Semantic development of Arabic-Iranian borrowings in the Kazakh language: Analysis of Religious concepts

Abstract

The original meaning of many modern Kazakh words of Arabic-Iranian origin is associated with ethical categories, spiritual and moral values. In this study aimed at identifying a layer of words borrowed by the Kazakh language from the Arabic and Iranian languages, and investigating their semantic development a descriptive method and methods of lexicographic and lexico-semantic analyses of words were applied. The study results demonstrated that the semantic development of Muslim terms in the Kazakh language included reinterpretation, and their acquisition of new meanings in the Kazakh literary language. Desacralization of religious concepts signified by these words occurred in the languages from which these words were later borrowed by the Kazakh language.

Keywords

• arabic-iranian vocabulary
• desacralization
• reinterpretation
• religious terms
• islamisms
• semantic development