Kazakh survival kit

About this kit

Kazakh is a Turkic language spoken by around 13 million people in Kazakhstan and neighbouring countries. In transition from Cyrillic to Latin script, it carries a rich oral tradition and a fascinating nomadic culture. With this kit, you have the basics to greet, eat and find your way from Almaty to Astana.

Kazakh is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch, spoken by around 13 million people in Kazakhstan, China (Xinjiang), Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Russia and the diaspora. It is the state language of Kazakhstan, shared with Russian which remains very present in public life, especially in urban areas. Kazakh is related to Kyrgyz, Tatar and modern Turkish: a Turkish-speaking traveller will find familiar structures and vocabulary.

A strong specificity of Kazakh is its ongoing alphabet transition. During the Soviet era, it was written in adapted Cyrillic. Since 2017, the country has launched a progressive switch to a Latin alphabet, officially adopted in 2025. You will still see many signs and documents in Cyrillic, but new signage appears in Latin. The grammar is agglutinative: words are built by stacking suffixes to express plural, case, possession, tense, negation and many other nuances.

Kazakh culture is inseparable from the nomadic heritage of the steppes: yurts, horses, trained eagles, cuisine based on meat and dairy products. The aqyns, those poet-improvisers who battle in oral duels, perpetuate a millenia-old tradition. The country is now experiencing a visible cultural renaissance: Q-pop, Cannes award-winning cinema, a music scene blending traditional dombra and modern sounds. This kit gathers the essentials to greet, ask for directions, order a meal, handle an emergency and take leave respectfully. Memorize these phrases before leaving and you will gain confidence as soon as you arrive in Almaty or Astana.