Three alphabets are used to write the Kazakh language: in the Cyrillic, Latin and Arabic scripts. The Cyrillic script is used in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. An October 2017 Presidential Decree in Kazakhstan ordered that the transition from Cyrillic to a Latin script be completed by 2025. The Arabic script is used in parts of China, Iran and Afghanistan.
Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet
|А а||Ә ә||Б б||В в||Г г||Ғ ғ||Д д||Е е||Ё ё|
|Ж ж||З з||И и||Й й||К к||Қ қ||Л л||М м||Н н|
|Ң ң||О о||Ө ө||П п||Р р||С с||Т т||У у||Ұ ұ|
|Ү ү||Ф ф||Х х||Һ һ||Ц ц||Ч ч||Ш ш||Щ щ||Ъ ъ|
|Ы ы||І і||Ь ь||Э э||Ю ю||Я я|
The Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet is used in Kazakhstan and the Bayan-Ölgiy Province in Mongolia. It is also used by Kazakh populations in Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as diasporas in other countries of the former USSR. It was introduced during the Russian Empire period in the 1800s, and then adapted by the Soviet Union in 1940.
In the nineteenth century, Ibrahim Altynsarin, a prominent Kazakh educator, first introduced a Cyrillic alphabet for transcribing Kazakh. Russian missionary activity, as well as Russian-sponsored schools, further encouraged the use of Cyrillic in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The alphabet was reworked by Sarsen Amanzholov and accepted in its current form in 1940. It contains 42 letters: 33 from the Russian alphabet with 9 additional letters for sounds of the Kazakh language: Ә, Ғ, Қ, Ң, Ө, Ұ, Ү, Һ, І (until 1951 Ӯ was used instead of Ұ). Initially, Kazakh letters came after letters from the Russian alphabet, but now they are placed after Russian letters similar in sound or shape.
The letters В, Ё (since 1957), Ф, Х, Ц, Ч, Ъ, Ь and Э are not used in native Kazakh words. Of these, Ё, Ц, Ч, Ъ, Ь, Э, are used only in words borrowed from Russian or through the Russian language which are written according to Russian orthographic rules. The letter Х in conversational speech is pronounced similar to Қ. The letter Һ is used only in Arabic-Persian borrowings and is often pronounced like an unvoiced Х (as /h/, or a voiceless glottal fricative). The letter Щ is used for the long Ш sound in three native words (ащы 'bitter', тұщы 'saltless', кеще 'stupid') with derivatives and in loanwords.
The letter И represents the tense vowel [i] obtained from the combinations ЫЙ /əj/ and ІЙ /ɪj/. The letter У represents /w/ and the tense vowel [u] obtained from the combinations ҰУ /ʊw/, ҮУ /ʉw/, ЫУ /əw/ and ІУ /ɪw/. Additionally, И and У are retained in words borrowed from Russian, where they represent the simple vowels [i] and [u] respectively.
See also: Russification § Under the Soviet Union
The switch from a Latin alphabet to a Cyrillic one was likely in an attempt to distance the then-Soviet Kazakhstan from Turkey. This was likely in part due to weakening Turkish–Soviet relations and the Turkish Straits crisis.
In effort to consolidate its national identity, Kazakhstan started a phased transition from the Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin alphabet in 2017. The Kazakh government drafted a seven-year process until the full implementation of the new alphabet, sub-divided into various phases.
Before the spread of operating systems and text editors with support for Unicode, Cyrillic Kazakh often failed to fit on a keyboard because of both the problem with 8-bit encoding, which was not supported at the system level, and the absence of standard computer fonts. More than 20 variations of 8-bit encoding for Kazakh Cyrillic have been suggested, including the following government standards (note that the following are historical code pages and that modern systems use Unicode Encoding, such as UTF-8):
СТ РК 1048—2002 was confirmed in 2002, well after the introduction of different Windows character sets. Some Internet resources in part used the government information agency QazAqparat before the encoding of this standard. Today the encoding UTF-8 is being accepted.
The standard Windows keyboard layout used for Cyrillic Kazakh in Kazakhstan is a modification of the standard Russian keyboard, with characters found in Kazakh but not in Russian located on the number keys.
