Life Science Journal 2014;11(9s) http://www.lifesciencesite.com
Phonological foundations of the transition Kazakh alphabet to Latin graphics
Zeynep Muslimovna Bazarbayeva, Alimkhan Zhunisbek, Myrzabergen Malbakov
A.Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kurmangazy Str., 29, Almaty, 050010, Republic of Kazakhstan
Abstract. In the selection of the most appropriate draft consistent with the phonetic & phonological and orthographic lasws of the Kazakh language, one should take into consideration the history of the language development as well as the dialectical development of our society. The alphabet of any language is conditional in conveying sounds of live speech flow to the written form. Conventionalities and shortcomings of the alphabet are usually compensated by the orthographic rules. When making up the Kazakh alphabet based on the Latin graphics, certainly, orthographic and phonological laws should be taken into account. With a view to save graphemes, the original Kazakh phonemes are proposed to be designated with over-letter and under-letter diacritic marks. [Bazarbayeva Z.M., Zhunisbek A., Malbakov M. Phonological foundations of the transition Kazakh alphabet to Latin graphics. Life Sci J 2014;11(9s):147-150] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 27
Keywords: alphabet, phonological and orthographic laws, latin graphics, Kazakh language, phonemes, graphemes, informational expansion, globalization, extralinguistic and sociolinguistic factors
Introduction wakened the people’s self-consciousness. Kazakh has In 1992, a congress of Turkic peoples of the become more popular and in demand as the state former USSR was held in Turkey. One of the main language both inside and outside the country. The agenda issues was that of the change-over of the foreign Kazakhs communicating with their congeners writing of Turkic-speaking peoples to the Latin in the native language use information networks based graphics. The idea was welcomed by the members of on the Latin alphabet more and more. The aspiration of delegations with enthusiasm. After the instruction by young people to master foreign languages, the the President to discuss the said question in computerization of the society, the use of Internet, the newspapers, discussion articles are published taking impact of the western culture through television and into consderation economic, political, historical & cinema, the striving for the European quality cultural and other extralinguistic factors of the change- (eurostandard, european-style remodelling), all of this over to the Latin alphabet, and all of “pro” and “con” are promoting our society steadily and successively to are thoroughly justified. In the solution of such not appear “in the arms of the Latin alphabet” [2]. simple task, not only linguists participated but also The society likes stability, and due to his politicians, economists, sociologists and psychologists. inertness, habits or laziness an ordinary inhabitant will The question of the change-over to the Latin graphics not get down to his learning of the Latin alphabet. It is was resumed as far as in 1995 and 2006 at sessions of rather difficult to make people relearn and break the Assembly of peoples of Kazakhstan. After that former stereotypes and master new graphics. In such there was some interruption and again after the speech situation, an important part is assigned to the most of the President of the Republic, the society has conscientious social strata, the intelligentzia, who, by become agitated proposing various drafts of the virtue of their spirituality and civic stand, have Kazakh alphabet on the basis of the Latin graphics [1]. assumed the society’s locomotive role. In this respect, During that period of time while the it is appropriate to mention the words of the Leader of Kazakhstan people were getting used to the said idea, the Nation, who said that «the intellectuals should our neighbors managed to change over to the Latin become the leading force in the strengthening of the alphabet: the Azerbaijanians, the Turkmen, and the the nationwide values on the stage of the established state. Uzbeks. The Kazakhstanis did not idle away, for the The intelligentzia can and must play a key role in years of independence our sovereign state has improve designing a mental world-view model of the country’s in strength, and as a result of the social and market future». During the epoch of globalization and high reforming, there occurred a stage of forming a social technologies, introduction of the Latin alphabet would & political image of our state as a stable and fast alow our society to become integrated together with the developing one. Turkic-speaking peoples and to join the world Political & economic reforms always impact information space. on the society demanding from it the adequate response Some people believe that due to the change of to the realias of a new historical stage. The social and the alphabet, the state and the people will distance economic changes occurring in the society have themselves from Russia, the Russian culture, and the
