Paper abstract:

This project aims to capture the different linguistic ideologies (after Silverstein 2004) supporting codeswitching (after Woolard 2005) and translanguaging (after Wei 2011) practices in Astana’s public spaces. This paper is the result of a three-month ethnographic fieldwork. I carried out participant observation in three main public spaces: a bazaar, the old city center, and a mall. At each site, I took pictures of the linguistic landscape (written occurrence of languages within public spaces). I conducted interviews structured around life narratives allowing each participant to bring forward their own themes and underlining changes in their linguistic practices. I argue that two linguistic ideologies structure the contemporary use of the Kazakh language. The “older ideology”, which appeals to the collective memory of the soviet experience, limits the Kazakh language’s usage to the domestic sphere and presents it as an index of rurality and lack of education. Kazakh people vividly remember the interdiction of speaking the Kazakh language in public spaces and its devaluation in favor of the Russian language during the last decades of the Soviet period. Despite important kazakhstanisation efforts, it still marks the linguistic practices, often involuntarily. The “new ideology”, which competes to convey meaning to Kazakh language usage, reflects the valorization of a standardized register (after Agha 2005). A good command of standardized Kazakh is understood as an index of education and, more generically, of the achievement of Kazakhstani independence. As a result, fragmentary use of standardized Kazakh is perceived negatively: it is seen as an index of being “half-Kazakh” [Shala Qazaq], a term that serves as a racial slur. This situation often discourages Kazakh semi-speakers to use the language. Russian remains the language of social ascension as it is still the main language used in commercial spaces and workplaces. In parallel, English is seen as an index of modernity, or more specifically of access to Western resources and references such as media, capital, employment, or immigration. On a larger scale, it can be understood as a renegotiation of Soviet modernity’s narrative and as a will to sideline Russian soft power. The scope of this project highlights how the past year’s international political events affect linguistic practices in Astana. Languages are key pieces in the construction of Kazakhstani social identities. This research aims to deepen the understanding of code preferences to empower communities and to give them the possibility to renegotiate the next page of their story.