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Kazakhstan rewrites its alphabet to shed its Soviet past

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Lauren WuMoran
Lauren WuMoran  Identity Verified
China
Local time: 20:37
Member
English to Chinese
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not sure whether the result will all be good Jul 21, 2019

After generations, people will not be able to read their history and books from before. Not everything will be rewritten in the new words

En-Ru
IrinaN
 
Mariana Passo
Mariana Passo  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 09:37
English to Spanish
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Turkey Jul 21, 2019

Turkey did it at the beginning of the XXth C and they are fine. Historians can rewrite things and people who are interested in reading sources can learn the old language, just as it is done today with medieval books.

Michele Fauble
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Diana Coada (X)
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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Populismo gizmo Jul 22, 2019

Without real WHY and WHAT FOR, it does look like a mere nation attempt rape, as "the rape of Europa". Even the statement "to shed the Soviet past" can't change the history, let alone "simpler for texting" is but ridiculous.

Who asked the people?

I believe that in all aspects the Kazakhs are closer to Russian, Iranian, or some hieroglyphs at least, not the dead Latin. Perhaps, that's one of the reasons.


En-Ru
 
YESHWANT UMRALKAR
YESHWANT UMRALKAR  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 18:07
Member (2011)
Russian to English
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Not so difficult Jul 23, 2019

Latin script is being used all across the former Soviet republics for over twenty five years due to the access to internet and computers. Hence switching over to Latin from Cyrillic will not be such a difficult thing. It is just a few characters in Kazak language that will take some doing.

 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 13:37
Spanish to English
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Kazakhstan, nul points (nool pwants) Jul 24, 2019

I find this news disappointing. The Cyrillic alphabet is very practical and can express sounds which in Latin alphabets have to be expressed with consonant clusters (like the "stch" in Christchurch).
In my view, they'd be better shedding their despotic rulers instead.


P.L.F. Persio
En-Ru
IrinaN
Cristiano Lima
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
 
Ira Saied
Ira Saied  Identity Verified
Panama
Local time: 07:37
Spanish to English
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Latin alphabet Jul 27, 2019

I love it. Now I can easily learn this language as I already know Turkish.

 
Diana Coada (X)
Diana Coada (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:37
Portuguese to English
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Puh-lease Jul 27, 2019

neilmac wrote:

I find this news disappointing. The Cyrillic alphabet is very practical and can express sounds which in Latin alphabets have to be expressed with consonant clusters (like the "stch" in Christchurch).
In my view, they'd be better shedding their despotic rulers instead.



Every nation has a right to discard systems imposed by an occupying empire. Russification under the Soviet Union was an abomination imposed on many nations, and in this country's particular case the USSR decided to abolish the Arabic alphabet to alienate the Muslim populations from their own culture.

Well done Kazakhstan.


Sandra & Kenneth Grossman
Darius Sciuka
Hege Jakobsen Lepri
mk_lab
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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Only cattle and animals can't talk Jul 27, 2019

Every nation has a right to discard systems imposed by an occupying empire.
Diana, while the British government was crazy about colonizing Central Asia, I still can't get how come a single Soviet-era "president" at the end of his almost 30-year reign could solely decide for 18mln people... One man is no nation.

0) What is the reason (damage?), the purpose, and the price?
1) What do the Kazakh people think? (no translators here?)
2) Why there was no Referendum?
3) There're three (3) alphabets in KZ nowadays; if not Cyrillic, why Latin--not historically Arabic then?
Doesn't it "alienate" the Muslim populations from their own culture and the stuff?

Cui prodest, I wonder?


IrinaN
En-Ru
neilmac
Erick Pires Rodrigues
Daryo
Landsknecht
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
 
Vanda Nissen
Vanda Nissen  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 22:37
Member (2008)
English to Russian
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Puh-lease Jul 28, 2019

Diana Coada wrote:

Every nation has a right to discard systems imposed by an occupying empire. Russification under the Soviet Union was an abomination imposed on many nations, and in this country's particular case the USSR decided to abolish the Arabic alphabet to alienate the Muslim populations from their own culture.

