THE PROCESSES OF TRANSITIONING TO THE UZBEK SCRIPT BASED ON THE LATIN ALPHABET IN UZBEKISTAN

For centuries, the Arabic script served as the primary writing system for many Turkic peoples, including the Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Turkmens, Turks, Azerbaijanis, and Tatars. The long history and cultural heritage of these peoples are closely linked to this script. At the beginning of the last century, the emergence of the Jadid movement in Azerbaijan and Turkey, its spread to other Turkic peoples, the establishment of new Jadid schools, and the development of national press brought to light the challenges of teaching literacy using the Arabic alphabet. Consequently, discussions about reforming and adapting the Arabic script to the needs of national languages became a pressing issue. Indeed, the Arabic alphabet, which was not inherently designed for Turkic languages, faced numerous challenges. It failed to fully represent the phonetics of Turkic languages, included letters unique to the Arabic language (foreign characters), and was unable to adequately convey the rich vowel system of Turkic languages. The Jadids, who devoted their lives to promoting literacy, simplifying teaching methods in their newly established schools, and creating accessible textbooks, took steps to reform the Arabic alphabet. They introduced specific forms for vowels. However, the reformed alphabet did not meet expectations, and difficulties in education and publishing persisted. As a result, efforts to abandon the Arabic script and transition to the Latin alphabet began. During this process, Jadid enlightenment leaders developed four alphabet projects. This article discusses these projects in detail.