Kazakh language

Kazakh or Kazak (Latin: qazaqsha or qazaq tili, Cyrillic: қазақша or қазақ тілі, Arabic: قازاقشا‎ or قازاق تىلى‎, pronounced [qɑzɑqˈɕɑ], [qɑˈzɑq tɪˈlɪ]), is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia. It is closely related to Nogai, Kyrgyz and Karakalpak. Kazakh is the official language of Kazakhstan and a significant minority language in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, China and in the Bayan-Ölgii Province of Mongolia. Kazakh is also spoken by many ethnic Kazakhs through the former Soviet Union (some 472,000 in Russia according to the 2010 Russian Census), Germany, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan.

Kazakh
Kazak
Қазақша or қазақ тілі قازاقشا‎ or قازاق تىلى‎ Qazaqsha or qazaq tili
Pronunciation	[qɑzɑqˈɕɑ] [qɑˈzɑq tɪˈlɪ]
Native to	Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan
Region	Central Asia (Turkestan)
Ethnicity	Kazakhs
Native speakers	22 million (2019)[1]
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak Kipchak–Nogai Kazakh
Writing system	Kazakh alphabets (Latin script, Cyrillic script, Arabic script, Kazakh Braille)
Official status
Official language in	Kazakhstan Russia Altai Republic[2] China Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture Barköl Kazakh Autonomous County Mori Kazakh Autonomous County Aksay Kazakh Autonomous County Organisations: Turkic Council Collective Security Treaty Organization
Regulated by	Kazakh language agency
Language codes
ISO 639-1	kk
ISO 639-2	kaz
ISO 639-3	kaz
Glottolog	kaza1248[3]
Linguasphere	44-AAB-cc
The Kazakh-speaking world:   regions where Kazakh is the language of the majority   regions where Kazakh is the language of a significant minority

Like other Turkic languages, Kazakh is an agglutinative language and it employs vowel harmony.

In October 2017, Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev decreed that the government would transition from using Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet by 2025.[4] President Nazarbayev signed on 19 February 2018 an amendment to the decree of 26 October 2017 No. 569 "On translating the Kazakh alphabet from Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin script."[5] The amended alphabet uses ⟨sh⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ for the Kazakh sounds /ɕ/ and /tɕ/, respectively and eliminates the use of apostrophes.[6]

Geographic distribution

The Kazakstani language (often called Qazaqsha) has its speakers (mainly Kazakhs) spread over a vast territory from the Tian Shan to the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Kazakh is the official state language of Kazakhstan, with nearly 10 million speakers (based on information from the CIA World Factbook[7] on population and proportion of Kazakh speakers).[8]

In China, nearly two million ethnic Kazakhs and Kazakh speakers reside in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang.[9]

Writing system

Main article: Kazakh alphabets

Kazakh Arabic and Latin script in 1924

The oldest known written records of languages closely related to Kazakh were written in the Old Turkic alphabet, though it is not believed that any of these varieties were direct predecessors of Kazakh.[10] Modern Kazakh, going back approximately one thousand years, was written in the Arabic script until 1929, when Soviet authorities introduced a Latin-based alphabet, and then a Cyrillic alphabet in 1940.[11]

Nazarbayev first brought up the topic of using the Latin alphabet instead of the Cyrillic alphabet as the official script for Kazakh in Kazakhstan in October 2006.[12][13] A Kazakh government study released in September 2007 said that a switch to a Latin script over a 10- to 12-year period was feasible, at a cost of $300 million.[14] The transition was halted temporarily on 13 December 2007, with President Nazarbayev declaring: "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."[15] However, on 30 January 2015, the Minister of Culture and Sports Arystanbek Mukhamediuly announced that a transition plan was underway, with specialists working on the orthography to accommodate the phonological aspects of the language.[16] In presenting this strategic plan in April 2017, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev described the twentieth century as a period in which the "Kazakh language and culture have been devastated".[11]

Nazarbayev ordered Kazakh authorities to create a Latin Kazakh alphabet by the end of 2017, so written Kazakh could return to a Latin script starting in 2018.[17][18] As of 2018, Kazakh is written in Cyrillic in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, Kazakh is written in Latin in Kazakhstan, while more than one million Kazakh speakers in China use an Arabic-derived alphabet similar to the one that is used to write Uyghur.[10]

