritage and being in the same cultural channel with Eurasia. Refusal from it will lead to the destruction of established ties.

The authorities of Kazakhstan and experts warn about the upcoming difficulties in the case of the translation of the alphabet into the Latin alphabet. According to the generally accepted opinion, the reform of writing is always fraught with a generation gap and the loss of knowledge recorded on the previous schedule. In addition, the transition will cost money - only in the budget for 2018-2020, 600 million tenge (almost 2 million US dollars) were allocated for this.

In addition, there is no consensus in the answer to the question whether the Latin alphabet will allow to reflect all the sounds of the Kazakh language in writing. So, in the new version of the alphabet, approved on February 20, there were 32 letters instead of 42 in the Cyrillic version.

According to some, the abbreviation of signs will avoid confusion and spelling mistakes. But opponents of the reduction of signs are inclined to assert that it was the diversity of the Cyrillic alphabet that corresponded to the peculiarities of the Kazakh language.

Initially, the parsimony of Latin graphics, the developers of the new alphabet tried to smooth out using apostrophes - superscript commas or strokes. But the attempt came out clearly not successful and was criticized. Therefore, already in the second version of the alphabet, it was decided to abandon additional characters, but new digraphs and diacritics appeared.

One way or another, in Moscow the attitude to Kazakh innovations is rather neutral. The Kremlin, unlike the media, did not react to Nazarbayev's signing of the romanization decree. Of course, the Russian authorities understand that such a gesture from Astana is an obvious nod to the West.

However, the fact remains: if it is possible to get additional investments with the help of the Latin alphabet, then it is unlikely to build allied relations.

Romanization of the Kazakh language is a constant subject of controversy among linguists, because there is no single option. The problem is that there are more sounds in the Kazakh language than there are letters in the Latin alphabet. It is impossible to draw an unambiguous parallel between sounds and letters, because the Latin alphabet appeared as a written language for the Romance languages, and the Kazakh belongs to the Turkic languages, has a different phonetic structure.

One of the most popular alphabets is the project of Abduali Haidari, Doctor of Philology, better known as "KazInform Latin" - since 2004 this system of transliteration of the Cyrillic text has been used by the information agency of the same name.

An example of a text in the Latin alphabet KazInform

The main feature of the alphabet - diacritics - is strongly noticeable in the text. These are various hook dashes that are added to the letters to represent the missing sounds of the language. Diacritical marks - accents, short, umlauts - of course solve the problem with the lack of letters, but create visual rubbish. Laconic text turns into a horned-tailed something.

Visually on the problem of diacritics

At the Institute of Linguistics. A. Baitursynov's linguistic research continues. Now one of the priority options is this:

There are no fundamental differences from the Latin alphabet KazInform. Linguists just replaced some types of diacritics with others: ş → š, and also slightly optimized the letters, excluding those that were inherited from the Cyrillic alphabet: ï (and), x (x). The KazInform version was just a letter-by-letter transliteration of the Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet, without taking into account the peculiarities of the language.

Looking at these alphabets, it becomes a little sad. The writing reform was conceived not only in order to change some letters for others, it is shortsighted. A language that does not develop is doomed to disappear. It would be wrong to inherit the mistakes of the Cyrillic alphabet, the new alphabet should be a breath of fresh air for the Kazakh language.

The ABCnet alphabet was developed by Zhanat Aimaganov back in 1999.

Latin ABCnet

This Latin script solves all the problems with the jumbled diacritics of the two previous versions. A very simple move was made - to designate the missing letters, an apostrophe on the right was added to the existing ones, and digraphs were introduced - letter combinations. Ш becomes sh, ғ becomes gh.

Due to the fact that the alphabet contains only standard Latin characters, its full computer support is provided even on very old equipment.

However, not everything is so good. With such a Latin alphabet, the volume of the text increases, the speed of typing slows down, and the convenience of perception decreases. Apostrophes visually break words and the canvas of text. From a technical point of view, a word with an apostrophe is not complete. As an example, Uzbekistan, which has been using an alphabet similar to ABCnet since 1995. Until recently, it was impossible to fully search for Uzbek texts on Google - the search engine considered the apostrophe to be a word break.

An example of a text in Uzbek with official Latin graphics

Uzbekistan is not a good example to follow. More than 20 years have passed, but the Cyrillic script is still the main script in the country. Perhaps, the adopted Latin alphabet project played an important role in this.

Let's turn to the past. In the 30s of the XX century in the USSR there was an experiment to introduce a universal Latin alphabet for the Turkic peoples - Yanalif. In this alphabet, the shortage of letters was solved by using diacritics and inventing unique symbols that did not exist previously in the Latin alphabet.

Yanalif

The main convenience was that one letter stood for one sound, there were few diacritics, and the text looked quite coherent and beautiful.

Fragment of "Words of edification" by Abai Kunanbayev on Yanalif

However, using this alphabet is not the best solution now. It contains non-standard characters that are not found in many computer fonts. And some characters are still not included in the universal international standard for character encoding - Unicode, which, according to the creators' intention, should include all the characters of the existing and extinct scripts of the world.

Taking the best ideas of romanization, creating a simple, convenient, concise alphabet of a competitive language - this is the goal set by the project enthusiasts. Kazak Grammar Nazi.

Let's take the phonetics of the Kazakh language as a basis. The table shows the main sounds, in addition, now there are borrowed ones in the language, for example, f, x.

