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RIA Novosti
The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, said that the Cyrillic alphabet distorts the Kazakh language. He said this on Friday, September 15, reports the portal Tengrinews.kz.
“In the Kazakh language there is no “u”, “u”, “I”, “ü”. Using these letters, we distort the Kazakh language, so [with the introduction of the Latin alphabet] come to the Foundation. This is the most important event. But swoop not here, we will be a gradual and thoughtful approach,” said Nazarbayev.
He added that the teaching of Latin in the first schools will start in 2022. “Children begin to learn, I think it’s quickly going to happen because all children are taught English and Latin there,” — said the head of state.
April 12, Nazarbayev instructed the government to draw up a timetable of the transition Kazakh alphabet to Latin. He recalled that to completely abandon the Cyrillic Kazakhstan needs by 2025. According to the Kazakh leader, the new alphabet will help to modernize the society will facilitate communication with the outside world, will help kids quickly to learn English.
In Kazakhstan, as well as among the Kazakhs living in the former Soviet republics, currently used by the Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet. The Latin alphabet is used by some of the Kazakh Diaspora abroad (particularly in Turkey). In China and some other countries, the Kazakh communities use Arabic script.