
The 9 letters that make Kazakh Cyrillic unique (and why our logo uses Ұ)
Kazakh Cyrillic has 42 letters, but only 9 of them are unique to Kazakh and don’t exist in the Russian alphabet. These letters represent sounds that are specific to Kazakh and are key to correct pronunciation.
The 9 unique Kazakh Cyrillic letters are:sublearn+3
- Ә ә – like the “a” in cat (front open vowel)
- Ғ ғ – a deep, raspy “g” sound (voiced velar/uvular fricative)
- Қ қ – a hard “k” made far back in the throat (uvular stop)
- Ң ң – like the “ng” in sing
- Ө ө – a rounded front vowel, similar to German ö
- Ұ ұ – a short “oo” sound, like in book, but more back
- Ү ү – a tight, rounded “ü”, like German ü
- Һ һ – like English h in hat
- І і – a short, high central vowel, different from и and ыtalkpal+1
All other Kazakh Cyrillic letters are shared with Russian; these 9 are what make the Kazakh alphabet distinct.
The letter Ұ ұ stands out among those nine letters because it's unique Kazakh letter. It was created specifically for Kazakh and is used only in the Kazakh language.