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• quantitative (the proportion of Kazakh citizens speaking the national
language may grow to 95%, up from today’s 60%). These are official
projections, to which we could add another 10% – representatives
of ethnic minorities, such as Uigur, Tatar and Azeri – who speak
their respective mother tongues and have a basic-level command of
the Kazakh language. By the year 2020, the share of Kazakh citizens
speaking Russian is expected to reach at least 95%, against today’s
89%. English-language speakers should also grow in numbers, to
eventually account for some 20% of the population.
Kazakh Language and the Internet: Analyzing the Current Situation
The Internet has become a truly cosmopolitan zone by now. And although the
Web’s linguistic landscape is still dominated by English, the world’s nations
seek to create online resources in many locally spoken languages.
What is the situation like in Kazakhstan September 2011 marked 17 years
since the nation went online. These days, about a hundred new websites appear
here monthly. Not all of them have a Kazakh-language version, though, with
Kazakhstan’s developers often giving priority to Russian and English these
days. However, in the past five-seven years, there has been a positive trend
toward the expansion of Kazakh-language Web content, prompted by the
launch of a large-scale national programme to develop an online government.
The recently created portal National Language of the Republic of Kazakhstan
(http://til.gov.kz) is a major reference source on the government’s language
policy. Kazakhstan’s government agencies, news organizations, mass media,
large national companies, and culture, education and health institutions now
all have a Kazakh-language version of their websites.
As for business-oriented sites, English and Russian still prevail there. This can be
attributed to Kazakh-language sites not being attractive enough commercially,
as well as to the popularity of Russian in Kazakhstan as a language of business
communication, both off and online.
Some Kazakh-language websites latinize their content in an effort to expand
the audience, because, as is known, of the 5-odd million Kazakhs based outside
Kazakhstan, about 50% use the Latin alphabet. But for such resources to
develop, appropriate financing should be provided.
Another factor holding back the expansion of Kazakh presence online is the
lack of technical support for the Kazakh script (the standard Cyrillic alphabet
plus nine additional characters). It has taken quite a long time to develop a
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