CHOOSING BETWEEN KAZAKH AND RUSSIAN: A STUDY OF YOUNG ETHNIC KAZAKHS’ LANGUAGE CHOICES THROUGH THE LENS OF HABITUS

Abstract

The russification policy of the USSR has significantly influenced the Kazakh language which was considered as a minority language in its own territory for a long period (Smagulova, 2008). Consequently, previous studies showed that Russian is still a dominant language in Kazakhstani society, especially among the younger generation. Therefore, this qualitative interview-based study explores the language choices of the Kazakhstani 18-25 year old youths between two officially equal languages: Kazakh and Russian, and aims to answer the following research questions: 1) What are the language choice patterns of the Kazakhstani youth across various domains? 2) Which factor(s) determine the Kazakhstani youth’s language choice between Kazakh and Russian? This study is based on Bourdieu’s concept of “habitus” in which the events of the past influence the present circumstances which lead to making certain choices (Bourdieu, 1991). Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, data was collected using semi-structured interviews via the online platform ZOOM. The target population of the study was eight ethnic Kazakh youths aged 18-25 who originated from four different parts of Kazakhstan: west, east, south, and north who received their education through Kazakh and Russian respectively. The collected data was analyzed using Clarke and Braun’s (2012) thematic analysis which includes six steps of data analysis. The findings reported the strong dominance of the Russian language across various domains, such as friendship, workplace, social clubs, and media, whereas Kazakh is restricted to the family domain. Additionally, the results demonstrated that Russian still holds relatively more symbolic power in the society, influencing people to choose Russian over Kazakh for wider communication. Moreover, the study revealed that the growing power of English alongside with Russian is considered as “capital” in the market as compared to Kazakh. From this study, status and prestige planning activities as well as the creation of demand in the capital are proposed, and directions for further research are recommended.