EXPLORING MULTILINGUALISM IN KAZAKHSTAN’S POPULAR MUSIC: CATEGORIES AND STRATEGIES OF USING MULTILINGUAL ELEMENTS IN MUSIC TEXTS

Abstract

While multilingual elements are commonly used in Kazakh popular music, there are diverse ways of implementing multilingualism in a music text. There is a lack of research on mixing languages in Kazakh music lyrics. The relevance of my Capstone Project is that it contributes to the Kazakh music study and investigates the question: What are the categories and sociological functions of multilingualism in Kazakh popular music? The primary source of this project is a dataset of 50 songs that use multiple languages by Kazakhstani artists that were at the top charts for Apple Music Kazakhstan and Spotify between September 2023 and January 2024 (Ninety One, Irina Kairatovna, Hiro etc). This study does not focus on the relationship between multilingualism and the popularity of the songs, but it observes the purpose of the multilingual elements by examining the functions that they serve: Kazakh-Russian code-switching, simple English borrowings, localizing English, replacing taboo related words, and phonological domain. The most noticeable category of multilingualism is Kazakh-Russian code-switching. The example “Біз өзіміз не подарок, очки не только от жарық,” from Adjare Gudju of Irina Kairatovna uses grammatical base in Russian and the subject in Kazakh, which is common in the speech of people in Kazakhstan. Therefore, the sociolinguistic function of code-switching is that it represents colloquial speech in Kazakhstan. Additional category of multilingualism is simple English borrowings, which carries from single-word borrowings to the whole sentences (Lee, 2004). Mostly artists use popular and catchy words and phrases, for example “Че Салемчик wow. Oh my God, oh my,” from Taboo of Ninety One and Irina Kairatovna. The sociolinguistic picture behind that is globalization, where Kazakhstan’s youth consumes the content in English. There are also examples of adapting English by adding to Kazakh local language elements, for example “Жерге стиль төсеп, тербететін мына flow-көрпем” from Orik of Ninety One shows the combining the words ‘flow’ and ‘көрпем’ creating new local meaning of a blanket which is the flow of a dance. Dovchin (2017) states that in relocalization of English in music, the global becomes local. Another sociolinguistic function of using English borrowings is softening the reactions of the listeners by hiding the taboo-related topics. “Выкини drug, Чики не враг, Freak in the club” from Adjare Gudju of Irina Kairatovna uses the word ‘drug’ instead of its Kazakh or Russian analogue. More complex use of multilingualism is phonological borrowings. For example, Ninety One uses Kazakh words that together sound like Spanish in Senorita, “Мама сөйтіп, мама сөйтіп, мама сөйтіп тәрбиеледі мені,” where ‘мама сөйтіп’ sounds similar to ‘mamasita’. That kind of playing on the phonological domain shows that Kazakhstan artists feel comfortable in experimenting with languages and to be creative. Kazakhstan music is an interesting environment to illustrate the social functions of multilingualism in our country. The Research shows the sociolinguistic picture of Kazakhstan musicians using the music platform as a demonstration of the linguistic landscape of Kazakhstan and a space for creativity by playing with languages.