러시아ㆍ유라시아

This study will examine a critical arena of identification in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, namely, language status and use. I will focus on the prospects of the Kazakh language as it relates to commonality and connectedness among the ethnic Kazakh population and potential role of the Kazakh language to link Kazakhstan’s titular ethnic majority with the more than 40 percent minority population. In an address delivered on 31 August 2004, Nazarbayev proclaimed that a supraethnic community-one he referred to as the “Kazakhstani nation” (Kazakhstanskaia natsiia / Qazaqstan ulty)-is in the process of emerging. Nazarbayev’s reference to a Kazakhstani nation produced a very strong reaction among members of Kazakhstan’s intelligentsia. The response from non-Kazakhs-despite the president’s assurances about diversity-may be rooted in a perception that “Kazakhstani-ness” is a step toward eventual assimilation into a nation dominated by a Kazakh majority. The president’s introduction of the term “Kazakhstani nation,” however, also evoked a very negative reaction from some Kazakh nationalists, i.e., those who see Kazakhstan above all as the homeland of the Kazakhs, and who insist that Kazakhstan must make Kazakh culture the “first among equals.” In the nationalist view, ethnic minorities of Kazakhstan-including Russians-reside in the country as guests, and, therefore, should live according to the rules of their hosts. In this article, I will provide background about several factors that help explain the relation of Kazakh language to commonality and connectedness in Kazakhstan since independence. And then I will present a very brief overview of changes in several aspects of Kazakh language status from the late Soviet period until the present. This analysis will provide a basis for considering the most important political, economic, and demographic factors in Kazakhstan affecting language status change today, especially among Kazakhs, and the likely direction of future change.