Language Policy and Language Planning in Kazakhstan: About the Proposed Shift from the Cyrillic Alphabet to the Latin Alphabet Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Dotton, Zura Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 02/10/2021 10:49:16 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621896 LANGUAGE POLICY AND LANGUAGE PLANNING IN KAZAKHSTAN: ABOUT THE PROPOSED SHIFT FROM THE CYRILLIC ALPHABET TO THE LATIN ALPHABET by Zura Dotton __________________________ Copyright © Zura Dotton 2016 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the GRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND TEACHING In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2016 Dotton 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Zura Dotton, titled Language Policy and Language Planning in Kazakhstan: About the Proposed Shift from the Cyrillic Alphabet to the Latin Alphabet and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 08/16/2016 Linda Waugh _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 08/16/2016 John Leafgren _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 08/16/2016 Mary Combs Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: 08/16/2016 Dissertation Director: Linda Waugh Dotton 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Zura Dotton Dotton 4 Acknowledgements I would like to offer my sincere appreciation for the learning opportunities and the continuous support and encouragement for this project provided by the dissertation committee of the PhD Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching at the University of Arizona. I do not have enough words to express my appreciation for the dissertation committee chair, Dr. Linda R. Waugh. Not only is she a rigorous scholar and an approachable and giving mentor, she is also an amazing person. She works so hard for her students and was willing to provide help on a moment’s notice. Without her encouragement and understanding this dissertation would not have been possible. To Dr. John R. Leafgren, Head of the Russian and Slavic Studies Department, I would like to express my profound gratitude for his useful comments, guidance and encouragement through the learning process of this dissertation. His support has made all the difference. To Mary Carol Combs, Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies, I want to thank her for her tremendous help and patience. Her input and suggestions have been invaluable to the completion of this project. Dotton 5 A special thanks to all the informants and representatives of the educational department and schools of the Ainabulaq region, South Kazakhstan, who provided such valuable opinions and insights into the cultural and societal issues in the efforts of language shifts occurring in Kazakhstan today. And finally, I would like to take a moment to remember Dr. Richard Ruiz, Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies and Director of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona. I will always remember and be grateful for the support, humor and wisdom he provided in the short time we were able to work together on this project. Dotton 6 Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................... 9 1.1. Towards a New National Identity ..................................................................... 9 1.2. Penetration of the Russian Language ............................................................ 10 1.3. Goals of the Research ...................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2: Historical Background .............................................................................. 12 2.1. Soviet Era ........................................................................................................ 12 2.1.1. Peoples and Languages of the Soviet Union ............................................... 14 2.1.2. Concepts of Language Policy, Language Construction and Language Planning in the Soviet Union ............................................................................... 19 2.1.3. Soviet Language Policies in Kazakhstan ..................................................... 25 Chapter 3: Language Policy and Language Planning in Independent Kazakhstan (1991 – present) ................................................................................................................... 28 3.1 Language Planning and National Development ................................................. 29 3.1.1. Minority Languages ................................................................................... 31 3.1.2. The Status Planning of the Kazakh Language ............................................ 35 3.1.3. Nationalism vs. Nationism ......................................................................... 37 3.2. Language Shift and Reversing the Language Shift in Kazakhstan ................. 40 Chapter 4: Language Modernization: The Shift from Cyrillic to Latin in Modern, Multicultural, Multiethnic, and Multilingual Kazakhstan ........................................... 43 4.1. Methods .............................................................................................................. 44 4.1.1. Data Analysis ............................................................................................... 47 4.2. President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Official Announcement of the Planned Shift ... 48 4.2.1. Attitudes Towards the Alphabet Shift............................................................ 48 4.2.2. The Trinity of Languages Policy..................................................................... 50 4.3. Language Reform Documents .......................................................................... 52 4.3.1. State Program of Development and Promotion of the Languages in Kazakhstan for 2011-2020 .................................................................................. 55 4.4. Public Opinion and Criticism ........................................................................... 61 4.4.1. Public Opinions Based on the Analysis of the Interviews Conducted During the Research ....................................................................................................... 64 4.4.2. Perceptions and Preparedness – Public Opinion ........................................ 66 4.4.3. Evidence of the Natural Shift to Latin ........................................................ 70 4.4.4. Challenges and Possible Misconceptions ................................................... 74 4.4.5. Linguistic Divide ........................................................................................ 77 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 81 References ................................................................................................................. 89 Dotton 7 Abstract The dissertation is an analysis of the history, current state, and possible future directions of the development of language policy in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Although language planning in the republics of the former Soviet Union has been a major subject of debate on government nation building agendas over the last two decades, the situation and implementation of language policies significantly differ in Kazakhstan due to the conditions of multilingualism and diglossia, in addition to other geographic and historical factors that resulted in the extended penetration of the Russian language during the Soviet era (Isayev, 1977:20). In the first chapter of the study, I trace the history of language legislation and political practices throughout the period of Russian-Kazakh diglossia (Fishman, 1967), a language situation in which the use of two unrelated languages (Kazakh and Russian) performed as high and low varieties at different