2018 Latin alphabet for the Kazakh language, adopted by Presidential Decree 569 (26 October 2017); Amended by Decree 637 (19 February 2018)[19]

On 26 October 2017, Nazarbayev issued Presidential Decree 569 for the change to a finalized Latin variant of the Kazakh alphabet and ordered that the government's transition to this alphabet be completed by 2025,[19][20] a decision taken to emphasise Kazakh culture after the era of Soviet rule[21] and to facilitate the use of digital devices.[22] But the initial decision to use a novel orthography employing apostrophes, which make the use of many popular tools for searching and writing text difficult, has generated controversy.[23]

The alphabet was revised the following year by Presidential Decree 637 of 19 February 2018 and the use of apostrophes was discontinued and replaced with the use of diacritics and digraphs.[24][6] However, many citizens state that the officially introduced alphabet needs much improvements. Moreover, Kazakh became the second Turkic language to use the "ch" and "sh" digraphs after the Uzbek government adapted them in their version of the Latin alphabet.

The new version of the Kazakh Latin alphabet proposed in 2019.

In October 2019, President Tokayev expressed his concerns about all three versions of Latin alphabet and asked linguists to propose a more thoughtful version without haste.[25][26] A new version of the alphabet, elaborated by the Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics and specialists from the official working group on script transition, was proposed in November 2019, using breves, umlauts and cedillas instead of accents and digraphs and introducing spelling changes to stick more accurately to Kazakh phonology.[27]

Comparison using article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Cyrillic script	Arabic script	"Resmı nusqa 3,0" Latin script	Kazinform and Kazakh Wikipedia Latin script	English translation
Барлық адамдар тумысынан азат және қадір-қасиеті мен құқықтары тең болып дүниеге келеді.	بارلىق ادامدار تۋمىسىنان ازات جانە قادىر-قاسيەتى مەن قۇقىقتارى تەڭ بولىپ دۇنيەگە كەلەدى. -‎	Barlyq adamdar týmysynan azat jáne qadir-qasıeti men quqyqtary teń bolyp dúnıege keledi.	Barlıq adamdar twmısınan azat jäne qadir-qasïyeti men quqıqtarı teñ bolıp dünïyege keledi.	All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
Адамдарға ақыл-парасат, ар-ождан берілген,	ادامدارعا اقىل پاراسات، ار-ۇجدان بەرىلگەن ،‎	Adamdarǵa aqyl-parasat, ar-ojdan berilgen,	Adamdarğa aqıl-parasat, ar-ojdan berilgen,	They are endowed with reason and conscience
сондықтан олар бір-бірімен туыстық, бауырмалдық қарым-қатынас жасаулары тиіс.	سوندىقتان ولار ٴبىر-بىرىمەن تۋىستىق، باۋىرمالدىق قارىم-قاتىناس جاساۋلارى ٴتيىس .‎	sondyqtan olar bir-birimen týystyq, baýyrmaldyq qarym-qatynas jasaýlary tıis.	sondıqtan olar bir-birimen twıstıq, bawırmaldıq qarım-qatınas jasawları tïis.	and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Phonology

Kazakh exhibits tongue-root vowel harmony, with some words of recent foreign origin (usually of Russian or Arabic origin) as exceptions. There is also a system of rounding harmony which resembles that of Kyrgyz, but which does not apply as strongly and is not reflected in the orthography.

Consonants

The following chart depicts the consonant inventory of standard Kazakh;[28] many of the sounds, however, are allophones of other sounds or appear only in recent loan-words. The 18 consonant phonemes listed by Vajda are without parentheses—since these are phonemes, their listed place and manner of articulation are very general, and will vary from what is shown. The phonemes /f/, /v/ and /t͡ɕ/ only occur in recent borrowings, mostly from Russian.

In the table, the elements left of a divide are voiceless, while those to the right are voiced.