Consonants of the Kazakh language according to the IPA - the international phonetic alphabet

Vowel sounds of the Kazakh language according to IPA

One need not think about the Latin designation of some sounds - there are no ambiguities. They will coincide with their designation in the IPA - the International Phonetic Alphabet. For example, [m] - m, [p] - p. To avoid digraphs and diacritics, we will try to find convenient symbols that already exist in the standards of Latin graphics.

For the sound denoted in Cyrillic as ң, take the Latin letter ŋ. In addition to the fact that it is a solid grapheme, in many languages ​​and even in the phonetic alphabet it denotes exactly the same sound as in the Kazakh language. And this is an additional plus for the perception of the text, especially in foreign languages.

To replace the Cyrillic w - the Latin letter c. An uncomplicated and elegant move. Why invent "tails" and "birds" over the letter s, when you can just use an unused symbol. This idea is not new - this is how the sound sh was denoted in Yanalif.

Kazakh phonetics is subject to the law of harmony. In a word, excluding some borrowings, there can be only vowels of either the front row or the back, the so-called "hard" and "soft". In a hard word there are sounds қ and ғ, and in a soft word - k and g. Such sounds are called allophones, that is, they are actually the same, but their pronunciation differs depending on the neighboring sounds of the word. Why create redundant letters? We remove q, allophones қ and k will be denoted by one letter k. Also with the pair ғ-г, they will be replaced by one Latin g.

Some believe that due to such a decision, the sounds will one day merge into one, and disappear into speech қ and ғ. This opinion has no real basis - sounds do not disappear from a simple replacement of the alphabet.

In Kyrgyzstan, in the 40s of the last century, as in Kazakhstan, the Cyrillic alphabet was adopted. A peculiarity of writing was the absence of separate letters for the sounds қ and ғ. More than 70 years have passed, but these sounds, which are absent in the letter, have not disappeared in the speech of the Kyrgyz.

Another example of allophones is the sounds l and l. Although these sounds are designated by one letter l, it never occurs to anyone to confuse them when pronouncing: қol [қol] - kel [kel].

Many languages ​​can be cited as examples: English and French, where the spelling is very different from the pronunciation, and Arabic, in which vowels are preserved that are completely absent from the writing.

The so-called "adepts of the Q sect" are against the unification of letters. Some people liked the idea of ​​using the letter q instead of қ, once put forward, that they rushed to rename everything urgently, often without practical necessity, to please the populists.

Examples of renaming organizations

Such actions have generated a lot of skepticism, irony and sarcasm on social media. Everything needs a reasonable calculation.

You can't do without diacritics. To indicate missing vowels in the alphabet, we use a proven solution - umlauts. In many languages, these signs mean a "softened" version of the vowel sound, would be a plus.

Vowel designation

There are many borrowings in the modern Kazakh language, there are Arabic, Persian, Russian. Many terms are already difficult to imagine using only classical Kazakh phonetics. International terms, toponyms contain sounds that are absent in Kazakh phonetics. For example, France. According to the standards of the Cyrillization of the Kazakh language, all such words were taken from Russian as it is, in the same letter form, with sounds alien to the language. Let's turn to pre-Cyrillic times.

The above image shows the names of the countries as they were written by Yanalif, as much as possible adapted to Kazakh phonetics.

Germany - Kerman, France - Pyransy, Italy - Iytaliyya, England - Akylshyn, Sweden - Shibet, Norway - Norbek.

Times have changed, the Kazakh language does not stand still either. The average person who speaks Kazakh has not experienced problems with pronouncing new sounds for a long time. Some of them appeared along with Arab and Persian borrowings. Therefore, letters can be added to the alphabet to denote these sounds - f, v, h.

It makes no sense to make two different letters for [x] and [h], in the modern Kazakh language the line between these borrowed sounds has been erased.

Now let's talk about transliteration rules. Most of the questions can arise with the letters and, in the Cyrillic alphabet. These letters represent several sounds at once.

In the Latin alphabet, it will be enough to expand the diphthongs, turning them into one or two separate letters.

Siyr - sıyır, ine - iyne, ielik - iyelik, internet - internet

Ru - ruw, aua - awa, құyisu - kuyısıw, kүyisu - küyisiw

Conversion rules

The letters Yu, I are transformed taking into account the fact that they are diphthongs. Ayu - ayıw, yғni - yagnıy.

The letter H turns into C: check - cek.

Let's see what happened in the end.

Fragment from the book of Sain Muratbekov "Zhusan isi"

Handsomely. There is not a lot of diacritical rubbish, the text looks organic. Outwardly it differs from the Latin alphabet of other Turkic languages, which ensures its recognition.

Latin Kazak Grammar Nazi

Let's take for comparison the same text on this alphabet and on the graph from the Institute of Linguistics.

Clearly, the text on the left looks cleaner. The text on the right is replete with diacritics birds.

In addition to the Kazak Grammar alphabet, a keyboard prototype for the new alphabet was developed. All characters are placed on the main keyboard, so the number buttons remain intact. Also included is the tenge symbol, which is increasingly used in life.

Latin keyboard layout

Keyboard layouts have already been made for macOS and Windows operating systems, they can be easily installed and used in the new Latin alphabet, applications for smartphones are being prepared. The participants of the Kazak Grammar Nazi project are considering the idea of ​​a program for the automatic adaptation of Cyrillic texts in accordance with all the new rules, perhaps for this promising and popular neural networks will be used.