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This study examines the linguistic landscapes of Taraz and Karagandy, two regional cities in Kazakhstan, in order to explore how historical background, language policy, and globalization shape visible language practices in post-Soviet urban spaces. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Linguistic Landscape studies the research analyzes the visibility, salience, and placement of languages on commercial and public signage. The study applies Elana Shohamy and Bernard Spolsky’s language policy and sign-making theory, which conceptualizes signage as the outcome of interactions between sign owners, sign-makers, readers, and language management authorities. In addition, Pavlenko’s post-Soviet de-russification framework is employed to interpret processes of language erasure, replacement, upgrading, downgrading, regulation, and transgression.

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of commercial signage, supplemented by informal interviews with residents, reveals significant regional differences. Taraz demonstrates strong Kazakh-dominant practices, frequent monolingual Kazakh signage, and instances of Kazakh-English bilingualism that reflect both de-russification and globalization. Karagandy, by contrast, shows a higher prevalence of Russian monolingual and Kazakh-Russian bilingual signage, including transgressive signs that violate official language placement norms.

The findings suggest that smaller cities respond differently to external influences such as migration from the Russian Federation and global economic integration. Taraz appears to be at a more advanced stage of symbolic de-russification and language loyalty, while Karagandy reflects a more persistent Russian linguistic presence linked to demographic composition and Soviet industrial heritage. The study contributes to post-Soviet sociolinguistics by demonstrating that linguistic landscapes in regional cities provide nuanced insight into language ideology, identity construction, and the ongoing negotiation between national language policy and everyday linguistic practice.

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While discourse was gaining prominence on the language side, there was a transformation in feminist theory and gender studies regarding conceptions of gender, and instead of seeing gender as merely an identity that one ‘‘has,’’ analysts started to understand it in terms of what people ‘‘do’’. From this perspective, gender not only exists but is also continuously created, recreated, and transformed through individuals’ enactment of gendered behaviors. This occurs as they assert their own claimed gender identities, affirm or contest the identities of others, and support or contest systems of gender relations and privilege in various ways (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2013). In relation to this, gender, particularly women’s image, is reconstructed when translating from one language to another, and it may cause ideological changes (gender roles, stereotypes, equality are presented differently in a target language), ambiguity, and alters meaning in literature texts (Lardelli, 2023). The aim of this study is to explore how manipulation and neutralisation function as translation strategies influencing the representation of women in German–Kazakh official translations. Although existing studies focus on translating between English paired languages, there is a lack of research on German–Kazakh translation (Peña-Aguilar, 2024) and how gender representation is affected in translations. The study adopts a comparative mixed-methods research design, combining corpus-based quantitative analysis to identify patterns of gender-related translation shifts and Critical Discourse Analysis to interpret their discursive and ideological implications (Saldanha and O’Brien, 2013). Preliminary observations suggest that gender-marked elements in German may undergo manipulation or neutralisation in Kazakh translation, potentially altering women’s visibility and agency.

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This study examines the linguistic landscape of social media through an analysis of posts about the city of Astana published on Facebook and Threads. The relevance of investigating the linguistic landscape in digital environments stems from a fundamental shift: social media platforms are evolving into autonomous semiotic territories in which language choice, toponymic markers, and discursive patterns construct alternative mappings of the city (Ivkovic & Lotherington, 2009). The virtual image of the capital thus emerges as a significant factor in urban policy and shapes residents’ perceptions of urban space.

The corpus consists of user-generated posts containing Astana-related geotags, published between 2023 and 2025. Unlike physical space, the digital landscape is characterized by rapid change, a polyphony of voices, and the possibility of immediate feedback, making it a sensitive indicator of social tensions and identity shifts. Analysis of the virtual linguistic landscape enables the identification of informal meaning-making practices related to the urban environment that often remain outside official representations.

The study aims to identify the key linguistic strategies employed by residents in representing Astana on Facebook and Threads and to examine the relationship between language choice and discursive practices. It hypothesizes that the use of Kazakh, Russian, and hybrid forms, along with specific toponymic practices, not only reflects existing social hierarchies but also actively constructs meanings of urban belonging that may diverge from the official narrative. The study combines quantitative analysis of language distribution with qualitative analysis of self-positioning strategies. The research questions operate on three levels: (1) the distribution of languages and patterns of code-switching; (2) discursive techniques used to mark urban belonging; and (3) the relationship between linguistic visibility and the semantic density of identity construction in audience responses.

