Alphabet Change Dividing Populations and Reducing Literacy Rates in Central Asian Countries, Uzbek Scholar Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Feb. 13 – The decision of some Central Asian countries to shift from a Cyrillic-based alphabet or even to modify in part the Cyrillic alphabets the Soviet system put in place has divided the populations of these countries between older groups who know the one and younger who know the other and reduced overall literacy rates, Gulnara Mansurova says.
    The Uzbek academician argues that while the shift from a Cyrillic-based alphabet to a Latin script-based one may ultimately help people in these countries learn English and integrate in the broader world, these short-term consequences have fueled opposition to alphabet change (stanradar.com/news/full/56794-gramotnost-v-agonii-kak-smena-alfavitov-razrushaet-obrazovanie-tsentrazii.html).
    Such opposition has appeared not only in countries that have begun the process but in others considering it, Mansurova says; but also in places where there has not been a total shift from one alphabet to another but even to the partial modification of the existing alphabets to better reflect the sound values of the language.
    The consequences she points to have been known widely and for a long time. Indeed, the objections to alphabet change now are nearly identical to those made almost a century ago when Moscow first changed the alphabets of the Central Asian languages from Arabic to Latin script and then shortly thereafter from Latin script to Cyrillic.
    But the problems such shifts entail may be even larger now or at least longer-lasting than they were then. On the one hand, the populations of these countries are far more literate now than they were then and thus negative impacts on literacy are greater. And on the other, the Central Asian regimes do not have the power or will the Soviet government had to force changes.