The Kazakh language switches to the Latin alphabet. Why did Kazakhstan switch to the Latin alphabet?

Vanity. For those who are thinking about how to write cirrhosis, Engels, Ethiopia, etc. in the new alphabet:

This is what I explained)))

P.S. I'm not a philologist. As I understood it myself, I explained it.
And the loot.... I understand that if you don’t give it to the president to sign (I’m talking about the alphabet), he will sign...essentially it’s all the same, the main thing is to accept it as quickly as possible, and then there’ll be a flood...this worries me. ..
I don’t know if our state needs a new alphabet, but I know for sure that I don’t want to pay for it! And I can’t understand how this will help us integrate... we are, whatever one may say, a third world country, in no way better for them than Pakistan...
I hope they make the right decision. Alg"a Qazaqstan!! Alǵa Qazaqstan!! I personally believe that this second wave of breaking the awareness of statehood will push the entire country several steps back. The first wave of renunciation of the post-Soviet heritage already seems to have passed and weakened. The second wave needs to be done right now and precisely under the current president, because the next one who comes to his place, I think, is unlikely to be concerned with such a problem. There are more pressing problems, solutions that are required. And this, oddly enough, is not a continuation of the life of the EXPO center. In some cities, we provide water on a schedule there is no gas, no sewerage, and no hospital or pharmacies.
I think that in this case, the representatives of the indigenous population will suffer first of all. Because they bent over without asking and without a referendum. We decided everything urgently.
All specialists and technicians will be retrained, all teachers, doctors, absolutely everyone will learn to read and write again. And if now someone has a chance to get out knowing their native language, reading and writing in Cyrillic, then after the introduction of the Latin alphabet this layer of the population will fall away from society and will not get out soon. They bent their own people for their own illusory good. What is the advantage of integrating the economies of countries with different or the same alphabet, I just can’t figure it out.
Now about the worst part, the budget. Absolutely all documents will be renamed and redone. These are the names and signs of areas of cities, streets, districts. Changes in information on topographic maps. Changes in document flow. All technical certificates, passports, identification documents, all government documents, all signs, magazines and books, in general, you can’t list everything. What a fucking engine this is! All Electronic government portals and programs, all regulatory documents and by-laws and other documentation. In a word, star!
It's hard to imagine how much it will cost. Has anyone done research on bureaucrats? Has anyone announced at least the approximate cost of the transition? I think the total cost will reach 12 zeros. And most of them, I think, will again be put on our shoulders. They will stupidly force us to change all our BTI documents and other identification documents, documents for transport, business, real estate. Then we’ll integrate! Then how will we live! Let's go up! though already with glued fins... Quote:

Almost T500 million is planned to be spent on covering the transition to the Latin alphabet on social networks through bloggers, according to the draft action plan for the phased transfer of the Kazakh alphabet to the Latin script until 2025, published on the website of the e-government of Kazakhstan.

It is also noted that the budget is planned to be distributed in equal shares for each year from 2018 to 2025.

At the same time, the information work of the project includes the creation in the first half of 2018 of special hashtags for use in distributing materials on the translation of the Kazakh alphabet into the Latin alphabet on social networks, as well as on an ongoing basis making publications in popular social networks among young people of motivators, posts in the state language according to Latin script. As stated in the document, this work does not require funding.

As previously reported, according to the project, more than T200 billion is planned to be spent on reprinting textbooks written in the Kazakh language in Latin script

If I get a piece of this “pie” I will say “FOR” with my hands and feet, and then “at least the grass won’t grow.” I think this is exactly what many proponents of Latinization think. Quote:

The eastern leaders of Central Asia have a desire to become Europe, “even though they are deep in Asia

I would change the last word to "in f....e". Who is more useful for the country - a janitor or deputies, ministers, philologists who spend people's money on dubious projects? Whether there is a
an official who, out of remorse, quit and opened a service station or something similar?

Quote: bolatbol from 02/22/2018 06:05:50
Who is more useful for the country - a janitor or deputies, ministers, philologists who spend people's money on dubious projects? Whether there is a
an official who, out of remorse, quit and opened a service station or something similar?

Electricians, brother, you can’t do without them. Gentlemen from the government, if you want to “show off” in front of the whole world, do it like in the UAE - give each newly born citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan $100 for a deposit.... although no, it’s better than 200 (we are the coolest of all). And yes, introduce a strict ban on working for citizens more than 5 hours a week. I assure you, even the inhabitants of the North Pole will talk about our country. I’m not against the Latin alphabet... I just don’t care
But I am sure that this alphabet will set education back 50 years...
But what am I saying... Uneducated people are easier to rule

Quote: GoodZone from 02/22/2018 08:15:05
But I would like to have a normal independent referendum on this matter. After all, this concerns every citizen of Kazakhstan, but they make a decision somewhere on the sidelines... let everyone speak out and then a decision will be made based on the results, this is fair and correct... but they don’t ask us and this is annoying - I want my state to treat I'm being human...

Quote: roden from 02/22/2018 05:12:04
For those who are thinking about how to write cirrhosis, Engels, Ethiopia, etc. in the new alphabet:
for example, in Russian Micheal - Michael, cirrhosis - cirrhosis, Ethiopia - Ethiopia, Beijing - Beijing, etc. are written according to their own alphabet, i.e. No language initially tries to accurately convey the sounds of another language by introducing new letters or reworking its language.

