The consonants ž ~ ǧ in Kazakh (original) (raw)

Kazakh

Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 2020

Kazakh (ISO 639-3, kaz) is a Kipchak (Northwestern) Turkic language with approximately ten million speakers (Muhamedowa 2015). While the majority of Kazakh speakers live in the Republic of Kazakhstan, significant Kazakh-speaking populations exist throughout Central Asia. See Figure 1 for a map of the region. Kazakh spoken in Kazakhstan is described as having three or four dialects, but many researchers agree that differences between dialects are small and largely lexical (Kara 2002, Grenoble 2003, Muhamedowa 2015; see Amanzholov 1959 for more on Kazakh dialects).

Kazakh linguistics in Kazakhstan: An outline

The aim of this article is to present the development of the Kazakh language study in Kazakhstan with its background in Russia and the Soviet Union. The outline is selective; it cannot be comprehensive. An attempt was made to show both strengths and weaknesses. The outline starts with text editions and goes through lexicography, grammar, lexicology and semantics, historical grammar and history of language, dialect studies and new trends. The article seeks to demonstrate the impact of Russian linguistics on Kazakh scholars, and also to indicate endeavours to find original approaches. However, multiple contrastive studies, especially Kazakh–Russian, as well as general linguistics fall outside the scope of this overview.

Language Policy in Modern Kazakhstan Article

Kazakhstan is experiencing a very important period in its history. Having gained independence in 1991 it has faced a lot of challenges one of which was its language policy. Historically, Kazakhstan has long been closely linked to Russia. First, it was tsarist Russia, then the Soviet Union. Since the Soviet period the citizens of Kazakhstan have used two languages: Kazakh and Russian. But during the Soviet Union the languages were not equivalent as the Russian language was used in almost every sphere of the urban life, while the Kazakh language was preserved in rural areas and within doors in the towns and cities. As the majority of urban population was represented by Slavic people speaking Kazakh in society was considered backward and Kazakhs were obliged to learn the Russian language to be successful in their careers. Since independence the country has undertaken many steps to introduce the Kazakh language. Kazakh-medium schools and kindergartens were opened and new laws on the use of the language were passed.

THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF SYNHARMOPHONOLOGY IN THE KAZAKH LANGUAGE

According to the origin the Kazakh language and grammatical system belong to the Turkic-speaking group. The main aim of the linguistic typology, the Kazakh language is one of the main kinds of Turkic- agglutinative languages. It is mentioned in general linguistic works that the Turkic languages are agglutinative and they have harmony of vowels. In the agglutinative languages grammar is understood in adding endings in morphological structures of the sentences and it becomes complicated, but the ending of the sentence is not changed, if becomes the same.

Kazakh in contact with Russian in modern Kazakhstan

A visitor to Kazakhstan is struck by the dominance of Russian everywhere. A general impression is that both the official language and the first spoken language of non-Kazakhs and the majority of Kazakhs is Russian. Kazakh appears to play the role of a secondary language in all major cities and regions dominated by Russians. A specialist in Turkic languages who before visiting Kazakhstan worked with some Kazakh literary or folklore texts but does not know the real situation of language is astonished that instead of genuine Kazakh words he read in these texts he hears Russian words and phrases in almost every utterance. Naturally there also exists a high standard variety of Kazakh, free of code-mixing and code-switching, but in most cases it functions in strictly limited situations. The attempt of this paper is to show linguistic behaviours of Kazakhs in Kazakh-Russian language contacts and to show the state of Kazakh in modern Kazakhstan.

Reflection of the Language in the Historical Documents on Kazakhs Living in China

Connectivities and Common Legacies in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, 2022

Zhamila Mamyrkhanova looks at the linguistic patterns in the language of the Kazakhs living in China. Using the historical-comparative method, analysis of speech definitions, component, and semantic analysis, she argues that the language of Kazakhs from China is characterized by a variety of local features, which result from the differences in living conditions, life, customs and traditions, people's consciousness.

Spoken Kazakh: A Case Study from the Aktobe Region in Western Kazakhstan

DergiPark (Istanbul University), 2023

This article investigates spoken Kazakh, focusing on a recorded narrative from the Aktobe region in Western Kazakhstan. The paper presents an interlinear analysis of the narrative alongside an English translation and discusses various linguistic phenomena found in the spoken language. Furthermore, some comparisons with written Kazakh are provided.

Kazakhstan: Language Situation

Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, 2006

Nowadays the issues about introduction of multilingual education have become a pressing problem of the world of both public discussions and scientific researches. In this paper, the issues about the language policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the educational sphere are considered. Features of the developing language situation and its influence on the processes of language modernization in the sphere of education are described. How successful will this process be for multinational and multicultural Kazakhstan? Is it possible to develop a complete language educational policy promoting English and maintaining a language variety at the same time? On the basis of results of sociological and sociolinguistic researches, the attitudes of Kazakhstani citizens towards a multilingual policy conducted by the state and the prospects for Kazakh, Russian and English language development are revealed.

Language and Society in Kazakhstan: The Kazakh Context

2020

Learning Kazakh as a foreign language is becoming more popular all over the world. Kazakh is taught as a second language and a foreign language as part of national and international courses at institutes and universities. One of the teaching centres where Kazakh is taught outside of Kazakhstan is Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. Kazakh, which began to be taught in 2002, continues to be taught at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Designing a programme to teach Kazakh to foreigners in a way that is compatible with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages is important for the formation of an academic, versatile, and standardized teaching activity. This study assesses the Kazakh language courses (Kazakh Grammar, Practical Kazakh) in the undergraduate programme of Turkology within the scope of the Section of Kazakh Studies, which was previously a part of the Department of Asian Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan but has recently joined the Institute of Oriental Studies. The research data was obtained through document review using a qualitative research approach. The findings revealed that the Kazakh programme was designed to be skill-oriented, simple and holistic. It was observed that the programme has components that emphasise communicative language skills, including linguistic and pragmatic skills as well as sociolinguistic skills. In the implicit dimension of the programme, sociolinguistic skills are highlighted.