Akhmetova Bigaisha

Kazakhstan, Kostanay State University Named A. Baytursynov

Ethnolinguistic Situation in Kazakhstan

In today’s world, speaking fluently two or more languages for a person, who would like to be successful and truly be up to the modern standards, is a norm and a necessity at the same time. Multilingualism as a cultural and linguistic phenomenon has crept into almost every modern society of almost every state in the world. The Republic of Kazakhstan is not an exception, as a matter of fact; it might as well become one of the best examples of a country characterized by its vivid and rich multilingualism. In this work, we would like to focus on three main points: the reasons of Kazakhstan becoming ethnolinguistically so diverse, Kazakhstan as a bilingual country, and future prospects of the country’s language policies [1].

In 1991, a newly formed state, called Kazakhstan, had appeared on the political map of the world. It was one of the last of fifteen constituent countries of the former USSR to have gained independence as a result of its dissolution. Many questions had arisen since its becoming independent and the most crucial was Kazakhstan’s future ethnolinguistic policies. But before we start talking about the policies, let us, first, enlighten you as to why, historically, Kazakhstan has become what it is now. The modern day territory of the Central Asian state Kazakhstan had once been a colony of the Russian Empire, in fact, up until the events of the October revolution which had taken place in October of the year of 1917. As a consequence of that revolution, the Russian Empire ceased to exist having turned into a Communist state, the Soviet Union. In several years, the Kazakh SSR had been formed in 1936 as a constituent part of the Soviet Union; in fact, it had been its part for almost seventy years. It had been known as one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse republics in the union along with the Russian RSFSR. Thus, we might easily conclude that being under the Russian rule for almost two hundred years; Kazakhstan had not had a chance to develop otherwise but as the Russian-controlled and influenced territory during all those years. It all started with late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries’ settlers from all over the empire when they began pouring in the Central Asia in pursuit of wealth and better life. The turning point for Kazakhstan to become known as the melting pot of Central Asia arrived with the dawn of the Soviet Union in the 1920s when the policy of russification had been taking place. A widespread use of the Russian language at that period has enabled it to become the language for interethnic communication among the people of numerous ethnicities which were mainly deportees and forced immigrants from all over the Soviet Union. Russians, Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Germans, Chechens, Koreans, and Uyghurs - that is, virtually any group that has ever come under the Russian sphere of influence. This diverse demography is due to Kazakhstan's central location and its historical use by Russia as a place to send colonists, dissidents, and minority groups from its other frontiers. From the 1930s until the 1950s, both the Russian opposition (and such Russians "accused" of being part of the opposition) and certain minorities (especially Volga Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks) had been interned in labor camps often merely due to their heritage or beliefs, mostly on collective orders by Joseph Stalin. This makes Kazakhstan one of the few places on Earth where normally-disparate Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Koreans, Chechen, and Turkic groups live together in a rural setting and not as a result of modern immigration[3].