The findings indicate that Astana’s virtual linguistic landscape functions as a counter-narrative to the city’s official image, enabling citizens to construct urban identities through irony, code-switching, and the symbolic reappropriation of space. In doing so, the study demonstrates how digitally mediated discourse operates as a critical layer of contemporary urban semiotics in Central Asian contexts, thereby contributing to sociolinguistic scholarship and extending the theory of the virtual linguistic landscape (Ivkovic & Lotherington, 2009) to a previously underexplored regional setting. The findings also have practical implications for the development of more inclusive communication strategies by municipal authorities.

References:

Ivkovic, D., & Lotherington, H. (2009). Multilingualism in cyberspace: Conceptualising the virtual linguistic landscape. International Journal of Multilingualism, 6(1), 17–36.

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This paper examines how ethnic Kazakhs from the Ili region of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region conceptualize variation within the Kazakh language and how these perceptions are shaped by language ideologies. Although Kazakh is often described in linguistic scholarship as a language with relatively limited dialectal differentiation, speakers’ perceptions reveal that linguistic differences are interpreted through ideological frameworks that link language use to authenticity, morality, and cultural belonging. This study investigates how Xinjiang Kazakhs perceive dialect variation across the Kazakhstan–China border and how these perceptions construct symbolic boundaries within the Kazakh-speaking world.

The analysis draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted with ethnic Kazakhs born in Xinjiang who later migrated to southern Kazakhstan. Using methods from perceptual dialectology and following Preston’s framework, which elicits speakers’ attitudes, evaluations, and mental maps of linguistic variation, semi-structured interviews were employed for this study. Participants were asked to comment on regional language differences, evaluate speech samples from different regions of Kazakhstan, and describe where they believe dialectal boundaries exist. While participants experienced difficulty with map-based elicitation tasks commonly used in perceptual dialectology, their verbal responses provided detailed insights into how linguistic differences are imagined and evaluated.

The findings demonstrate that participants consistently interpret linguistic variation through an ideology of linguistic purism. Many described the Kazakh spoken in Xinjiang as таза (‘pure’) or нақ қазақ (‘real Kazakh’), contrasting it with what they perceive as “mixed” or “influenced” Kazakh in Kazakhstan due to Russian borrowings and code-switching. These evaluations reflect broader ideological associations between linguistic purity and cultural authenticity. At the same time, participants frequently portray Kazakh in Kazakhstan as linguistically homogeneous, overlooking internal dialect diversity. These perceptions illustrate the semiotic process of erasure, whereby the ideology of linguistic purity renders both contact-induced features in Xinjiang Kazakh and dialect variation within Kazakhstan largely invisible to speakers. Furthermore, judgments about linguistic purity are reproduced at smaller regional scales within Xinjiang itself, demonstrating the process of fractal recursivity in the construction of dialect hierarchies.

By examining how speakers ideologically interpret linguistic variation, this paper contributes to scholarship on language ideology, perceptual dialectology, and cross-border linguistic identities in Central Eurasia. The study highlights how dialect boundaries are not simply linguistic realities but socially constructed through speakers' beliefs about authenticity, purity, and cultural legitimacy.

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The Uyghur language is facing a rapidly growing existential crisis; the global diaspora, scattered across Australia, Turkey, Japan, Central Asia, Western Europe, North America, has emerged as the primary site of active linguistic reproduction and cultural continuity. This study examines how a geographically fragmented Uyghur community organizes itself to sustain a language under severe pressure, through building institutions, curricula, and digital infrastructure from scratch and across borders.

The presentation argues that diaspora language preservation efforts constitute a form of structural counter-architecture: a deliberate, institution-building response to conditions of linguistic vulnerability. This analysis maps three interconnected layers of this response. First is the institutional layer, comprising community-run mother-tongue schools. Second is the academic and curricular layer, grounded in organizations like the Uyghur Academy, which in 2024 published and distributed for free the first systematically produced, five-year elementary textbook series specifically designed for diaspora students. Third is the digital layer, which includes online educational platforms.