Kazakh - Kazakh, Kokshetau - Kokchetav, Shymkent - Chimkent, etc. written in Russian (without adapting to the sounds of the Kazakh language). After gaining independence, the Russian versions were slightly altered: Kokshetau, Shymkent.

The British also do not adapt to the Russian language: Moscow - Moscow, Alexander - Alexander. It sounds different in Russian, different in English.

I myself am not against or in favor of the Latin alphabet, I explain this to those who talk about the dropped letters c, ь, e, sch, etc. It turns out that they were not in the Kazakh language. Initially, when the Kazakh language was made in Cyrillic, they added specific letters of the Kazakh language and specific sounds of the Russian language for Kazakh. It turned out to be 42 letters.

English, Russian, Chinese, etc. are written in the Kazakh Latin alphabet. words will be written using the rules of the Kazakh language.

This is what I explained)))

P.S. I'm not a philologist. As I understood it myself, I explained it.

Old Kazakh did not have a lot of sounds and letters. for example, there were no "v" and "f". let's throw them all out. and let the rest of the world adjust. Let's throw out all the borrowed words and come up with new variants taking into account the peculiarities of the old language. after all, T-Traditions. “bus” will become “aptobys”, “train” will become “poyyz” (oops, it seems there was such an option, and “th” is out of place here), etc., etc.
Why am I doing all this? Besides the fact that the modern Kazakh language has absorbed new sounds and letters, it cannot be done without them. This is why it is rich in that there are a lot of sounds for a variety of words. and to simplify it means to roll back. PS. about kuisandyk, galamtor and other symbols, it’s probably too much to joke about... Why don’t we switch to hieroglyphs? Take a look at China, Japan, South Korea. The economy there is growing much faster than in Europe.

It won’t work with a normal and independent referendum; they don’t know how to conduct it differently

Quote: Zoggyla from 02/22/2018 08:17:27

What do you think is the probability of predicting the expected outcome of the referendum?

Quote: GoodZone from 02/22/2018 09:22:08

Quote: Zoggyla from 02/22/2018 08:17:27

What do you think is the probability of predicting the expected outcome of the referendum?

It’s difficult to say for sure, but we can think logically:
1. analysis of the national composition of the population suggests that approximately 25-28% are inclined towards the Cyrillic alphabet, these are Russians, Germans, Ukrainians and other peoples for whom the Cyrillic alphabet is native - let’s assume that they will speak out against...
2. Approximately 65-70% are Kazakhs, Uzbeks, everything is much more complicated here and it is this group that will be decisive... let’s assume that from 30 to 50% of this group will speak out against it, that is, this is 20-35% of the total...
3. group other - 4-7% and another 2-4% against.

So what do we have? - range from 47 to 55%.

But again, I could be wrong... we live in the south and don’t see the whole situation... in the north, I think it will be completely different, it will be different in the city and the village, for a person with and without a higher education, it will depend on activity of the population... in general, the survey can be muddied, although it seems like it has already happened...

This may be true when you vote in a vacuum, but what if you vote with money? 10,000 tons one vote “for”, “against” - not at all. And this very money will be used to carry out the transition.
PS. Of course, this is a joke, but let’s assume a completely clean and transparent referendum, although why not go through the lobby? Banquet at the expense of the suffering. Everything is visible from above and from the high bell tower they did not care about our opinion. Not like this, just in one place, but they will do it as they want. The country needs fundamental changes, the economy is not working out, we will change the written language.
To be honest, I don’t support the Latin alphabet either. But the question now is different? Do the commenters above know Kazakh in Cyrillic? 1 reason. Distance yourself as far as possible from any possible Russian influence
2. Make your own adult population instantly illiterate. For children - school reforms, for adults - Latin. And that's it - do what you want with such a population
All! The rest is pathetic attempts to find excuses

April 12, 2017 President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev in his program article “Bolashakka bagdar rukhani zhangyru” the final time periods for the transition of Kazakh writing to the Latin alphabet: the end of 2017 - approval of the final version of the graphics, and “ by 2025, all business documents, periodicals and books should begin to be published in Latin. Much preparatory work will now begin. The government should prepare a timetable for the transition to the Latin alphabet" In 2018, a consistent process will begin to introduce the Latin alphabet.

Why are we moving away from the Cyrillic alphabet?

The history of the origins and early stages of the spread of the Cyrillic alphabet is closely connected with the spread of the Orthodox religion among the Slavic peoples. Following the colonization of the Eurasian expanses by the Russian Empire and later during the Soviet era, the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced as a single alphabet for the peoples of the empire, who spoke a wide variety of languages: Finno-Ugric, Indo-Iranian, Romance, Turkic and Mongolian.

In the early 1920s, a campaign for the Latinization of national alphabets began in the USSR. In 1929, the Latin alphabet was introduced for the Kazakh language, which was used until 1940. If the reforms of the 1920s followed the Bolshevik policy of separating primarily the Muslim peoples of the USSR from the heritage of the Islamic world, moving away from religion and previous values, then the transition of national alphabets to the Cyrillic alphabet became a milestone in the process of creating the “Soviet man.” Pan-Islamist and pan-Turkist sentiments had to be reduced to zero.

