Kazakh is written in two alphabets at once: the 42-letter Cyrillic alphabet in daily use since 1940, and the 31-letter Latin alphabet approved in 2021 that Kazakhstan plans to phase in through 2031. Both are charted below — every Cyrillic letter with its name, romanization, IPA, and closest English sound, then the full 2021 Latin alphabet mapped back to Cyrillic.
Dictionary order. The 42 letters are the 33 of the Russian alphabet plus nine letters for Kazakh sounds — Ә, Ғ, Қ, Ң, Ө, Ұ, Ү, Һ, І — each slotted after its nearest lookalike. Letters marked "loanwords" appear only in words borrowed from or through Russian.
| Letter | Name | Romanization | IPA | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Аа | a | a | /ɑ/ | a in "father" |
| Әә | ä | ä | /æ/ | a in "cat" |
| Бб | be | b | /b/ | b in "book" |
| Вв | ve | v | /v/ | v in "vine" — loanwords |
| Гг | ge | g | /ɡ/ | g in "go" — in front-vowel words |
| Ғғ | gha | ğ | /ʁ/ | gargled g — French r in "rouge" |
| Дд | de | d | /d/ | d in "door" |
| Ее | ye | e | /e/ | ye in "yes" at the start of a word; e in "met" inside one |
| Ёё | yo | yo | /jo/ | yo in "yogurt" — loanwords |
| Жж | zhe | j | /ʒ/ | s in "pleasure"; many speakers say j as in "jam" |
| Зз | ze | z | /z/ | z in "zoo" |
| Ии | i | i | /ɪj/ | ee in "see" |
| Йй | qysqa i (short i) | y | /j/ | y in "boy" |
| Кк | ka | k | /k/ | k in "kite" — in front-vowel words |
| Ққ | qa | q | /q/ | k pushed deep to the back of the throat |
| Лл | el | l | /l/ | l in "lamp" |
| Мм | em | m | /m/ | m in "map" |
| Нн | en | n | /n/ | n in "note" |
| Ңң | eng | ñ | /ŋ/ | ng in "sing" — never with a hard g |
| Оо | o | o | /o/ | o in "more", often with a faint w on-glide |
| Өө | ö | ö | /ø/ | German ö — say e with rounded lips |
| Пп | pe | p | /p/ | p in "pet" |
| Рр | er | r | /r/ | rolled r, as in Spanish "perro" |
| Сс | es | s | /s/ | s in "sun" |
| Тт | te | t | /t/ | t in "top" |
| Уу | u | u / w | /w/, /uw/ | oo in "boot"; w after vowels, as in "cow" |
| Ұұ | ū | ū | /ʊ/ | u in "put" |
| Үү | ü | ü | /ʏ/ | German ü — say ee with rounded lips |
| Фф | ef | f | /f/ | f in "fun" — loanwords |
| Хх | kha | h | /χ/ | ch in Scottish "loch" |
| Һһ | ha | h | /h/ | h in "hat" — Arabic and Persian loanwords |
| Цц | tse | ts | /ts/ | ts in "cats" — loanwords |
| Чч | che | ch | /tʃ/ | ch in "cheese" — loanwords |
| Шш | sha | sh | /ʃ/ | sh in "shut" |
| Щщ | shcha | shch | /ɕː/ | long soft sh — loanwords |
| Ъъ | hard sign | " | — | silent — Russian loanwords only |
| Ыы | y | y | /ə/ | quick uh — the a in "about" |
| Іі | i | ı | /ɪ/ | i in "bit", said quickly |
| Ьь | soft sign | ' | — | silent — Russian loanwords only |
| Ээ | e | e | /e/ | e in "met" — loanwords |
| Юю | yu | yu | /jʊ/ | u in "use" |
| Яя | ya | ya | /jɑ/ | ya in "yard" |
The 31-letter alphabet approved in April 2021 — the version the transition running to 2031 is built on. Watch the two i's: dotless I ı is Cyrillic І, dotted İ i covers И and Й, and Y y is the vowel Ы. Nine Cyrillic letters (Ё, Ц, Ч, Щ, Ъ, Ь, Э, Ю, Я) get no Latin letter of their own — loanwords are respelled instead.
