During the meeting, the Head of the State was shown the draft of a unified standard of the Kazakh alphabet on the Roman script, prepared with due consideration of the proposals received during the public discussion.
The President of Kazakhstan noted that the reform of the state language is one of the important issues of the public consciousness improvement program.
- These days the society has actively discussed the issue of the new alphabet of the Kazakh language. Many people have taken part in it. The idea of switching to Latin graphics has arisen since our independence. The transition of the Kazakh script to the Latin one has always remained on my special control, Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
At the same time, the Head of the State, emphasizing the historical significance of the transition process, emphasized the need for a consolidated decision on the issue.
- No country in the world has ever discussed its new alphabet with the whole nation. It is important for us to know everyone’s opinion. The Presidential Administration in connection with the transition to the Latin alphabet has received over 300 appeals. It is encouraging that the young people also supported this process, the President of Kazakhstan said.
Nursultan Nazarbayev has focused on the active participation of leading public associations, academia and the public in discussing the draft of the Kazakh language’s new alphabet.
During the meeting, the Kazakh leader heard the reports of E.Kazhybek, Head of the Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics and E.Tleshov, Director of the Shayakhmetov National Coordination and Methodological Centre for the Language Development.
After listening to the reports and the views of the meeting participants, the President of Kazakhstan dwelled on certain issues that require special attention.
- In principle, I support the main directions of the work carried out. During the project realization, the world experience has been taken into account. It makes a great difference. At the same time, we must continue awareness-raising work concerning the process of the transition of the Kazakh alphabet to the Roman script, Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
The Head of the state stressed that the reform should not harm other languages’ evolution and interfere with the rights of citizens.
- The transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet does not affect the rights of Russian-speaking people, Russian and other languages in any way. The use of Russian in Cyrillic remains unchanged. It will also continue to function. The transition to a new alphabet will facilitate learning the Kazakh language, the President of Kazakhstan said.
Nursultan Nazarbayev noted that the transition to the Latin alphabet is a rather complicated process, the goal of which lies in creating conditions for further development of the Kazakh language and its entering the global information space.
In addition, the Head of the state pointed to the need to train teachers and the methodological base for introducing the new alphabet into the education system and instructed the Cabinet to work out a plan for its phased introduction.
In conclusion, the President of Kazakhstan thanked the nation of Kazakhstan, scholars and linguists for their support and active participation in the implementation of the Kazakh alphabet reform.
