LingoflyHow to read in Kazakh
Cyrillic from scratch, all 42 letters: six look just like Latin, six more that only pretend. The writing course covers them all. The characters come a few per session — in two or three weeks a shop sign stops being a picture.
Letters that look like Latin
These six — а, е, к, м, о, т — look just like Latin letters, and they read the way they look. The lowercase к, м, т look like small capitals K, M, T, and that is exactly what they are.
One catch with е. At the start of a word a short y slips in before it, so ет (Et), meat, sounds like "yet". Inside a word it is a plain e.
Six letters that pretend to be Latin
They look like the Latin B, H, P, C, Y, X, but read differently. The eye spots a familiar shape and supplies the Latin sound, so ОРМАН (Orman) turns into the nonsense OPMAH. It actually says orman, forest.
The trickiest is у. After a vowel it reads w: тау (Tau), mountain, rhymes with "cow". After a consonant a short vowel comes before that w: су (Su), water, sounds like suw.
| letter | looks like | reads as |
|---|---|---|
| В в | B | v as in "van" |
| Н н | H | n as in "no" |
| Р р | P | a rolled r |
| С с | C | s as in "sun", never k |
| У у | Y | w, or a short vowel plus w |
| Х х | X | the ch of Scottish "loch" |
Familiar sounds, new letters
The sounds of б, г, д, з, л, п are ordinary: b, g, d, z, l, p. ж and ш give zh and sh.
Familiar signs help you remember the shapes. П is the π of math class, and Л is an upside-down V. The lowercase б is the digit 6, and з is the digit 3.
| letter | sound |
|---|---|
| Б б | b as in "book" |
| Г г | g as in "go", always hard |
| Д д | d as in "door" |
| Ж ж | the s of "measure" |
| З з | z as in "zoo" |
| Л л | l as in "lamp" |
| П п | p as in "pen" |
| Ш ш | sh as in "ship" |
Where the short i hides
ы is a short vowel said further back than i, with the lips relaxed, close to the a of "about". It is very common: алты (Alty), six, and ыдыс (Ydys), dishes.
й is a short i that never forms a syllable of its own. я and ю carry it inside: я is й plus а, and ю is й plus у.
и in a Kazakh word is two sounds as well, a vowel with й after it. So in ми (Mi), brain, and тиын (Tiyn), coin, the и sounds like ы followed by й. It is a plain ee only in loanwords like такси (Taksi).
Eight letters for borrowed words
These letters arrive with words taken from Russian and with international ones: телефон (Telefon), цирк (tsirk), экран (Ekran). Native Kazakh words hardly use them, and they read without surprises.
One exception: щ also turns up in a few native words, such as ащы (Ashchy), bitter. There it is a long sh.
ъ and ь have no sound of their own. They turn up only in loanwords: пальто (Palto), медаль (Medal).
How to spot the new vowels
Familiar shapes help you spot them. ә is an upside-down e, ө an o with a bar, ү a у with a straight stem, and ұ the same with a bar.
Two of them look Latin and fool the eye. The capital Ү is exactly a Y, yet it is a vowel. і looks like an i and sounds like one, but it is not и: і is one short sound, и is two.
| letter | how to say it |
|---|---|
| Ә ә | the a of "cat" |
| Ө ө | the e of "bed" with rounded lips |
| Ү ү | "ee" with tightly rounded lips |
| Ұ ұ | the short oo of "book" |
| І і | the i of "sit", short and crisp |
Why learn them: the vowels choose the ending
The five new vowels are not decoration. In Kazakh every vowel of a word belongs to one row, front or back, and the ending follows that row. Get the row wrong and the ending is wrong, and endings here carry case, person, number and tense.
Back: а, о, ұ, ы. Front: ә, ө, ү, і, е.
The consonants obey too: қ and ғ occur only in back words, their front partners are к and г. See a қ, and you know the endings will be back-row.
| vowels | the ending follows |
|---|---|
| back | қала (Qala), city → қалада (qalada), in the city |
| front | үй (Üi), house → үйде (üide), at home |
- ҮйдеÜideAt home — a front word with the front ending -de
- ҚаладаQaladaIn the city — a back word with the back ending -da
- КітаптаKitaptaIn the book — the last vowel is a back-row a, so the ending is back-row -ta
Tails and bars
қ and ғ are made further back than k and g, right at the uvula, where you gargle. қ is short and voiceless, ғ voiced, with a rumble. With ң the air goes out through the nose.
һ reads the way it looks, as h. It is rare: жиһаз (Zhihaz), furniture.
| letter | looks like | sounds |
|---|---|---|
| Қ қ | к with a tail | a deep k |
| Ғ ғ | г with a bar | a gargled g |
| Ң ң | н with a tail | ng as in "song" |
| Һ һ | a Latin h | h as in "hat" |
What order to take the characters in
The writing course is split into 7 steps: one step is one lesson, a few characters at a time. Nobody takes the whole script at once out of mercy: 42 signs in an evening stay in memory for exactly that, an evening.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
Frequently asked
How many characters do you need to learn to read in Kazakh?
42 signs. The writing course covers them all. After that a word stops being a picture — even when its meaning is still unknown.
What to learn first: letters or words?
Letters. A word in an unfamiliar script cannot be read at all, and a “word — translation” card tells you no more than a picture does.
How long does it take to learn to read in Kazakh?
One step a day — 7 days. That is about recognizing characters, not understanding: you will start reading aloud before you understand what you read.