Domestic linguists have created an extensive layer of linguistics on the basis of Cyrillic Kazakh. Over the decades, a lot of borrowed words have entered the language, which, following the writing, gravitated towards the phonetics and spelling of the Russian language. Today, the Cyrillic alphabet is officially used by countries that were once part of the USSR (Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan), post-Soviet territories (Abkhazia, South Ossetia), countries with dominant Orthodoxy (Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro), as well as Mongolia. There are no developed countries in the above list. Cyrillic writing is often associated with communism and lack of freedom. Partly for these reasons, many peoples, including Slavic ones, who once used the Cyrillic alphabet, decided to change it in favor of the Latin alphabet.

In Serbia and Montenegro, in parallel with the Cyrillic alphabet, the Latin alphabet is also used, which is gaining more and more popularity. There are no new countries wanting to introduce the Cyrillic alphabet for their languages. With the collapse of the USSR, the scope of application of this alphabet narrowed.

Use of the Latin alphabet in the world

Among the six official languages of the UN, three (English, French and Spanish) use the Latin alphabet. If we take the largest international economic organizations, then all three official languages of the WTO also use the Latin alphabet (English, French and Spanish). The main languages of the Olympic movement are also English and French.

The Latin alphabet today is widespread on all continents inhabited by humanity. The alphabet, in addition to the territory of Europe itself (except for a number of the mentioned Eastern European countries), covers all of North and South America, most African states, Australia, densely populated and gaining economic power in Southeast Asia (including Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia). Also, the Latin alphabet is widely known and plays supporting roles in many other countries of the world, such as India, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea, the UAE and even China (several systems for transcribing Chinese dialects into Latin exist and are widely used).

According to World Bank data for 2015, of the top thirty countries by nominal GDP, the largest economies in the world, 22 countries use the Latin alphabet, from the top ten - 7 countries. If we look at GDP per capita, the richest nations use Latinized alphabets 18 countries from the top twenty. In the Doing Business ranking of the same World Bank, among the thirty most attractive countries for doing business 25 use alphabets based on Latin. At the same time, in almost all the countries under consideration, a Romanized font or English language is used in parallel.

English factor

Today, the dominant language around the world is English. Historically, this is associated with the expansion of the British Empire, the economic rise of the United States, as well as the powerful wave of mass culture that accompanies the processes of globalization. Nowadays, English is the world language of business, science and culture.

Never before in the history of mankind has any language had such a dominant position as English in the modern world. In addition, English is the official language of programming and information technology development. It is not surprising that today more than half of websites are published in this language. In the global information space, English is the largest source of deep and reliable information. According to various estimates, every year from 45% to 57% scientific literature in the world is published in English.

Factor of the Turkic world

However, the greatest interest for Kazakhstan is the use of the Latin alphabet by close Turkic peoples. Today there are six independent Turkic states in the world. Four of them officially use the Latin script for their official languages: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. While the translation of Turkish into Latin marks its 90th anniversary next year, the rest of the Turkic post-Soviet countries have less experience.

In Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, this process had a number of difficulties, associated primarily with the quality of implementation of the reform and lack of political will. For many years there was a parallel circulation of the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet. However, the process of transition to the Latin alphabet, which began in these countries back in the 1990s, is now generally complete, at least among the younger generation.

The most effective and consistent example seems to be Azerbaijan, where the transition to the Latin alphabet began at the dawn of independence in 1992 and, having slowed down somewhat in the mid-90s, finally ended on August 1, 2001 - the day when the entire country completely switched to the new alphabet.

It is important that on the eve of this significant event the President Heydar Aliyev signed a decree on “Deeper implementation of the Azerbaijani language”, a language reform that served as the key to purification and further development of the language. Kazakhstan is an integral and significant part of the Turkic world, which cannot and should not remain aloof from important common Turkic processes.

The experiences of the above countries have taught us a number of valuable lessons. The reform should affect not only the alphabet, but also broad layers of linguistics, morphology, spelling and grammar. In parallel with written language, a language reform should be carried out, thanks to which Kazakh will become the dominant language in all spheres in Kazakhstan. Reform for the sake of reform makes no sense. It must have clear goals and objectives. The most important thing is the quality of implementation, how effectively the state apparatus and society can implement this large-scale, labor-intensive transition.

The transition should not be long. After preparatory activities, it is necessary to draw a line after which the use of the Latin alphabet becomes widespread and final.

Financial side of the issue

At the moment, neither the state nor the expert community has a final understanding of how much it will cost to switch the state language to the Latin alphabet. I am convinced that with a competent approach and a reduction in the corruption component, the burden on the republican budget can be significantly reduced. However, one should not be surprised if total government spending exceeds $200 million, what is about 1% from the expenditure side of the republican budget (and will be divided over several years).

The following main expense items can already be identified.

Seal. Schools and universities must be fully provided with new educational literature. At the same time, these costs should be perceived not so much in the context of the transition to the Latin alphabet, but in the context of providing students with printed materials. Expenses that the state would have incurred in any case. Also necessary and very significant will be the translation into Kazakh language and printing of the latest scientific literature, as well as world artistic classics.