The presentation also scrutinizes the deep internal tensions that undermine them. Host country languages like Turkish, English, German, and Russian exert strong socioeconomic pressure on diaspora youth, making Uyghur a secondary language in daily life. More critically, the study develops the concept of the "Frozen Language" effect: severed from the intellectual and institutional centers where natural linguistic evolution would occur, Uyghur vocabulary is stagnant in the diaspora. New terms for technology, science, and contemporary social life cannot be generated organically; this leads to new generations being unable to express complex modern experiences in their mother tongue, further driving them toward dominant languages. The resource asymmetry repeatedly highlights the difficulty of academics, teachers, and organizers sustaining this effort without broader international academic and institutional support.

The presentation concludes by examining how the Uyghur diaspora's struggle for language preservation sheds light on a broader linguistic phenomenon. In this struggle, when a community's conditions for linguistic reproduction are disrupted, the burden of survival falls upon a dispersed, under-resourced exiled population that is forced to maintain the complete infrastructure of a normally functioning society. Whether the diaspora can preserve a vibrant, thriving language, not just as a preserved artifact, but ensuring its permanence as a language of thought and identity for future generations of Uyghurs, or whether it will become a time capsule belonging to an increasingly distant world, as the "Frozen Language" thesis predicts, is the defining question.

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This study examines how Kazakhstan's "Trinity of Languages" policy has been discursively articulated from its inception in the early 2000s through its ongoing evolution to 2026. As a sovereign state with a multiethnic structure, Kazakhstan has developed a distinctive approach to language policy in the post-Soviet period, seeking to balance national identity, regional connections, and global engagement.

This paper concerns how do official discourses articulate the trilingual framework and provide rationales for it? What discursive strategies are employed to present the relationships among the three languages? And how do these narratives reflect Kazakhstan's vision of its place in post-Soviet and global spaces?

The research adopts a critical discourse analysis framework, drawing on Fairclough's three-dimensional model and van Leeuwen's legitimation strategies. A specialized corpus is compiled, consisting of key language policy documents (the Law on Languages, State Programs for Language Development), and presidential addresses (Nazarbayev 2004-2019, Tokayev 2019-2026). The corpus covers the period from the policy's formal articulation in Nazarbayev's 2007 Address to the present.

Analysis proceeds in two stages. First, corpus-assisted analysis using AntConc identifies frequency patterns, collocations, and concordance lines of key terms in their Kazakh, Russian, and English contexts. Second, qualitative discourse analysis examines how these terms function in context, focusing on the ways official discourse presents the roles of and relationships among the three languages.

The analysis aims to illuminate how trilingual discourse articulates Kazakhstan's vision of its national space, its ongoing connections within the post-Soviet region, and its aspirations for global engagement. It also seeks to understand how official discourse addresses the complex societal dynamics of a multiethnic society, presenting the three languages as complementary resources for the nation's future development. The policy's evolution over two decades—including adjustments and refinements—reflects language planning as a dynamic process responsive to societal needs and changing circumstances.

As an international scholarly inquiry, this research offers an external perspective on Kazakhstan's distinctive approach to language policy, aiming to contribute to comparative understanding of language planning in multilingual societies. By engaging with Kazakhstan's experience, the author hopes to participate in the broader scholarly conversation on post-Soviet nation-building and to learn from a policy approach that has sought to integrate multiple linguistic legacies in service of national development. The author sincerely welcomes dialogue with Kazakhstani colleagues and hopes this external perspective can enrich, rather than replace, the rich scholarly conversation within Kazakhstan itself.

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This paper examines whether artificial intelligence can replace human literary translators by comparing AI-generated translations with James Riordan's canonical English translation of Chingiz Aitmatov's novella "Jamila" (1957). The study focuses on the translation of Kyrgyz realia -culturally bound words that carry deep national connotations and pose significant challenges for cross-cultural transmission.

The research analyzes ten key realia from the text, including chiy (steppe grass used for traditional mats), tandyr (clay oven for baking bread), tulpar (legendary winged horse from the Epic of Manas), and tökmö akyn (poet-improvisator who composes spontaneously). Using V.N. Komissarov's classification of lexical transformations (transcription, transliteration, calquing, modulation, and explication), the study compares Riordan's translation strategies with outputs from contemporary AI models. Primary sources include Aitmatov's original Kyrgyz text, the Russian translation by A. Dmitrieva, and Riordan's English version, alongside AI-generated translations of selected passages.

