Language Policies of Kazakhization and Their Influence on Language Attitudes and Use

Abstract

The paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of language policy in Kazakhstan in the context of the current sociolinguistic situation and historic, demographic, sociopolitical, and economic factors. Highlighting some of the challenges facing the official policy of kazakhization, this review allows for better understanding of the functioning of the two main languages of Kazakhstan, Kazakh and Russian. To assess the impact of kazakhization policies on language attitudes and use, the paper examines the results of a large-scale self-report survey conducted in Kazakhstan in 2005–2007.

Keywords:

• Kazakhstan
• language policy
• Kazakh
• Russian
• kazakhization
• language attitudes
• language use

Notes

1. Sunni Islam is one of the two main divisions of Islam, which started to spread throughout Central Asia and Kazakhstan in the ninth century.

2. The ethnonym ‘Kazakh’ is first mentioned in written documents of the 14th century (Masanov et al., 2001). Until 1925, Kazakhs were misnamed as Kirgiz and Kirgiz-Kaisak to differentiate them from Russian Cossacks (on formation of Soviet ethnicities, see Hirsch, 2005).

3. Akhmet Baitursunov (1873–1937) was one of the leaders of the Kazakh nationalist movement. He wrote Kazakh language textbooks and edited the famous newspapers Kazakh and Ak Zhol. He was a member of the national-democratic party Alash, and later joined the Soviets and worked at the People's Committee of Education (Narkompros). He also became a member of the Central and Kazakhstan Executive Committees. He was executed during Stalinist purges in 1937. The alphabet he reformed is still used by Kazakhs in China.

4. According to Dave (2003), the 1926 census was not completely reliable, given the lack of transportation network and difficulties in offering a reliable count of mobile people.

5. The 1926 Census registered 3,628,000 Kazakhs; in 1931 the number was 5,114,000; the 1937 Census registered only 2,182,000 Kazakhs (Masanov et al., 2001: 376; Mendykulova, 1997: 94).

6. In 1926 only about a fourth of the Kazakhs led a sedentary mode of life, others were dependent on the livestock economy and seasonal agricultural farming (Dave, 2003).

7. INTAS is the International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union (NIS); it was established in 1993 and discontinued in 2007 (www.intas.be).

8. Here and below the total does not always equal 2,255 (100%) because some respondents left certain questions unanswered.