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entire cultural stratum based on the Cyrillic alphabet of the phoneme designation is not only unnecessary but will be lost. This point of view is not correct since our is not always desirable as it is unthrifty [7]. extensive borders with Russia will not allow us to The linguists tried to establish mathematical isolate ourselves from each other, so much the more formulas of phoneme and grapheme combinations that our cultural and alliance links are firmly bound so involving the establishment of a formula to build the that we are “doomed” to be together during our lives. most thrifty alphabet [8]. In the Russian language, the The knowledge of Russian, the competence in the alphabet building economy is achieved by the fact that Cyrillic alphabet in future will, as we think, the major differential features of hardness and softness peculiar criterion of a man of education. It is our national and to the consonant phonemes are designated with the cultural asset and, according to the President, «it is following further vowels. This method for the Russian important that this people’s asset could not be lost for writing was referred to as the syllabic principle of the the future generations of the Kazakhstan people, and Russian orthography. As applied to the Russian we ought to treat the Russian language and the Cyrillic language where there is a great deal of consonants alphabet as much carefully as in relation to the Kazakh distinguished according to the consonant softness and language, and the competence in Russian is the hardness, the syllabic principle of graphics is very historical advantage of our nation». advantageous as it reduces the number of necessary It was linguists, who caught the idea of letters in the alphabet to designate soft consonants with latinization as the very first ones, as due to their special letters, one would have to invent and learn 15 profession they, like nobody else, understand the new letters. The designation of the consonant softness importance and the necessity of alphabet reforms by using five «palatalizing» vowels (ya, yu, ye, yo, i) during the epoch of the Kazakh language renaissance, creates much economy of graphical tools that is very the informational technological expansion, the important for computer typesetting and letter. And hard globalization and the computerization of our life [3]. and soft consonants can alternate within one word. In For the time being, there is already a lot of drafts of a the Kazakh language, unlike Russian, the consonant new alphabet. After the available variants have been softness and hardness is of no phonological studied and summarized, to our mind, the scientists of importance. Please compare, in Russian the consonant the A. Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics should have phonemes are used for the word distinction in the the last word as in such difficult and responsible step of examples kоn and kон’, mol and mоl. In Kazakh, in the the change-over to the Latin alphabet, the linguists, examples tаn and ta’n, tys and tіs the distinctive who are competent in the matters of phonetics and function of the words is performed by the hard and soft phonology, orthography and orthoepy, should be vowels, which influence the neighboring consonants. involved. In the Kazakh language, a thrifty letter was The alphabet reform is of great practical proposed by the founder of the Kazakh linguistics A. importance [4]. It is much easier for a first-form Baitursynov. According to the Vowel Harmony Law, schoolboy to learn 26 Latin letters than 42 Cyrillic the Kazakh words may be pronounced hard or softly. ones. As a result of the phonological system For the soft word pronunciation, the scientist used the development, there are much more phonemes than characters, which were placed at the beginning of graphemes in the European languages. For example, whole word. It was also the first professor of the there are 35 phonemes in French and 44 ones in Kazakh philology K. Zhubanov, who wrote about the English [5]. These numerous phonemes are only necessity to reduce letters in the Kazakh alphabet. In conveyed with 26 Latin letters. But in Kazakh, 28 1935, he prepared a draft to change the Kazakh original sounds-phonemes are conveyed with even 42 orthography and alphabet on the basis of the Latin letters. Therefore, it is much more difficult for the said graphics, which proposed to reduce the number of little countryman to learn Kazakh than a little European letters due to the double designations of vowels, and to - his English or French. The mere letter а in French the individual designation of hard and soft varieties of corresponds to the following three phonemes: <а> – sounds. As we can see, the ideas expressed by our front, <а> - back, <а> – nasal. The letter о is also scientists over half a century ago, have not lost their realized in three phonemes as follows: <о> – open, applicability to the present day. <о> – closed and <о> – nasal. The letter е is, It would be inconvenient and disadvantageous accordingly, realized in the three phonemes: <е> – to designate softness of consonants with any special open, <е> – closed and <е> – nasal. mark, for instance with an apostrophe (which is It’s common perception that such alphabet proposed sometimes). On the one hand, the apostrophe, should be deemed to be ideal, in which there is an if used often, is inconvenient, uniform and cannot be individual graphical unit for each phoneme [6]. But the seen. On the other hand, it bears excess information as other thing is already proved namely that such method the soft vowel phonemes already sensitize the speaker to the soft pronounciation of consonants. Please
