ORTHOGRAPHY, WRITING, AND TERMINOLOGY ISSUES IN K. ZHUBANOV’S WORKS

Abstract

This article examines Q.Zhubanov’s scholarly perspectives on the spelling, script, orthography and terminology of the Kazakh language. The main objective of the article is to highlight the significance of the scholar’s research on the fundamental principles of Kazakh writing, the importance of the phonetic harmony (synharmonism) rule, the draft of the Kazakh alphabet based on Latin script, the formation and spelling of terminology. In the process of writing this work, descriptive, analytical, and historical-comparative methods were employed.

Research findings indicate that the majority of Q.Zhubanov’s scholarly works from the 1920s–1930s are closely related to the theoretical and practical issues that arose during the transition of Kazakh writing to the Latin script. In particular, the scholar's identification of the phonetic principle as the foundation of Kazakh writing, his view that the Kazakh language belongs to the group of agglutinative languages, and that suffixes are added according to the rules of phonetic harmony, his opinions on refining the orthographic rules and writing conventions of the Latin-based Kazakh script, his thoughts on the spelling of loanwords and some native words, as well as his proposals related to writing and the alphabet, definitions and features of terms, term formation, the conceptual essence of terms, and distinctions between word meaning and scientific concepts — all represent significant scholarly innovations of that time. The scholar supports and substantiates his views with concrete examples.