The analysis reveals that while AI demonstrates impressive competence in conveying denotative meanings and producing fluent target texts, it consistently fails to capture the connotative and cultural layers embedded in Kyrgyz realia. For instance, AI translates tоkmo akyn simply as "poet," losing the crucial aspect of improvisation that Aitmatov deliberately parallels with the spontaneous nature of love in the story. Riordan, despite some inevitable losses, demonstrates deeper cultural understanding by contextualizing these terms within the narrative, occasionally adding explanatory phrases like "the legendary steed" for tulpar.

I argue that literary translation requires not only linguistic competence but also deep cultural immersion and interpretive skills that current AI models lack. The case of "Jamila" a novella that bridges Kyrgyz culture with global readership -provides compelling evidence that while AI can serve as a valuable tool for translators, it cannot replace the human element in conveying the "soul" of a literary work.

This research contributes to two growing scholarly conversations: the ongoing debate about AI's role in translation studies and the broader field of Central Asian literary translation. It challenges the assumption that AI can fully automate creative translation tasks and underscores the enduring value of human cultural expertise in cross-cultural literary transmission.

Keywords: literary translation, artificial intelligence, Chingiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyz realia, Jamila, Central Asian literature

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This paper investigates lexical convergences between Gawri and Shina, two under-documented Dardic languages spoken in Northern Pakistan. While Dardic languages constitute a significant subgroup of the Indo-Aryan family, their internal relationships remain insufficiently explored (Morgenstierne, 1961; Rönnqvist, 2013). By focusing on Gawri and Shina, this study addresses a critical gap in comparative lexical analysis and contributes to broader debates on language contact, classification, and change in Central Eurasia’s mountainous borderlands.

Using a comparative qualitative approach, the research analyzes everyday semantic domains—kinship, body parts, nature, household objects, numbers, and basic verbs—to identify phonological, semantic, and morphological correspondences. Special attention is given to cognates, borrowings, and local innovations that illuminate historical connections and sociolinguistic influences (Kohistani, 2008; Jacquesson, 2004).

Preliminary findings suggest that Gawri and Shina share a substantial proportion of vocabulary, reflecting both shared ancestry and sustained contact, while also exhibiting divergences shaped by geography and community-specific developments. These results underscore the dynamic interplay between linguistic continuity and innovation in the region.

By situating lexical analysis within the broader context of cultural identity and historical memory, this study highlights the importance of documenting indigenous languages as repositories of collective heritage. It contributes to the conference theme by demonstrating how spaces (mountainous borderlands), societies (linguistic communities), and power (language preservation and identity politics) intersect in shaping Central Eurasia’s linguistic landscape.

Keywords

Lexicon, Dardic languages, Gawri, Shina, language contact, Northern Pakistan

Suggested References

• Morgenstierne, G. (1961). Dardic Languages. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

• Kohistani, R. (2008). Lexical Sharing of Shina Kohistani and Other Dardic Languages. Archive.org.

• Jacquesson, F. (2004). Les langues indo-iraniennes des Pamirs et de l’Hindou Kouch. Cahiers d’Asie centrale.

• Rönnqvist, H. (2013). Tense and Aspect Systems in Dardic Languages: A Comparative Study. Uppsala University.

• Grierson, G.A. (1919). Specimens of the Dardic or Piśācha Languages. Linguistic Survey of India.

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The issue of language remains sensitive in Kazakhstan; it is also evident in public controversies, where businesses that fail to provide services in the Kazakh language are subject to boycotts. According to the 2021 census, 80% of Kazakhstan’s population knows the Kazakh language, but only 49% of Kazakhstan’s population uses it in daily life. However, the number of Kazakh language learners has increased significantly recently. This includes a significant increase in the number of participants in Kazakh-speaking clubs (Batyl bol, Mamile, and others) as well as the growing popularity of Kazakh language-related social media accounts (Qazaq grammar, Qazaq bubble, and others). In these cases, there was no government support or intervention; it was bottom-up mobilization. By employing the content-analysis technique, this research analyzes the major reasons behind social mobilization around the Kazakh language and its learners. With Kazakhstan’s growing global visibility through cultural figures such as singer Dimash Kudaibergen and Q-pop (Ninety One, etc.), people outside Kazakhstan have begun to show interest in the Kazakh language. In addition to that, the Russian-Ukrainian war and the inflow of Russian migrants have surprisingly increased the number of Kazakh language learners. This study looks at the different ways people mobilize around Kazakh language learning. This paper argues that recent mobilization around Kazakh language learning is driven not primarily by state policy but by bottom-up civic initiatives. Kazakh-speaking clubs and online platforms such as Batyl Bol, Mamile, and Qazaq Grammar function as informal networks of activism that mobilize participants through community engagement and digital communication.