A number of Latin alphabets are in use to write the Kazakh language. A variant based on the Turkish alphabet is unofficially used by the Kazakh diaspora in Turkey and in Western countries and Kazakhstan. As with other Central Asian Turkic languages, a Latin alphabet, the Yañalif, was introduced by the Soviets and used from 1929 to 1940 when it was replaced with Cyrillic. Moreover, a Latin alphabet was used for the Kazakh language for Kazakhs in China during 1964–84. Later, the use of the Kazakh Arabic alphabet was restored in China.
1929 Latin alphabet (Çaꞑalip)
|A a||B ʙ||C c||Ç ç||D d||E e||Ə ə||G g||Ƣ ƣ||H h|
|I i||J j||K k||L l||M m||N n||Ꞑ ꞑ||O o||Ɵ ɵ||P p|
|Q q||R r||S s||T t||U u||V v||Y y||Z z||Ь ь|
1938 Latin alphabet (Çaꞑalip)
|A a||B ʙ||V v||G g||D d||E e||Ç ç||Z z||I i||J j||K k|
|L l||M m||N n||O o||P p||R r||S s||T t||U u||F f||X x|
|Ƣ ƣ||Q q||C c||Ə ə||H h||Ꞑ ꞑ||Ɵ ɵ||Ū ū||Y y||Ь ь|
As part of a modernization program, the presidential decree No. 569 signed by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered the replacement of the Cyrillic script with a Latin script by 2025. In 2007, Nazarbayev said the transformation of the Kazakh alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin should not be rushed, as he noted: "For 70 years, the Kazakhstanis read and wrote in Cyrillic. More than 100 nationalities live in our state. Thus we need stability and peace. We should be in no hurry in the issue of alphabet transformation".
In 2015, the Minister of Culture and Sports Arystanbek Muhamediuly announced that a transition plan was underway, with specialists working on the orthography to accommodate the phonological aspects of the language. On April 12, 2017, President Nazarbayev published an article in state newspaper Egemen Qazaqstan announcing a switchover to the Latin alphabet by 2025, a decision implemented by decree.
Nazarbayev argued that the "Kazakh language and culture have been devastated" during the period of Soviet rule, and that ending the use of Cyrillic is useful in re-asserting national identity. The new Latin alphabet is also a step to weaken the traditional Russian influence on the country, as the Russian language is the country's second official language. The initial proposed Latin alphabet tried to avoid digraphs (such as "sh", "ch") and diacritics (such as "ä" or "ç"). In fact, President Nazarbayev had expressly stated that the new alphabet should contain "no hooks or superfluous dots". Instead, the new alphabet, which is based on a transliteration of Cyrillic into Latin letters, would have used apostrophes to denote those Kazakh letters where there was no direct Latin equivalent. It is similar to the Karakalpak Latin alphabet and the Uzbek alphabet.
A revised version of the 2017 Latin alphabet was announced in February 2018. Presidential Decree 637 of 19 February 2018 amends the 2017 decree and the use of apostrophes was discontinued and replaced with diacritics and digraphs. Notably, the new alphabet uses the acute accent. A few web applications and sites were launched to facilitate the switch to the Latin-based alphabet. One of them is a new web-based portal, Qazlatyn.kz, that uses the new Latin alphabet to report news and other information about Kazakhstan.
In April 2021, the Latin script for the Kazakh language was presented to the public; it was well received. Elementary schools will start using only the new Latin script from 2023. The transition is expected to be completed by 2031.
Kazakh Latin alphabet (April 2021)
In 2020, the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for another revision of the Latin alphabet with a focus on preserving the original sounds and pronunciation of the Kazakh language. This revision, presented to the public in November 2019 by academics from the Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics, and specialists belonging to the official working group on script transition, uses umlauts, breves and cedillas instead of digraphs and acute accents, and introduces spelling changes in order to reflect more accurately the phonology of Kazakh. This revision deviated only slightly from the Common Turkic Alphabet (CTA), introducing the letter Ŋ in place of Ñ. As this version was waiting approval, linguists had been in discussion as to which Latin-based letters were to be used in place of the specific Cyrillic-based letters Ә ə, Ғ ғ, И и, Й й, Ң ң, Ө ɵ, У у, Ұ ұ, Ү ү, Ы ы, Ч ч, Ш ш, and І i; a suggested alternative to the introduction of accented characters was to make greater use of digraphs.[better source needed]
In January 2021, a new revision of the Kazakh Latin alphabet was presented, introducing the letters Ä ä (Ə ə), Ö ö (Ө ө), Ü ü (Ү ү), Ğ ğ (Ғ ғ), Ū ū (Ұ ұ), Ŋ ŋ (Ң ң), and Ş ş (Ш ш), bringing it even closer to the CTA. A subsequent revision on 22 April further narrowed this gap by changing Ŋ ŋ to Ñ ñ. This version will be officially implemented starting 2023.
