Alphabets used for Kazakh by İlminsky

Abstract

The aim of the study is to analyze and evaluate the Arabic and Cyrillic alphabets used for Kazakh by Nikolay Ivanovich Ilminskiy. The alphabets discussed in the study are extracted from three separate publications of Ilminskiy. The first of these publications is among the Scientific Notes published by Kazan University at regular intervals throughout the year, published in three parts in different numbers in 1860 and 1861, the first part of which contains short grammar notes, the other parts of which are a Kazakh-Russian dictionary. Study is that used Cyrillic-based alphabet for Kazakh, called Resources for Learning the Kyrgyz [Kazakh] Dialect. The second is the book Guide to Self-Teaching Russian for Kyrgyz, published in 1861, in which Arabic letters were used for Kazakh. The third is the epic called Er Targın, published in 1862, again using Arabic letters for Kazakh. Ilminskiy used twenty-nine letters for twenty-nine sounds and two sound groups in his work titled Resources for Learning the Kyrgyz [Kazakh] Dialect. In his book Guide to SelfLearning Russian for Kyrgyz [Kazakhs], he used thirty-four letters for thirty-nine sounds and three sound groups. Er Targın used thirty-four letters for thirty-eight sounds and two sound groups in his book. Twenty letters of the Cyrillic-based alphabet used by Ilminskiy in his dictionary work and today's Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet are common, while six of the other nine letters are different forms of the same letter. Although Ilminskiy used Arabic letters for Kazakh in his Guide to Self-Learning Russian for Kyrgyz [Kazakhs] and Er Targın, the writing of the texts contains Kazakh dialect features, different from the written language common at that time

Keywords

• ilminsky
• kazakh
• alphabet
• cyrillic alphabet
• arabic alphabet