Change of signs and fonts. If it will be necessary to spend money on signs in government agencies and city streets from the republican and local budgets, then signs in the private sector can be transferred to the Latin alphabet gradually, over 1-2 years, which will reduce the pressure on business. As you know, entrepreneurs pay taxes on the exterior design of buildings, which can partially compensate for the change of signs. A similar approach can be applied to replacing documents. Changing fonts on the computers of printing houses and government agencies requires installing the appropriate software, the creation of which does not require huge expenses.

Citizen education. In any case, it is necessary to organize mass courses to train civil servants and the general population in the new alphabet. Borrowed words must be adapted and exist in the language taking into account the orthoepy of the Kazakh, and not a third language, which served as Russian under the Cyrillic alphabet. By putting the whole people behind their desks, we will have an excellent opportunity to implement the most important language reform, the purpose of which is to strengthen the role of the state language, which, to our shame, a significant part of our compatriots still do not speak. Modern information technologies and the widespread use of electronic mobile devices will help reduce costs and ensure speed of transformation.

What will the Kazakh Latin alphabet look like?

Today, there are several main variants of the Kazakh Latin alphabet. None of them seems completely successful to me. For example, in the Latin alphabet used by MIA “KazAkparat”, the letter “U” is strangely designated as “W”, and the letter “X”, as in the Azerbaijani letter, is identical to the Cyrillic “X”, in the Pinyin Latin alphabet, which is used by Chinese Kazakhs , there are digraphs (“ng”, “kh”), etc.

The question of what the new Kazakh Latin alphabet will look like remains open. Here I would like to note that it would be extremely wrong to make the alphabet a “sacred cow”, a reclusive product of linguists. Language is a creation of the people. Broad public discussions must be initiated, during which citizens themselves will make a choice. In this regard, I offer my balanced version of the Kazakh Latin alphabet. For the purpose of holistic phonetic perception of letters, the choice was made in favor of diacretic signs, instead of digraphs and trigraphs, potentially making writing on a standard English keyboard easier. At the same time, the alphabet is directed as much as possible towards the English and Turkish alphabets. Below is a transliteration from Cyrillic and a general view of the new alphabet, consisting of 36 letters.

Prospects

The new alphabet of the state language should serve as a powerful tool for uniting the young nation. We must avoid division based on language by supporting the decision of the head of state, based on the opinion of citizens.

Speaking about the economic effect of the reform, it is very important to understand that the Latin alphabet will not automatically build us a developed economy and civil society. The Latin alphabet by itself will not increase the level of education and knowledge of the English language. It is almost impossible to calculate the economic effect of changing the alphabet. The Latin alphabet is used by many different countries.

We ourselves determine our destiny through our actions. A huge amount of work lies ahead of us. The Latin alphabet is our sovereign civilizational choice in our desire to become a developed democratic state.

In early April, the President of Kazakhstan recalled that by 2025 it is necessary to transfer the Kazakh alphabet to the Latin alphabet. This intention has received many different interpretations: both as a withdrawal of the republic from the cultural field of Russia, and as a kind of “civilizational choice,” and simply as a desire for at least some changes. I figured out why the country's authorities want to change the writing system, what this has to do with the situation in the country and the discussions of the 1930s in the USSR.

Reset language

Despite the slogan “there are no fortresses that the Bolsheviks could not take,” by the 1930s the Soviet government was convinced that reality was not entirely amenable to experimentation. The languages of the Soviet republics could not function as full-fledged communication systems. The Department of Agitation and Propaganda of the Central Committee complained about the poor quality of dictionaries and books, the lack of protocols, and errors in translating the statements of the classics of Marxism and party leaders into local languages. And in the early 40s, the Turkic languages were translated into Cyrillic.

Goals are clear, tasks are still the same

Of course, part of the intelligentsia of Kazakhstan happily perceives Latinization as a symbolic exit from the cultural space of Russia and “decolonization.” The irony of history is that here too they follow Soviet ideological patterns. In 1934, General Secretary of the Communist Party Joseph Stalin set the task for the Bolsheviks in the republics to “develop and strengthen their courts, administration, economic bodies, and government bodies operating in their native language.” The tasks, apparently, have not changed 80 years later - the Soviet intelligentsia has been stubbornly withdrawing from the cultural field of Russia for several decades. How successfully she succeeds in this and what relation real, and not imaginary, Russia has to this is a debatable question, to say the least.

Photo: Alexey Nikolsky / RIA Novosti

The most interesting thing is that most of the debate about changing the alphabet in Kazakhstan is rendered meaningless by the fact that the alphabets in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan have already been Latinized. It is difficult to judge what this has done for Turkmenistan due to the closed nature of the country, but the situation in the other two former Soviet republics is obvious. In Uzbekistan, it was never possible to completely translate even government office work into the Latin alphabet. The language reform was criticized in 2016 by one of the country’s presidential candidates, leader Sarvar Otamuratov. The experience of Azerbaijan is considered more positive, but critics note that total Latinization has led to citizens reading less.

