Kazakh

Where it’s spoken

Kazakh is the official state language of Kazakhstan and is co-official with Russian. It is also spoken by significant minorities in northwestern China (the Xinjiang Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture), Russia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and Turkey. About 13 million people speak it as a first language.

What it sounds like

Kazakh features vowel harmony, with front and back vowels separated. It has nine vowels — relatively rich for a Turkic language — and 17 consonants, plus several letters used only for Russian loanwords in the Cyrillic system. Stress is generally on the final syllable.

How it’s written

Kazakh has used several scripts: Arabic script (until 1929), Latin script (1929–1940), Cyrillic (since 1940 with 42 letters), and a new Latin alphabet adopted in 2017 with progressive implementation through 2025. Kazakhs in China still use a modified Arabic script.

History

Kazakh emerged from the Kipchak Turkic dialects of the medieval steppe. The Kazakh Khanate (15th century) gave the language its name and political identity. Soviet-era policies promoted both Russian and Kazakh literacy. Modern Kazakh literature flourished with figures like Abai Qunanbaiuly.