Kazakh language, alphabet and pronunciation

2 августа 2017

Kazakh or Qazaq is a Turkic language spoken in Kazakhstan, Russia and China by about 11 million people. There are also Kazakh speakers in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Russia and Iran.

Kazakh was first written with the Arabic script during the 19th century when a number of poets, educated in Islamic schools, incited revolt against Russia. Russia's response was to set up secular schools and devise a way of writing Kazakh with the Cyrillic alphabet, which was not widely accepted. By 1917, the Arabic script was reintroduced, even in schools and local government.

In 1927, Kazakh nationalist movement sprang up but was soon suppressed. At the same time the Arabic script was banned and the Latin alphabet was imposed for writing Kazakh. The Latin alphabet was in turn replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet in 1940.

Since 2006, as part of a modernization program, the government of Kazakhstan decided to replace the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet. The current plan is to adopt the Latin alphabet by the end of 2017.

Казахский язык для иностранцев в Алматы

Notes

Kazakh has vowel harmoney: ә, e, i, ө& үare front vowels, and а, ы, о& ұare back vowels, while Semi(Neutral) - й, и& уare neutral vowels.
In native words, ғ& қare used before or after back vowels, and г& кare used before or after front vowels, e.g. ағаш қазан
Before or after ғ& қand back vowels, и= /əj/. Before or after г& кand back vowels, у= /ʊw~əw/, и= /ɘj/ and у= /ʉw~ɘw/. e.g. қиын/qəj'ən/, биік/bɘj'ɘk/, суық/sʊw'əq/, бітіру/bɘtɘ'ɾɘw/.
Before or between vowels and at the end of words у= [w], e.g. уақыт/wa'qət/, сәуір/sæwɘr/ and сау/sɑw/
хis often changed to қ, e.g. хал> қал, рахмет> рақмет.
е, ө& үare diphthongs.
Letters in parenthesis are only used in Russian loanwords.

Sample text in the Cyrillic alphabet

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.

Transliteration

Barlıq adamdar tumısınan azat jäne qadir qasyeti men kûqıqtarı teŋ bolıp dünyege keledi. Adamdarġa aqıl parasat, ar ojdan berilgen, sondıqtan olar bir birimen tuıstıq, bauırmaldıq qarım qatınas jasauları tyis.