Kazakhstan to begin speaking language of Internet, science and culture when it switches to Latin alphabet - Nazarbayev
ASTANA. Dec 1 (Interfax) - The transition to Latin letters will help Kazakhstan join the common developing information world, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
"With [the transition to] Latin [letters] we all join the common, developing information world, the language of the Internet, the language of science and culture. We are already moving, I have issued a decree on this alphabet," Nazarbayev said at the forum 100 New Persons of Kazakhstan in Astana on Friday.
"More than 70% of the information on science and culture is now in English, and the English language, as we know, uses Latin letters. We have declared that we have three languages. By 2020, those starting from the first grade will be graduating with the knowledge of the English language. That is, they have a command of Latin letters. In the Cyrillic alphabet, some letters are not used in Kazakh vocabulary," he said.
According to earlier reports, the Kazakh president signed a decree on the transition of the Kazakh language alphabet to Latin letters in late October.