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This paper investigates the dynamics that Uyghur diaspora communities utilise to maintain their mother tongue alive in Europe and Turkiye. In recent years, the Uyghur language in China has been restricted in education, public life, publications, and media. These restrictions have contributed to the classification of Uyghur as an endangered language (Reyhan 2021). Complex challenges of political and linguistic pressures from the external homeland and the opportunities for linguistic freedom in their host counties are leading many Uyghurs in the diaspora to actively want to keep their mother tongue survive as cultural resistance to the language policy in the homeland. Drawing on the findings from fieldnotes, interviews and observations gathered with Uyghur diaspora communities in Europe and Türkiye, this paper examines the strategies through which Uyghur diaspora work to keep their mother tongue alive, and explores how the preservation of the Uyghur language across borders within Uyghur diaspora communities generates benefits for cultural identity, community well-being, the safeguarding of unique knowledge systems, and the advancement of human rights. By examining the interplay between linguistic continuity and transnational belonging, this study argues that mother tongue preservation is not merely a cultural practice but a critical mechanism for sustaining resilience and empowerment among Uyghur diaspora populations. This study contributes to scholarship on how diaspora communities confront challenges of sustaining their native languages amidst political and linguistic crisis in their homeland.

Reference:

Reyhan, Dil.2021. ‘Uyghur: from a lingua franca to an endangered language’. In Inalco. No.10, 2021.

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Abstract

The Kerek language, once spoken along the northwestern coast of the Bering Sea, ceased to be actively spoken around the turn of the twenty‑first century, when its last native speakers passed away. A member of the Chukotko‑Kamchatkan family, Kerek represents a missing link between Chukchi and Alutor, occupying an important position for understanding the internal relationships within this small but complex group. Despite this significance, Kerek has remained largely understudied because almost no primary data have been accessible. Until recently, published sources consisted only of a brief grammatical sketch by P. Skorik and a single publication by V. Leontev containing ethnographic descriptions and Russian translations of Kerek folklore texts.

Leontev’s publication, however, did not include the original Kerek versions of the texts. Archival research in recent years has revealed that the original Kerek materials and the corresponding sound recordings used by Leontev are preserved in Magadan. Additional field materials collected by E. Asinovsky and A. Volodin are held at the Archives of the Institute for Linguistic Studies in St. Petersburg, comprising several transcribed texts and recordings. These holdings had been known only to a few specialists, and the confirmation of their scope and condition represents an important development for Kerek studies.

Careful examination of these materials is expected to yield valuable information on the structure of Kerek, including aspects of phonology, morphology, and syntax that have remained poorly described. The combination of textual and audio data offers a rare opportunity to analyze natural speech and narrative style in a language that was no longer transmitted to new generations by the end of the last century. This presentation introduces the contents and current state of these archival collections, outlines the kinds of data they contain, and reflects on how their study may contribute to a more complete understanding of Kerek as a missing link within the Chukotko‑Kamchatkan family.

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Legacy language materials: field notes, transcriptions, and audio recordings created by earlier generations of researchers, occupy a privileged position in the study and revitalization of endangered languages. When a language is no longer transmitted to children, when remaining speakers are elderly and few, and when contemporary speech is visibly marked by contact-induced change and domain restriction, materials collected decades earlier inevitably come to be perceived as capturing something more "complete," more "authentic," more "true." This perception is shared, though for different reasons, by linguists seeking diachronic baselines and by community members seeking an uncompromised model for revitalization.

This paper argues that the purity attributed to legacy materials is an ideological construction that obscures the cumulative mediations inherent in any archival record. Drawing on the Tomsk Field Archive of Siberian Indigenous Languages - a collection of over 180 volumes of handwritten field notes covering eight languages across four genetic groupings, assembled over four decades of systematic documentation beginning in 1947, I trace five categories of mediation, what I term "degrees of separation," between the archived record and the communicative events it purports to represent. These include the interpretive filtering inherent in real-time field transcription, the systematic smoothing introduced through secondary editing and "cleaning," the analytical choices embedded in notation normalization, the structural transformations imposed by digital rendering, and the epistemic flattening that occurs when legacy and contemporary data are integrated into undifferentiated multimedia databases.

