Language Research

2. Background: Background notes

The two official languages in Kazakhstan are Kazak and Russian. Kazak is a part of the Nogai-Kipchak subgroup of northeastern Turkic languages, heavily influenced by both Tatar and Mongol. Kazak was written for the first time only in the 1860s, using Arabic script. In 1929 the Latin script was introduced. In 1940 Stalin decided to unify the written materials of the Central Asian republics with those of their Slavic rulers by introducing a modified form of the Cyrillic alphabet. In 1992 the return of a Latin-based alphabet came under discussion, but the enormous costs involved appear to have stopped further consideration of the idea.

Many of the ethnic Russian-speakers have their "roots" in Kazakhstan. They have lived there for many generations, were born and raised there and have little or no connection with Russia as their "historical motherland". These people favor remaining in Kazakhstan. In 1993, 40% of Russians did not want to leave the Republic.

The problem in Kazakhstan is much wider than that of language. Cultural differences, economic difficulties, the sharpened issues of ethnicity, language and citizenship, have all strengthened anti-Russian stereotypes among the Kazakh population and created an unfavorable atmosphere for the Russian-speakers of Kazakhstan. In this situation many Russian-speakers made a decision to move from Kazakhstan to Russia, with which they associate their cultural, economic, as well as career expectations and opportunities.