Transition to the Latin alphabet in Kazakhstan: the call of the times. Kazakhstan approved the final version of the alphabet in Latin Moldova: closer to Europe

“Bolashakka bagdar: ruhani zhangyru” (“Course for the future: spiritual revival”), published today, April 12, in the newspaper “Egemen Kazakhstan”.

« This is due to modern technologies, environment and communications, as well as to the peculiarities of the processes in education and science of the 21st century. From the school bench, our children study English and learn Latin letters, so there should be no difficulties and barriers for the younger generation. By the end of 2017, with the help of scientists and public discussion, it is necessary to adopt a new standard for alphabet graphics”, Nazarbayev writes in his article.

He notes that over the long history of existence, the Kazakh alphabet was translated into one or another script solely for political reasons, but not in the interests of the people.

« You know that the roots of the Kazakh alphabet come from the deep past: VI-VII centuries. is the early Middle Ages. During this period, on the Eurasian continent, the ancient Turkic runic writing, known to science as the “Orkhon-Yenisei writings”, arose and began to be used. This is one of the most ancient alphabets in the history of mankind. In the 5th-15th centuries, the Turkic language was the language of interethnic communication in a large area of ​​the Eurasian continent. For example, all official documents and international correspondence of the Golden Horde were conducted mainly in the Turkic language. When our people converted to Islam, the use of runic writing began to gradually decline, the spread of the Arabic language and the Arabic alphabet began. From the 10th to the 20th centuries, for 900 years, the Arabic alphabet was used on the territory of Kazakhstan. On August 7, 1929, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution on the introduction of the "Unified Turkic Alphabet" based on the Latin alphabet. Writing based on the Latin alphabet was used from 1929 to 1940, then there was a transition to the Cyrillic alphabet. On November 13, 1940, the Law "On the translation of the Kazakh language from the Latin alphabet into an alphabet based on Russian graphics" was adopted. Thus, the history of the translation of the Kazakh alphabet into one or another alphabet was dictated by certain political motives.”, Nazarbayev outlines the history of Kazakh writing.

At the same time, the President recalls that he announced the need to switch from 2025 to the Latin alphabet back in 2012 in the Kazakhstan-2050 Strategy.

"This means that from the designated period we will begin the transition to the Latin alphabet in all areas. That is, by 2025 we must begin to use the Latin alphabet in office work and publish periodicals, textbooks and everything else in it. This period has already approached, therefore, not wasting time, we must start this work now.The government needs to develop a specific plan for the translation of the Kazakh language into the Latin alphabet.By the end of 2017, with the help of representatives of the scientific community and using the advice of the public, it is necessary to adopt a single standard of the Kazakh alphabet in the new script.From 2018 we must start training specialists who will teach the new alphabet, and we must also start preparing textbooks for schools.In the next two years, organizational and methodological work should be carried out.Of course, during the period of adaptation to the new alphabet, Cyrillic will also be used for a certain time”, Nazarbayev explains.

It should be clarified here that Nazarbayev has spoken in favor of the Latin alphabet before. For example, speaking October 24, 2006 In Astana, at the XII session of the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakhstan, the President of the country stated the following:

« We need to return to the issue of switching to the Latin alphabet of the Kazakh alphabet. We put it off at the time. Nevertheless, the Latin script dominates today in the communication space. And it is no coincidence that many countries, including post-Soviet ones, switched to the Latin alphabet. Specialists within six months should study the issue and come up with specific proposals».

If we compare these two statements, it becomes clear that nothing has changed in Kazakhstan over the past decade, including in the texts of the speeches of the head of state.

In 2007, which was declared the Year of Language in Kazakhstan, the controversy on this topic is especially strong. During the public discussion, it turned out that the presidential initiative has many opponents who believed and continue to believe that the translation of the Kazakh language into the Latin alphabet will lead to the impoverishment of the phonetic specifics of the Kazakh language. The fact is that, according to linguists, the Latin alphabet is less adapted to the Kazakh language than the Cyrillic alphabet familiar to everyone - in particular, it contains almost half the number of necessary letters. Now in the Kazakh language is used 33 letters of the Russian alphabet plus 9 specific letters. Latin can offer only 26 letters of the alphabet.

