Kazakhstan approves new Latin alphabetFebruary 20, 2018 - 14:01 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev approved a decree on a new alphabet on Tuesday, February 20. The new-look alphabet also has 32 letters, but there are some key differences. Most glaring is the abandonment of the requirement to add apostrophes to denote certain distinct sounds, Eurasianet.org says. So the letters a’, g’, n’, o’, u’, y’, which denote Kazakh-specific phonemes, will now be rendered with just an accent above them instead. Then there is the letter i with and without a dot — the latter being analogous to a character in the Turkish alphabet. The immediate obvious appeal of these modifications will be that writing these phonemes on a computer will require a single keystroke instead of two. In a concession to an earlier proposed draft of the alphabet, other sounds specific to Kazakh will be rendered as sh and ch, instead of s’ and c’ as required under the previous incarnation. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Cyprus parliament honors Armenian genocide victims Acting House President Zacharias Koulias noted that April 24 marks the “black anniversary” of the Armenian genocide. Armenia PM, France envoy discuss regional matters Issues related to the consistent development of Armenia-France cooperation were discussed. Azerbaijan razes historic Armenian church to ground Azerbaijan has demolished the historic Armenian Church of St. John the Baptist (known as Kanach Zham). Russia to begin assessing migrant workers' speaking skills Rosobrnadzor is planning to change the Russian language exam for migrant workers and include an assessment of speaking skills |