Transition of the Kazakh Writing System from Cyrillic to Latin

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the transition of the Kazakh writing system from Cyrillic to Latin. First, the study investigates the relationship between the Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet and phonology, in order to linguistically evaluate the efficiency of the writing system. Second, the process of determining the Kazakh Latin alphabet is discussed in terms of the Kazakh phonological system. Third, the factors that determined the Latin alphabet of Kazakh language are analyzed. In Kazakh, the phonemic system is subject to controversy among linguists, but it can be said that the phonological system basically follows the one-to-one correspondence to the Russian and Kazakh phonemes. As for the depth of orthographies, Kazakh Cyrillic writing system is not based on the shallow orthographies, so it incorporates morphophonemic information to make skilled readers understand easier. The political and social aspects are considered as a cause of the alphabet change. Although there are studies suggesting the conversion of the writing system is caused by the extrinsic factors rather than the intrinsic factors, the five criteria of Smalley (1964), which compromise the intrinsic and extrinsic factors, are also persuasive. The five factors are 1) Maximum motivation for the learner, 2) Maximum representation of speech, 3) Maximum ease of learning, 4) Maximum transfer, 5) Maximum ease of reproduction.

Table 1. Kazakh Cyrillic Alphabet

Table 2. Examples of the shallow orthographies in Kazakh

Table 3. 1st Latin alphabet (2017.9)

Table 4. 2nd Latin Alphabet (2017.10)

Table 5. 3^rd Latin Alphabet (2018.2)