The letters of the name Nazarbayev

The president by decree introduced a new alphabet in Kazakhstan in Latin. Against - almost all

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev approved by his decree last Friday the new alphabet of the Kazakh language in Latin. The option is expected, the worker: the stage of transition to a new writing will last until 2022, and there is hope that clarifications will be made to the Kazakh Latin. In the meantime, in the country, it seems, there is only one person whose new version of the alphabet does not cause quiet horror.

Stick, stick, alphabetics

In the new Kazakh alphabet, it is expected to be 32 letters. In principle, this is a transformation of the standard Latin alphabet into a Kazakh manner, but there are characteristics. The most striking eye is the use of apostrophes to refer to specific Kazakh letters, as well as for a number of Russians like the letter “w”, which turned into “s`”. There are nine such letters, and there are frequent cases when in one sentence there are more than ten apostrophes.

Example: "Julia and Yuri became husband and wife." In the new version on the Kazakh Latin, this will look as follows: “I y li i a men i u ri i ku i ey men a i`el attandy” (it is better not to marry them).

In addition, there are other nuances. There are no letters “E”, “Y”, “I”, “C”, “SC”. In an interview with the Kazakhstan website of Tengrinews.kz, the director of the Akhmet Baytursynuly Institute of Linguistics, Erden Kazybek, said that the words would be written according to the laws of the Kazakh language, and Nazarbayev said that the letters “e”, “Yu” and “I” in the Kazakh language never existed, therefore, what is happening now is a “return to the origins”.

And there is a fairly enough cushion incident of the letter “U”. There are three of them - with varying degrees of deafness - there are three in the Kazakh language, so “” is “u”, “ү” is “u ”, and “y” itself is “y ”. “U” could be without an apostrophe, but it is in the Kazakh language now “s”.

This is the second version of the alphabet, which has become the subject of public discussion. In the first, instead of apostrophes, signs were used - that is, two letters denoting one sound. But this method of writing caused in September the brutal criticism from the country's residents. Largely due to the translation of the word "carrots". In the Kazakh language, it is written as “sәbiz”, and according to the new version, the word turned into “saebiz”. Even Nazarbayev mentioned this - however, in a soothing manner.

“They say we must read Saabiz. Then, maybe, let's recall how to read the word Boeing in English? And how do we read the word "school" in English? In French, for example, ten letters are needed to pronounce one word. Therefore, it is wrong to say that, ”said Nazarbayev at his press conference on September 14.

But the new option is no better in this regard. The word "east" - "Shygys" - in the new transcription turned into an obscene analogue of the phrase "have sex". Nevertheless, this seems to be not very confused by officials: the decree was adopted on Friday, and on Monday, a sign with a new drawing of letters appeared on the akimat of the city of Aktau in the western of the country. Moreover, on Monday, the book of Nursultan Nazarbayev “Times and the Duma”, written in Latin with apostrophes, was already presented. The least lucky students in school No. 40 in Astana were lucky - they were forced to read this book. The guys, however, liked it.

Many more worrying how the words denoting the terms, as well as the words borrowed from other languages, will be written.

In Kazakhstan, at one time, foreign words were translated into Kazakh, which is why “Dopayak”-“Nogosyach” (football) or “bamor”-the Internet arose. But, as a rule, such transfers did not take root, and international terminology eventually returned.

“We are not going to discard it all. We need to say all this in Kazakh and write in the Kazakh language. But we cannot change everything at once. <...> For example, the "log" we pronounce the "Bөren". “Pubovik” we have “Bokebay”. "Bed" - "ceremns." The problem in changing the hearing of our people. Someone calls this an achievement. But in the Kazakh language, all these language rules should be taken into account. We must speak and write according to the rules of one language, ”the developer of the new alphabet Erden Kazybek quoted the media quoted. It is interesting that eight years ago the name of the Kazybek also flashed in connection with the “language question”: he was suspected of embezzlement of 3.5 billion tenge (23.2 million rubles at the 2009 course) when developing an online Kazakh-Russian-Russian translator of texts. The translator was never created, the Kazybek left for Turkey, and after eight years he convinced Nazarbayev to accept the apostrophic yoke.

Language "Kapostrophe"

Actually, this is the problem: there were no discussions in the new alphabet in society, and everything was accepted at the level of the conviction of a single person. In the Kazakhstan Internet, they have been ulcer that Nazarbayev does not have a single apostrophe either in the name or the surname-why worry him? But there is something to worry about, the Kazakhstani political scientist says Dosym Satpaev: time plays against the president.

“There were no formally haste: the decision to switch to Latin was made almost seven years ago. This year the process has accelerated greatly. The President is trying to have time to go down in history as one of the creators of the new alphabet, ”says Satpaev“ New ”.

This is not only a historical, but also a political game, the expert clarifies: the new Kazakh alphabet can now gain popularity from the Kazakh Salary Audience, which is already the majority in the country. “10 years ago this was still impossible to do,” says Satpaev. However, now, as always, there has been a “communication” failure, and with the public, which will speak this language, no one really consulted. In the future, some alphabet adjustments are possible - including the public request. At least this is hoped by the political scientist and public figure Idos Sarym, who believes that the alphabet approved by decree is still not a dogma.

“You need to understand the further procedure,” says Sarym “New”. - Based on international experience, a special law should be adopted. Theoretically, you can imagine many situations when a presidential decree, mandatory for civil servants, refuses to fulfill a private structure: you have your own language, and we will write in our own way. We need a law that will introduce the alphabet and the principles of its functioning in the life of the country. ”

Such a law can be developed and announced at a meeting of the National Commission for the transition of the Kazakh alphabet to Latin. But it’s not even clear who is entering there, although the commission has already been created. However, this may not be very important if the president says “settling the conversations”: there are no people in the country - including among philologists - who could argue with Nazarbayev, the political scientist states. Moreover, as the Azattyk Radio found out from Kazakhstani linguists, no one really began to listen to them, although they offered many more options, and now an attempt to remove the apostrophes will be regarded as an encroachment on the Nazarbayevsky decree.

As a result, the Kazakhstanis who sincerely wanted a new alphabet - and there are many of them: the version that you can be closer to the west, is naive, but attractive - it remains only to hope that they will listen to their rumble, and the Kazakh Latin will undergo changes once again to something more durable. There is a chance of this, although they are not entirely connected with a public reaction: the manufacture of tablets and documents on one version of the alphabet, and then their adjustment is an additional possibility of developing funds. Money for the transition and so allocated a lot: 100 million rubles. You can, however, look more largely: the transition to the Latinage is part of the program to “modernize public consciousness”, which allocated more than 9.3 billion rubles. Inside, in addition to Latin, the selection of “100 new faces of Kazakhstan”, the preparation of a map of the country's sacred places, as well as the promotion of patriotism. It doesn’t matter in what language and what font - there is something to compete in any case.

VI AC ESLAV Polovi NKO, "NOVAI A"