Nazarbayev Orders Kazakh Switch To Latin Alphabet

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday ordered his government to swap out the country's Cyrillic alphabet for its Latin equivalent in a symbolic break with its Soviet past

Astana, Kazakhstan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Oct, 2017 ) :Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday ordered his government to swap out the country's Cyrillic alphabet for its Latin equivalent in a symbolic break with its Soviet past.

A decree released by the presidency ordered the government to provide a phased transition of the Kazakh alphabet into a Latin-based script by 2025.

The Kazakh language is part of the Turkic family and currently uses a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet with 42 letters.

The country will use a 32-letter Latin alphabet after the switch. The oil-rich Central Asian country says the move is part of its modernisation strategy but it is also seen by many as an intention to distance Kazakhstan from former master Russia.

Kazakhstan is a close ally of Russia and has the largest ethnic Russian population of the five Central Asian states that gained independence from Moscow in 1991.