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According to the Wikipedia article on the Kazakh language it can be written in Cyrillic, Latin and Perso-Arabic scripts as it's a language that does not have its own native script like Armenian or Greek.

So my question is which alphabet is currently used in Kazakhstan?

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  • When you say "actually" do you mean "currently"? I'm guessing your first language is a Romance language such as Spanish where this is a common false cognate. I don't want to go ahead and edit your question without making sure.
    – hippietrail
    May 25, 2013 at 5:28
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    No my native language is not Romance language. My native language is Armenian. By saying "actually" I mean not only currently. Maybe they currently using Cyrillic but they used to use Perso-Arabic in past.
    – TIKSN
    May 27, 2013 at 23:23
  • Aha well I've now copyedited the English in your question but it still seemed to be asking specifically about the script used in the present. To ask about all time I would change it to: "So my question is which alphabets have actually been used in Kazakhstan?" But that makes it sound like you are contrasting Kazakh writing in Kazakhstan with Kazakh writing outside Kazakhstan - I'm not sure if that's your point though.
    – hippietrail
    May 28, 2013 at 1:36
  • I am mainly interested in current script in Kazakhstan. By the way thank for editing my question.
    – TIKSN
    May 28, 2013 at 4:32
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    Yes @hippietrail you understood me correctly.
    – TIKSN
    May 29, 2013 at 14:55

3 Answers 3

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They use their own variant of Cyrillic.

President's site for example: http://www.akorda.kz/kz/category/respublica_kazahstan

UPD:

Kazakh alphabet contains 9 additional letters: ә,і,ң,ғ,ү,ұ,қ,ө,һ. Additional letters took place right after cyrillic letters that additional letter based from. Thus "ә" goes after "a", "ө" goes after "o", etc.

In 27th October of 2017 The President of Kazakstan signed act of using latin alphabet. Link to act on President's official page(RU)

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Kazakh was written in Perso-Arabic before it wasincluded into USSR. All countries in USSR used cyrilic alphabet, thus, Kazakh languages at that period was written in Cyrilic. After gaining independence, Kazak government decided to convert their writing into Latin. Now, it is in the period of transition to Latin.

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    "All countries in USSR used cyrilic alphabet" - this is wrong. -1
    – Anixx
    May 28, 2013 at 21:37
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    Yes it is wrong, Armenians were using Armenian alphabet. Only languages that has not have their own alphabet like Kazakh, Uzbek, and Tajik; they converted to Cyrillic.
    – TIKSN
    May 29, 2013 at 15:00
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    Actually, some of them were given Roman orthographies early in the Soviet era, and then converted to Cyrillic later on (and in some cases changed back to Roman after the dissolution of the Soviet Union).
    – Colin Fine
    May 31, 2013 at 0:19
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    @TIKSN Georgians used Georgian, Armenians used Armenian, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians used Latin,...
    – Anixx
    May 31, 2013 at 21:41
  • That is what I was saying. Totally agree.
    – TIKSN
    May 31, 2013 at 22:03
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Kazakh language belongs to turkish group of languages, kipchak subgroup. Before using arabic script, ancient turkish tribes (still exist among kazakhs) were using ancient turk script, which is Orkhon-Enisei script. So, please, before making any statement, don't be lazy to make a small research at least in wikipedia. Arabic srcipt was used from 9th tp the early beginning of 20th century. Old turkish and uoghur script was used before 9th century.

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    Do you have evidence that the Orkhon script is still used in Kazakhstan? Or did you simply not understand the original question?
    – user6726
    Dec 27, 2016 at 18:53
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    He said before arabic script.
    – kabraxis
    Dec 30, 2016 at 3:37

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