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See what your other Uygur brothers say about it !
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
From: "Konuralp" <kercilasun@yahoo.com>
1. Azerbaijan Republic
officially accepted Latin script. Date: 25.12.1991. Now Azerbaijan is using
Latin script in education. Although now there is only one official script, i.e.
Latin script, in the republic, Cyrillic is also used in printing. The process
will last up to 2005. After this date there will be only one common script which
is Latin.
2. Turkmenistan Republic officially accepted Latin script.
Date: 12.04.1993. According to law they would complete the process on 2000.
Finally, on 01.01.2000 they began to use Latin script completely: Not only in
education, but also in printing and in all other fields. This means all Turkmens
are using the Latin script now in reality. 3. Uzbekistan
Republic officially accepted Latin script. Date: 02.09.1993. According to law
they will complete the process on 2005. 4.
Karakalpaks officially accepted Latin script. Date: 26.02.1994.
According to law they will complete the process on 2005. 5.
Tataristan (which is now under the Russian rule) also officially accepted Latin
script in 2000. According to law, two scripts will be used between
2001-2011. In the year 2011 they will adopt Latin script completely.
There are also Crimean and Gagauz communities who are also officially accepted
the Latin script and now completely using it. If we look
independent countries, there is only Kazakistan (which has a great population of
Russians) and Kirgizistan that haven't taken a step through
Latin script officially. They are now discussing changing their script or
not in their societies. And Arabic has a very few support in these discussions.
Main discussion is between adopting the Latin or preserving the Cyrillic script.
Above are the realities of script discussion.
In the case of Eastern Turkistan: Why did some people begin
to discuss their script? Who are discussing about this? According to my
knowledge Eastern Turkestani youths are in favor
of Latin script and elders are in favor of Arabic. As everybody knows formers'
main concern is technology and learning English. Latters' main
concern is preserving the tradition and identity. I was aware of this
discussion 3 years ago. This means they are discussing it at least 3
years. When I have heard it, the Latin supporters were very few and they
had no power. And the elder people who had more official power were supporting
the Arabic. If we look to the on going process: 1.
Some people gathered and discussed the Latin script. 2.
they have come to a compromise of a script of 32 letters and one sign.
3. They have sent their proposal to the local government of
Urumchi. 4. If the Urumchi government accept the
proposal, they will send it to Beijing.
5. And if the Beijing government accept the proposal, it will
become an
official script. First three steps has already been done.
There is not any result from the fourth step now. And in my opinion, even
if the Urumchi government will accept the proposal, it will be turned back
in the fifth step. Of course it is more likely that Urumchi
government will reject it.
If we consider about pinyin: 1. Yes,
Chinese are using pinyin for the sounding of their ideograms. But this is
not their script. 2. "x" is the sound like
"hs" in pinyin, and it sounds like "h" in the proposal;
"q" sounds like the English "ch" in pinyin, and it is like
the
English "q" in the proposal. So, adopting the Latin
script will not result in Hanification; it is more likely that made them
Anglicanized(!) Konuralp Ercilasun
AND From: Miguel Peyro peyro@altavista.com>
Let me reply your bad-mannered
response to my contribution about the
Chinese attempt to impose the latin (western) script to Uyghurs.
That you emphatic call "the general trend in the Turkic World" (that
is to say, the adoption of the latin (western) script) is only an
orientation of some westernized, Europe-fascinated, and anti Islamic
elites of those countries. The writing systems, among other things, are
powerful cultural symbols, and some westernized elites consider that its
adoption -together with other western habits- will "modernize" their
countries. Here "modernization" is only an euphemism for
westernization (the more they behave like Europeans, the more they are
"moderns"). The scholars specialized in writing systems
differentiate between the official laws and projects and the reality of
peoples and human communities. For instance, you can just look up the internet
page of the SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics), one of the world's best
centres for language study ( http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/
). The SIL agrees that the PEOPLES of
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan continue to use for the most part the Cyrillic
script in their daily life, whereas in Azerbaijan the Cyrillic script
continues to be "widely used".
> The use of Cyrillic (Russian) script by the peoples of Central Asia is
plainly a tragedy, an awful product of the imperial politics of
Russia-USSR-RF against the Asian peoples and cultures, a step towards their
russification. I only talked about the current Cyrillic usage in Central
Asia in order to explain the relativity of "current majority usages"
in an area so subdued to foreign interests. So, if we are
looking to the Turkic speaking peoples (and not only to the politics of
"their" leaders), the latin script is not widespread ("not
yet"? may be, but let us talk about the present and the
reality...) In these countries you cite, the question of writing
remains very open. Arabic script is also a strong candidate among
important groups in these countries, not of course among the westernized
elites. I will recommend you a very good work about it:
"The problem of choice of
alphabets for the Turkic languages: History and present", by V. M. Alpatov,
published in a collective book by Harrassowitz in Germany (38 PIAC
Conference). Here one can find the "ideologies" of the various script
proposals in this area. Latin script is a part of the project of westernization,
just as cyrillic was used for russification, and just as Arabic script is
intended (in these countries) as an instrument for islamization. The
"debate" is not "linguistic" but politic (or of culture
orientations). And I repeat: Westernization is not the "general trend in
the Turkic world".
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