<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>Neither apostrophes, nor the lookalike character (02BC), though
PVALID, are legal for TLDs. <br>
</p>
<p>Trouble...<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-forward-container"><br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-forward-container"> <br>
-------- Forwarded Message --------
<table class="moz-email-headers-table" cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="0" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Subject:
</th>
<td> Kazakhstan to change from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT">Date:
</th>
<td>Tue, 16 Jan 2018 10:21:27 -0500</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<br>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
<br>
Kazakhstan to change from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet<br>
<br>
The Kazakh language will change from Cyrillic to Latin script
as part of a modernization and development effort. The move is
also viewed as an attempt to distance the language from
Russian and promote nationalism.<br>
Kasachstan | Kasachstan wechselt zum lateinischen Alphabet
(REUTERS/illustration/S. Zhumatov)<br>
<br>
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday
announced the country's alphabet will gradually switch from
Cyrillic to Latin script.<br>
<br>
Kazakh, a Turkic language, currently uses a modified Cyrillic
alphabet with 42 letters.<br>
<br>
The Latin alphabet will have 32 letters. Certain sounds will
be covered by the use of apostrophes. The change over is
scheduled to be fully implemented by 2025.<br>
<br>
Officials said the switch is part of a modernization drive and
an attempt to make use of technology easier. The Kazakh
Cyrillic keyboard, for example, uses all number and
punctuation keys in order to cover the 42 letters of Cyrillic
alphabet.<br>
<br>
The Foreign Ministry said in September that the switch to
Latin script would also benefit Kazakhstan's development.<br>
<br>
"[Latin] is used by approximately 70 percent of all countries,
making it an essential part of communicating across the globe,
especially in terms of technology, business, science and
education," the ministry said.<br>
<br>
The oil-rich republic is a close ally of Russia and has the
largest ethnic-Russian population of the former Soviet
republics in Central Asia. Russian will remain an official
language.<br>
<br>
Modernization and nationalism<br>
Nursultan Nazarbayev (picture-alliance/Pacific Press/J. Ratz)<br>
<br>
Nazarbayev himself uses both Russian and Kazakh in speeches.<br>
<br>
The switch is also seen as an attempt by Kazakhstan to
distance itself from Russian influence and promote
nationalism.<br>
<br>
According to the 2009 census, only 62 percent of the
population is fluent in written and spoken Kazakh. Some 85
percent of the population is fluent in Russian.<br>
<br>
Kazakh briefly used the Latin script before switching to
Cyrillic in 1940. Prior to 1929, the Arabic script had been
used. <br>
<br>
The Soviet-era change to Cyrillic was implemented in other
Turkic speaking Central Asian states and Azerbaijan in part to
distance the countries from Turkey, which changed from a
Persian-Arabic script to Latin in 1928 as part of a
Westernization drive. Similarly, the switch from Arabic script
to Cyrillic was designed to distance the Muslim Central Asian
nations from the Islamic world. <br>
<br>
In an article published in state media in April, Nazarbayev
described the use of the Cyrillic script as "political."<br>
<br>
Since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, other Turkic
countries including Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
have also switched to Latin alphabets.<br>
<br>
****<br>
<br>
[Some irrelevant content deleted from this final section.
N-Ostler]<br>
-- <br>
<div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br>
<br>
Harold F. Schiffman<br>
<br>
Professor Emeritus of <br>
Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>
Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>
University of Pennsylvania<br>
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br>
<br>
Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>
Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br>
<br>
Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br>
<a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/%7Eharoldfs/"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a>
<br>
<br>
-------------------------------------------------</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>