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compare the words written with an apostrophe: ın'ıs'ı, Russian phonetic system. Thus, the phoneme is a k'ıl'em'. historically developing and changing category. In some variants of the said drafts, the Kazakh In the original Kazakh language, there are no specific phonemes are proposed to be designated as phonemes and increase a volume of printed texts, which is in the weak position. The phoneme allophones inconvenient both for the writer and the reader, concerned have already adapted themselves to the besides that, it fails to comply with the main principle – organs of articulation of the native-speakers under the the language tendency for ecomomy. influence of phonetic laws and the frequent use [10]. At different times, the scientists of the As related to these borrowed consonants, there were Institute of Linguistics Academicians A. Kaidarov, R. also disputes and discussions concerning the inclusion Syzdykova, and Professors К.Khusainov, А. theeof in the Latin alphabet of the Kazakh language, Zhunisbekov and N.Ualiyev expressed their opinions however, after all, a consensus was reached. Taking about the change-over to a new Kazakh alphabet based into account that the phonetic system of each language on the Latin graphics in press. Currently, work in this develops and improves enriched with new phonemes, a direction is continuing: the already available drafts are majority of linguists support the opinion that some summarized, linguistic principles and methods of borrowed phonemes should be present in the new changing over to the Latin are selected and concretized, Kazakh alphabet based on the Latin graphics. In the work is carried on the Latin writing unification, and Kazakh alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet, for the ratios between the particular sounds and the letters are purposes of economy, these sound combinations has analyzed in detail on the phonological basis. Upon the become to be designated with the letters i and u. These final (positive) solution of the problem, the linguists sounds are perceived by the native-speakers as are ready to offer the most optimum alternative. diphthongoid phonemes, and they are conveyed with In the selection of the most appropriate draft the relevant graphemes in the writing that penetrated consistent with the phonetic & phonological and deeply into the mind of people, so here the orthographic lasws of the Kazakh language, one should phonologization law is available, i.e. generation of new take into consideration the history of the language phonemes. Without a second thought we write ine, development as well as the dialectical development of ikemdeu, institut, universitet, kino etc., but not ijne, our society. The development of the phonemic ijkemdew, ijnstijtuwt, uwnijversijtet, kijno ійне, as structure of each language is a continuous process of written in the transcription. Therefore, it is desirable to constant improvement of the sound expression of the comply with the succession and the simplicity in the language [9]. The universal process of phonologization writing in the change-over to the Latin alphabet. Such by transforming allophones into the independent writing is welcomed by the middle and young phonemes is typical of languages of different types. It’s generations, who grew up in the Cyrillic tradition. The curious that the phoneme http://www.lifesciencesite.com 149 [email protected] Life Science Journal 2014;11(9s) http://www.lifesciencesite.com There are also different opinions about the ikemdeu, kino, institut, universitet, tau, kelu, baru, designation of the original Kazakh hard sound k. This säuır (sәuır), su, siyr, ayu, himia, fizika, Mahmet, sound is a hard variant of the sound к, the same as g is Uali, halyķ (halyq), kün, ķûn (qûn), ķağаz (qağаz), a hard variant of g. If the letters g are designated as ğ şapan, alaş, tsіrк, Thili. and g, accordingly complying with the system, then қ The present-day Kazakh phonetic system is at and к should be conveyed with the similar marks. The the stage of development and formation under the extended Latin alphabet has the letter ķ. And this influence of external and internal factors. On the one grapheme is widely used in the European languages, hand, the phonetic system is enriched due to the for example, in the Latvian alphabet. When using this phonemes, which came from the Russian language mark on the state symbols of the Republic as well as on through a borrowed word, on the other hand – due to passports and documents, the words қазақ and the internal laws of the language itself, and the transfer