The Kazakh Alphabet Transition From Cyrillic To Latin Script
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When you start learning Kazakh, one of the first questions you will probably ask is:
“Wait, which alphabet am I supposed to learn?”
If you’ve looked up Kazakh words online, you might have seen them written in Cyrillic (the alphabet used for Russian). But you might have also read news articles saying Kazakhstan is switching to the Latin alphabet (the one we use in English).
As a language learner, this can be incredibly confusing.
In this article, I am going to explain exactly what’s happening with the Kazakh alphabet, why it’s changing, and which one you should focus on right now.
Table of Contents:
A quick history of Kazakh alphabets
To understand the current alphabet transition, you need a quick history lesson. The Kazakh language has actually been written in three different scripts over the last century!
Here is a quick timeline:
Arabic script (11th century to 1929)
For hundreds of years, Kazakh was written using a modified Arabic script. Because of this, many older historical documents are in Arabic. Interestingly, the nearly 1.5 million ethnic Kazakhs living in the Xinjiang region of China still use the Arabic script today!
Latin script (1929 to 1940)
During the early days of the Soviet Union, there was a movement to switch Turkic languages to the Latin alphabet. A version called the Yañalif was used for Kazakh, but it only lasted for about 11 years.
Cyrillic script (1940 to present)
In 1940, the Soviet government required Kazakh to be written in the Cyrillic alphabet. This is the alphabet still widely used in Kazakhstan today. It is also the official script used by the large Kazakh population living in Bayan-Ölgii, Mongolia.
Why is Kazakhstan switching to the Latin alphabet?
In 2017, the government of Kazakhstan announced a massive linguistic project: transitioning the national alphabet from Cyrillic back to Latin.
But why go through all that trouble? There are three main reasons:
Modernization and technology
The current Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet has 42 letters. This makes typing on a standard keyboard very clunky. You have to use special software just to fit all the letters on a screen. The Latin alphabet is much more friendly for the internet, programming, and global technology.
Turkic unity
Kazakh is a Turkic language. It is in the same language family as Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Uzbek. Since these other languages already use the Latin alphabet, switching to Latin makes it much easier for Kazakhs to communicate and do business with the rest of the Turkic-speaking world.
Linguistic independence
Many linguists argue that the Cyrillic alphabet was never a perfect fit for the sounds of the Kazakh language. The switch to Latin is a way to create an alphabet that is perfectly customized for Kazakh phonetics.
The Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet (current standard)
The Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet is based on the Russian alphabet, but it includes 9 extra letters to represent unique Kazakh sounds.
If you already know how to read Russian, you only need to learn these 9 extra letters to read Kazakh.
Here is a simple table showing these special Kazakh Cyrillic letters and their approximate English sounds:
| Cyrillic Letter | Approximate Sound | Example Word |
|---|---|---|
| Ә ә | Like the “a” in “cat” | Әке (Father) |
| Ғ ғ | A raspy “g”, made deep in the throat | Ғасыр (Century) |
| Қ қ | A hard “k”, made deep in the throat | Қазақ (Kazakh) |
| Ң ң | Like the “ng” in “sing” | Оң (Right) |
| Ө ө | Like the “ur” in “burn” (but shorter) | Өзен (River) |
| Ұ ұ | A short “oo” sound, like in “book” | Ұл (Son) |
| Ү ү | A tight “ew” sound, with rounded lips | Үй (House) |
| Һ һ | Like the “h” in “hat” | Қаһарман (Hero) |
| І і | A very short “ih” sound, like in “bit” | Ірімшік (Cheese) |
The new Kazakh Latin alphabet
The transition to the Latin alphabet is still a work in progress. The government has released a few different draft versions since 2017.
The goal of the new Latin script is to get rid of unnecessary letters (like Russian letters only used in loanwords) and reduce the alphabet to about 31 or 32 characters.
Here is how some common greetings look right now when comparing the current Cyrillic to the proposed Latin script:
Сәлем (Cyrillic)
Қалайсың? (Cyrillic)
Рақмет (Cyrillic)
As you can see, special letters with diacritics (like ä and ñ) and letters like q are being used to replace the clunky Cyrillic characters.
Which alphabet should you learn right now?
I get this question all the time from my students. Because the Latin alphabet is the “future,” many beginners want to skip Cyrillic entirely.
My advice: You absolutely must learn the Cyrillic alphabet first.
Here is why:
- 99% of all Kazakh books, websites, subtitles, and learning resources currently exist only in Cyrillic.
- The Latin alphabet is still being finalized by linguists. The spelling rules might still change slightly.
- Native speakers still use Cyrillic in their daily text messages, emails, and street signs.
In language acquisition, we rely heavily on “comprehensible input” - meaning you need to read and listen to a lot of real content to get fluent. If you refuse to learn Cyrillic, you are cutting yourself off from almost every Kazakh resource in the world!
Learn the Cyrillic alphabet today. It only takes a weekend or two of practice. Once you are comfortable reading in Cyrillic, picking up the new Latin script later on will be a piece of cake.
