International Symposium: Interaction of Turkic Languages and Cultures Abstracts Saule Tazhibayeva & Nevskaya Irina Turkish Diaspora of Kazakhstan: Language Peculiarities Kazakhstan is a multiethnic and multi-religious state, where live more than 126 representatives of different ethnic groups (Sulejmenova E., Shajmerdenova N., Akanova D. 2007). One-third of the population is Turkic ethnic groups speaking 25 Turkic languages and presenting a unique model of the Turkic world (www.stat.gov.kz, Nevsakya, Tazhibayeva, 2014). One of the most numerous groups are Turks deported from Georgia to Kazakhstan in 1944. The analysis of the language, culture and history of the modern Turkic peoples, including sub-ethnic groups of the Turkish diaspora up to the present time has been carried out inconsistently. Kazakh researchers studied history (Toqtabay, 2006), ethno-political processes (Galiyeva, 2010), ethnic and cultural development of Turkish diaspora in Kazakhstan (Ibrashaeva, 2010). Foreign researchers devoted their studies to ethnic peculiarities of Kazakhstan (see Bhavna Dave, 2007). Peculiar features of Akhiska Turks living in the US are presented in the article of Omer Avci (www.nova.edu./ssss/QR/QR17/avci/PDF). Features of the language and culture of the Turkish Diaspora in Kazakhstan were not subjected to special investigation. There have been no studies of the features of the Turkish language, with its sub- ethnic dialects, documentation of a corpus of endangered variants of Turkish language. The data of the pre-sociological surveys show that the Kazakh Turks self-identify themselves as Turks Akhiska, Turks Hemshilli, Turks Laz, Turks Terekeme. Unable to return to their home country to Georgia Akhiska, Hemshilli, Laz Turks, Terekeme were scattered in many countries. Language variants of sub-ethnic groups are endangered or have already come to the point where there is a need for their revitalization. The situation is aggravated by the fact that all the variants of Turkish language in Kazakhstan are unwritten. In this regard, it is necessary immediately investigate, document, fully explore and give a scientific description of various variants of the Turkish language. Separation from the main ethnic array led, in particular, to the preservation of language and certain elements of traditional Turkish culture. Language of Kazakhstani Turks preserved in the form in which it existed before the Kemal reforms in the Republic of Turkey. At present there are sufficiently rapid processes of cultural assimilation of Kazakhstani Turks (both to Kazakh and Russian-speaking culture). Language and culture, retained by the older generation need to be investigated and fixed by researchers. Documentation of linguistic peculiarities of different dialects of Turkish Diaspora in Kazakhstan is one of the important tasks of Turkic studies in Kazakhstan (Nevskaya I., Tazhibayeva S., 2014). Separately, it should be noted that Turkish representatives consider Kazakhstan as the most comfortable country to preserve the culture, language among all the Central Asian states. Thus, the study of language, culture and self-identification of Turkish diaspora in Kazakhstan is of a double interest: on the one hand, from the point of view of studying the archaic form of the Turkish language, perhaps lost in the historic homeland; on the other hand, in terms of capturing and documenting the heritage which is threatened by the loss due to the process of cultural assimilation and generational change. The globalization processes, the impact of literary Turkish language via satellite TV, mass media destroy a unique culture and language of Kazakhstani Turks with their various sub-ethnic groups. At the same time, the rise of national consciousness of Turks, and their desire to preserve their language and culture for future generations means that there is a social demand for the documentation of these languages. Documentation will have not only scientific, but also a great social importance. References: Sulejmenova E.D. Shajmerdenova N.Zh., Akanova D.H. 2010.Jazyki narodov Kazahstana. Sociolingvisticheskij spravochnik. – Astana: «Izd-vo Arman-PV», 2007.- 304 p. Itogi nacional'noj perepisi naselenija 2009 goda v Respublike Kazahstan Statisticheskij sbornik /Pod red. A.Smailova/ Astana, - 2010 – p. 297. Altynbekova O.B. Jetnojazykovye processy v Kazahstane. –Almaty: Jekonomika, 2006.–s. 416 Toqtabay A.2006. Tu'rkі hali'qtari'ni'ng e'tnoma'deni''etі. – Almaty: «Tolaghay», 2006. – 328 b; Galiev A.A., 2010. E'tnopoli''ti''cheski''e processi' w tyurkoyazi'chni'h narodov: istoriya i ee mifologizaciya. – Avtoref. di''s… d-ra i''st. nawk. – Almati', 2010. - 25 p. 'brasheva Sh. 2010. Qazaqstandaghi'ori''rіk di''asporasi' (e'tnoma'deni'' damwi'). Avtoref….kand. i''st. nawk.- Almati', 2010.- 32p. Bhavna Dave, 2007. Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, Language and Power - London, Routledge, 2007 Avchi Omer. Understanding the culture of Ahiska Turks in Wheaton Illinois: A case study – www.nova.edu./ssss/QR/QR17/avci/PDF Nevskaya I.A., Tazhibayeva S.J., 2014. Sovremennaja tjurkologija i mezhdunarodnoe sotrudnichestvo na Evrazijskom prostranstve // Global Turk . №1. S.19-34 – Astana, 2014. Emine Shahingoz & Vanessa Quasnik Linguistic data processing in the framework of the project ‘Interaction of Turkic languages and cultures in Kazakhstan’ Kazakhstan is a multi ethnic country with more than 130 ethnic groups 25 of them are Turkic ones. One of those ethnic groups are the Turkic-speaking minorities, which were deported to Central Asia during the Stalin era in the year of 1944. The primary objective of the project ‘Interaction of Turkic Languages and Cultures in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan’ is to clear up the sociolinguistic situation of these Turkic ethnic groups in Kazakhstan. The Turkic minorities endure the double pressure of Russian as well as of Kazakh, since they are the dominant languages of today’s Kazakhstan. The Turkic minorities’ languages in Kazakhstan have kept some archaic features and developed innovative ones, triggered by language contact with other Turkic and non-Turkic languages. An often appearing phenomenon for example is the code switching of the speakers of those minority languages. Whilst speaking Russian or Kazakh, they often use elements of their mother tongue and vice versa. Documenting these processes is also a goal of the project. To achieve the goals of the project, there are a few issues we need to pay attention to. These include: - social strategies of Turkic ethnic groups in the new conditions of independent Kazakhstan - assimilation processes vs. retaining the ethnic identities, as well as the main factors influencing these processes - ethnic vs. civic in the mass-consciousness of the Turkic ethnic groups in modern Kazakhstan - the role of the state policies and of spontaneously developing tendencies - reasons for increase and decrease in numbers of certain Turkic ethnic groups during the independence period Apart from that, our goal is to document especially endangered or unstudied Turkic varieties. In the framework of the project fieldworks have been organized, where the fieldwork teams visited many different families and documented their languages. The minorities they got to meet were for example Ahiska, Azeri, Balkar, Karachay, Kumyk, Laz, Nogay, Uzbek, Xemshilli etc. Before even transcribing there were a few tasks, we had to overcome. For example it was fundamental to choose the phonems which appear in the documented languages. Also it would have been very time consuming to always copy the needed phonems, so we created a phonetic keyboard, accessable through shortcuts. While some of the team started transcribing, others archived the metadata we collected with the help of ‘Arbil’. ‘Arbil’ is a program of the Max-Planks-Institute for Psycholinguistics and is specifically programmed to organize linguistic data. Videos and audios, as well as the transcriptions will later on be added to the system. In this way, the data access will be much easier. After all these steps, our next task will be creating a database, based on our converted transcripts and video-/ audio material. Databases in general not only store large amounts of data, but also impose an organization in data, which facilitates access for researchers and applications developers. Our database of Turkic minorities’ languages of Kazakhstan will enable further projects and researches. Bernt Brendemoen: The Eastern Black Sea (”Laz”) dialects of Turkey The reason for my participation in the symposium on Turkic population elements in Kazakhstan is the group known as ”Laz Turks”. Since I have been working extensively on the dialects of the Eastern Back Sea Coast of Turkey, and especially Trabzon, I am very interested in the ”Laz” in Kazakhstan and in what kind of connection there is between their dialect and the present Eastern Black Sea dialects in Turkey. (”Laz” is of course originally the name of a group in the Turkish provinces of Rize and Artvin speaking a Kartvelian language, but the designation ”Laz” has been used (alongside with ”Lezghi”) about any population element on the Eastern Black Sea Coast since the Middle Ages, cf. Brendemoen 2002: 23). Thus, my contribution to the symposium will be to give a survey of the main characteristics of the dialects spoken in Trabzon and Rize today. The area can be divided into several sub-districts from the point of view of archaic features and innovations due to the impact of non-Turkic languages. The most archaic features are the ones in Trabzon where Greek used to be spoken extensively up to the population exchange in 1923, i.e. the districts of Of and Çaykara, and Maçka, Akçaabat, and Tonya (henceforth called ”the nucleus districts”). In the districts of Yomra, Arsin, Araklı, and Sürmene, and also in great parts of Rize, there seems to be an extensive Armenian substrate. In the field of phonology, the mot salient features characterizing the Eastern Black Sea dialects are the following: 1) Backing of / ü / and / ö / and fronting of / ı /. The strength of this phonological mechanism varies both according to the surrounding consonants and the geographical districts. In the ”nucleus areas” it does not take place after velar stops, but in Rize it does.