Bilingualism and language presence on road signs in Central Asia

 Central Asia is a fascinating region linguistically. Much of it was part of the Soviet Union, so various ethnic groups had to adopt the Cyrillic alphabet for their languages following collective reforms during the communist period. However, after the republics gained independence, they opted to adopt the Latin alphabet. This had a significant impact on road signage, which was previously based on the system developed by the USSR. But after decades of independence, part of Central Asia has begun to distance itself considerably from the old standards for traffic design.

Image by LIGHTCHASERLEE via Reddit

Kizilsu

The G581 highway has special signage, where Chinese or Uyghur inscriptions are not featured, but Russian and Latin transcriptions are used specifically.

Even so, the fonts are not very legible. In the image, you can see that the numbers and “KM” use Highway Gothic. Although the rest of the traffic signs in both Cyrillic and Latin do not use a proper font, the transportation department for Kizilsu probably did not have proper support for the Cyrillic alphabet, so they decided to use a generic serif font, which makes the signs partially difficult to see, especially from a long distance.

Karakalpakstan

Karakalpak street signs in Nukus (Image Source: apmwa via Mapillary - 2017)

Karakalpakstan is an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan. It has its own language, which differs in certain ways from standard Uzbek. However, using tools such as Yandex Panorama and Mapillary, I have noticed certain peculiarities in this region.

To begin with, the spelling sometimes varies on certain signs, where Uzbek spelling is sometimes used, as seen on signs showing the capital of the autonomous republic as Nukus (See photo by Varan Media in 2019, where some the blue road signs use only Uzbek and English for main spots in the city). However, around the city, you can see signs that use the Karakalpak spelling, where it is written as Nōkis (See photo by Oleg Petrovskiy in 2022).

On the other hand, street signs in Nukus use “Kóshesi” and alternatively “Ko'shesi” in their transcriptions, while the Uzbek standard is “Ko'chasi”.

Bayan-Ölgii

Old Kazakh Street Sign in Western Mongolia (Terlikbay ulı Äbdiğajı köşesi ; Терлікбай ұлы Әбдіғажы көшесі) (Image Source: Google Street View - 2016)

This is the westernmost aimag of Mongolia, which is ethnically different from the rest of the country, being mainly Muslim, and the Kazakh language plays a crucial role in the region's education and literature.

Throughout the 2000s and mid-2010s, Ölgii had street signage exclusively in Kazakh rather than Mongolian, and used Kazakh spelling rather than that used in Cyrillic Mongolian script. This caused some controversy among certain Mongolian groups who stipulate that all signage must be written in the Mongolian language, citing reasons of territorial integrity and national unity.

However, in 2017 (See images by Montsame News Agency), the capital of the aimag began to introduce a new type of signage in accordance with new initiatives from the Ministry of Urban Development, Construction, and Housing, which dictated that signs must contain Cyrillic Mongolian at the top and English transliteration at the bottom, in addition to Traditional Mongolian Script on the side. Journalist Nurbolat Onerkhan clarified that in 2017 alone, 97 streets in the aimag capital had already been marked with these signs.