Take a look! This is a sign in the Almaty metro, that I passed by during one of my excursions in the city. This station, which is directly underneath the Auezov Theater, is just one of many located throughout the city, and while the intricacies of the Almaty metro are certainly worthy of a topic for discussion, what I’d like to draw attention to is the text that appears on this sign.
As can be seen, the sign contains three languages: Kazakh, Russian, and English. Moreover, the Kazakh and Russian are both written in the Cyrillic alphabet, while English is written in the Latin alphabet (as it is in the United States).
Interesting, right? I personally find it really cool to see all these different languages on the same sign, as it reveals a multilingual nature of society in Kazakhstan that I wasn’t really expecting when I first came here. Signs throughout the city of Almaty frequently follow a similar pattern – Kazakh on top, then Russian, and finally English. For the most part, this pattern makes sense. Kazakhstan is a country with two official languages: Kazakh as the national language (spoken by roughly 64% of the population) and Russian is the most-common language (spoken by 95% of the population). As for English, it is likely there for international speakers, being the most widely spoken language in the world as of 2022.
So, why is this significant? Or more importantly, why go through all this trouble to put three different languages on more or less every sign in the city? These Kazakh-Russian-English signs are everywhere in Almaty, and to a certain extent it feels redundant. If most of the population speaks Russian, wouldn’t it by more logical to just write the signs in Russian? While that answer would seem obvious, it also misses the bigger picture. In particular, the multilingual signs highlight a willingness by Kazakh authorities to slowly move away from the Russian language in favor of their Turkic roots and greater international cooperation, which will help the country to reclaim its national identity distinct from Russia.
First, though, let’s take a look at the Kazakh language itself, and how the language is written. As many people know, the modern Republic of Kazakhstan was founded in 1991, having declared its independence from the Soviet Union after spending centuries under Russian rule. This is why Russian is the most-commonly spoken language, as it was the language taught and enforced in schools during the Soviet era (not to mention the significant Russian minority that still exists in Kazakhstan, making up 21% of the population). This history also explains why Kazakh, a language originally written in the Arabic script until 1929, is instead written in Cyrillic, which was introduced by the Soviets in 1940. Cyrillic had been used in Imperial Russia, was used in the USSR, and continues to be used in Russia to this day, and as a remnant of Russian domination over Kazakhstan, this alphabet continues to be used in the Kazakh language, despite the fact that this was not originally how the language was written.
The current Kazakh alphabet introduced in 1940, based on Cyrillic script.
More recently, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has expressed interest in replacing the Soviet-era script, creating a new Kazakh alphabet based on the Latin script instead of Cyrillic. The reasoning for this is because Kazakhstan had previously tried to adopt the Latin alphabet in the 1920s, before it had been replaced by Cyrillic. Now, as a way to better integrate the Kazakh language into both itself and the greater international community, they plan to initiate a gradual transition that will take place from 2023 to 2031, eventually phasing out the Cyrillic alphabet entirely.
Such a move is not impossible (despite opposition from the Russian government), and it’s certainly not unheard of historically. As stated in the article, this transition mirrors efforts by Turkey in 1928 to replace their Arabic script with the Latin script, which turned out to be widely successful. As such, it seems only natural that Kazakh, another Turkic language, could achieve similar results should they be given the same opportunity. And, interestingly, this would also change the spelling of “Kazakhstan” to “Qazaqstan”, as the current spelling is just a transliteration of the word “Казахстан”, as the country’s name is spelled in Russian.
In the time that I’ve spent in Almaty, one thing that’s become clear is the Russian language is everywhere; in public areas, schools, households, and literature, and has become deeply ingrained into the society itself. My host family here speaks Kazakh as well as Russian, and they have explained to me that despite efforts by many Kazakh parents to teach their native language to their kids, this endeavor has always been a challenge, as the Russian language is simply more accessible to the vast majority of people. Public signs, as stated earlier, usually contain both languages. Announcements on public transportation, like the buses and metro, can be heard in Russian. Literature, like Yuri Serebriansky’s Kazakhstani Fairy Tales, is often translated to both Russian and Kazakh. In a recent interview with writers Kseniya Rogozhnikova and Mikhail Zenkov, they bring up how it is difficult for works to be published in Kazakh as opposed to Russian, as Russian simply provides a wider audience for bookstores to generate revenue. Additionally, Russian companies like Yandex are ubiquitous when it comes to taxis, streaming services and search engines, and of course, these are all engineered with the Russian language in mind.
These roadblocks aside, there is definitely a growing interest to return Kazakh to its place as the #1 language in Kazakhstan, both to distinguish itself from Russia and to move on from the Soviet past. The process may take a long time, but I remain optimistic. Whatever happens next, Kazakhstan will do its best to move itself and its language into the future, and I’m excited to see what that future holds.
-Adrian
