CROSSBORDER DIALECT DIFFERENCES AND SPEAKERS PERCEPTIONS: KAZAKH LANGUAGE IN CHINA AND KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

The Kazakh language is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch and an official language of Kazakhstan with more varieties spoken by minorities in other countries. My research focuses on one of such Kazakh varieties spoken in China, with the fieldwork done among the ethnic Kazakhs born in the Ili region of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. My thesis aims to identify the linguistic differences between the Kazakh spoken in China and Kazakhstan, and investigate the perceptions and attitudes of ethnic Kazakhs born in China towards the Kazakh language variations. For that, the study first contrasts phonetic, lexical, and semantic differences in the spoken Kazakh in China and Kazakhstan based on the audio files recorded during the fieldwork. Even though similarities exist between spoken Kazakh in China and regions of Kazakhstan, distinct lexical and dialectical differences are evident based on the results of my work. Then based on the interviews conducted with the ethnic Kazakhs from China, my study reveals attitudes towards the Kazakh language varieties where language ideologies were detected regarding language purity. It was shown how semiotic processes of language ideologies further influence the perceptions of the dialect borders in the minds of the speakers