Abstract

This paper examines the relationships that young bilingual and multilingual Qazaqs have with the Qazaq and Russian languages, especially how their outlooks have developed in the past four years. I have conducted a written survey with Qazaqs from all over the country. The survey covers each language the respondent speaks, asking about their background with the language (including when they learned it, with whom they use it, and what kind of media they might consume in it) and their attitudes towards the language (including whether they will pass the language down to their children, and what associations they might have with the language). Overall, I have found that Qazaqs are very proud of their knowledge of Qazaq, and plan to pass down the language to their children as much as they can. There is no broad trend on whether respondents have shifted more towards Russian or Qazaq in their daily lives, because this greatly depends on their social circle. However, many respondents expressed a desire to speak Qazaq more cleanly, or read more in Qazaq. Unlike Qazaq, attitudes towards Russian varied significantly between respondents. They did not express pride in speaking Russian, but many respondents emphasized how Russian allows communication between different ethnic groups and lets them access a broader variety of literature. Only a few respondents directly associated the Russian language with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, however others expressed their negative feelings towards Russian by emphasizing its imperial history and their memories of its role in the oppression of Qazaq language. There is a very small body of sociolinguistic literature in English about Qazaqstan, and I hope to contribute up-to-date evidence showing that Qazaq is becoming a well-respected language in Qazaqstan, while public opinions on Russian are much more mixed.