We also note that the idea of ​​switching to the Latin alphabet has been circulating in Kazakh society for a long time - literally since the collapse of the USSR. However, no decisive steps have been taken in this direction so far. There are many reasons for this. First of all, not all citizens of the country are optimistic about the Latin alphabet. Secondly, among the supporters of the transition there is no clear understanding of which alphabet (and there are several variants of the Kazakh alphabet in Latin transcription) to use. Thirdly, such a transition will require large material resources.

Meanwhile, still in 2013 When the translation of the Kazakh script into Latin was actively discussed, Nursultan Nazarbayev actively emphasized that there was no political overtones in this.

« Some people quite unreasonably saw in this some kind of "evidence" of a change in Kazakhstan's geopolitical preferences. Nothing like this. I will say this for sure. The transition to the Latin alphabet is an internal need for the development and modernization of the Kazakh language. No need to look for a black cat in a dark room, especially if it has never been there. Let me remind you that in the 20-40s the Kazakh language already used the Latin alphabet. In three of the fifteen union republics of the former USSR, until the very moment of its collapse, the national languages ​​\u200b\u200bwere also in Latin", the President explained.

At the same time, he stressed that the transition to the Latin alphabet should not entail the loss of Cyrillic writing.

« This process must be well prepared and measured. It is important to remember here that in the 20th century, on the basis of Cyrillic graphics, a huge layer of literary and scientific heritage in the Kazakh language was developed. And it is important that this national heritage is not lost for the next generations of Kazakhstanis. We will create a State Commission for the translation of the Kazakh language into Latin script", the head of state stressed.

A little later it became known that the state commission for the transition to the Latin alphabet could be created by September 2013. This was announced by the deputy Aldan Smayil.

However , the deputy 's statement was refuted by the Committee on Languages ​​of the Ministry of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan .

« Today, we can only talk about the work of the scientific and expert community to determine the conceptual approaches to solving this problem. In particular, the scientific and linguistic issues of the Kazakh alphabet are considered by scientists of the Institute of Linguistics named after Baitursynov. The question is not easy, everything should be considered. Until today, there is no single vision in alphabetical order among experts and scientists", - said the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Languages ​​of the Ministry of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan Sherubay Kurmanbayuly.

In 2016 Deputy Director of the Institute of Linguistics named after Akhmet Baitursynov Anar Fazylzhanova told in an interview with the Kazakh media that there are a lot of advantages in switching to the Latin alphabet:

« In the Soviet period, all foreign words entered the Kazakh language through the Russian language, it was the donor language of foreign borrowings. But a strict law was approved "to write and pronounce all borrowings through the Russian language in Russian." Thus, the natural mechanism for adapting foreign words based on the articulatory base of the recipient's language was turned off. And this is a powerful immune apparatus of any language. That is, any language in order for it to exist must have its own adaptation mechanisms. They act as powerful immune means of the language. If such a medium suffers, there is a high probability that the language will subsequently turn into a creolized, tracing language. In any language, foreign words are either translated by the resources of that language or adapted to the pronunciation and writing in that language. For example, in Russian there are a lot of borrowed words from English, German, French, but all of them have been adapted to the pronunciation of the Russian language. They are all written as it is convenient for Russians to write, they are pronounced as it is convenient for Russians to pronounce. For example, today no one recognizes English words in these Anglicisms: emphasize, similar, vary, vulgar, misinform, decorate, ideal etc.; Turkisms - Turkic: artel, drum, turquoise, mound, border, quiver, suitcase etc. And in the Kazakh language, all borrowings not only from Russian, but also from many European languages ​​are written and pronounced in Russian: camp, engineer, miner, wardrobe, evolution etc. The same mechanism of mastering foreign elements in your own way, if you look at history, can be traced in the Kazakh language. This suggests that the tongue had powerful immunity: plate(plate), bokebay (downy), ustel (table), samauryn (samovar), borene (log)etc. But unfortunately, now in Kazakh texts the volume of words of Russian origin increases every year, which should be written according to the rules of Russian spelling and pronounced according to the rules of Russian orthoepy. Every year there are more and more such words. This is the "result" of the work of a long-term stereotype: "write Russian words in Russian." This powerful, inertialthe stereotype still works, despite the fact that we gained independence 25 years ago. And Cyrillic reforms are powerless here. Therefore, in order to get around it (and, as is known from psychology, it is more difficult to break the stereotype), you need to choose a new graphics”, the expert explained the nuances of this issue.