Kazakh consonant phonemes[29]

	Labials		Alveolar		(Alveolo-) palatal		Velar		Uvular
Nasal	m ⟨м/m⟩		n ⟨н/n⟩				ŋ ⟨ң/ń⟩
Stop	p ⟨п/p⟩	b ⟨б/b⟩	t ⟨т/t⟩	d ⟨д/d⟩	tɕ ⟨ч/ch⟩		k ⟨к/k⟩	ɡ ⟨г/g⟩	q ⟨қ/q⟩
Fricative	f ⟨ф/f⟩	v ⟨в/v⟩	s ⟨с/s⟩	z ⟨з/z⟩	ɕ ⟨ш/sh⟩	ʑ ⟨ж/j⟩			χ ⟨х/h⟩	ʁ ⟨ғ/ǵ⟩
Approximant			l ⟨л/l⟩		j ⟨й/ı⟩		w ⟨у/ý⟩
Rhotic			ɾ ⟨р/r⟩

Vowels

Kazakh has a system of 12 phonemic vowels, 3 of which are diphthongs. The rounding contrast and /æ/ generally only occur as phonemes in the first syllable of a word, but do occur later allophonically; see the section on harmony below for more information. Moreover, the /æ/ sound has been included artificially due to the influence of Arabic, Persian and, later, Tatar languages during the Islamic period.[30] The letter "e" is often palatalised due to Russian influence.

According to Vajda, the front/back quality of vowels is actually one of neutral versus retracted tongue root.

Phonetic values are paired with the corresponding character in Kazakh's Cyrillic and current Latin alphabets.

Kazakh vowel phonemes

	Front (Advanced tongue root)	Central (Relaxed tongue root)	Back (Retracted tongue root)
Close	ɪ ⟨і/i⟩	ʉ ⟨ү/ú⟩	ʊ ⟨ұ/u⟩
Diphthong	jɪ ⟨е/e⟩	əj ⟨и/ı⟩	ʊw ⟨у/ý⟩
Mid	e ⟨э/e⟩	ə ⟨ы/y⟩	o ⟨о/o⟩
Open	æ ⟨ә/á⟩	œ ⟨ө/ó⟩	ɑ ⟨а/a⟩

Kazakh vowels by their pronunciation

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	ɪ ⟨і/i⟩	ʉ ⟨ү/ú⟩	ə ⟨ы/y⟩	ʊ ⟨ұ/u⟩
Open	e ⟨э/e⟩ / æ ⟨ә/á⟩	œ̝ ⟨ө/ó⟩	ɑ ⟨а/a⟩	o̞ ⟨о/o⟩

Morphology and syntax

Kazakh is generally verb-final, though various permutations on SOV (subject–object–verb) word order can be used, for example, due to topicalization.[31] Inflectional and derivational morphology, both verbal and nominal, in Kazakh, exists almost exclusively in the form of agglutinative suffixes. Kazakh is a nominative-accusative, head-final, left-branching, dependent-marking language.[10]

Declension of nouns[10]

Case	Morpheme	Possible forms	keme "ship"	aýa "air"	shelek "bucket"	sábiz "carrot"	bas "head"	tuz "salt"
Nom	—	—	keme	aýa	shelek	sábiz	bas	tuz
Acc	-ny	-ni, -ny, -di, -dy, -ti, -ty	kemeni	aýany	shelekti	sábizdi	basty	tuzdy
Gen	-nyń	-niń, -nyń, -diń, -dyń, -tiń, -tyń	kemeniń	aýanyń	shelektiń	sábizdiń	bastyń	tuzdyń
Dat	-ga	-ge, -ǵa, -ke, -qa, -ne, -na	kemege	aýaǵa	shelekke	sábizge	basqa	tuzǵa
Loc	-da	-de, -da, -te, -ta	kemede	aýada	shelekte	sábizde	basta	tuzda
Abl	-dan	-den, -dan, -ten, -tan, -nen, -nan	kemeden	aýadan	shelekten	sábizden	bastan	tuzdan
Inst	-men	-men(en), -ben(en), -pen(en)	kememen	aýamen	shelekpen	sábizben	baspen	tuzben

Pronouns

There are eight personal pronouns in Kazakh:

Personal pronouns[10]

Singular		Plural
Kazakh (transliteration)	English	Kazakh (transliteration)	English
Men	I	Biz	We
Sen	You (singular informal)	Sender	You (plural informal)
Siz	You (singular formal)	Sizder	You (plural formal)
Ol	He/She/It	Olar	They

The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart. Singular pronouns exhibit irregularities, while plural pronouns don't. Irregular forms are highlighted in bold.[10]