Thus, having understood the reasons why Kazakhstan has become so ethnolinguistically diverse, let us talk about its bilingualism more closely. According to the constitution, the Kazakh language is the state language whereas Russian is reserved as the language for interethnic communication and still retains a co-official status of its own. Almost all of the country’s population of any ethnicity including ethnic Kazakhs can speak Russian or understand it, whereas the state language is usually understood and spoken solely by the state-forming ethnicity, although Kazakh is enjoying a renaissance for the past few years. To top it up, other minority languages are also spoken in Kazakhstan such as Ukrainian, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Tatar, and Uzbek. Geographically, the use of both languages is not equally distributed throughout the country due to the certain aspects. The population of the north, the center, and some parts of the southern Kazakhstan speak fluently Russian. The western, the eastern and some parts of the central Kazakhstan’s population speak predominantly Kazakh as the first language. Since gaining its independence in 1991 the Kazakhstani government tried to implement different laws concerning its language policies. On one of its governmental sessions it was promptly agreed upon that the Russian language would acquire a co-official status along with Kazakh. Whether to become a bilingual country de juro or not was one of the controversial problems of that time for the government to tackle since Russian was virtually everywhere: in the society, all of the governmental institutions, and, of course, the education system. Having, thus, become legally official, Russian and Kazakh enjoyed a symbiotic relation co-existing together and had become partner languages throughout the entire territory of the country. Nowadays, the situation has a little changed due to the fact that a lot of Russian-speaking residents had decided to abandon the country in hope of a better life abroad in such countries as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Canada, Germany, and the USA [2]. Considerable changes have occurred in the education system in particular, when the class hours of the Russian language taught in schools have been drastically cut as a result of promoting Kazakh on a much greater scale that has ever been done before. Numerous Kazakh language-only or mixed schools have sprouted out in recent years as a result of newly-created education policies. The tendency of the Kazakh language reinstating its predominant status is not bad as a matter of fact since it is the only place on Earth where it can fully be enjoyed and freely spoken without any political or cultural restraints. But let us, again, mention an undeniable fact that Kazakhstan is a multiracial, multilingual, and multiethnic country where its own government and people are proud of naming their country as one of the most serene and ethnically tolerant countries in the world. Having fair bilingualism in a country is a very delicate problem that had arisen early in the 1990s and is still being frequently addressed as the one that needs to be accurately handled.

Language as a means of communication is one of fundamental characteristic of a human being. And when you cannot freely speak or deprived of this means or an environment where this language occurs, you might become a witness of horrific consequences as a result of the populations’ turmoils due to the inability to freely express themselves through their particular language. Many wars were fought just because two or more belligerents spoke different languages and many times it was the only reason why a military conflict had been incited. Our country, Kazakhstan, is known in the west as quite stable when it comes to language and ethnic policies despite the fact that more than one hundred ethnicities reside on its territory. We as a nation cherish and appreciate this stability and overwhelming balance knowing that millions of other people in the world cannot boast the same. But we also should understand and fully embrace the notion that this balance might easily crumple down and be destroyed lest the government and the population do not share similar views and opinions. Taking into considerations all pros and cons the nation should understand that it would only succeed in future if united and not disrupted in its beliefs. People know that, the government certainly does know that as well. That’s why in recent years the Kazakhstani government proposed an initiative to introduce trilingualism in the country to, thus, reinforce its language policies as one of the most favorable in the world. Kazakh, Russian, and English would have become most prevalent languages in the future Kazakhstan provided certain criteria were met as the time elapsed. Kazakhstan’s future ethnolinguistic policies will certainly affect the country’s ethnolinguistic profile whether it will affect it in a bad way or a good way, the time will only tell.

Modern Kazakhstan’s ethnolinguistic situation could not have been fully described as complete without a thorough insight into the past and its evolution through the years nor could it have been complete with no word of the country’s bilingualism and its language policy plans for the future. Thus, the information given in this article tries to portray the ethnolinguistic situation in Kazakhstan from all sides since it is considered to be a very controversial problem of our democratic society.

Literature

1. Karabulatova I.S. The Problems of Linguistic Modeling of New Eurasian Linguistic Personality in Multilinguistic and Mental Environment (By Example of Onomasphere). In the: Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 17 (6): 791-795, 2013.ISSN 1990-9233. IDOSI Publications, 2013.DOI: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2013.17.06.12262

2. Karabulatova I.S. and Polivara Z.V. Turkic and Slavs: Bi-Polylinguism in Globalization and Migrations (On an Example of Tumen Region). In the: Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 17 (6): 832-836, 2013. ISSN 1990-9233. © IDOSI Publications, 2013. DOI: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2013.17.06.12263.

3. Karabulatova I.S., Koyche K.K., Gultyaev V.N. The Dialogue of Kazakh Steppe and Russian Forest: About the Character of Turkic-Speaking Linguistic Personality on the Territory of Russian-Kazakhstani Border-Zone. In the: Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 17 (7): 853-858, 2013. ISSN 1990-9233.© IDOSI Publications, 2013. DOI: 10.5829/idosi.mejsr.2013.17.07.12264.