The Arabic script is the official alphabet for Kazakhs in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. It was first introduced to the territory of Kazakhstan in the eleventh century and was traditionally used to write Kazakh until the introduction of a Latin alphabet in 1929. In 1924, Kazakh intellectual Akhmet Baitursynov attempted to reform the Arabic script to better suit Kazakh. The letters ۆ, گ, ڭ, پ and چ are used to represent sounds not found in the Arabic language.
A modified Arabic script is also used in Iran and Afghanistan, based on the alphabet used for Kazakh before 1929.
The Kazakh Arabic alphabet contains 29 letters and one digit, the 'upper hamza' used at the beginnings of words to create front vowels throughout the word. The direction the alphabet is written in is right to left. Unlike the original Arabic script, which is an abjad, the Kazakh Arabic script functions more like a true alphabet, as each sound has its own letter and every sound in each word is spelt out in the written form of the language. The reform of the Arabic script from an abjad to an alphabet was carried out by the early 20th-century linguist Akhmet Baitursynov.
Kazakhs living now in China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries of the Middle East use the Arabic script.
|Transliteration||Name in Kazakh||IPA||Isolated||Final||Medial||Initial|
|Чч||ха үш ноқат
(ha üş noqat)
|Ңң||кәф үш ноқат
(käf üş noqat)
|Һһ||һә екі көз
(hä ekı köz)
|Уу||уау үш ноқат
(uau üş noqat)
|[w], [ʊw], [ʏw]||ۋ||ـۋ||ۋ|
|Йй, Ии||я екі ноқат
(ia ekı noqat)
|[j], [ɪj], [əj]||ي||ـي||ـيـ||يـ|
Correspondence chart of official and most widespread writing scripts
|Cyrillic||Latin (April 2021)||Latin
(QazAqparat, Kazakh Wikipedia)
|Braille||Arabic||Name of Arabic Letter||IPA transcription|
|А а||A a||A a||A a||A a||A a||⠁||ا||Alif||/ɑ/|
|Ә ә||Ä ä||Ä ä||Á á||Aʼ aʼ||Ä ä||⠜||ٵ||Hamza + Alif||/æ/|
|Б б||B b||B b||B b||B b||B b||⠃||ب||Ba||/b/|
|В в||V v||V v||V v||V v||V v||⠺||ۆ||Waw with V||/v/|
|Г г||G g||G g||G g||G g||G g||⠛||گ||Gaf||/ɡ/|
|Ғ ғ||Ğ ğ||Ğ ğ||Ǵ ǵ||Gʼ gʼ||Ğ ğ||⠻||غ||Ghain||/ʁ/|
|Д д||D d||D d||D d||D d||D d||⠙||د||Dal||/d/|
|Е е||E e||E e||E e||E e||E e||⠑||ە||Ha||/jɪ/|
|Ё ё||İo io||Yo yo||Io ıo||Yo yo||–||⠡||يو||Ya + Waw||/jo/|
|Ж ж||J j||J j||J j||J j||J j||⠚||ج||Jeem||/ʑ/|
|З з||Z z||Z z||Z z||Z z||Z z||⠵||ز||Za||/z/|
|И и||İ i||I ı||I ı||Iʼ iʼ||Ï ï||⠊||ٸ||Hamza + Ya||/ɪj/, /əj/|
|Й й||İ i||I ı||I ı||Iʼ iʼ||Y y||⠯||ي||Ya||/j/|
|К к||K k||K k||K k||K k||K k||⠅||ك||Kaf||/k/|
|Қ қ||Q q||Q q||Q q||Q q||Q q||⠹||ق||Qaf||/q/, /χ/|
|Л л||L l||L l||L l||L l||L l||⠇||ل||Lam||/l/|
|М м||M m||M m||M m||M m||M m||⠍||م||Meem||/m/|