Using Irvine and Gal's (2000) framework of language ideology, I show how two semiotic processes sustain the perception of archival purity. Iconization collapses the distinction between the archive and the language it documents, such that the collection comes to stand for the language itself. Erasure renders the successive mediations invisible, stripping legacy materials of their production history and presenting them as transparent windows onto a past linguistic reality. Together, these processes generate a paradox: the most heavily mediated version of the data, the one furthest removed from original speech events, carries the greatest institutional authority.

The paper concludes by drawing out implications in three domains: source-critical research practice, including a proposal for systematic "mediation metadata"; meaningful Indigenous data governance under the CARE Principles, with attention to the specific constraints of the Russian institutional context; and a broader reconsideration of archival purity as an ideological phenomenon that shapes not only how legacy materials are used but how "language" itself is conceptualized in documentary and revitalization work.

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As AI becomes increasingly integrated in higher education, institutions in Central Asia encounter a continuing pedagogical challenge that lies mostly in students’ limited preparation in foundational writing skills. At the American University of Central Asia (AUCA), many first-year students struggle to organize ideas into coherent academic essays due to a lack оf knowledge and skills training in essay structure during secondary education. This deficiency often results in writing avoidance, low productivity, and academic dishonesty by using AI tools inappropriately.

This study implements a quasi-experimental mixed-methods design to investigate whether guided AI integration сan assist the students to overcome this barrier. Twо sections of first-year English composition courses will be observed during the 2025–2026 academic year (Spring semester): one group will apply an AI tool (Turnitin Clarity) as a writing facilitator to support brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and proofreading, while the control group will follow a traditional paper-based approach with strict prohibition of AI use. Both groups will work on similar writing tasks and will be assessed using a standardized rubric measuring thesis development, paragraph structure, and overall coherence.

Data will be collected through pre- and post-writing assessments, student reflections, survey questionnaires, instructor observation notes, and AI-generated writing analytics in the experimental group. Quantitative analysis compares improvements in writing structure and productivity between the groups, while qualitative analysis examines student experiences and the progress in their writing practices.

The study assumes that guided AI-assisted instruction will improve students’ ability to produce organized academic essays and reduce writing nonproductiveness. Rather than viewing AI use as academic dishonesty, the findings aim to show how the use of AI can serve as a learning tool that bridges the gap between students’ conceptual thinking and their technical writing abilities. By linking the global AI tendencies and local educational needs, this research introduces an integration model aimed at upgrading writing practice within the academic context of Central Asia.

Keywords: Guided AI use, Essay Writing Skills, Turnitin Clarity

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Abstract

Eastern Yugur is a Mongolic language which might either belong to the Central Mongolic or Southern Mongolic branch (cf. Nugteren 2011: 20, 35-57) and, being spoken in north-western Gansu, is also located geographically in-between the Central and Southern Mongolic area. With an estimated 1000 speakers (Janhunen 2020: 6), it is the Mongolic language with the second-fewest speakers. Along with the rest of Southern Mongolic, its morphology has been described fairly well (Tenishev & Todaeva 1966, Jaġunasutu 1981, Bulučilaġu & Jalsan 1990, Nugteren 2003, Altansubud 2017, Sečencoġtu 2024). At the same time, there is a lack of research papers in morphosyntax and semantics, showing that this language still remains relatively inaccessible to functional-typological linguistics.

In our paper, we will address the first steps in our effort to create a corpus of Eastern Yugur. This includes the digitalization of language materials from existing text collections (Bolučilaġu & Jalsan 1988, Arslan et al. 2013, Tеmür et al. n.d.) and grammars, the creation of a standardized transcription, probably morpheme analysis, the creation of English translations of the existing materials (at least initially translating via Chinese) and the creation of a unified lexicon from existing dictionaries and wordlists (using (Bolučilaġu & Jalsan 1984, Ān et al. 2017, Sīqīncháokètú 2024).

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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.