At the same time, she noted that the root of the problem lies not in the Cyrillic alphabet, but in psychological stereotypes.

« The Cyrillic alphabet itself, when viewed from a purely linguistic point of view, is a perfect alphabet, modernized, modern. But if we now begin to write Russian words in Cyrillic in the Kazakh way, adapting them according to the old mechanisms, then the Kazakhs themselves will be very outraged, because this stereotype has strongly stuck in their minds. They can't imagine a Russian word written in Cyrillic in Kazakh. And Latin letters do not yet have any stereotype in the minds of our population. If we write in Latin letters foreign words in the Kazakh way, mostly Russian, then there will be no resistance. Thus, we can revive the immune mechanism of adaptation of foreign words. Otherwise, it will turn half into Russian and half into Kazakh. In the Kazakh language, there are only 26 of their original sounds. And we convey these 26 sounds with 42 letters. Can you imagine, a Kazakh child goes to the first grade, he learns 42 letters, among which about 15 do not concern his language. He learns them in order to write Russian words. All words from European languages ​​come to us, refracted through Russian spelling. If we switch to the Latin alphabet, then we can take many words from the original and immediately adapt them to the articulation of the Kazakh pronunciation. Thus, we will preserve the originality of the language and its sound structure.”, Fazylzhanova explained.

Meanwhile, Nazarbayev's proposal to switch to the Latin alphabet, voiced again, has already received responses. In particular, Professor, Doctor of Philology, Head of the Laboratory of Linguistic Conflictology, National Research University Higher School of Economics Maxim Krongauz in an interview with nsn. fm stated that there is still a lot of political overtones in this issue.

« Here the reasons, of course, are not linguistic, but rather political. This is a question of the political choice of the country and rapprochement with this or that civilization. In this case, the choice of the Latin alphabet means rapprochement with other Turkic languages. First of all, it's Turkish. And some distance from the civilization that uses the Cyrillic alphabet, that is, from Russia. This is always a very painful process. The eye gets used to its graphics. This is not to say that this is a rather expensive process. We'll have to re-release the classics. In addition, we are talking about all the names, rewriting tablets and so on.", - said the professor.

In Kazakhstan, they also evaluate the president's article. Traditionally, the reaction came from the very top. In particular, the speaker of the Mazhilis (lower house) of the Parliament Nurlan Nigmatulin stated that the article of the head of state is of historical importance, since it is a large-scale project for the modernization of public consciousness.

« It complements the program of political reform and economic modernization with a unique vision of the spiritual modernization of Kazakhstani society and every Kazakhstani. Only highly educated and spiritually enriched people can respond flexibly to the new challenges of the time and make the right decisions. Therefore, it is very important that the article contains a number of specific measures in the form of socio-political, cultural and educational projects that are relevant today, each of which implies a huge layer of work. I am sure that the new large-scale tasks of modernizing public consciousness, set by the Leader of the Nation, will open up new horizons for our people, which will bring our country to a qualitatively new level of development.».

On February 27, 2020, teachers of the Denisovsky District Language Training Center held the “I Learn Languages” campaign with employees of the district statistics department. The teacher of the state language stopped at the project “Transition of the Kazakh alphabet to the Latin script”. Completing tasks in Kazakh and English increased the desire of the participants of the action to learn languages.

On February 24, 2020, a collegium of the Language Development Department of the Akimat of the Denisovsky district was held. During the event, the akim of the Krasnoarmeisky rural district of the Denisovsky district, Khlebnikov Alexander Konstantinovich, provided information on the language situation of the named district.

On February 19, 2020, an hour of entertaining dialogue on the topic “Abu Nasyr al-Farabi babamyzga 1150 zhyl” was held among the students of the state language courses at the Language Training Center of the Denisovsky District. During the event, the teacher focused on the project "Translation of the Kazakh alphabet into Latin graphics" and spoke in detail about the great scientist. The students completed the tasks and improved their knowledge.