People who work professionally with words, writers of Kazakhstan, took into account the experience of their neighbors. In 2013, after the publication of a thesis on the transition to the Latin alphabet, a group of writers addressed the president and government with an open letter. “To this day, almost a million titles of books and scientific works on the ancient and subsequent history of the people have been published in the republic (...). It is clear that with the transition to the Latin alphabet, our younger generation will be cut off from the history of their ancestors,” the address said. The authors of the letter drew attention to the fact that there is a general problem of mastering the Kazakh language in the country and in these conditions it is unreasonable to carry out radical reforms.

On the way to the civilized world

It is obvious that Kazakhstan will face significant problems when transitioning to the Latin script. Firstly, this will require significant financial costs - different figures are cited here, from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. But not everything is so simple: for the national intelligentsia allowed to implement the reform, the development of huge funds is an absolute plus. Another thing is that this can slow down the implementation of other projects in the humanitarian and cultural spheres, although, apparently, such projects simply do not exist. Secondly, this will create difficulties for those who use the Kazakh language - even for an educated person, slowing down the reading process complicates the perception of texts, which will affect the state of the intellectual sphere in the country.

Of course, supporters of Latinization consider these problems to be insignificant. For example, in response to the question of how much it would cost to transfer the country to a new script, the lower house of parliament answered in the spirit of the hero of Ilf and Petrov, “bargaining is inappropriate here.” “It’s always more expensive to go out into the civilized world, but then you go out into the world,” said the deputy. If the reform is finally started, then only victorious reports will come from the ground about the successful mastery of the new graphics by the broad masses of workers.

One of the reasons why Astana needs modernization in the ideological sphere is that the state in the cultural sphere has to compete with the ideologically savvy agents of the theocratic state doctrine - the Islamists. They skillfully use modern means of communication and know how to answer questions from the public. If Latinization causes even a short-term vacuum in culture and education, the Islamists will fill it with lightning speed.

It is very important that the change in writing will affect only Kazakh society, or its Kazakh-speaking part (ethnic Kazakhs speak not only Kazakh). Russian officials practically do not speak out on this issue; Kazakh officials persistently emphasize that language reform will not affect relations between Moscow and Astana in any way. But why do the republic’s authorities have to dwell on an ideological issue that was 80-90 years old? Apparently, because no other mobilization agenda for societies has been formed (against the backdrop of five-year industrialization plans, this all gives a lasting impression of deja vu). In these conditions, ideologists, with the most powerful theoretical base, can only copy the successful experience of marketers - try to give citizens “good emotions,” as the journalist put it. And, of course, “play with fonts” and budget.

On the need to translate the Kazakh language into Latin. The Head of State also clearly determined that by the end of 2017, in close cooperation with scientists and all representatives of the public, it will be necessary to adopt a unified standard for the new Kazakh alphabet and graphics. And from 2025, business documentation, periodicals, textbooks - all this will have to be published in the Latin alphabet. the site assessed the effectiveness of the experience of switching to the Latin alphabet of other countries of the world.

Kazakhstan in the past: overtaking common sense

Today they often like to remember how forcibly and politically motivated the Soviet government implemented a global alphabetic reform in 2 stages: Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries were first massively translated from the Arabic script to the Latin alphabet, and then to the Cyrillic alphabet.

The communists, being ardent atheists, believed that the Arabic language was closely connected with Islam and prevented the young Asian republics from being fully imbued with what they considered to be the correct ideology. In 1929, a unified Turkic alphabet based on the Latin alphabet was first introduced. And, as they say, it took almost 11 years to get used to it.

Elimination of illiteracy in the republics of Central Asia / Photo from maxpenson.com

Without giving the population a break from one language reform, the Soviet government energetically launched another: after 1940, the countries of the region actively began to switch to the alphabet of Cyril and Methodius. As a result, over the course of several decades, millions of people were initially recognized as illiterate, and then they were forcibly and en masse reeducated. Soviet propaganda did not forget to regularly emphasize how actively it brings the light of knowledge to the downtrodden and backward peoples of Asia.

Witnesses to the events of those years told their relatives and historians of Kazakhstan one thing: it was a real nightmare. This is probably why the same Kazakh language, stupidly and hastily squeezed into two new alphabetic systems in a row, hardly developed until the end of the 80s of the last century, regularly borrowing directly concepts and terms from Russian.

The Baltic experience: it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out

However, what the Soviet government succeeded in Central Asia, for example, did not succeed with the Russian autocrats. For centuries, all three Baltic states, regardless of status, and later - inclusion or non-entry into the USSR, linguistically function only in the Latin alphabet.

After the uprising of 1863-1864 in the Northwestern region of the Russian Empire, Governor-General Muravyov in 1864 banned the printing of primers, official publications, and reading books in the Latin alphabet in the Lithuanian language. Instead, “citizen” was introduced - Lithuanian writing in Cyrillic letters. This ban aroused resistance from the population and was eventually lifted in 1904. But the Estonian and Latvian languages were generally formed on the basis of the German alphabet, and the Cyrillic alphabet could not offer them a replacement for specific sounds in its letter structure.

Street sign in Latvia / Photo sputniknewslv.com

Attempts to artificially convert Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians to the Cyrillic alphabet were subsequently not made even by the Soviet authorities. Due, apparently, to inexpediency. This is often forgotten, but for almost the entire existence of the USSR, 3 union republics lived quietly with the Latin alphabet, and this did not raise any questions.

