Kazakh language

From Freepedia

Kazakh (Қазақ тілі)
Spoken in:	Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia
Region:
Total speakers:	8 million
Ranking:	93
Genetic classification:	Altaic Turkic Western Turkic Aralo-Caspian Kazakh
Official status
Official language of:	Kazakhstan
Regulated by:	?
Language codes
ISO 639-1	kk
ISO 639-2	kaz
SIL	KAZ
See also: Language – List of languages

Kazak, also Kazakh and Qazaq (Қазақ тілі, Qazaq tilî) is a Turkic language with ISO 639 codes of kaz and kk.

It is the official language of Kazakhstan, and is also spoken traditionally in Afghanistan, China, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Germany has some Kazak speakers in the second half of the 20th century and onward. These are mainly descendants of the Volga Germans who were deported to Kazakhstan, mixed with the local population and later returned to Germany.

There are approximately 8.5 million native speakers around the world. It is written using the Cyrillic, the Latin (Turkey), and modified Arabic (China, Iran, Afghanistan) scripts.

The Kazak Cyrillic script is based on the Russian alphabet with 9 additional letters: Ә, Ғ, Қ, Ң, Ө, Ұ, Ү, Һ, İ.

Cyrillic	Qaydar Latin transliteration	Janga Latin transcription
А а	A a	A a
Ә ә	Ä ä	Ä ä
Б б	B b	B b
В в	V v	not used in Kazakh language
Г г	G g	G g
Ғ ғ	Ğ ğ	Gh gh
Д д	D d	D d
Е е	E e	E e - ye word-initially or after a vowel
Ё ё	Yo yo	not used in Kazakh language
Ж ж	J j	J j
З з	Z z	Z z
И и	Ï ï	I i
Й й	Y y	Y y
К к	K k	K k
Қ қ	Q q	Kh kh
Л л	L l	L l
М м	M m	M m
Н н	N n	N n
ң	ñ	ng
О о	O o	O o
Ө ө	Ö ö	Ö ö
П п	P p	P p
Р р	R r	R r
С с	S s	S s
Т т	T t	T t
У у	W w	U u
Ұ ұ	U u	Uw uw
Ү ү	Ü ü	Ü ü
Ф ф	F f	F f
Х х	X x	Kh kh
һ	h	h
Ц ц	C c	not used in Kazakh language
Ч ч	Ç ç	Ç ç
Ш ш	Ş ş	Ş ş
Щ щ	?	not used in Kazakh language
Ъ ъ	?	not used in Kazakh language
Ы ы	I ı	I ı
İ і	İ i	İ i
Ь ь	?	not used in Kazakh language
Э э	E e	not used in Kazakh language
Ю ю	Yu yu	Yu yu
Я я	Ya ya	Ya ya