On February 13, 2020, the librarian of the Denisovskaya Central District Library held an information hour "Latyn alіpbiіne koshu - Ruhani zhangyru talaby" for ninth grade students of Denisovskaya secondary school No. 2.

During the event, the librarian explained the main stages and advantages of the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet, as well as the latest trends and concepts of scientific research by Kazakh scientists.

In accordance with the instruction of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to improve the alphabet of the Kazakh language based on the Latin alphabet and the "Action Plan for improving the alphabet of the Kazakh language based on the Latin alphabet for 2020-2025", approved by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan B.M. Saparbayev, on February 14 of the current year in the Denisovsky district an open republican discussion was held. This event was attended by civil servants, teachers of the Kazakh language and literature of the schools of the district, representatives of the intelligentsia, who expressed their suggestions and opinions about the two proposed alphabets.

On February 12, 2020, the Denisovsky District Language Training Center held an event to discuss improved versions of the Kazakh alphabet based on the Latin script. The discussion was attended by civil servants, employees of budgetary organizations and teachers of the Kazakh language and literature of schools in the district, who made their proposals and feedback on the two proposed alphabets

Since January 29, 2020, the Kazakh literature department of the Denisov Central Regional Library has been hosting a book exhibition "The gradual transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin script", dedicated to topical issues of translating the Kazakh language alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin script.

The exhibition presents literature that reflects and explains the benefits of the transition of the Kazakh alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin script, which will allow the future generation to expand the circle of communication, increase access to information, and facilitate the study of international languages.

The language training center of the akimat of the Denisovsky district held a practical seminar on the topic "Basic methods and techniques of teaching the state language." The event was attended by teachers of the Center for Language Education. From February 3, courses on the study of the state and English languages ​​will begin. Teachers received curricula for levels A1-elementary, A2-basic, B1-intermediate, B2-above average based on the KAZTEST system for teaching the Kazakh language according to the Kaztest system and for levels A1-Beginner, A2-Elementary for teaching English. Information was given on the ongoing work on the project "Translation of the Kazakh alphabet into Latin script"

On December 9, 2019, for senior students of Pokrovskaya secondary school, the librarian of the Pokrovskaya rural library held an information hour “Latyn alіpbiі zhana koshke bastar keruenbasy”.

The purpose of the event: to explain the importance of Kazakhstan's transition to the Latin alphabet, to instill interest in knowing the state language, a sense of patriotism, hard work, love and pride in the future of their country.

The event discussed the main reasons and prospects for the transition of Kazakh writing from Cyrillic to Latin script. The librarian explained the importance and phasing of the transition, introduced the history of the Latin alphabet.

On December 6, 2019, as part of the implementation of the Ruhani Zhangyru program of the project on the transition of the state language to the Latin alphabet for students of the 3rd grade of the Frunze secondary school, the librarian of the Frunze rural library conducted a lesson-game "I will learn ...".

During the event, students were given information about the gradual transition of the state language to the Latin script, about the Latin alphabet and its significance. Then the guys played a game that consisted of four rounds. In each of the tours they performed interesting tasks, actively participated in linguistic games. The team with the most tokens wins. The children's desire for knowledge showed that they will quickly master the new alphabet. Present: 16 people.

On November 28, in the Nekrasovskaya rural library, a review of the periodicals “The Latin alphabet is the key to the future” was held for library readers.

The librarian introduced the audience to articles on the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet from the local newspaper Nashe Vremya, the regional newspaper Kostanai News, and also from the republican newspaper Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.

There were 13 people present.

On December 3, 2019, the librarian of the Prirechensk model library for students in grades 10-11 of the Prirechensk secondary school held an information hour "Ana tili-zhurek uni".

The librarian told the readers about the importance of the translation of the Kazakh language into Latin for the further development of the country, about the prospects for the development of our state, associated with the transition to the Latin alphabet. The book exhibition "Transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet" is presented to the readers' attention.

There were 15 people present.

On December 3, 2019, the librarian of the Zhaltyrkol rural library held a talk “The Future with the Latin Alphabet” for employees and students of the 11th grade of the Batala secondary school.