Türkiye: the first experience of the Turkic world

The current Turkish alphabet was established on the personal initiative of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. This was a key step in the cultural part of his reform program. By establishing one-party rule of the country, Ataturk was able to persuade the opposition to implement a radical reform of writing. He announced this in 1928 and created a language commission. The commission was responsible for adapting the Latin alphabet to the requirements of the phonetic structure of the Turkish language.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk / Photo from weekend.rambler.ru

Atatürk personally participated in the work of the commission and proclaimed the mobilization of forces to promote the new writing, traveled a lot around the country, explaining the new system and the need for its speedy implementation. The Language Commission proposed a five-year implementation period, but Ataturk reduced it to three months. Changes in the writing system were enshrined in the law "On the Change and Introduction of the Turkish Alphabet", adopted on November 1, 1928 and entered into force on January 1, 1929. The law made it mandatory to use the new alphabet in all public publications. Conservative and religious opponents opposed the move away from Arabic writing. They argued that the adoption of the Latin script would lead to Turkey’s separation from the larger Islamic world and would replace traditional values with “alien” ones (including European ones). As an alternative, the same Arabic alphabet was proposed with the introduction of additional letters to convey the specific sounds of the Turkish language. But Ataturk managed, as they say, to push through language reform, despite the resistance of part of Turkish society.

Istanbul / Photo from danaeavia.ru

The process of complete transition to the Latin alphabet took about 30 years. However, Turkey successfully dealt with it and today is the most positive example for the Turkic-speaking republics.

Moldova: closer to Europe

On August 31, 1989, the new government of the Moldavian SSR (at the request of participants in a demonstration organized by the nationalist Popular Front of Moldova) abolished the Cyrillic alphabet on its territory and introduced Romanian spelling in the Latin alphabet for the Moldavian language.

Protests in Moldova / Photo from moldova.org

On the territory of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, the Cyrillic alphabet was preserved and is used to this day.

In addition, Moldova itself has long adopted a national course towards unification with Romania, and in December 2013, the Constitutional Court of this country recognized the Romanian language based on the Latin alphabet as the official language of the republic.

Azerbaijan: under the wing of brotherly Turkey

There are three official alphabetic systems in the Azerbaijani language: in Azerbaijan - Latin, in Iran - Arabic, in Russia (Dagestan) - Cyrillic. Until 1922, Azerbaijanis used Arabic writing with additional characters characteristic of Turkic languages.

After gaining independence in 1992, a gradual transition to the Latin alphabet began, which was completely completed in 9 years. From August 1, 2001, any printed materials, including newspapers and magazines, as well as business papers in government agencies and private companies, must be written only in Latin.

Poster with the image of Heydar Aliyev / Photo from the site mygo.com.ua

According to many experts, the leadership of the Turkish Republic exerted significant political pressure on the issue of Azerbaijan’s transition to the Latin alphabet. The main proponent of language reform within the country was ex-President Heydar Aliyev.

The main reason for changing the alphabet was called “the need to enter the global information space.”

Uzbekistan: the transition has been delayed

On September 2, 1993, the neighboring republic adopted a law “On the introduction of the Uzbek alphabet based on the Latin script.” Although issues of this magnitude, according to Article 9 of the Constitution of Uzbekistan, should be the subject of discussion and submitted to a national referendum, this was not done. The date of the country's final transition to the new graphics system was first set as September 1, 2005.

The inscription "sausage shop" in Uzbek / Photo from ca-portal.ru

The new Uzbek Latin alphabet, introduced from above, did not become universal by the appointed date, and the date of the final transition to the new alphabet was postponed for another five years - from 2005 to 2010. And when the second term arrived, they stopped talking about Latinization altogether.

As of today, the Latin alphabet has only been fully introduced into the school curriculum and textbooks have been printed using this graphics. The Latin alphabet predominates in the writing of street names and transport routes, and in subway inscriptions. On television and cinema, two alphabets are still used simultaneously: in some films and programs, screensavers, titles and advertising inserts are provided with inscriptions in Latin, in others - in Cyrillic.

Election billboard in Tashkent / Photo from rus.azattyq.org

Both alphabets are used in the Uznet zone. Websites of government departments and structures on the Internet duplicate their content not only in Russian and English, but also in two graphics at once - in Latin and Cyrillic. Uzbek-language information sites also use both variants of the Uzbek script.

All Uzbek literature of the Soviet period, scientific and technical books, encyclopedias were created in the Uzbek Cyrillic alphabet. To this day, approximately 70% of the press is printed in Cyrillic to avoid losing readers.

New driver’s license in Uzbekistan / Photo from ru.sputniknews-uz.com

It is also not possible to transfer office work to new graphics. Cyrillic is used in government and regulatory documents, and in business correspondence. Official documentation of the Cabinet of Ministers, state and public organizations, judicial investigative bodies, departmental instructions and regulations, research and scientific works, statistical and financial accounting and reporting forms, price lists and price tags - all this is almost entirely maintained, compiled and printed in Cyrillic . The Uzbek national currency, the soum, is also printed using two alphabets: the inscriptions on paper bills up to the five thousandth banknote are in Cyrillic, and on coins in both Cyrillic and Latin.

