Abstract:

The possibility of switching to the Latin script for the Kazakh language has been in discussions among Kazakhstan’s political elites, linguists, and civil society since the 1990s. However, unlike neighbouring Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as well as Azerbaijan, which all abandoned Cyrillic soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union for the sake of a new Latin alphabet for their respective titular languages, Latinisation in Kazakhstan was not launched until late 2010s. While propagated by former President Nazarbayev, the Latin alphabet had undergone several iterations. Finally, in 2022 President Tokayev stated that Latinisation should not be rushed and not be a mere mechanical switch.

The great body of literature explored the reasons behind the process of Latinisation as well as its implications on political, social, economic, cultural, and linguistic levels in Kazakhstan. For instance, Kumar et al. (2022) distinguish two major reasons driving Latinisation, which include institutionalism or path dependency and the motivation for modernisation. Yergalieva (2018) argues that official discourse about the modernisation of the Kazakh language is a mere formality, while the genuine reasoning lies with political motivations to de-Russify the Kazakh language as well as in Nazarbayev’s personal interest to oversee the alphabet transition. Finally, Riekkinen et al. (2021) discuss the Latinisation reform and focus on the rationale, legal foundations, and possible impact on the status of the Russian language. They establish that Latinisation exists within several incoherences. For example, it is declared to be simultaneously carried out with the aim of internationalisation and nationalisation. The authors tackle one of the most sensitive issues – the assumption that Latinisation would trigger the social exclusion of Russian and Russian speakers. They posit that Latinisation will not have a direct impact on Russian speakers; rather, globalisation and the increasing popularity of English will impact the role of Russian.

This paper will attempt to analyse the potential implications the transition from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet can have on minorities in Kazakhstan, which is missing from the discourse. Minority members in Kazakhstan extensively use Russian and Kazakh languages, which are Cyrillic-based. Moreover, the majority of languages of minority communities in Kazakhstan are Cyrillic-based as well. This paper will draw from interviews with minority respondents and secondary sources to analyse the impact the alphabet switch can have on non-titular ethnicities living in Kazakhstan.