|Н н||N n||N n||N n||N n||N n||⠝||ن||Noon||/n/|
|Ң ң||Ñ ñ||Ŋ ŋ||Ń ń||Nʼ nʼ||Ñ ñ||⠩||ڭ||Ng||/ŋ/|
|О о||O o||O o||O o||O o||O o||⠕||و||Waw||/wʊ/|
|Ө ө||Ö ö||Ö ö||Ó ó||Oʼ oʼ||Ö ö||⠣||ٶ||Hamza + Waw||/wʏ/|
|П п||P p||P p||P p||P p||P p||⠏||پ||Pa||/p/|
|Р р||R r||R r||R r||R r||R r||⠗||ر||Ra||/ɾ/|
|С с||S s||S s||S s||S s||S s||⠎||س||Seen||/s/[disambiguation needed]|
|Т т||T t||T t||T t||T t||T t||⠞||ت||Ta||/t/|
|У у||U u||W w||Ý ý||Yʼ yʼ||W w||⠥||ۋ||Waw with 3 dots||/w/, /ʊw/, /ʏw/|
|Ұ ұ||Ū ū||U u||U u||U u||U u||⠌||ۇ||Waw with damma||/ʊ/|
|Ү ү||Ü ü||Ü ü||Ú ú||Uʼ uʼ||Ü ü||⠬||ٷ||Hamza + Waw with damma||/ʏ/|
|Ф ф||F f||F f||F f||F f||F f||⠋||ف||Fa||/f/|
|Х х||H h||H h||H h||H h||X x||⠓||ح||Ḥa||/q/, /χ/|
|Һ һ||H h||H h||H h||H h||H h||⠧||ھ||Initial Ha||/h/|
|Ц ц||?||C c||S s||C c||⠉||تس||Ta + Seen||/ts/, /s/|
|Ч ч||?||Ç ç||Ch ch||Cʼ cʼ||Ç ç||⠟||چ||Cheem/Che||/tʃ/|
|Ш ш||Ş ş||Ş ş||Sh sh||Sʼ sʼ||Ş ş||⠱||ش||Sheen||/ʃ/|
|Щ щ||?||Şç şç||Shch shch||Şç şç||⠭||شش||Sheen + Sheen||/ʃtʃ/|
|Ы ы||Y y||Y y||Y y||Y y||I ı||⠮||ى||Alif maqṣūrah||/ɯ/|
|І і||I ı||İ i||I i||I i||İ i||⠽||ٸ||Hamza + Alif maqṣūrah||/ɪ/|
|Э э||?||E e||E e||É é||⠪||ە||Ha||/ɛ/|
|Ю ю||İu iu||Yu yu||Iý ıý||Yw yw||⠳||يۋ||Ya + Waw with 3 dots||/jʏw/, /jʊw/|
|Я я||İa ia||Ya ya||Ia ıa||Ya ya||⠫||يا||Ya + Alif||/jɑ/ , /jæ/|
Symbols in parentheses are for bi-directional transliteration only. See Menıñ Qazaqstanym.
Main article: Old Turkic script
Orkhon-Yenisey letters have a superficial similarity to Germanic runes in shape, and so are sometimes called runes. Unlike the Germanic runes, the Old Turkic script was written right to left while Germanic runes were usually written left to right. The script was used in some parts of Kazakhstan's territory in the fifth to the tenth centuries. The language of the inscriptions was the Old Turkic, the language of the First Turkic Khaganate.
Migrating from the Armenian kingdom in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Armenians had an extensive liturgical, legal and other literature in the Kipchak language that differs from Old Kazakh only by the abundance of the Armenian-Christian vocabulary. These texts were written using the Armenian alphabet. Their descendants who settled around the world, almost to the end of the nineteenth century, the Armenian-Kipchak were writing business records, personal correspondence and more.
Catholic missionaries in Crimea produced holy books in the Kipchak language, the ancestor of the Kazakh language, they produced the Gospel and the other liturgical books.
There are epigraphic monuments of Turkic tribes (mainly to the period of Islamization).