Number	Singular				Plural
Personne	1st	2nd		3rd	1st	2nd		3rd
		Familiar	Polite			Familiar	Polite
Nominative	men	sen	siz	ol	biz	sender	sizder	olar
Genitive	meniń	seniń	sizdiń	onyń	bizdiń	senderdiń	sizderdiń	olardyń
Dative	maǵan	saǵan	sizge	oǵan	bizge	senderge	sizderge	olarǵa
Accusative	meni	seni	sizdi	ony	bizdi	senderdi	sizderdi	olardy
Locative	mende	sende	sizde	onda	bizde	senderde	sizderde	olarda
Ablative	menen	senen	sizden	odan	bizden	senderden	sizderden	olardan
Instrumental	menimen	senimen	sizben	onymen	bizben	sendermen	sizdermen	olarmen

In addition to the pronouns, there are several more sets of morphemes dealing with person.[10]

Morphemes indicating person[10]

	pronouns	copulas	possessive endings	past/conditional
1st sg	men	-mın	-(ı)m	-(ı)m
2nd sg	sen	-sıń	-(ı)ń	-(ı)ń
3rd sg	ol	-/-dır	-	—
1st pl	biz	-bız	-(ı)mız	-(ı)k/-(y)q
2nd sng formal & pl	siz	-sız	-(ı)ńız	-(ı)ńız/-(y)ńyz
3rd pl	olar	-/-dır	—	—

Tense, aspect and mood

Kazakh may express different combinations of tense, aspect and mood through the use of various verbal morphology or through a system of auxiliary verbs, many of which might better be considered light verbs. The present tense is a prime example of this; progressive tense in Kazakh is formed with one of four possible auxiliaries. These auxiliaries "otyr" (sit), "tur" (stand), "júr" (go) and "jat" (lie), encode various shades of meaning of how the action is carried out and also interact with the lexical semantics of the root verb: telic and non-telic actions, semelfactives, durative and non-durative, punctual, etc. There are selectional restrictions on auxiliaries: motion verbs, such as бару (go) and келу (come) may not combine with "otyr". Any verb, however, can combine with "jat" (lie) to get a progressive tense meaning.[10]

Progressive aspect in the present tense[10]

Kazakh	Aspect	English translation
Men jeımin	non-progressive	"I (will) eat [every day]."
Men jeýdemin	progressive	"I am eating [right now]."
Men jep otyrmyn	progressive/durative	"I am [sitting and] eating." / "I have been eating."
Men jep turmyn	progressive/punctual	"I am [in the middle of] eating [this very minute]."
Men jep júrmin	habitual	"I eat [lunch, everyday]"

While it is possible to think that different categories of aspect govern the choice of auxiliary, it is not so straightforward in Kazakh. Auxiliaries are internally sensitive to the lexical semantics of predicates, for example, verbs describing motion:[10]

Selectional restrictions on Kazakh auxiliaries[10]

Kazakh	Gloss	Auxiliary Used	English translation
Sýda balyq júzedi	water-LOC fish swim-PRES-3	∅ (present/future tense used)	"Fish swim in water" (general statement)
Sýda balyq júzip jatyr	water-LOC fish swim-CNVB AUX.3	jat－ to lie, general marker for progressive aspect.	"The/A fish is swimming in the water"
Sýda balyq júzip júr	water-LOC fish swim-CNVB AUX.3	júr – "go", dynamic/habitual/iterative	"The fish is swimming [as it always does] in the water"
Sýda balyq júzip tur	water-LOC fish swim-CNVB AUX.3	tur – "stand", progressive marker to show the swimming is punctual	"The fish is swimming in the water"
* Sýda balyq júzip otyr	water-LOC fish swim-CNVB AUX.3	otyr – "sit", ungrammatical in this sentence, otyr can only be used for verbs that are stative in nature	*The fish has been swimming Not a possible sentence of Kazakh

In addition to the complexities of the progressive tense, there are many auxiliary-converb pairs that encode a range of aspectual, modal, volitional, evidential and action- modificational meanings. For example, the pattern -yp kórý, with the auxiliary verb kórý (see), indicates that the subject of the verb attempted or tried to do something (compare the Japanese てみる temiru construction).[10]

