Scholarly record

FORMATION OF KAZAKH-RUSSIAN BILINGUALISM AND EDUCATION: PAGES OF HISTORY

Dina M. Zharylgapova, U. M. Bakhtikireeva, S. A. Kulieva

Abstract

The formation of independent Kazakhstan after the collapse of the USSR (1991) led to a change in the language situation, the formation of language policy, and language construction. The most urgent topics in society were the questions of the revival of the vitality of the state language – the Kazakh language; the narrowing of the spheres of functioning of the Russian language; and the transition from Cyrillic to Latin. There was a large number of scientific articles analyzing the language situation of Soviet Kazakhstan and of post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Many articles are devoted to the asymmetric interaction between the two languages (Russian and Kazakh in the 20th century), and to the formation of asymmetric Kazakh-Russian bilingualism, but very few publications highlight the emergence of this kind of bilingualism in the 19th century. It was in the second half of the 20th century that the Kazakh-Russian bilingualism was formed. One of the main goals of this article is to fill this gap, which is so crucial for a deeper understanding of this object. The authors analyze the primary sources describing the formation of Kazakh-Russian bilingualism and of bilingual education. That is why our article is based on the study of the fundamental work of Alexander Efimovich Alektorov, the Russian orientalist; historian; ethnographer; educator; member of the Society of Archeology, History and Ethnography in the Imperial Kazan University (in present – Kazan, Tatarstan, Russian Federation); and member of the Orenburg and Astrakhan provincial scholars of archival commissions (1861-1918). His study was called "Index of books, magazine and newspaper articles and notes on the Kirghiz,” 2013 [1]. Here, it’s important to note that under the ethnonym "Kirghiz" in the studies of Russian scientists before the beginning of the twentieth century, both modern ethnic Kazakhs and ethnic Kyrgyz were implied. This book is devoted to the Kazakhs, to the formation of Kazakh-Russian bilingualism, and to bilingual education. Despite the fact that this "Index" was published in 2013, it managed to turn into a bibliographic rarity. Modern linguists investigating Kazakh-Russian bilingualism rarely refer to this fundamental work. It collected over 3,000 articles about geography, history, economics, ethnographic nature, folklore, etc. with an exact indication of the place of their publication. It is the richest material carefully selected from books, magazines and newspapers of the time. The primary sources have their enduring value for various branches of knowledge: History, Anthropology, Pedagogy, Ethnography,Linguistics, Ethnolinguistics, Geography, Economics, Jurisprudence, Culturology, Literary criticism, Translation studies, etc. The article aims to draw researchers' attention to this understudied research; hence, it relies on primary sources and not on their transposition and criticism so that the reader can get acquainted with the original sources and comprehend the present language policy in sovereign Kazakhstan.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018/2.2/S08.032

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