Well done Kazakhstan.


Sadly, Aboriginal people were not asked by the British Empire which imposed not only English but also Latin alphabet on them. It is also sad when people think about politics only disregarding practical side of the things.


IrinaN
En-Ru
neilmac
Erick Pires Rodrigues
Daryo
Landsknecht
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
 
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 07:37
English to Russian
+ ...
Huh Jul 28, 2019

Diana,

You've conveniently overlooked the tiny fact that no one had asked the nation.

The "abomination" ensured 100% literacy of the Kazakh population in the Soviet era. No matter what alphabet was used for that purpose, it was a good thing all around. Along with an access to all the wealth of science and culture available in Russian. Doctors, engineers, scientists graduated from the best Russian colleges and used Russian to the advantage of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
... See more
Diana,

You've conveniently overlooked the tiny fact that no one had asked the nation.

The "abomination" ensured 100% literacy of the Kazakh population in the Soviet era. No matter what alphabet was used for that purpose, it was a good thing all around. Along with an access to all the wealth of science and culture available in Russian. Doctors, engineers, scientists graduated from the best Russian colleges and used Russian to the advantage of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and continue to do so till this day.
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En-Ru
neilmac
Andrew Poloyan
Vanda Nissen
Daryo
Landsknecht
Tatiana Lammers
 
Júio César Pereira da Silva
Júio César Pereira da Silva
Japan
Local time: 21:37
Japanese to Portuguese
+ ...
No big deal Aug 12, 2019

Throughout history peoples of different languages have adopted and abandoned writing systems such as the Vietnamese, who used to write their language in Chinese characters and then adopted the Latin alphabet just like the Koreans, who abolished the Chinese characters to write in the Hangul Alphabet. Likewise Turkish was written in Arabic alphabet but changed to the Latin alphabet. Having that said I see no reason to get caught up in a particular writing system because АНИ лангуаге kа... See more
Throughout history peoples of different languages have adopted and abandoned writing systems such as the Vietnamese, who used to write their language in Chinese characters and then adopted the Latin alphabet just like the Koreans, who abolished the Chinese characters to write in the Hangul Alphabet. Likewise Turkish was written in Arabic alphabet but changed to the Latin alphabet. Having that said I see no reason to get caught up in a particular writing system because АНИ лангуаге kан бе уриттен ин ани уритинг систем. Personally I think that if the Kazakhs with benefit from writing their language in Latin Alphabet and will be more recognized internationally and they will be able to communicate better with speakers of Turkish.
I would be worried if the Kazakhs wanted to migrate from Cyrillic letters to 汉字 (hanzi: Chinese characters). 😟
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Júio César Pereira da Silva
Júio César Pereira da Silva
Japan
Local time: 21:37
Japanese to Portuguese
+ ...
Language and politics shouldn´t be mixed... Aug 12, 2019

¨I believe that in all aspects the Kazakhs are closer to Russian, Iranian, or some hieroglyphs at least, not the dead Latin. Perhaps, that's one of the reasons. [/quote]¨

Well, since Kazakh is a TURKIC language I cannot see why it should use the Cyrillic alphabet. I don't know of any specific writing system for languages of Turkish origin and think that the Latin Alphabet is quite useful for the purposes of reflecting any spoken language with the appropriate arrangements. By the wa
... See more
¨I believe that in all aspects the Kazakhs are closer to Russian, Iranian, or some hieroglyphs at least, not the dead Latin. Perhaps, that's one of the reasons. [/quote]¨

Well, since Kazakh is a TURKIC language I cannot see why it should use the Cyrillic alphabet. I don't know of any specific writing system for languages of Turkish origin and think that the Latin Alphabet is quite useful for the purposes of reflecting any spoken language with the appropriate arrangements. By the way, Latin isn't dead as long as there are Latin languages and it is used in the Vatican and language for science.
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Diana Coada (X)
 