During the conversation, the librarian spoke about the main stages of the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet, noted the relevance and importance of the topic under consideration, drew attention to the sequence and gradual transition to the Latin alphabet.

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,” reads 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 Cyrillic to Latin script. The government has been given a deadline of up to 2025 to implement the project.

Recall that 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 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 - rather quickly overcoming the difficulties of the transition period, the country switched to a new script. But in Uzbekistan, the translation into Latin 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, Kanybek Imanaliev, a deputy from the Ata Meken faction, came up with such an initiative earlier. However, this idea ran into criticism from the head of state - according to the President of the Kyrgyz Republic Almazbek Atambaev (whose term expires on November 30), the arguments of the supporters of the Latin alphabet sound unconvincing.

“Each time the desire to change the alphabet is given a new explanation. Here, for example, is such a 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 prevent Japan and Korea? - the politician noted, 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 Atambaev, another popular argument is also untenable, according to which this measure will help unite the Turkic peoples. “For hundreds of centuries, the Turkish language already in the 19th century had little resemblance to the language of the Turkic Khagans,” Atambayev said.

spirit of the times

For their part, the authorities of Kazakhstan explain the rejection of the Cyrillic alphabet by the requirements of the era.

“The transition to the Latin alphabet is not a whim, it is a trend 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 advanced rests on it, ”Nursultan Nazarbayev believes.

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

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 - almost a thousand years - the Arabic script was used. The spread of Arabic script and language began against the backdrop 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 Republic of Turkey switched to the Latin script of the alphabet - such a decision was made by Kemal Atatürk as part of a campaign to combat clericalism.

• Reuters
• Ilya Naymushin

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

It should be noted that Ankara has been most actively promoting the idea of ​​turning to “general Turkic roots”, 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 promoted by the Turkish side, serve as a tool for the implementation of Ankara's ambitious plans. Recall that for the first time the concept of pan-Turkism was formulated in the newspaper "Perevodchik-Terdzhiman", published in Bakhchisarai by the 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 - following the results of an international scientific symposium held in Istanbul, a unified alphabet for the Turkic peoples was created. The basis for it was the Latin graphics of the Turkish alphabet. The new alphabet was adopted in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. True, later Baku made 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 with Ankara in a number of areas, 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 Latin, but Turkish influence has many limitations that cannot be overcome with the help of linguistic measures alone,” said the head of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan Department of the Institute of CIS Countries in an interview with RT Andrei 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.”

"Destiny of Ukraine"

Recall, according to the Constitution of Kazakhstan, the state language of the republic is Kazakh, and the Russian language 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,” the basic law of the Republic of Kazakhstan says.

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

“I especially want 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 functioned before, ”the press service of the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan quotes Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying.

• Nursultan Nazarbaev
• globallookpress.com
• Kremlin Pool/Global Look Press

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

“Suppose we legally ban all languages ​​except Kazakh. What awaits us then? The fate of Ukraine,” Nazarbayev told the Khabar TV channel in 2014. According to the politician, the role of the Kazakh language is growing naturally along with the growth in the number of Kazakhs.

“Is it necessary to forcibly 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 Andrey Grozin, the innovations will also partially affect the Russian-speaking population - after all, now all schoolchildren will have to learn the state language in a new transcription.

“True, the level of teaching of 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 public opinion polls have not been conducted in Kazakhstan on such an important topic as changing the alphabet raises certain doubts.

“Assessments were made only by individual representatives of the creative intelligentsia and public figures,” Grozin explained. — But there is no data about what opinion about the new alphabet prevails among the population. This may indicate that the authorities of the country 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 within the framework of a number of integration projects - the SCO, the CSTO, the Customs and the 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 the joint past, Astana changes the tone of statements. For example, Nazarbayev's speech, delivered in 2012 at the Kazakh-Turkish business forum held in Istanbul, made a great response.

“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, the 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 "in many respects 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.

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

“The discussion about switching to the Latin alphabet began in Kazakhstan back in the mid-2000s, so there is no surprise in this decision,” Dmitry Aleksandrov, an expert on the countries of Central and Central Asia, 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 array of literature published in the Soviet and post-Soviet times will not be republished - this is simply impossible. Therefore, the result of the reform will be to limit the access of Kazakhstanis to their own cultural heritage.