In general, in Uzbekistan today there are two generations: the generation of the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet, which actively use two variants of the Uzbek script. This is fully consistent with the adopted law “On the introduction of the Uzbek alphabet based on the Latin script,” supplemented by the following words:

“With the introduction of the Uzbek alphabet, based on the Latin script, the necessary conditions for mastering and using the Arabic script and Cyrillic alphabet, on which an invaluable spiritual heritage was created, which is the national pride of the people of Uzbekistan, are preserved.”

Turkmenistan: not without excesses

Turkmen, like Uzbek, historically used the Arabic alphabet for writing. But the Turkmens of Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran still use an Arabic-based script.

After the collapse of the USSR in 1995, the issue of switching to Latin writing was raised in Turkmenistan. At the same time, the new Turkmen Latin alphabet was significantly different from the Yanalif (new Turkic alphabet) of the 1930s. A new alphabet based on the Latin alphabet was introduced, but it underwent changes twice in the 90s. Due to the fact that the transition from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet in Turkmenistan was quite harsh and radical, such a sharp jump had a negative impact on the quality of education.

Textbook on drawing in Turkmen / Photo from dgng.pstu.ru

For example, first-graders learned the new Latinized alphabet, but the very next year they were forced to learn Cyrillic, since no new textbooks were published for grade 2. This situation has been observed for 5-6 years since the start of the reform.

Serbia: not yet passed

The Serbian language is written in two alphabets: one based on the Cyrillic alphabet ("Vukovica") and one based on the Latin alphabet ("Gajevica"). During the period of the existence of Yugoslavia in Serbia and Montenegro, the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet were studied in parallel, but the Cyrillic alphabet prevailed in everyday life in Serbia and was actually the only alphabet in Montenegro; in Bosnia, on the contrary, the Latin alphabet was used more often. In modern Serbia, the Cyrillic alphabet is the only official script (the status was enshrined in law in 2006), however, outside of official use, the Latin alphabet is also often used.

An analysis of a specialized survey conducted back in 2014 showed that preference for the Latin alphabet is given predominantly by younger native speakers. Thus, among respondents aged 20 to 29 years, 65.1% write in Latin, and only 18.1% write in Cyrillic. Among those over forty, 57.8% prefer the Latin alphabet, 32.6% prefer the Cyrillic alphabet. And only people over 60 years of age mostly use the Cyrillic alphabet - 45.2 versus 32.7% who prefer the Latin alphabet.

According to experts, one of the reasons for the growing predominance of the Latin alphabet in the country is the development of the Internet.

Russia: an incredible past

Few people know that the fashion for Latinization at the end of the 20s of the last century was so strong that supporters of the Latin alphabet were already ready to translate the Russian language itself from the Cyrillic alphabet. In 1929, the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR formed a commission to develop the issue of romanization of the Russian alphabet, headed by Professor Yakovlev and with the participation of linguists, bibliologists, and printing engineers. The commission completed its work in January 1930. The final document offered three variants of the Russian Latin alphabet, slightly different from each other only in the implementation of the letters “y”, “e”, “yu” and “ya”, as well as the soft sign. On January 25, 1930, Stalin gave instructions to completely stop working on the issue of romanization of the Russian alphabet.

Newspaper "Socialist Kazakhstan" in Latin / Photo from wikimedia.org

Hypothetically, one can only imagine what would happen if such a transition of the Russian language were realized. Probably, now Kazakhstan and many other countries would not have problems with romanization. And it would probably be much more comfortable to learn foreign languages of the Romance group.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev approved a new version of the Kazakh alphabet, based on the Latin script. The alphabet, to which the country must switch over the next seven years, will have 32 letters. In the Cyrillic version of the Kazakh alphabet, which was used for almost eighty years, there were 42 of them.

At the end of October, Nazarbayev signed a decree on a phased transition to the Latin alphabet until 2025. Initially, the head of the republic was presented with a choice of two versions of the Kazakh alphabet in the Latin alphabet: in the first, some specific sounds of the Kazakh language were proposed to be denoted using digraphs (combinations of two letters), the second option suggested transmitting these sounds in writing using apostrophes.

The head of the republic approved the version with apostrophes, but linguists and philologists criticized this version of the alphabet. According to scientists, excessive use of apostrophes would seriously complicate reading and writing - out of 32 letters of the alphabet, 9 would be written with a superscript comma.

The project was sent for revision - in the final version, approved on February 20, there are no apostrophes, but new diacritics like umlauts are used (for example, á, ń), as well as two digraphs (sh, ch).

Expensive pleasure

Despite the fact that the authorities agreed to finalize the initially proposed version of the alphabet, the transition to the Latin alphabet itself will be fraught with great difficulties. Critics and scholars warn that older people may have difficulty adjusting to the Latin script, which could create a generation gap.

The Kazakh language alphabet, based on the Latin script, against the background of the flag of Kazakhstan, collage “Gazeta.Ru”

Akorda

Another danger is that future generations will not be able to access many scientific and other works written in Cyrillic - most books simply will not be able to be republished in Latin.

A potential problem is also the decline in young people’s interest in reading - at first it will be difficult to adapt to the new alphabet and you will have to spend significantly more time reading. As a result, young people may simply stop reading.

