Kazakh alphabet

A 1902 Kazakh text in both Arabic and Cyrillic scripts. In modern orthography: «Бұрыңғы өткен заманда, бір данышпан кісі, Бағдат шаһарының бір үлкен қазысының үйіне келіп қоныпты. Қазыменен сөйлесіп, қазыны сөзге жеңе беріпті. Сонда қазы қорқып, — „Бұл маған келген бала — менің қазылығымды тартып алса керек! Не де болса, бұған жалынып, сый беріп, орнымда қалайын!“ — деп, қатынына ақылдасыпты.» Note the differences between the older Cyrillic here and the current Cyrillic alphabet.

The Kazakh alphabets are the alphabets used to write the Kazakh language. The Kazakh language uses the following alphabets:

• The Cyrillic script is officially used in the Republic of Kazakhstan and Bayan-Ölgiy Province in Mongolia. It is also used by native Kazakh populations belonging to the areas of Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as diasporas in other countries of the former USSR. It was introduced by the Soviet Union in 1940.
• The Arabic script is officially used in People's Republic of China in the Altay Prefecture and the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is also used in Iran and Afghanistan. This is a modified script based on the alphabet used for Kazakh before 1927.
• A Latin alphabet based on the Turkish alphabet is unofficially used by the Kazakh diaspora in Turkey. The Kazakh diaspora also uses a surrogate Latin alphabet in Germany, the US and in other Western countries. As with other Central Asian Turkic languages, a Latin alphabet was introduced by the Soviets and used from 1927 to 1940 when it was replaced with Cyrillic.

Cyrillic script

Sign in modern Kazakh alphabet at the Kazakhstan Railway Museum (Қазақстан Республикасы теміржол көлгінің орталық музейі)

The Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet is used in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. 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 1957 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, Һ, Ц, Ч, Щ, Ъ, Ь and Э are not used in native Kazakh words. Of these, Ё, Ц, Ч, Щ, 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.

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/.

Encoding

Before the spread of operating systems and text editors with support for Unicode, Cyrillic Kazakh often didn't fit on a keyboard because of 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 these are historical code pages, modern systems use Unicode Encoding, such as UTF-8)

• CT PK 920-91 for DOS (a modification of code page 866)
• CT PK 1048—2002 for Windows (a modification of code page 1251)

CT PK 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 "KazAkparat" before the encoding of this standard. Today the encoding UTF-8 is being accepted.

Keyboard

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.

The Kazakh keyboard.

Arabic

The Arabic script is still the official alphabet for Kazakhs in the People's Republic 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 1927. In 1924, Kazakh intellectual Akhmet Baitursynov attempted to reform the Arabic script to better suit Kazakh. The letters چ، پ، ڭ، گ، ۆ are used to represent sounds not found in the Arabic language.

Latin

A Kazakh newspaper in Latin script from 1937.

The Uniform Turkic Alphabet was used in the USSR from 1927 to 1940, when it was replaced by the current Cyrillic script. Kazakh speakers in countries that use the Latin script also use a different Latin alphabet based on the Turkish alphabet.

Selected works of Mao Zedong in Latin-script Kazakh, published in Beijing in 1977

A Latin alphabet was used for the Kazakh language in the People's Republic of China in 1964-84. Later, the use of the Kazakh Arabic alphabet was restored in China.

Recently as part of a modernization program the government has stated plans for replacing Cyrillic with Latin officially. As of 2007, the costs and consequences of such a move are being investigated.

Some websites of the government of Kazakhstan are available in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts. Among them are http://www.government.kz/, the main government website, and National information agency Kazinform (also known as QazAqparat).

On December 13, 2007, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev offered not to advance the transformation of the Kazakh alphabet from the Cyrillic to Latin one, 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".

Correspondence chart

Correspondence chart of official and most widespread writing scripts

Cyrillic	Latin (by QazAqparat)	Arabic	Name of Arabic Letter	IPA transcription
А а	A a	ا	Alif	/ɑ/
Ә ә	Ä ä	ٵ	Hamza + Alif	/æ/
Б б	B b	ب	Ba	/b/
В в	V v	ۆ	Waw with V	/v/
Г г	G g	گ	Gaf	/ɡ/
Ғ ғ	Ğ ğ	ع	Ghain	/ʁ/
Д д	D d	د	Dal	/d/
Е е	E e	ه	Ha	/e/
Ё ё	Yo yo	يو	Yo	/jo/
Ж ж	J j	ج	Jeem	/ʒ/
З з	Z z	ز	Za	/z/
И и	Ï ï	ٸ	Ya	/ɯj/, /ɪj/
Й й	Y y	ي	Ya	/j/
К к	K k	ك	Kaf	/k/
Қ қ	Q q	ق	Qaf	/q/
Л л	L l	ل	Lam	/l/
М м	M m	م	Meem	/m/
Н н	N n	ن	Noon	/n/
Ң ң	Ñ ñ	ڭ	Kaf with 3 dots	/ŋ/
О о	O o	و	Waw	/o/
Ө ө	Ö ö	ٶ	Hamza + Waw	/ø/
П п	P p	پ	Pa	/p/
Р р	R r	ر	Ra	/r/
С с	S s	س	Seen	/s/
Т т	T t	ت	Ta	/t/
У у	W w	ۋ	Waw with 3 dots	/w/, /ʊw/, /ʉw/
Ұ ұ	U u	وُ	Waw with damma	/ʊ/
Ү ү	Ü ü	ٶُ	Hamza + Waw with damma	/ʉ/
Ф ф	F f	ف	Fa	/f/
Х х	X x	ح	Kha without dots	/x, χ/
Һ һ	H h	ھ	Initial Ha	/h/
Ц ц	C c	تس	T + S	/ts/
Ч ч	Ç ç	چ	Cheem	/tʃ/
Ш ш	Ş ş	ش	Sheen	/ʃ/
Щ щ	Şş şş	شش	Sh + Sh	/ʃtʃ/, /ʃː/
Ъ ъ	(ʺ)	--	--	--
Ы ы	I ı	ى	Ya without dots	/ɯ/
І і	İ i	ٴى	Hamza + Ya without dots	/ɪ/
Ь ь	(ʹ)	--	--	--
Э э	Ee (Éé)	ه	Ha	/e/
Ю ю	Yu yu	يۋ	Y + U	/jʉw/, /jʊw/
Я я	Ya ya	يا	Y + A	/jɑ/

Symbols in parentheses are for bi-directional transliteration only.

Text sample

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Kazakh in Cyrillic script	Kazakh in Arabic script	Kazakh in Latin script	English
Барлық адамдар тумысынан азат және қадір-қасиеті мен кұқықтары 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 ءبىر-بىرىمەن تۋىستىق، باۋىرمالدىق قارىم-قاتىناس جاساۋلارى ءتيىس.‎	Barlıq adamdar twmısınan azat jäne qadir-qasïeti men quqıqtarı teñ bolıp dünïege keledi. Adamdarğa aqıl-parasat, ar-ojdan berilgen, sondıqtan olar bir-birimen twıstıq, bawırmaldıq qarım-qatınas jasawları tïis.	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.

External links

• Kazakh alphabet (in Russian)
• Kazakh language, alphabet and pronunciation
• [1]
• Kazakh Cyrillic–Arabic–Latin converter
• (ALASH Cyrillic–Latin–Arabic–Runic online converter