For sight-impaired people, there is also Kazakh Braille, based on Russian Braille, with several additional letters found in the Kazakh alphabet.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
|Kazakh in Cyrillic script||Kazakh in Arabic script||English|
|Барлық адамдар тумысынан азат және қадір-қасиеті мен құқықтары тең болып дүниеге келеді. Адамдарға ақыл-парасат, ар-ождан берілген, сондықтан олар бір-бірімен туыстық, бауырмалдық қарым-қатынас жасаулары тиіс.||بارلىق ادامدار تۋمىسىنان ازات جانە قادىر-قاسيەتى مەن كۇقىقتارى تەڭ بولىپ دۇنيەگە كەلەدى. ادامدارعا اقىل-پاراسات، ار-وجدان بەرىلگەن، سوندىقتان ولار ٴبىر-بىرىمەن تۋىستىق، باۋىرمالدىق قارىم-قاتىناس جاساۋلارى ٴتيىس.||All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.|
|Kazakh in Latin script
(approved by Nazarbayev in 2017, revised 2018)
|Kazakh in Latin script|
(version by Kazinform, Kazakh Wikipedia, and by linguists)
|Barlyq adamdar týmysynan azat jáne qadir-qasıeti men quqyqtary teń bolyp dúnıege keledi. Adamdarǵa aqyl-parasat, ar-ojdan berilgen, sondyqtan olar bir-birimen týystyq, baýyrmaldyq qarym-qatynas jasaýlary tıis.||Barlıq adamdar twmısınan azat jäne qadir-qasïyeti men quqıqtarı teñ bolıp dünïyege keledi. Adamdarğa aqıl-parasat, ar-ojdan berilgen, sondıqtan olar bir-birimen twıstıq, bawırmaldıq qarım-qatınas jasawları tïis.|
|Kazakh in Yañalif
|Kazakh in Yañalif
|Kazakh in Pinyin|
|Barlьq adamdar tьvmьsьnan azat çəne qadir-qasijeti men quqьqtarь teꞑ bolьp dynijege keledi. Adamdarƣa aqьl-parasat, ar-oçdan berilgen, sondьqtan olar bir-birimen tьvьstьq, bavьrmaldьq qarьm-qatьnas çasavlarь tijis.||Barlьq adamdar tumьsьnan azat çəne qadjr-qasietj men qūqьqtarь teꞑ bolьp dyniege keledj. Adamdarƣa aqьl-parasat, ar-oçdan berjlgen, sondьqtan olar bjr-bjrjmen tuьstьq, bauьrmaldьq qarьm-qatьnas çasaularь tijs.||Barleⱪ adamdar tewmesenan azat jənê ⱪadir-ⱪasiyêti mên ⱪuⱪeⱪtare têng bolep düniyêgê kêlêdi. Adamdarƣa aⱪel-parasat, ar-ojdan bêrilgên, sondeⱪtan olar bir-birimên tewesteⱪ, bawermaldeⱪ ⱪarem-ⱪatenas jasawlare tiyis.|
|Kazakh in Latin (2021)||Kazakh in the International Phonetic Alphabet|
|Barlyq adamdar tumysynan azat jäne qadır-qasietı men qūqyqtary teŋ bolyp düniege keledı. Adamdarğa aqyl-parasat, ar-ojdan berılgen, sondyqtan olar bır-bırımen tuystyq, bauyrmaldyq qarym-qatynas jasaulary tiıs.||[bɑrˈɫəq ɑdɑmˈdɑr tʰʊwməsəˈnɑn ɑˈzɑt dʒæˈɲe qɑˈdɘr qɑsɘjeˈtɘ mʲeɴ qʊqəqtɑˈrə tʲem boˈɫəp dʉnɘjeˈɟe cʰeʎeˈdɘ ‖ ɑdɑmdɑrˈʁɑ‿qəɫ pɑrɑˈsɑt ɑr‿wʊdʒˈdɑm bʲerɘʎˈɟen | sondəqˈtɑn wʊˈɫɑr bɘr bɘrɘˈmʲen tʰʊwəsˈtəq | bɑwərmɑɫˈdəq qɑˈrəm qɑtəˈnɑs dʒɑsɑwɫɑˈrə tʰɘˈjɘs ‖]|