While the country still uses a slightly modified Russian Cyrillic alphabet, the transition period will last until 2025. New passports and identity cards will begin to be issued to citizens of Kazakhstan in 2021, and in 2024-2025 government agencies, educational institutions and the media will switch to the Latin alphabet - on February 13, this plan was announced by Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan Erlan Kozhagapanov.

The process of switching to the Latin alphabet will also be costly. At a minimum, it involves professional retraining of teachers.

According to data published on the website of the government of Kazakhstan, 192 thousand teachers will have to be “retrained” in the next seven years. This pleasure will cost Astana 2 billion rubles, and the reprinting of school textbooks will cost another 350 million rubles.

In September, Nazarbayev said that the first grades of schools would begin teaching in the Latin alphabet in 2022. At the same time, he emphasized that the transition process would not be painful - the president explained that in schools children learn English and are familiar with the Latin script.

The head of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan department also expressed concerns that the high cost of romanization could lead to abuse and corruption. “The allocation of such a volume of funds with a very weak control mechanism over expenses will lead to a situation where a significant part of the bureaucratic class, especially in the regions, will be faced with the temptation to spend money without reporting. This opens up a wide field for abuse,” the expert believes.

Why does Astana need the Latin alphabet: Nazarbayev’s version

Nazarbayev first spoke about introducing the Latin alphabet in 2012, delivering his annual message to the people of Kazakhstan. Five years later, in his article “Looking into the Future: Modernization of Public Consciousness,” the president argued for the need to abandon the Cyrillic alphabet due to the peculiarities of “the modern technological environment, communications, as well as the scientific and educational process of the 21st century.”

In mid-September 2017, Nazarbayev even declared that the Cyrillic alphabet “distorts” the Kazakh language. “In the Kazakh language there are no “sch”, “yu”, “ya”, “b”. Using these letters, we distort the Kazakh language, therefore [with the introduction of the Latin alphabet] we come to the basis,” noted the head of Kazakhstan.

Experts, by the way, claim the opposite: according to them, it is the Latin script that does a poor job of reflecting all the sounds of the Kazakh language in writing - this is evidenced by problems with additional diacritics like apostrophes.

Having signed a decree on the transition to the Latin alphabet in October last year, Nazarbayev assured that these changes “in no way affect the rights of Russian speakers, the Russian language and other languages.”

The deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries notes that there is some slyness in such statements. “The money will be spent from the taxes of all citizens, this also applies to the Russian-speaking population,” the expert explained.

The President of Kazakhstan also hastened to dispel fears that the transition to the Latin alphabet signals a change in Astana’s geopolitical preferences. "Nothing like this. 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,” Nazarbayev said, recalling that in the 1920s-40s the Kazakh language already used the Latin alphabet.

Until 1920, Kazakhs used Arabic script to write. In 1928, the USSR approved a unified alphabet for Turkic languages based on the Latin alphabet, but in 1940 it was nevertheless replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet. The Kazakh alphabet has existed in this form for 78 years.

At the same time, some other union republics, after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, hastily switched to the Latin script - thereby wanting to indicate their own independence from the former USSR.

In particular, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan tried to introduce the Latin script, although certain problems arose there with the use of the new alphabet. In Kazakhstan, such changes were rejected for a long time, since the majority of the population was Russian-speaking. However, the country also made attempts to define and strengthen its own identity - in particular, the replacement of Russian toponyms with Kazakh ones took place.

Goodbye Russia - hello West?

Despite all Nazarbayev’s assurances that the abandonment of the Cyrillic alphabet does not indicate a change in the geopolitical aspirations of the republic, many in Russia and in Kazakhstan itself believe that the purpose of this step is to emphasize “independence” from Moscow.

Astana is pursuing a “multi-vector policy,” that is, it is trying to develop relations simultaneously with the countries of the post-Soviet space, and with China, and with the West. At the same time, Kazakhstan is the most developed and richest of the Central Asian republics; the European Union is Astana’s second trading partner after Russia. Kazakhstan, in turn, is the main partner in Central Asia, although its share in EU trade turnover is, of course, very insignificant.

According to the deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, Vladimir Evseev, it is the desire to emphasize the “multi-vector” nature of one’s policy that is the main reason for switching to the Latin alphabet.

“Within the framework of this multi-vector relationship, Kazakhstan’s relations with the West are developing - for this purpose Astana is switching to the Latin alphabet. This is necessary, among other things, to receive cheap investments, cheap loans, and so on,” the expert explained.

At the same time, the head of the department of Central Asia and Kazakhstan at the Institute of CIS Countries, Andrei Grozin, sees no reason to believe that Kazakhstan’s transition to the Latin alphabet indicates a reversal in foreign policy. “Kazakhstan maneuvers between Beijing, Moscow and Washington, it has always been so, and it will continue to be so,” the expert stated.

Experts interviewed by Gazeta.Ru claim that Moscow is not very concerned about the question of what alphabet the Kazakhs will use.

“This decision did not cause much tension in Moscow and is unlikely to cause it; in our country this topic is perceived as abstract and not related to real politics,” Grozin noted.

Vladimir Evseev, in turn, notes that Russia is trying to treat this step of Astana with understanding. “It just makes communication difficult. It’s Kazakhstan’s right to decide how to write to them - they can even use Chinese characters,” admitted Gazeta.Ru’s interlocutor.