Қазақстан could be written much the same in the of phoneme variations from the syntagmatic axis to the Kazakh, Russian, English and other European paradigmatic one. The phoneme formation process, i.e. languages. Please compare: in Kazakh - ķаzаķ, the phonologization phenomenon in the language Ķazaķstan, in English – кazakh, Kazakstan. In some occurs in connection with the development of the drafts the hard sound k is proposed to be designated language and the thinking, and due to the enrichment with the grapheme q, (qazaq, Qazaqstan, Qaydar, thereof with new concepts, a new dictionary, and the Qazbek), that is not very convenient as the writing of impact of allied cultures and world-views. words should meet the basic criteria such as As a result of the opinion poll among teachers, succession, identity, recognizability and aesthetic students and schoolboys, taking into account their qualities, moreover, there should be no difficulties and wishes and requirements for the alphabet reform to confusion in the learning of the Kazakh language as a make it to the maximum available and easily teachable. non-native one by representatives of other nationalities, Corresponding Author: for example, in English, French and other European Dr. Bazarbayeva Zeynep Muslimovna words the mark q is always accompanied by the mark A.Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics, Ministry of u, quality, quarry (English), quelque, quartier (French) Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and so on. Such established rules in the languages, Kurmangazy Str., 29, Almaty, 050010, Republic of based on the Latin, may adversely affect the learning Kazakhstan of the Kazakh orthography. Though the question about the designation of the Kazakh hard қ is unprincipled, a References compromise solution can be found at all times. 1. Kaydarov A., 2007. About change-over of kazakh Therefore, the two variants of both ķ and q are alphabet to latin graphics // Kazakh alphabet based on proposed in the alphabet. Latin script: history, experience and future. Almaty, The letter h of the Latin alphabet is proposed pp: 147-152. to be used in the words habar, hat, kaharman as well 2. Dzhusupov M., 2013. Principles of construction of the alphabet. Linguistics, # 3. as in the proper names Mûhtar, Dinmûhamed, Hüsni. 3. Lyons J., 1997. Introduction // New horizons in To designate hard vowels, the traditional linguistics. Harmondsworth, letters of the Latin graphics are accepted, and the two- 4. Maclin A., 2001. Reference Guide to English: A spot is put over the letters: ä, ö, ü for the relevant soft Handbook of English as a Second Language. vowels. These over-letter diacritic marks umlaut are Washington, D.C.: US Departement of State. used not only in the Turkic but also in German. The 5. Roach P., 2001. Phonetics. Oxford: Oxford University Latin letter і, like in many languages, is intended for Press. the designation of the vowel i, and the short i as well. 6. Gimson A.C., 1980. An Introduction to the For the original Kazakh hard i, the letter у is Pronunciation of English. – London. 7. Levitsky Yu.A., 2008. General Linguistics. Moskow. proposed. The soft і will be designated as ı. available in 8. Jakobson R., Fant C., Halle M., 1955. Preliminaries to the general Turkic alphabet. For the nasal consonant n speech analysis. The distinctive features and their the letter ŋ is proposed, which was used earlier in the correlates // Technical Report, # 13, p. 16-55. Latin graphics of 30s. 9. Troubetzkoy N.S., 2000. Fundamentals of phonology. For the consonant sh, the Latin letter ş is Мoskow. proposed according to the experience of the Turkish 10. Zinder L.R., 1974. General Phonetics. Leningrad. and Azerbaijanian languages. 11. Holms J., 2001. An introduction to sociolinguistics. Astana, Almaty, Ķazaķstan (Qazaqstan), Edinburgh Gate, Harlow. Sauranbaev, Masimov, Ķaidar (Qaidar), Кöbei, ine, 5/29/2014 http://www.lifesciencesite.com 150 [email protected] , и , which are not included in the Kazakh the former Latin alphabet for some time and they phonetic system but occur in some international words remember with nostalgia the transcriptional writing of of the Greek and Latin origin, which came through the words showing all pronounced sounds in the writing. Russian language, but they did not take root in the This sociolinguistic factor is a sticking point in the Russian language itself for long time. In the L.N. selection of the final draft of the Latin alphabet. Even Tolstoy’s Work «Philippok», the principal character in any one family a dispute may arise between the cannot pronounce his name and calls himself different generations. Therefore, in the change-over to Khvilippok as there was no phoneme designated with the single letter u. The hard vowel u have not been used to the present day, so, kurisa is designating the hard original Kazakh sound, may be pronounced instead of kuritsa, shai instead of thai, as conveyed with the over-letter diacritic mark circumflex earlier in the Russian language, there was no û. To designate the hard consonant g over the letter g, phonological opposition : . These phonemes were still included in the