Page 46 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine November 2024

46 I Eurasia bne November 2024
Examples of the Turkic Orkhon-Yenisei alphabet are depicted on the reverse of an Azerbaijani 5-manat banknote. / Robert Kalina - Aes.iupui.edu, public domain
Five Turkic states give nod
to common Latin alphabet
bne IntelliNews
The five member countries of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) have agreed on a common 34-letter Latin alphabet for their languages.
Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan finally settled on the alphabet after years of wrangling over letters and diacritical marks. Satisfying all demands was a tall order, with the Turkic language family made up of at least 35 documented languages.
Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan already use a Latin script, as does Kazakhstan, which is transitioning away from Cyrillic, but Kyrgyzstan has not made the switch to a Latin alphabet. Among the Kyrgyz, debate is still very much alive over the academic and cultural wisdom of doing so, not to
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mention the irritation it would cause in the Kremlin, wary of losing any more influence in Central Asia.
Radio Azattyk on October 3 cited Syrtbai Musaev, a linguist who represented Kyrgyzstan at an OTS meeting on
the common alphabet in Baku on
September 9-11, as saying that a draft Latin-based Kyrgyz alphabet "is ready" but awaits a "political decision" by the president and parliament.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov has stated that it would be premature for the country to abandon Cyrillic, which
The agreed upon Latin alphabet (Credit: social media).