• Graduates of one of the Alma-Ata schools during the celebration of the "Last Bell"
• RIA News
• Anatoly Ustinenko

“The experience of other states has shown that not only very old people, but even people of 40-50 years old, cannot retrain for a new transcription,” Andrey Grozin noted. “As a result, the baggage of knowledge they have accumulated will remain with them, regardless of their ideological orientation.”

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

“In the same Uzbekistan, many intellectuals are already turning to the authorities with a request to return the old alphabet - over the years since the reform, a cultural and ideological gap has formed between generations. In such cases, we are talking about a split in society no longer along ethnic lines. Dividing lines are growing inside the titular ethnic group - and this is a very dangerous trend. The authorities of Kazakhstan declare the goal of the reform to be "modernization of consciousness", but if it happens, it will be only among the younger generation. It is also about the rejection of the Soviet past. It is no secret that the entire bulk of the literature of all the 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.

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in the second half of February signed a decree on a new version of the Kazakh alphabet based on the Latin alphabet. The first version of the alphabet, which Nazarbayev approved in October last year, was replete with numerous apostrophes that seriously hampered perception. After the work on the mistakes, which was carried out by three ministries at once - information and communications, culture, education and science, instead of apostrophes, strokes were added to the alphabet over the letters (acutes), as well as digraphs (sh, ch).

Judging by the feedback from visitors to numerous Kazakhstani forums and online media, the new version of the alphabet turned out to be more convenient than the original version.

It is likely that this model will be taken as a basis: it is from this model that the authorities of the republic will start when carrying out the reform. Already in 2021-2023, Kazakhstan will start issuing documents in Latin. And in 2024-2025, office work and the media will gradually be transferred to the Latin script.

Thus, the February decree of Nazarbayev on a new version of the alphabet was a significant step that the country took in resolving a sensitive and important humanitarian issue.

Despite the fact that this topic is, in general, an internal affair of Kazakhstan and does not directly affect Russia, it caused a wide public outcry in the Russian information space. The question of the position of the Russian language, the problem of maintaining Russian cultural influence in the post-Soviet space, is of concern to many Russian citizens.

The majority reacted to the Kazakh reform with understanding, with the realization that such decisions are the prerogative of the Kazakh authorities. This is the position, in general, taken by the official authorities of Russia.

But there are quite a few people who began to vigorously oppose this point of view. They believe that the alphabet reform initiated by Nazarbayev, consciously or not, is aimed at a gradual cultural and humanitarian break between Kazakhstan and Moscow and the "Russian world" as a whole. Also, according to critics of the alphabet reform, moving away from the Cyrillic script will weaken the position of the Russian language in Kazakhstan itself in the long run, making it difficult for interethnic communication and creating difficulties for Russian-speakers living in the republic.

Be that as it may, the reform of the alphabet in Kazakhstan is by no means a technical issue. It is closely connected with the need of the country's authorities to complete the current stage of nation-state building.

Not so long ago, Kazakhstan celebrated the 25th anniversary of gaining national independence. For a quarter of a century, the republic has achieved significant socio-economic success. The republic has gained weight in a variety of international organizations - political and economic, Western, Eurasian, Asian and Islamic.

However, without cultural self-identification, nation-state building will be half-hearted. The reform of the alphabet, according to the plan of the authorities, is designed to fill this gap.

The translation of the Kazakh language into the Latin alphabet also satisfies several ideological tasks. Firstly, it fits into the global modernization context, making the country a part of the modern digital world, which today is mainly written in Latin.

Secondly, Kazakhstan, being an integral part of the Eurasian space, in cultural and historical terms, is a state of the Turkic world. The letter in Latin has long been used by Turkey, the most influential and developed state of the Turkic world. Unlike some other states of Central Asia, which had disagreements with Ankara in different years, Kazakhstan maintained smooth and stable relations with Turkey in politics, economy, and culture.

