Wednesday, 1-viii-2001, 18:44 GMT 19:44 UK
Azerbaijan
says it in Latin
For
the third time in a century, the people of
From 1 August,
the Cyrillic alphabet, which was imposed by Stalin in 1939, is being dumped in
favour of Latin script, used throughout the Western world.
The move
was finally decreed in June by
It should
be no problem for
But it’s
the older generations who will have the most headaches over the change.
Anyone who
was educated in Azeri Cyrillic, in other words anyone over the age of 26, will
have woken up to find the whole appearance of their visual world dramatically
changed.
All
business and official documents have to be written in Latin script. Workers are
out in the capital,
Advertisements,
magazines and newspapers are also due to make the change. In the longer term,
textbooks, dictionaries and other literature will also have to appear in the
Latin script, which is a massive financial undertaking for the republic.
Critics of
the switch fear it will marginalise Russian speakers, leaving them and the
older generation isolated.
The biggest
complainers are the newspapers. Up until this summer they were a strange
mish-mash of Latin and Cyrillic scripts, with headlines in Latin script and the
actual article in Cyrillic.
The editors
thought their readers would find it too difficult to read a whole article in
the Latin script.
One paper –
Yeddi Gun, or Seven Days – took the radical step of becoming a Russian-language
publication instead of changing to the Latin script.
Other independent
newspapers welcomed the move in principle, but some editors sent a letter to
the prime minister saying they feared it would probably lead to many papers
closing down.
The editors
think many of their readers will not be comfortable with the new script and
could turn their backs on newspapers altogether.
The fate of
one paper, Ayna or Mirror, would seem to bear this out. It made the switch to
Latin script several months ago and now lies mostly unread on newspaper stands.
The
government is trying to provide a helping hand. It has set up an official web
site to help simplify the switch and provide the Azerbaijani alphabet in Latin
script for use on computers and keyboard layouts.
The snag is
it currently operates in Russian only, though an Azeri version is due to appear
soon.
In
the meantime, everyday life goes on. But some things will take slightly longer:
when a state employee, such as the gasman, comes to call, householders will now
have to wait while the official laboriously writes his name in Latin script.
For
more information about the Azeri language and culture, go to http://azeri.org or http://www.azer.com.
LATIN
ALPHABET
upper
case:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
lower
case:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
CYRILLIC
ALPHABET
upper
case
А Б В Г Д Е Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я
lower
case
а б в г д е ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я
If
anyone wants to pursue the issue a little further, there is an article in the
Workbin:
Lynley
Hatcher (2008), ‘Script change in Azerbaijan: acts of identity’, International Journal of the Sociology of
Language 192, 105-116.
In
the article, Hatcher outlines the three major script changes to the Azeri
language in the twentieth century: traditional Arabic, then Latin, then
Cyrillic and then back to Latin. She suggests that these changes signalled a
changed allegiance, sometimes voluntary and sometimes changed.
She
draws on the notion of ‘acts of identity’ from the work of Le Page and
Tabouret-Keller (1985): speakers make linguistic choices and through that
perform acts of identity and project the identity they want to claim for
themselves.
The
Arabic alphabet indexes Azerbaijan’s identity being rooted in the Muslim world.
Its neighbour Iran also used the Arabic script.
After
being incorporated into the USSR in 1920, the Soviets initiated a shift to
Latin in a bid to divide the nation from Iran and its Muslim roots.
In
the 1930s, the Soviets became draconian in their approach and in 1939, Stalin
announced that Cyrillic would be used for Turkic languages. This was part of
the enterprise of Russification and of isolation between Turkic nations.
After
independence in 1991, there were various groups proposing different scripts.
The Latin script favoured a more Turkish identity. This was a painful process
for writers:
Within five years or so, the younger
generation won’t be able to read my books. Sometimes I think: ‘What a pity”
I’ve been serving this society as a scholar for 55 years. But none of my books
will even be readable in the future.’ I’m still convinced, however, that we
made the right decision to embrace Latin. Our future is the main issue … I’m
among the happiest people in the world because I’ve seen the collapse of the
Soviet Union … It’s important for us to adopt the Latin alphabet. (Kamal Talibzade 2000: 66)
Kazakhstan to Qazaqstan: Why would a
country switch its alphabet?
31 October 2017
The Kazakh language has long been unsure which alphabet to find a
comfortable home in and it's now in for another transition - but this is not without
controversy.
Last Friday Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev finally decreed
that the language would shed its heavy Cyrillic coat and don what he hopes to
be a more fashionable attire: the Latin alphabet.
Is
this going to be easy?
No. The Latin alphabet has far fewer
letters: There will need to be creative
combinations with apostrophes to catch all the sounds needed for the Kazakh
language.