Fatih Serdar ÇITAK
Fatih Serdar ÇITAK
Türkiye
Local time: 15:37
English to Turkish
+ ...
Confused Aug 13, 2019

On the political aspect, I don't really wish to discuss about the Kazakh politics. But, as a Turkish myself, I really wonder about the real reason behind this decision. I would doubt that Kazakhstan is a country that really values and focuses on its common Turkic ancestry with Turkey and Azerbaijan(countries also using a Latin-scripted alphabet). Even if they did, why is this change taking place now? Why wait for almost 30 years? I hope it is done for the purpose of establishing closer relations... See more
On the political aspect, I don't really wish to discuss about the Kazakh politics. But, as a Turkish myself, I really wonder about the real reason behind this decision. I would doubt that Kazakhstan is a country that really values and focuses on its common Turkic ancestry with Turkey and Azerbaijan(countries also using a Latin-scripted alphabet). Even if they did, why is this change taking place now? Why wait for almost 30 years? I hope it is done for the purpose of establishing closer relations with its fellow Turkic countries instead of some political spite against Russia.

On the linguistic aspect, I must say that I am glad because now many more Turkish people will be able to communicate with and understand Kazakh people much easier. You may say that this thought of mine is silly, and alphabet has nothing to do with language comprehension. But I rather think it does. An example to that is Turkish and Azerbaijani. We can perfectly understand the Azerbaijani of the Republic of Azerbaijan. We can also perfectly understand the Azerbaijani of South Azerbaijan(located in Iran) as well, but they may use Persian alphabet(which is a policy of Iran) and it sometimes can cause our inability to communicate with each other. So, we can say that alphabet is not all that takes to understand a fellow language, but it does matter. I am sure that with a little curiosity and ambition we Turkish people will understand the Kazakh language better and more easily, once it has rewritten its alphabet in Latin-scripted alphabet.
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Cristiano Lima
Cristiano Lima
Brazil
Local time: 09:37
Russian to Portuguese
+ ...
Kazakhstan, nul points (nool pwants) Nov 28, 2019

neilmac wrote:

I find this news disappointing. The Cyrillic alphabet is very practical and can express sounds which in Latin alphabets have to be expressed with consonant clusters (like the "stch" in Christchurch).
In my view, they'd be better shedding their despotic rulers instead.



I see that I am not alone here, I also find it quite disappointing! I like Latin to learn Latin or Portuguese language, Latin alphabet sounds different in Portuguese, French, English, German... It's not a practical alphabet, I think. Compare Polish language (written in Latin) and Russian (written with Cyrillic), with all respect, but Polish looks really exotic due to the ammount of letters to form a single sound!


 
Cristiano Lima
Cristiano Lima
Brazil
Local time: 09:37
Russian to Portuguese
+ ...
Puh-lease Nov 29, 2019

Diana Coada wrote:

neilmac wrote:

I find this news disappointing. The Cyrillic alphabet is very practical and can express sounds which in Latin alphabets have to be expressed with consonant clusters (like the "stch" in Christchurch).
In my view, they'd be better shedding their despotic rulers instead.



Every nation has a right to discard systems imposed by an occupying empire. Russification under the Soviet Union was an abomination imposed on many nations, and in this country's particular case the USSR decided to abolish the Arabic alphabet to alienate the Muslim populations from their own culture.

Well done Kazakhstan.


What was so bad about this "Russification"? Most of arboriginal people of Central Asia requested the protection of Russian tzars and joined Russian Empire in order to protect themselves from another empires (including the Turkish one). In many countries of Central Asia people got literacy with Cyrillic alphabet and Russian language. How many universities Kazakhstan knew before Russians and specially before Soviet Union?


IrinaN
 
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Kazakhstan rewrites its alphabet to shed its Soviet past







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