Kazakh bank gets own name wrong

Kazakhstan's central bank is to issue new banknotes despite a spelling error.

The notes bear Kazakh writing in Cyrillic letters, but the word "bank" is misspelt using an alternative Kazakh form of the letter K.

MPs wrote to President Nursultan Nazarbayev urging him to tell the bank not to circulate the notes.

But the National Bank said the 2,000 tenge notes ($15, £8) and the 5,000 notes would be issued in November but would gradually be replaced.

National symbol

The MPs' letter to the president said: "We urge you to tell the National Bank not to put out the notes with a mistake in the Kazakh language."

It said: "The mistake... is not just a spelling problem - it has political undertones."

Language remains an issue of concern in Kazakhstan.

Russian, in its Cyrillic script, was encouraged during the Soviet era.

But since independence in 1991, the Kazakh language has been seen as a national symbol.