Kazakhstan
is in an unusual position: None of
the alphabets that exist seem like a perfect fit or have a long enough tradition
to be the uncontested host for its language.
Kazakh
is a Turk-based language and its history is political: Originally it was written in Arabic. Enter the Soviet Union who in
1929 did away with Arabic and introduced Latin - only to 11 years later shift
to the Cyrillic alphabet to have the republic more in line with the rest of the
USSR.
The Kazakh version of Cyrillic has
33 Russian letters and nine Kazakh ones, while the Latin script only has 26.
The big changeover is to be official
by 2025.
Confused
by all this talk about letters and characters? Before you get lost in translation, here are a few spellings of the
country's name just to give you an idea:
So
why change?
President
Nursultan Nazarbayev has given a lengthy explanation: There are many reasons like of
modernising Kazakhstan, but also determined by "specific political reasons".
Political pundits see it as step to weaken the historical ties to Russia: Shedding not only the Russian alphabet, the thinking goes, but also the influence Moscow still likes to exert over its post-Soviet backyard in central Asia.ght soon need a new sign for that table
Of the other four Former Soviet Republics
in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan still use Cyrillic while Uzbekistan
and Turkmenistan are using the Latin alphabet.
Will it be a smooth transition?
This
discussion is not new: The change
to the Latin alphabet has been mooted several times since the country's independence
after the end of the Soviet Union, but so far has failed to garner widespread
support.
Because: If even the name of the country would change from Kazakhstan to Qazaqstan,
just imagine the potential for confusion in people's daily lives?
Let's
look at the innocent carrot for an example: The Kazakh word for carrot is
‘сәбіз’ and would traditionally be spelled
‘sabeez’ in Latin. In new Latin alphabet though, it will end up as ‘sa'biz’.
This, again, is awfully close to the Latin spelling of
an extremely rude Russian swear word.
Not all the mix-ups are as delicate
as this one: But there's ample
discussion online of people confused and amused by how they now should write
their own names and whether the change will work out well nor not.
While some see it as a right step
out of the shadows of the Soviet past and of present Russian influence, others warn
it's a politically motivated move which will disconnect future generations from
the country's written past century.
So what is next?
By the end of the year there will
a finalised official Latin spelling. By next year teacher training is to begin and
new textbooks will be developed.
Come 2025, all official paperwork
and publications in the Kazakh language will be in the new Latin script.
President Nazarbayev indicated though there would be a transition period where
Cyrillic might still be used as well.
Given
that Russian is the country's second official language, signs and official
documents will though remain bilingual: in the Kazakh with Latin letters and in
Russian with the Cyrillic alphabet.
LATIN
ALPHABET
upper
case:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
lower
case:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
CYRILLIC
ALPHABET
upper
case
А Б В Г Д Е Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я
lower
case
а б в г д е ж з и й к л м н о п р с т у ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я
If
anyone wants to pursue the issue a little further, there is an article in the
Workbin:
Lynley
Hatcher (2008), ‘Script change in Azerbaijan: acts of identity’, International Journal of the Sociology of
Language 192, 105-116.
In
the article, Hatcher outlines the three major script changes to the Azeri language
in the twentieth century: traditional Arabic, then Latin, then Cyrillic and
then back to Latin. She suggests that these changes signalled a changed
allegiance, sometimes voluntary and sometimes changed.
She
draws on the notion of ‘acts of identity’ from the work of Le Page and
Tabouret-Keller (1985): speakers make linguistic choices and through that
perform acts of identity and project the identity they want to claim for
themselves.
The
Arabic alphabet indexes Azerbaijan’s identity being rooted in the Muslim world.
Its neighbour Iran also used the Arabic script.
After
being incorporated into the USSR in 1920, the Soviets initiated a shift to
Latin in a bid to divide the nation from Iran and its Muslim roots.
In
the 1930s, the Soviets became draconian in their approach and in 1939, Stalin
announced that Cyrillic would be used for Turkic languages. This was part of
the enterprise of Russification and of isolation between Turkic nations.
After
independence in 1991, there were various groups proposing different scripts.
The Latin script favoured a more Turkish identity. This was a painful process
for writers:
Within five years or so, the younger
generation won’t be able to read my books. Sometimes I think: ‘What a pity”
I’ve been serving this society as a scholar for 55 years. But none of my books
will even be readable in the future.’ I’m still convinced, however, that we
made the right decision to embrace Latin. Our future is the main issue … I’m
among the happiest people in the world because I’ve seen the collapse of the
Soviet Union … It’s important for us to adopt the Latin alphabet. (Kamal Talibzade 2000: 66)