Unlike the United States, where English dominates both the official sphere and most public ones, Kazakh and Russian live together in Kazakhstan like roommates. There are people here who speak only Kazakh, people who speak only Russian, and people who speak both (of course, there are also people who speak varying degrees of English, German, Uzbek, and other Turkish languages, but Kazakh and Russian dominate the space). When I sit on the bus, for example, the bus first announces the next stop in Kazakh, and then again in Russian. Many signs have both Kazakh and Russian written on them (and sometimes English as well). Even as I sit down to eat dinner with my host family at the end of the day, Kazakh words and phrases effortlessly flow between Russian ones.
However, just like roommates, the coexistence of Kazakh and Russian is not always so harmonious, as both languages carry their own histories, connections, and connotations. In our classes here, we spent some time exploring the background of both Russian and Kazakh in the country, but in order to understand the roommate dynamics of the two languages, it’s first necessary to understand how they came to coexist in Kazakhstan.
The coexistence of Kazakh and Russian today is unsurprisingly due to the relationship between Kazakhstan and Russia, which has influenced the movement of peoples across the two countries. To start, Kazakhstan has been claimed as a part of Russian territory for centuries, and was a part of the USSR. There were also many events in the 20th century that impacted the demographics of Kazakhstan; for example, between 1930 and 1950, the Soviet policy of forcible deportations meant that many Russians were deported to Kazakhstan. Similarly, the repression of the Kazakh elite in the late 1930s, the Russification policy (which proclaimed Russian as the language of international communication), and labor migration meant that Kazakhs and Russians were flowing across each other’s borders and influencing the future language and ethnic demographics of Kazakhstan. Indeed, according to the 2009 census, the ethnic composition of Kazakhstan is mostly composed of Kazakhs (63.1%) and Russians (23.7%), so it makes sense that both Kazakh and Russian are official languages of the country.
However, while both languages hold official status, they carry different cultural connotations. Due to the historical relations between Kazakhstan and Russia, many Kazakhstanis consider Russia as a colonizer, and see the use of Russian as a reminder of this. In addition, Russian is often associated with the educated and elite, as the Russian language dominated the political sphere in the Soviet Union, and many native Kazakh speakers learned Russian in schools. Both of my host parents, for example, grew up outside of the cities and didn’t learn Russian until they studied in school during the Soviet Union.
Kazakh, on the other hand, is seen as more of a language of the people, and a direct connection to Kazakh culture; while both Russian and Kazakh can be heard in larger cities, Kazakh is the more common language in rural areas of Kazakhstan, where more traditional Kazakh culture prevails. In order to connect with and preserve this culture, many Kazakhstanis choose to speak in Kazakh and raise their children as Kazakh speakers. My host parents, for example, only spoke Kazakh to my host siblings, who in turn learned Russian in preschool and now speak both languages fluently. Interestingly, the Russian-Kazakh coexistence has also resulted in a tumultuous history of an unassuming part of the Kazakh language- its alphabet!
The process of Kazakh choosing an alphabet can be thought of like a teenager who can’t decide what to wear in the morning- they might, for example, try on a miniskirt because their friends will think they’re cool, but take it off because their parents won’t approve. In the same way, the Kazakh alphabet has been influenced by several outside forces throughout history and has been subsequently changed three times in the last 100 years.
In 1929, as the Soviet Union pushed to create a secular education system, Kazakh switched from using Arabic script to using Latin script (the one English uses). Then, in 1940, Kazakhstan switched to the Cyrillic alphabet (the one Russia uses) as a way to promote unity within the Soviet Union. Finally, since October 2017, the Kazakhstani government has been slowly shifting the alphabet of Kazakh from Cyrillic to Latin, a change which was supposed to be completed by 2025 but has a new deadline of 2031.
Why the sudden change from Cyrillic to Latin? There are many reasons: the change is thought to strengthen the Kazakh language by bringing back original spelling norms and integrate Kazakh into a global context, since many world languages use the Latin script. Furthermore, using the Latin script distances Kazakhstan from Russia, something that many Kazakhs want given current geopolitical events and the rocky history of Russia in the country. However, there are some concerns that the older generation, who may never have learned a Latin-script language, will have trouble adapting to the change. Others worry that some sounds may be lost in Kazakh due to the switch, and others still worry about Russia’s reaction to the change.
When I asked my host family what they thought, they expressed their support for the change back to the Latin script, but didn’t feel particularly strongly about the issue. My host mom, waving her hand dismissively, exclaimed “It always changes!”
Despite the long (and sometimes turbulent) history of these two roommates, I certainly think that the coexistence of Russian and Kazakh in Kazakhstan makes the country unique. So far, it has only enhanced my understanding of Russian and the russophone world, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to see Russian from a post-Soviet perspective. Who knows- hopefully we’ll all come home knowing some Kazakh as well!
Until next time,
-Grace
Sources:
Eisenberg, Leora. “Almaty Youth on the Future of the Kazakh Alphabet.” Voices On Central Asia, 31
Aug. 2018, https://voicesoncentralasia.org/almaty-youth-on-the-future-of-the-kazakh-alphabet/.
Sherwin, Emily. “Kazakhstan Rewrites Its Alphabet to Shed Its Soviet Past.” Deutsche Welle, 2 July
2019, https://www.dw.com/en/kazakhstan-rewrites-its-alphabet-to-shed-its-soviet-past/a-49434285.
Zharkynbekova, Sholpan, and Atirkul Agmanova. “The Development of Linguistics in Kazakhstan: New
Approaches and Modern Tendencies.” Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, vol. 63, 2016, pp.
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Шаяхметова, Жанна. “Kazakhstan Presents New Latin Alphabet, Plans Gradual Transition through
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