| Letter | Cyrillic | IPA | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aa | А а | /ɑ/ | a in "father" |
| Ää | Ә ә | /æ/ | a in "cat" |
| Bb | Б б | /b/ | b in "book" |
| Dd | Д д | /d/ | d in "door" |
| Ee | Е е | /e/ | e in "met"; ye at the start of a word |
| Ff | Ф ф | /f/ | f in "fun" |
| Gg | Г г | /ɡ/ | g in "go" |
| Ğğ | Ғ ғ | /ʁ/ | gargled g — French r in "rouge" |
| Hh | Х х, Һ һ | /χ/, /h/ | one letter now covers both loch-ch and h in "hat" |
| Iı | І і | /ɪ/ | i in "bit" — the dotless ı |
| İi | И и, Й й | /ɪj/, /j/ | ee in "see" or y in "boy" — the dotted i |
| Jj | Ж ж | /ʒ/ | s in "pleasure" |
| Kk | К к | /k/ | k in "kite" |
| Ll | Л л | /l/ | l in "lamp" |
| Mm | М м | /m/ | m in "map" |
| Nn | Н н | /n/ | n in "note" |
| Ññ | Ң ң | /ŋ/ | ng in "sing" |
| Oo | О о | /o/ | o in "more" |
| Öö | Ө ө | /ø/ | German ö |
| Pp | П п | /p/ | p in "pet" |
| Қ қ | /q/ | deep throaty k | |
| Rr | Р р | /r/ | rolled r |
| Ss | С с | /s/ | s in "sun" |
| Şş | Ш ш | /ʃ/ | sh in "shut" |
| Tt | Т т | /t/ | t in "top" |
| Uu | У у | /w/, /uw/ | oo in "boot"; w after vowels |
| Ūū | Ұ ұ | /ʊ/ | u in "put" |
| Üü | Ү ү | /ʏ/ | German ü |
| Vv | В в | /v/ | v in "vine" — loanwords |
| Yy | Ы ы | /ə/ | quick uh — the a in "about" |
| Zz | З з | /z/ | z in "zoo" |
Kazakh runs on vowel harmony: a native word uses either front vowels (ә, е, ө, ү, і) or back vowels (а, о, ұ, ы) throughout, and every suffix adjusts to match — қала (city) takes -лар for its plural, көше (street) takes -лер. Master the four pairs ә/а, ө/о, ү/ұ, і/ы and you can hear the harmony working in every word.
Two consonant pairs follow the same front/back split. Қ and ғ live in back-vowel words (қазақ, Қазақстан), while к and г appear with front vowels (кел, "come"). Қ is a k made deep at the uvula and ғ is its gargled voiced twin — swapping in ordinary k and g is the most audible foreigner's error in words like қыз (girl) and ғылым (science). Ң (/ŋ/) is the ng of "sing" but can sit where English never puts it, as in таң (dawn).
A large block of the Cyrillic alphabet — в, ё, ф, ц, ч, щ, ъ, ь, э, plus һ and mostly х — exists chiefly for loanwords, kept in 1940 so Russian words could be spelled unchanged. In colloquial Kazakh they are often adapted away, and the 2021 Latin alphabet drops most of them outright, respelling loanwords by sound instead.
Kazakh has been written in four systems. Arabic script served from the Islamization of the steppe into the 20th century, refined in 1912 by the scholar Akhmet Baitursynov into Töte Jazu ("clear writing"), an elegant vowel-marked adaptation still used by Kazakhs in China. Soviet policy then imposed two rapid switches: a Latin alphabet (Jañalif) in 1929, and in 1940 the Cyrillic alphabet designed by linguist Sarsen Amanzholov — 33 Russian letters plus 9 new ones, the 42-letter alphabet still in everyday use.
The move back toward Latin is the story of the past decade. President Nursultan Nazarbayev floated the idea for years, then made it policy in an April 2017 programmatic article and an October 2017 presidential decree ordering the transition. The first official version, using apostrophes (Qazaqsta'n), was ridiculed and scrapped within months; a 2018 acute-accent version fared little better with linguists.
The National Commission settled matters with the 31-letter alphabet presented in January 2021 and refined that April — using umlauts (ä, ö, ü), a macron (ū), a breve (ğ), a cedilla (ş), and a tilde (ñ), one letter per sound. The phase-in was rescheduled to run from 2023 to 2031, so today's Kazakhstan is genuinely digraphic: Cyrillic dominates print and daily life while Latin spreads through branding, education pilots, and official signage.
42 in the Cyrillic alphabet used today: the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet plus 9 specifically Kazakh letters (Ә, Ғ, Қ, Ң, Ө, Ұ, Ү, Һ, І). The Latin alphabet approved in 2021, which Kazakhstan is phasing in, has 31 letters — it drops the letters that existed only for Russian loanwords.
Yes, gradually. The switch was ordered by presidential decree in October 2017, the final 31-letter alphabet was approved in April 2021, and the official phase-in runs from 2023 to about 2031. Both scripts are in active use meanwhile — Cyrillic still dominates daily life, with Latin appearing in school pilots, branding, and signage.
Kazakh Cyrillic contains the entire 33-letter Russian alphabet unchanged, then adds nine letters for sounds Russian lacks: the vowels Ә, Ө, Ұ, Ү, І, the uvular consonants Қ and Ғ, the ng-sound Ң, and Һ for a plain h. So Russians can sound out Kazakh text only until one of those nine letters — or a vowel-harmony pattern — appears.
The first Latin version (2017–2018) wrote Kazakh-specific sounds with straight apostrophes — the republic's official name came out as Qazaqstan Respy'bli'kasy. The strings broke hashtags, search, and alphabetical sorting, and readers found them ugly and slow. It was replaced first by acute accents and digraphs in 2018, then by the cleaner diacritic system (ä, ğ, ñ, ş, ū) adopted in 2021.
Use the free online Kazakh keyboard linked below for the full 42-letter Cyrillic layout — no installation needed. For the new script, the Kazakh Latin keyboard at /languages/european/kazakh-latin-keyboard covers all 31 letters of the 2021 alphabet, including ä, ğ, ñ, ş, ū, and the dotless ı.