Annotated text with gloss

From the first stanza of "Meniń Qazaqstanym" ("My Kazakhstan"), the national anthem of Kazakhstan:

Менің Қазақстаным	Men-iń Qazaqstan-ym	My Kazakhstan
Алтын күн аспаны	Altyn kún aspan-y	The golden sun in the sky
[ɑltən kʉn ɑspɑˈnə]	gold sun sky-3.POSS
Алтын дән даласы	Altyn dán dala-sy	The golden corn of the steppe
[altən dæn dɑlɑˈsə]	gold corn steppe-3.POSS
Ерліктің дастаны	Erlik-tiń dastan-y	The legend of courage
[erlɘkˈtɘŋ dɑstɑˈnə]	courage legend-GEN epic-3.POSS-NOM
Еліме қарашы!	El-im-e qara-shy	Just look at my country!
[ɘlɘˈmʲe qɑrɑˈʃə]	country-1SG.ACC look-IMP
Ежелден ер деген	Ejel-den er de-gen	Called heroes since time immemorial
[ɘʑʲɘlˈdʲen ɘr dʲɪˈɡʲen]	antiquity-ABL hero say-PTCP.PST
Даңқымыз шықты ғой	Dańq-ymyz shyq-ty ǵoı	Our glory, emerged!
[dɑɴqəˈməz ʃəqˈtə ʁoj]	glory-1PL.POSS.NOM emerge-PST.3 EMPH
Намысын бермеген	Namys-yn ber-me-gen	Without losing their honor
[nɑməˈsən bʲermʲeˈɡʲen]	honor-3.POSS-ACC give-NEG-PTCP.PST
Қазағым мықты ғой	Qazaǵ-ym myqty ǵoı	Mighty are my Kazakh people!
[qɑzɑˈʁəm məqˈtə ʁoj]	Kazakh-1SG.POSS strong EMPH
Менің елім, менің елім	Men-iń el-im, meniń el-im	My country, my country
[mʲɘˈnɘŋ ɘˈlɪm, mʲɘˈnɘŋ ɘˈlɪm]	1SG.GEN my country (2x)-1SG.NOM
Гүлің болып, егілемін	Gúl-iń bol-yp, eg-il-e-min	As your flower, I am rooted in you
[ɡʉˈlɘŋ boˈləp, ɘɡɘlʲɘˈmɪn]	flower-2SG.NOM be-CNVB, root-PASS-PRES-1SG
Жырың болып төгілемін, елім	Jyr-yń bol-yp, tóg-il-e-min, el-im	As your song, I will be sung abound
[ʒəˈrəŋ boˈləp tœɡɪlˈʲɘmɪn, ɘˈlɪm]	song-2SG.NOM be-CNVB, sing-PASS-PRES-1SG, country-1SG.POSS.NOM
Туған жерім менің – Қазақстаным	Tý-ǵan jer-im meniń – Qazaqstan-ym	My native land – My Kazakhstan
[tuwˈʁan ʒeˈrɪm mʲɘnɘŋ qɑzɑqˈstɑnəm]	birth-PTCP-PST place-1SG.POSS.NOM 1SG.GEN – Kazakhstan-1SG.POSS.NOM

Comparison with Kyrgyz

Kazakh and Kyrgyz may be better seen as mutually intelligible dialects or varieties of a single tongue which are regarded as separate languages for sociopolitical reasons. They differ mainly phonetically while the lexicon and grammar are much the same, although both have standardized written forms that may differ in some ways. Until the 20th century, both languages used a common written form of Chaghatai Turki.[32]

While both languages share common loanwords from Farsi and Arabic, Kyrgyz lexicon includes much wider range of Mongolian loanwords.

