Beyond Latin: symbolic archaization under constraint in Kyrgyzstan’s alphabet debate

Kyrgyzstan is the only post-Soviet Turkic state that has not begun a transition to Latin, and its alphabet debate keeps returning unresolved. This article asks how Kyrgyz academic and intellectual elites construe the alphabet in relation to national identity. It draws on interviews with fourteen academics and experts and a participatory workshop, read through ethno-symbolism and Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence. Participants treat the alphabet as a sign of sovereignty while depriving both existing scripts of legitimacy, Cyrillic as Russian imposition and Latin as Turkish and Western patronage. The demand then shifts to the pre-Cyrillic Orkhon-Yenisei script, which everyday practice will not follow and geopolitical pressure keeps closed. The article names this pattern symbolic archaization under constraint, and argues that the call for an ancestral script reveals the futility of the purity it seeks.