Reading between the Lines: The Latinisation of Kazakh

Illustration Credit: Georgia Appleyard

Henry Spencer reflects on the political and cultural implications of Kazakh's alphabet changes, and what the latest iteration might represent for Kazakhstan going forward.

In 2021, the Kazakhstani Government announced its fourth proposal in four years to change the Kazakh language’s alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin in the latest chapter of the country’s orthographical change. After bouncing between Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets in the first half of the 20th century and being suppressed by Soviet authorities, the language has undergone a revitalisation in the post-Soviet period. The new Latin alphabet seeks to further strengthen Kazakh’s position in the country over Russian. However, in changing alphabets, Kazakhstan is not entirely turning away from Russia; rather, a stronger national ‘Kazakh’ identity affords the country the cultural independence it needs to play in multiple geopolitical arenas simultaneously.

Russian and Soviet Domination: Korenizatsiya, Latinizatsiya, and Rusifikatsiya 

Until the late 18th century, Kazakh was a primarily spoken language, with most written media in the region appearing in Persian, Arabic, and other Turkic languages. The 1880s saw the first appearances of Kazakh in print, using the Arabic script, as part of a burgeoning nationalist movement in response to the Russian Empire’s increasing domination of Central Asia. Under Imperial Russian rule, Kazakh’s vitality was threatened as Russian became widespread throughout Central Asia as the language of government, education, and the everyday language of the growing number of ethnic Russian settlers.

In the 1920s, Kazakh’s fortunes briefly improved with the Soviet policy of Korenizatsiya. Loosely translated as ‘nativization’, Korenizatsiya aimed to bolster—or, in some cases, manufacture—a national identity for each ethnic group, such as by expanding the official role of local languages and developing Latin alphabets for them. One of the aims of Korenizatsiya was breaking down identities common across large regions like Central Asia built upon shared history, culture and religion into smaller groups that would struggle to unite in rebellion against Moscow. The Soviet Union’s choice of what constituted ‘different’ languages remains visible today: although politically separate languages, Kazakh and Kyrgyz, the official language of the Kyrgyz Republic, are arguably linguistically one language. 

However, as quickly as Latinisation had been introduced, it was overturned. By the late 1930s, the Soviets had reverted to a policy of Russification, which led to Kazakh officially adopting Cyrillic in 1940 and a rapid diminishment of the language’s role in public fora.

Political Independence, Cultural Entanglement

Although Kazakhstan is now an independent country, the Soviet legacy remains imprinted, especially on its demographics. Ethnic Russians still account for 20% of the country’s population, although they used to be the largest ethnic group in the country. Kazakhs, on the other hand, now comprise nearly 70%, up from a low of 30% in the mid-twentieth century. Moreover, 94% understand Russian compared to 83% who understand Kazakh. The country’s high level of Russification makes the adoption of Kazakh as the sole official language unfeasible: Kazakh is almost exclusively spoken by ethnic Kazakhs, meaning the country’s minorities would face linguistic discrimination in accessing government services. Whereas Uzbekistan made Uzbek its sole official language in 1992 and has been slowly transitioning to the Latin alphabet since then, Kazakhstan only gave Kazakh the status of ‘State’ language in 1997. The law also recognised the near equal status of Russian. 

Too Few Letters, Too Many Meanings

Since the government announced the transition to Latin orthography in 2017, linguists have made four proposals. The first version sought to utilise only the base letters of the Latin alphabet, using diagraphs such as ae and sh to represent additional sounds. This proposal was soon replaced with a version using apostrophes instead, giving rise to signs like a’, s’, and g’ among others. While this matched Uzbek’s approach, Kazakh’s larger sound inventory meant that some words would contain an unsightly number of apostrophes. The next version shifted the apostrophes onto the letters, creating signs such as á and ǵ. The latest proposal brings Kazakh in line with the Common Turkic Alphabet, using signs like ä, ğ, and ş, as in Turkish. Along with changing the letters, the linguists have also proposed minor spelling changes, especially regarding the sound /w/, which was lacking in Cyrillic.

The numerous proposals in such a short space of time underscore the competing interests in what the new orthography should represent. While the initial proposals were easy to type, the lack of support for apostrophes online, in emails or web addresses, drew criticism. Moreover, linguists were unsatisfied as the early proposals improperly represented the relationships between sounds in Kazakh. Indeed, Kazakh, like other Turkic languages, has extensive vowel harmony which the Cyrillic and Arabic scripts do not represent. The use of both of these alphabets also tied the language’s identity to a specific cultural sphere, whether the Russian and Orthodox sphere, or the Arabic, Persianate and Islamic one. The Latin script is not only tied to the ‘Western’ sphere but also, since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkic sphere. Indeed, the proposals’ gradual convergence on the Common Turkic Alphabet adds a further political element: as the language turns away from Russia, it looks increasingly to Turkey.

Caught in the Middle 

While it may seem that Kazakhstan is eagerly distancing itself from Russia and looking to the Western and strengthening Turkic worlds, Kazakhstani policy continues to favour the country’s ties with Russia. According to a survey by the Central Asian Barometer, 88% percent of Kazakhstanis want closer relations with Russia. Yet, according to the same survey, of that 88%, nearly 60% percent also want stronger relations with the US. The desire to be close to both Russia and the US was encapsulated by a 2019 speech by former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in which he projected that in the future, Kazakhstanis would speak three languages: Kazakh, Russian, and English. While to the ‘Western’ mindset this may seem incomprehensible, to Kazakhstan, this is a question less of ideology and more of political strategy; indeed, relying on only one superpower could leave Kazakhstan isolated as fellow former Soviet state Belarus increasingly finds itself. 

By changing its alphabet, Kazakhstan can highlight its Turkic roots and reinvent and revitalise the language after years of linguistic colonisation. Its participation in events such as Türkvizyon, an adaptation of Eurovision for the Turkic-speaking world, shows how Kazakhstan’s Turkic heritage is an important part of its national identity, and one that must be separated from its Russian and Soviet past. While this desire to shift away from Russia and change alphabets has caused friction between the countries, Kazakhstan-Russian relations remain strong. By pursuing close ties with opposing superpowers, Kazakhstan is increasingly positioning itself as a new global nexus.

At a time when Russia-US relations continue to be strained, Kazakhstan represents a middle ground. Rather than pledging allegiance to one country, Kazakhstan has promoted its national cultural heritage to reinvent an identity that is aligned with neither country, allowing it to move between multiple political arenas at once. Kazakhstan’s orthographical change hints that these identities are malleable and that they can be shaped into powerful political tools. Yet, it remains to be seen if cultural pride will transform into nationalistic hubris.