Kazakh Alphabet Proposal
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Alphabet proposal

Kazakh Alphabet Proposal

An alternative Kazakh alphabet proposal, in both a reduced Cyrillic form and its Latin equivalent, built from Kazakh phonology rather than from the Russian-influenced Cyrillic letter set.

Overview

This proposal starts from a reduced, 31-letter Kazakh Cyrillic set: the letters that Kazakh actually needs, with the eleven letters that exist only to write Russian loanwords removed (В, Ё, Ц, Ч, Щ, Ъ, Ь, Э, Ю, Я, Ф). From that set, it derives a 29-letter Latin alphabet, merging only the two pairs that rarely contrast in practice: И/Й and Х/Һ.

Key points

Native phonology only
The source Cyrillic set drops every letter that exists solely for Russian loanwords.
Two merges
И/Й collapse to İ i, and Х/Һ collapse to H h, because the pairs rarely contrast in the same position.
No digraphs for removed sounds
A я/ё/ю-type glide is written as J j plus a vowel; loanwords are respelled with the available letters instead of transliterated letter-for-letter.
Standard Unicode
Every character is a standard Latin letter with a common diacritic, typeable with existing Turkic keyboard layouts.
A a / А аÄ ä / Ә әB b / Б бG g / Г гĞ ğ / Ғ ғD d / Д дE e / Е еJ j / Ж жZ z / З зİ i / И и, Й йK k / К кQ q / Қ қL l / Л лM m / М мN n / Н нÑ ñ / Ң ңO o / О оÖ ö / Ө өP p / П пR r / Р рS s / С сT t / Т тU u / У уŪ ū / Ұ ұÜ ü / Ү үH h / Х х, Һ һŞ ş / Ш шY y / Ы ыI ı / І і