Kazakhstan President Orders Transition to Latin-based Alphabet

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree to change the Kazakh language from Cyrillic to Latin, the head of state said today. "There is a Latin script on the alphabet of the Kazakh language," he says. The government has been planning to set up a commission to draw up a schedule for moving to Latin from 2025. Control will be exercised by the administration of the president.

Until 1920, the Arabic script was used in the Kazakh language, and then the Latin alphabet was adopted. In 1940 the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced with 42 letters. In Kazakhstan they still speak in two languages ​​- Kazakh is state and Russian - official.

The offices use both. Discussions about the transition to the Latin language started in 2012. Since then, the Kazakh leaders have assured that they will not give up the Russian language, but that the Kazakh will differ from it in its alphabet.