A table showing the new Kazakh alphabet, as published on the presidential website.
A website [1] in Kazakhstan is showing users how their names will look in a new Latin alphabet expected to come into force by 2022. Many have reacted with dismay after finding their names laced with apostrophes.
My name in the new “improved” Kazakh alphabet: Qrystc'a'n Blo'yr. :((((( Check your name here: https://t.co/HHZL9ZpDvs [2]
— Christian (@ChristianBleuer) October 30, 2017 [3]
Nine of the 32 letters in the new alphabet have apostrophes, leaving some that initially supported the switch to Latin from Cyrillic [4] for the Turkic-family Kazakh language regretting the move.
Not that citizens of the authoritarian country were ever consulted: the move is the brainchild of self-styled moderniser President Nursultan Nazarbayev, 77.
After Nazarbayev announced the beginning of preparations for the switch that will see Kazakhstan eventually spelled Qazaqstan in Kazakh, the humble Kazakh carrot became a hotly-discussed topic on social networks.
As an article in the Economist explained, [5] there were reasons for avoiding other, less punctuated versions of the Latin alphabet, such as the one initially floated:
Delighted critics pointed out that the rendering of the Kazakh word for carrot in that alphabet would have been saebiz, which looks a bit like a transliteration of the Russian for “f**k off”.
The Russian government-run outlet Sputnik noted that even in the latest iteration, there are plenty of words that might look rude [6] to people with a knowledge of Russian.
Such quirks are perhaps inevitable, and Cyrillic will still be the alphabet of choice for millions of Russian-speakers across the country. But the issue of apostrophe proliferation in Kazakh remains pertinent.
So Nazarbayev said it’s time to accept latest version of Latin KZ alphabet. Which is a shitty one with apostrophes..https://t.co/uxcVm72OqS [7]
— Aigerim Toleukhanova (@aygeryma) October 26, 2017 [8]
To get an idea of what is bothering Kazakhs, Global Voices ran ourselves through the Latin-Cyrillic-Kazakh Latin alphabet treadmill to see how we looked when we came out the other side.
The methodology is simple. First imagine how your current name would have appeared on a birth certificate if you had been born in Kazakhstan, which was part of the Soviet Union before 1991.
To do this, use a Latin to Cyrillic converter such as the one available on the Lexilogos “multilingual keyboard” [9]. Then use the Cyrillic to Kazakh Latin converter [1] in order to find out how many apostrophes your name collects.
Juan Tadeo [10], our authority on all things Mexico would be Хуан Тадео in Cyrillic. But in Kazakh Latin his name becomes Hy'an Tadeo, a single apostrophe effort with a somewhat Chinese flavour.
The apostrophes begin to really take over when Global Voices Managing Director Georgia Popplewell [11], or Djordji'i'a Poppely'ell gets involved. And they go through the roof for our Uganda hand Prudence Nyamishana [12] (Pry'dence Ni'ami's'ana).
Curiously, however, our Global Voices Lingua director Mohamed ElGohary [13] comes through the Alphabet Soup completely unscathed. It seems he is our translations chief for a reason…