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In multilingual societies, parents’ beliefs, attitudes, and everyday language practices have a significant impact on their children’s early language environments. In Kazakhstan, where many nations and languages coexist in a complex sociolinguistic landscape, multilingual and multiethnic parents must decide which language to prioritize for their children’s early development. These decisions are influenced by parental language ideologies - beliefs and assumptions about language value, use, and identity - which are embedded in broader sociopolitical and educational contexts (Spolsky, 2004; Curdt-Christiansen, 2009). While previous research in Kazakhstan has looked at parental attitudes toward trilingual education policies and language use among school-aged children, there has been less focus on parental perspectives during the early stages of language acquisition.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the language ideologies that multilingual ethnic Kazakh parents hold about their children’s first language, to identify the factors that shape these beliefs, and to examine how parents’ stated language intentions correspond to language practices in everyday home interactions. The study uses a qualitative multiple-case study design with multilingual and transnational families in Kazakhstan raising children aged 12 to 24 months. Data will be gathered through semi-structured interviews, observations of parent-child interactions at home, and artifact analysis of language-related materials.

The expected findings indicate that parental language ideologies are influenced by a combination of national language policies, sociocultural identity considerations, and perceived educational and socioeconomic opportunities associated with various languages. The study contributes to the field of family language policy by shedding light on how parental beliefs and practices interact in the early stages of language development in multilingual families. Understanding these processes has significant implications for multilingual education and language policy in Kazakhstan.

Keywords: family language policy, language ideologies, multilingualism, first language acquisition, translational families.

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The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies often overlooks low-resource languages, potentially leading to "digital language death" and preventing speakers from accessing resources and knowledge. This project aims to counter this trend by developing resources based on natural spoken Kazakh using AI processing, ultimately establishing a replicable workflow that can be applied to other low-resource languages.

A significant hurdle in automated corpus creation is transcribing naturally occurring interactional speech events (NOISE). These speech events are typically messy due to high noise-to-signal ratios, deficient articulation, simultaneous speakers, and code-switching. Most existing speech-to-text (STT) models, which are often trained on read-aloud written prompts rather than conversational data, perform poorly on NOISE. To address this, the first step in our workflow is to fine-tune the Whisper STT model specifically for conversational Kazakh. This data is sourced from the Multimedia Corpus of Spoken Kazakh Language, which contains roughly 70 hours of annotated data. To better reflect authentic speech, the source data is intentionally left noisy with minimal cleanup. Issues such as varying audio lengths and multi-speaker overlap are managed through data padding, sequential file combination, and neural network-based speaker separation.

The second phase of the workflow transitions from standard text transcription to segmentation into Intonation Units (IUs). IUs represent speech more naturally and align better with human cognitive processes than forcing speech into strict written norms. To achieve this conversion, we are exploring audio processing using a separate model, as well as an alternative method based on regression analysis. This alternative approach hypothesizes that the deltas of specific speech features at intonation boundaries can serve as accurate predictors for IU segmentation.

In the final step, the processed data is integrated into ELAN, converting the output into search system-indexable XML files with hierarchical tier structures. Because IUs present challenges for standard search architectures, a flexible Solr-based corpus search system is currently in development to accommodate them. By leveraging available conversational data to generate more annotated data efficiently, this project not only elevates the status of Kazakh but also provides a vital methodological framework for broader linguistic research.

This paper is intended to be presented at panel: «Voices of Steppe and Taiga - Bridging the Digital Divide: Language Documentation and Resource Development for the Languages of Central and Northern Asia.»

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This paper examines the role of Bata blessings in contemporary Kazakhstan (1991–2024), focusing on their function beyond traditional ritual. Bata blessings are a Turkic oral tradition based on the strong belief that words can remove dishonor and bring well-being. This study argues that, while mostly recognized for conveying positive wishes and respect, bata blessings also function as a subtle form of socio-political critique. Drawing on a corpus of 15 bata blessings directed at politicians, collected from social media platforms and televised events, the analysis uses discourse analysis to examine how speakers construct meaning within this spoken genre. It shows that, by using the cultural respect devoted to bata, speakers subtly assert influence and deliver critique, shifting the usual balance of authority in public interactions. I categorize these blessings into three functional roles: as a medium of exchange, a guideline, and a tool for critique. The main findings suggest that bata as an exchange tool tends to appear in informal, localized contexts, whereas critique-oriented bata is more likely to be uttered in the presence of larger audiences. The guideline function, though less frequent, stands out for its prescriptive tone, including the use of second-person imperative forms, which contrasts with the standard form of bata. By examining bata as a medium of indirect critique, this research contributes to broader discussions on the role of language in politics and the ways cultural traditions shape public communication. It shows how oral genres can serve both as a site of cultural preservation and as a tool for negotiating power in contemporary societies.