Language policy in Kazakhstan

Jin Ru

The development of language policy and language planning affects all aspects of public life. Text reform is one of the important contents of language ontology planning, and it can be generally divided into three categories: orthographic reform, alphabet system conversion, and alphabet character conversion. The alphabet latinization reform is a type ofalphabet system conversion. During the Soviet period, many countries, including Kazakhstan, had undergone two conversions of the Latin system and the Kirilization of the main national script in the first half of the 20th century. After independence, the process of Latinization of the main national scripts of Central Asian countries accelerated. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan took the lead in reforming the Latinization of scripts in 1993. The debate and discussion on the Latinization of words in Kazakhstan has continued for many years. In 2012, the President of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev clearly stated in his State of the Union Address that the reform of Latinization of the Kazakh alphabet should be completed by 2025. At the end of 2017, Kazakhstan officially approved the use of the Kazakh alphabet based on the Latin alphabet. However, the introduction of a brand new alphabet system will inevitably face various difficulties and may also cause unexpected results. The domestic adaptation to the new alphabet system will be a long and complicated process, and Kazakhstan will surely face the long-term coexistence of the Kirill alphabet and the Latin alphabet. The analysis of the process of Latinization of Kazakhstan and its influence will have a certain reference value for the study of Kazakhstan's social culture and alphabet reform.

Keywords:Kazakhstan; alphabet reform; alphabet latinization