As a matter of fact, the Latin alphabet is not something absolutely new for the Kazakh language. In the Soviet period of its history, in the late 1920s and early 1940s, the Kazakh language already used an alphabet based on the Latin alphabet. However, already in the early 1940s, Latinization was curtailed: the reverse process began - the return of the languages ​​\u200b\u200bof the peoples of the USSR to Cyrillic. Meanwhile, according to the opinion widespread among the linguists of the post-Soviet states, for the Turkic languages, due to the specifics of their phonetics, the Latin alphabet is more organic than the Cyrillic script.

Despite the fact that the transition to a new alphabet has its reasons and is strategically justified, the implementation of the reform is fraught with great difficulties. As the practice of transitions from Arabic writing to Latin, and from Latin to Cyrillic, which took place in the Soviet Union in the 1920-1940s, showed, culture suffered the greatest damage from such transformations. Such transitions, voluntarily or involuntarily, led to the "withdrawal" from everyday circulation of large cultural and historical layers of literature, information accumulated in the previous writing system.

A gap between generations can also become a problem, in which the young part of the population of the republic will more or less successfully and quickly switch to the Latin alphabet, while the older generation will experience everyday inconveniences and will actually remain in Cyrillic.

Under these conditions, the main task of the authorities of Kazakhstan is the consistency and thoroughness in carrying out the transformations. The task is not simple, requiring not only financial resources and impeccable diligence, but also competent management.

As for the profitability or disadvantageousness of the transition of Kazakhstan to the Latin alphabet for Russia, such a statement of the question is incorrect in itself. The era of the USSR has sunk into oblivion, and the logic of the development of independent states implies their political, economic and cultural self-sufficiency.

It is unlikely that the transition to the Latin alphabet will in any way affect the relations between Russia and Kazakhstan. Much more important for Moscow and Astana are other issues: political and economic cooperation, scientific cooperation, education of students from Kazakhstan in Russian universities, the preservation and development of millions of personal, business, family ties.

In addition, it is not so much the transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet that matters for Russia, but the question of the role and positions of the Russian language, which is also important for the post-Soviet space as a language of interethnic, international communication. Russia, of course, is interested in the preservation and development of the Russian language and culture in the post-Soviet space, as well as in protecting the rights of Russian-speaking citizens in Kazakhstan and other CIS countries.

Sincere and benevolent attention to the problems and needs of the development of the Russian language, respect for the rights of the Russian-speaking population in Kazakhstan and other states of Central Asia will always remain one of the most significant manifestations of the policy of partnership and good neighborliness for the Russian authorities and society.

When I heard the news that Kazakhstan was going to switch from Cyrillic to Latin, my main question was - who is all this for? I have close relatives living there and I still somehow take an interest in their life. Is it forbidden to learn English there? No. Will Latinized Kazakh be understood by those who did not understand Cyrillic? No. In Uzbekistan, for example, where they switched to the Latin alphabet after the collapse of the USSR, the authorities began to receive collective letters from the intelligentsia with proposals to play back. The transition did not bring the results that were expected. The Cyrillic basis of the Uzbek language is preserved. Thus, the websites of state structures are presented in four transcriptions: Russian, English, Uzbek Cyrillic and Uzbek Latinized.

If you really want to be so fashionable and close to the West - well, make you another version of the Latinized Kazakh and for God's sake.

It is noteworthy that in Kazakhstan itself, political scientists still believe that Nazarbayev is bluffing.

“Firstly, this plan is unrealizable in practice, since not enough money has been allocated for it. Rather, it is a distraction and a PR move, the purpose of which is to “buy” the votes of the Kazakh electorate, whose number reaches about 70%,” Talgat Mamyrayimov, head of the analytical service Real politik (Kazakhstan), told the VZGLYAD newspaper.

“Second moment. Recently, events have been developing in our country that indicate that Nazarbayev will not be able to implement his plan to transfer power to successors without the support of the West. Nazarbayev understands that he may become a victim of the conflict between Russia and the West. With his idea with the Latin alphabet, the leader of Kazakhstan is trying to flirt with him,” the political scientist believes.