See also

• BGN/PCGN romanization of Kazakh
• Turkic languages
• Kazakh literature
• Languages of Kazakhstan

References

1. https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kaz
3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kazakh". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
4. "Kazakhstan to change from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet | DW". Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com). 27 October 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
5. "This Country Is Changing Its Stalin-imposed Alphabet After 80 Years". Newsweek.
6. Decree No. 637 of February 19, 2018
7. "Central Asia: Kazakhstan". The 2017 World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 26 October 2017. Archived from the original on 30 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
8. Map showing the geographical diffusion of the Kazakh and other Turkish languages
9. Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2017). "Kazakh". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (20th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
10. Mukhamedova, Raikhangul (2015). Kazakh: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. ISBN 9781317573081.
11. Назарбаев, Нұрсұлтан (26 April 2017). Болашаққа бағдар: рухани жаңғыру [Orientation for the future: spiritual revival]. Egemen Qazaqstan (in Kazakh). Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
12. "Kazakhstan switching to Latin alphabet". Interfax. 30 October 2006. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
13. "Kazakh President Revives Idea of Switching to Latin Script". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 24 October 2006. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
14. Bartlett, Paul (3 September 2007). "Kazakhstan: Moving Forward With Plan to Replace Cyrillic With Latin Alphabet". EurasiaNet. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
15. "Kazakhstan should be in no hurry in Kazakh alphabet transformation to Latin: Nazarbayev". Kazinform. 13 December 2007, cited in "Kazakhstan backtracks on move from Cyrillic to Roman alphabet?". Pinyin News. 14 December 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
16. "Kazakh language to be converted to Latin alphabet – MCS RK". Kazinform. 30 January 2015. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
17. "Kazakh President Orders Shift Away From Cyrillic Alphabet". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 12 April 2017. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
18. "From Я to R: How To Change A Country's Alphabet – And How Not To". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 16 May 2017. Archived from the original on 23 May 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
19. О переводе алфавита казахского языка с кириллицы на латинскую графику [On the change of the alphabet of the Kazakh language from the Cyrillic to the Latin script] (in Russian). President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 26 October 2017. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
20. Illmer, Andreas; Daniyarov, Elbek; Rakhimov, Azim (31 October 2017). "Kazakhstan to Qazaqstan: Why would a country switch its alphabet?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
21. "Nazarbayev Signs Decree On Kazakh Language Switch To Latin-Based Alphabet". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 27 October 2017. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
22. "Alphabet soup as Kazakh leader orders switch from Cyrillic to Latin letters". The Guardian. 26 October 2017. Archived from the original on 28 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017 – via Reuters.
23. Higgins, Andrew (2018). "Kazakhstan Cheers New Alphabet, Except for All Those Apostrophes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
24. "Kazakhstan adopts new version of Latin-based Kazakh alphabet". The Astana Times. 26 February 2018.
25. "Tokayev called the approved Latin alphabet unsuccessful". The Sputnik. 4 December 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
26. "Tokayev instructed to improve the Kazakh alphabet in Latin". The Sputnik. 21 October 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
27. Yergaliyeva, Aidana (18 November 2019). "Fourth version of Kazakh Latin script will preserve language purity, linguists say". The Astana Times. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
28. Some variations occur in the different regions where Kazakh is spoken, including outside Kazakhstan; e. g. ж / ج (where a Perso-Arabic script similar to the current Uyghur alphabet is used) is read [ʑ] in standard Kazakh, but [d͡ʑ] in some places.
29. Vajda, Edward (1994), "Kazakh phonology", in Kaplan, E.; Whisenhunt, D. (eds.), Essays presented in honor of Henry Schwarz, Washington: Western Washington, pp. 603–650
30. Wagner, John Doyle; Dotton, Zura. A Grammar of Kazakh (PDF).
31. Beltranslations.com
32. Robert Lindsay. "Mutual Intelligibility Among the Turkic Languages". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Further reading

• Kara, Dávid Somfai (2002), Kazak, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783895864704
• Mark Kirchner: "Kazakh and Karakalpak". In: The Turkic languages. Ed. by Lars Johanson and É. Á. Csató. London [u.a.] : Routledge, 1998. (Routledge language family descriptions). S.318-332.

External links

• Kazakh Cyrillic–Latin (new) converter
• Kazakh Cyrillic–Latin (old)–Arabic converter
• Kazakh language, alphabet and pronunciation
• Aliya S. Kuzhabekova, "Past, Present and Future of Language Policy in Kazakhstan" (M.A. thesis, University of North Dakota, 2003)
• Russian–Kazakh Kazakh–Russian dictionary
• Kazakh language recordings, British Library
• Kazakh – Apertium
• Kazakh<>Turkish Dictionary
• Kazakhstan in the CIA World Factbook
• US Peace Corps Kazakh Language Courses transcribed to HTML