Too Soon for Alphabet Change

The idea of adopting Latin script for Kazak has been revived, and some experts believe the switch could help the language develop. The technicalities of changing to Latin from the present Cyrillic script would, however, cost the government a lot of money, and there are concerns that it could fuel tensions in the country.



President Nursultan Nazarbaev used a speech to the Assembly of Peoples of Kazakstan on October 25 to suggest that it might be worth revisiting the alphabet issue. He argued that Latin-based scripts are used by many countries including neighbouring states like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, which made the change after the end of Soviet rule in 1991.



Kazak initially used Arabic script, but under Soviet rule a Latin-based alphabet was introduced in 1929, which was in turn supplanted by a modified version of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet in 1940. Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan are the only nations in the former Soviet Union that still officially use Cyrillic for their Turkic languages.



Maksut Sarsenov, an analyst with the Association of Sociologists and Political Scientists of Kazakstan, believes the aspiration to shift to a Latin-based alphabet is partly driven by a desire to have a common script for the various Turkic languages. But he also believes Latin letters can be modified more easily to reflect sounds peculiar to this language group.



“In the long run, it will be necessary to move to Latin,” said Sarsenov. – “Apart from the letters themselves, the Latin alphabet can be used to combine letters or add accent marks to transmit any sound.”



Svetlana Poznyakova, the head of the MediaNet journalism school and a linguistic expert, warns that the shift to Latin could create conflict in a society where Russian has traditionally played a major role.



“Shifting to Latin script, for which there is no real justification, could be perceived as a form of discrimination,” said Poznyakova. “I think the reaction will be very negative, from both Russian- and Kazak-speakers.”



Commentators say the changeover is unlikely to take place in the near future because of the substantial costs it would entail, and the lack of educational facilities and infrastructure that would be needed to make such a major change to the way Kazakstan’s state language is used.



“The whole educational system would need to be adapted and the whole body of scientific and artistic literature would have to be reworked into Latin characters,” said Sarsenov. “One cannot speak of an immediate shift as the infrastructure isn’t in place for it. There would need to be a lot of preparatory work, which has not even started.”



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)