Since Nazarbayev announced the reform six months ago, the number of people in Kazakhstan who directly demand that this money be redirected to infrastructure development has only increased, Mamyrayymov emphasized, adding:

“The political process in Kazakhstan is being designed by elites whose interests are directed to the West, while ordinary Kazakhs are mostly committed to developing friendly relations with the Russian people and with Russia.” But this idea is right in the air. Surely you have it flashed. Although Nazarbayev has always supported Putin and Russia, but the years go by, power will soon be given away and maybe he is looking for more interesting options for himself in this way?

Many believe that this is terrible news for Russia, since the alphabet is directly involved in the formation of cultural codes, and the translation of the language into Latin means a cultural departure to the West. And not in the heat of nationalism and Russophobia, as was done, for example, in Moldova or some countries of the former Yugoslavia. And "of sound mind and solid memory", within the framework of systemic state policy.

By the way, about the first photo in the post. This is a photograph of the winner of the Kazakh regional beauty contest for girls "Miss Uralsk". Why is there an unambiguous word instead of "Uralsk" on the ribbon of the winner? “Because the city in Kazakh is Oral, not Ural. In Russian "Uralsk". But in Latin it looks even more ... strange.

From the history:

Why did Kazakh have Cyrillic at all? After all, this is not a Slavic language. Yes, it is Turkish. Until 1929, Kazakhs predominantly used Arabic writing. Under the Soviet regime, the schedule of the Kazakh alphabet changed twice: in 1929 it was transferred to the Latin alphabet, and in 1940 to the Cyrillic alphabet. In addition to political reasons, the translation of the languages ​​of the Soviet peoples into Cyrillic also had a practical meaning: it was easier to publish books, keep documents and teach two languages ​​in parallel in schools - Russian and national.

Why do many people dislike the Latin alphabet project?

The fact is that the Latin alphabet does not allow reflecting a significant part of the sounds of the Kazakh language - you have to use various additional diacritical marks. The developers of the new Kazakh Latin preferred to follow a simple path and mark all the necessary sounds with letters with apostrophes. And there are nine such letters in the new alphabet. When there are a lot of apostrophes in a word, it is inconvenient to read it: Pyʼsʼkiʼn, Dmiʼtriʼiʼ Medvedev, Vladiʼmiʼr Pyʼtiʼn, Alekseiʼ Navalnyiʼ, Medyʼza. Some words will become longer: for example, the word bear - ayu will be written aiʼyʼ. In some cases, the apostrophe after the sign makes the reader sort of go back to understand: oh, so it was the sound sh, not c! It is not clear why the alphabet needed an apostrophe for the letter Cʼ, given that there is no C without an apostrophe. There is a converter here - you can experiment.

The variants of the letter U, which in Kazakh are three in number, were hit hard - they denote slightly different sounds. In Cyrillic, they were quite different from each other, and in the current version of the Latin alphabet, all three letters (and even together with Y) will be based on two Latin graphemes: Y and U.

And what, Cyrillic was better?

Yes. In any case, in Cyrillic it was possible to avoid a large amount of diacritics in various ways, except for the letters Y and Y, which are also in Russian. There are 32 letters in the Latin version being discussed now, and 42 in Cyrillic, and this is partly what allows the Kazakh reader to easily distinguish, for example, different U and not get confused with all the other sounds.

Too many apostrophes is the only problem?

No. Any such reform of the writing system contains several dangers. And here are the two main ones:

Generation gap. It is extremely difficult to teach the new generation who are accustomed to the old. Many older people will find it difficult to get used to the Latin alphabet.

Access to knowledge. During the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, Kazakhstan has accumulated a lot of knowledge recorded in this particular schedule. Over time, it will become difficult for people to access this heritage.

Those. remember what we said about the pros? Fashionable, modern ... uh, well, that's all. Even Nazarbayev himself says that the main goal is the modernization and development of the Kazakh language, culture and economy. Nazarbayev notes that in the modern world it will be easier for a state with the Latin alphabet. And who checked which is easier? And when will it be easier, in 100 years? And how do you already the current cons? Well, let's keep silent about the obviously underestimated and so huge amount of costs for all this "it will be easier."

Generally speaking, it is very strange that a general referendum was not held on such a comprehensive issue for Kazakhstan.

Do you think we should worry about the fact that our friendly neighbor is trying to somehow move away from Russia and move closer to the West, or is it all purely internal affairs of Kazakhstan?

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