Lexical Peculiarities of Kazakh Spoken in China

Abstract

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the relationship between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the People’s Republic of China has increased in the fields of economics, politics, and culture. This situation attracts the attention of scholars dealing with the functioning of the Kazakh language in China. The Kazakh language in China has developed differently than the Kazakh language in Kazakhstan. The situation of the Kazakh language in and outside Kazakhstan differed greatly during the Soviet era, especially in the period between 1930- 1991. After Kazakhstan gained its independence, the Kazakh language became the state language of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Ethnic Kazakhs from different parts of the world started migrating to their historical Motherland. In Kazakhstan, they have encountered various socio-cultural problems, the main of which is connected with different cultural backgrounds. Kazakhs in Kazakhstan have been strongly influenced by the communist ideology and the Russian culture. As for the ethnic Kazakhs from China they have also been influenced by the communist ideology, the Chinese language and culture. All that was mirrored, in the Kazakh language varieties they speak. This article aims at describing specific lexical language features of Kazakh spoken in China.

Keywords

• The Kazakh language, the Kazakh ethnic groups, Chinese influence, language variety, lexicon, peculiarities, sociolinguistic situation.