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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 778

Part of Session 143: Language Change in Central Asia (Other abstracts in this session)

The changing perception of the Kazakh language in the discourse on language policy and national identity in the Republic of Kazakhstan

Authors: Bartholomä, Ruth
Submitted by: Bartholomä, Ruth (Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen, Germany)

After gaining independence in 1991, the language policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan was aiming at the active promotion of the Kazakh language, especially through education, and at establishing the knowledge of Kazakh for every citizen of the state, regardless of the citizen’s ethnic affiliation. The construction of a national (in the sense of supra-ethnic), so-called “Kazakhstani” identity for all citizens seems to be a major concern of the government in the last years. Visible signs are, e.g., the renaming of the “Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan” in “Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan” in 2007 or the aims formulated in the so-called “National Unity Doctrine”. When Dave (2007: 7) speaks about “the state’s unwillingness to engage in an identity construction project”, this seems to be incorrect, at least for the last years.

The Kazakh language played and plays until today an important role in the construction of a national identity (Schlyter 2003: 166). To name a current example, “developing the Kazakh language” is referred to “as the priority for the national unity” in an article with the title “National Unity Doctrine to Help build Stronger ‘Kazakhstani’ Identity” (2010: 2), published in an online publication by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nevertheless, at the same time the Kazakh language is, of course, seen as an important marker for the Kazakh ethnic identity, which leads to conflicts and influences the way the Kazakh language and its role are seen by various actors in Kazakhstan. So the doctrine was considered as an attack on ethnic Kazakh identity, language and culture (Kesici 2011: 54).

Language is in a double position: On the one hand, it is the object of the government’s language policy and thus a subject-matter of praise as well as criticism in the discourse about language policy, and on the other hand it is the medium in which this discourse takes place: Various and changing metaphors are used to describe the role of the Kazakh language over the last years.

In my talk, recent developments and changes in the discourse on the Kazakh language will be described by means of a discourse analysis following the DIMEAN-model of Spitzmüller/Warnke (2011). Sources are (1) relevant laws and official programmes, launched by the government, (2) public statements in newspapers, magazines, internet forums, blogs and other publications, as well as (3) statements expressed in sociolinguistic interviews, conducted in Almaty and Astana in March 2011.

References

Dave, Bhavna. 2007. Kazakhstan. Ethnicity, language and power. London: Routledge.

Schlyter, Birgit N. 2003. “Sociolinguistic changes in Central Asian societies”. In: Jacques Maurais/Michael A. Morris (edd.). Languages in a globalising world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 157–187.

Kesici, Özgecan. 2011. “The Dilemma in the Nation-Building Process: The Kazakh or Kazakhstani Nation?” In: Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe 10/1, 31–58.

“National Unity Doctrine to Help Build Stronger ‘Kazakhstani’ Identity”. In: Astana Calling, 4 May 2010 (57), 1–3.

Spitzmüller, Jürgen/Ingo Warnke. 2011. Diskurslinguistik. Eine Einführung in Theorien und Methoden der transtextuellen Sprachanalyse. Berlin u.a.: de Gruyter.