In September 2013, Kazakhstan will create a state commission on
transferring the Kazakh language to the Latin script. This was announced today by
MP Aldan Smailov at a meeting of the committee on social and
cultural development of the Majilis (lower chamber of parliament).
The task to transfer the Kazakh alphabet to Latin script from 2025 was
announced in December last year by President Nursultan
Nazarbayev.
Currently the issue is being considered by an interdepartmental
committee involving the scientific community, which is developing
theoretical approaches to the implementation of the Latin alphabet in
the Kazakh language. Curriculum development, training, and so on
should begin in 2014.
Meanwhile, independent observers have noted that the transition to the
Latin alphabet will be followed by discussions not only "for" and
"against" it, but on the question of which version of the alphabet to
use. The director of the Institute of Linguistics Kazakh scholar
Ahmed Baitursynov Ph.D. and Myrzabergen Malbakov confirmed these
linguistic debates.
"There are three ways to transfer to Latin. The first is to build on the purely
classical alphabet, which consists of 26 letters. The second is an
alphabet consisting of 28 letters, and one that is widely used in
Europe in the age of information technology, a dictionary of 31
letters. There is still time. We should talk, decide and come to a
final opinion," he said.
