TOP FIVE REASONS WHY
YOU NEED TO KNOW KAZAKH
1. There are very few people in America who
learn or speak Kazakh! Those who study
Kazakh can find careers in a variety of fields
including translation and interpreting,
consulting, foreign service and intelligence,
journalism, and many others.
2. Kazakhstan is the biggest country in Central
Asia, with the largest economy, the second
largest population, and the most trade with
the United States. Business partnerships
with Kazakhstan and the U.S. are growing,
creating a demand for educated Americans
who are fluent in Kazakh.
3. Kazakh is a gateway to accessing Turkic
languages spoken by millions of people in
the former Soviet Union, China, and the
Caucuses, including the Tatar, Azerbaijani,
and Uyghur peoples. These regions are
of vital strategic importance in the world
today!
4. The revival of the Kazakh language is an
exciting storyand just by learning Kazakh,
you become part of it. Kazakhs appreciate
foreigners who take the time to learn their
language and share their unique way of life.
5. Learning Kazakh is fun! The grammar
of Kazakh is consistent and the spelling
is phonetic. Yes, learning Kazakh can be
challenging, but remember what you wont
have to worry about: nouns dont have
gender, adjectives dont have to agree with
nouns, and verbs arent irregular! Best of all,
by learning Kazakh you will get to know the
Kazakh people, immerse yourself in their
rich cultural heritage, and experience their
way of life and the values they share.
WHERE IN THE U.S.A
CAN YOU LEARN KAZAKH?
KAZAKH
WHO SPEAKS UZBEK?
Uzbeks are the most numerous Tur-
The Department of Central Eurasian Studies
(CEUS) at Indiana University offers courses in kic people in Central Asia. They pre-
Kazakh language, its culture, history, and society.
For more information, visit their website at http://
dominantly mostly live in Uzbekistan, a
www.indiana.edu/~ceus or contact them via email at landlocked country of Central Asia that
ceus@indiana.edu. shares borders with Kazakhstan to the
The Summer Workshop in Slavic, East European west and north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajiki-
and Central Asian Languages (SWSEEL) at Indiana
University offers intensive courses of Kazakh. For more stan to the east, and Afghanistan and
information, visit their website at http://www.indiana. Turkmenistan to the south. Many Uz-
edu/~swseel or contact them via email at swseel@
indiana.edu. beks can also be found in Afghanistan,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Also, the following universities offer various levels of
Kazakh: Turkmenistan and the Xinjiang Uyghur
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Autonomous Region of China.
- University of Wisconsin, Madison
- University of Washington
- University of Arizona
- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
- University of Chicago
WHERE CAN YOU OBTAIN RESOURCES
FOR LEARNING KAZAKH?
The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region
(CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for
learning and teaching Central Asian languages. For more
information, visit our website at http://www.indiana.
edu/~celcar.
The Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center
(IAUNRC) at Indiana University has a wide variety
of Kazakh books, videos, CDs, DVDs, costumes, and
artifacts. The center lends and ships these materials
for use in the classroom free of charge. For more
information, visit their website or http://www.indiana.
edu/~iaunrc or contact them at iaunrc@indiana.edu.
Center for Languages of the
718 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street,
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406
Central Asian Region (CeLCAR)
Phone: (812) 856-1230 Fax: (812) 856-1206
E-mail : celcar@indiana.edu
Web site: http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar
 WHO ARE THE KAZAKHS?
Kazakhs are Turkic people, traditionally nomads,
who mostly live in Kazakhstan, the largest country
in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan occupies
the vast grasslands
between Russia, Chinas
Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region
of China, and the
three smaller Central
Asian nations to the
south: Kyrgyzstan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Many Kazakhs also
live in Xinjiang, Mongolia, Russia, and Uzbekistan.
WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS KAZAKH?
Kazakh belongs to the Turkic group of languages, which
includes languages such as Uzbek, Turkish, Uyghur, and
Tatar. Turkic languages have been spoken across vast
territory from the Balkans to China for many centuries.
Kazakh is the most widely spoken language of the
Kipchak sub-branch of the Turkic languages.
Kazakhs represent the majority of the population (65%)
of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Kazakh is the official
language of Kazakhstan. But until recently, it was rarely
used in administration and government. Since the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the general attitude toward
Kazakh has been changing, and government bodies have
been switching to Kazakh.
Kazakh is an agglutinative language in which suffixes
that indicate only one meaning are attached to the
word stem one after another in a set order. Unlike
some other Central Asian Turkic languages, Kazakh
also has a vigorous system of vowel harmony in
which the vowels of the suffixes change to fit the
vowels in the stem. But Kazakh does not have
the difficulties that inflecting languages have
with grammatical gender and multiple systems of
declension and conjugation.
The vocabulary of Kazakh has been influenced by
Arabic, Persian, Mongolian, and Russian. However, after
the collapse of the Soviet-Union, Kazakh lexicon went
through a major de-Russification process. As a result,
many Russian loanwords were replaced with the original
Kazakh ones.
WHAT ALPHABET DO KAZAKHS USE?
collectivization
Throughout their history, Kazakhs used a number
of alphabets. Old Turkic, a predecessor of all Turkic
languages, including Kazakh was recorded in the
runic script. As the Kazakh language emerged in the
wake of the Mongol empire, the Perso-Arabic script
was adopted. Under Soviet Russian rule, Kazakh
adopted first the Latin script and then the Cyrillic
script also used to write Russian. This Cyrillic script
is well designed to fit the language, using special
letters to represent the distinctive Kazakh sounds
with a completely phonetic spelling. Today Kazakhs
of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and of post-Soviet states
continue using the Cyrillic alphabet. Only those in
China still use the Perso-Arabic script.
WHAT IS KAZAKH CULTURE LIKE?
Kazakhstan is the heart of nomadic Central Asia. For
centuries, the cities of southern Kazakhstan participated
in the cultural renaissance of the Silk Roads, while
nomadic conquerors
have repeatedly come
out from the Kazakh
steppes to build great
empires. Kazakhstan
was deeply influenced
by the Mongol world
empire, and many
Kazakhs honor Genghis
Khan as a national
hero. Like other Turco-Mongolian peoples, the ancient
nomads of Kazakhstan worshipped the sky deity Tengri.
In the wake of the Mongol empire, the Kazakh khans
adopted Islam, and grew closer to the culture of the
southern oasis cities. Today, almost all Kazakhs are
Sunni Muslims, but they also value the multi-ethnic and
multi-religious nature of Kazakhstan.
Traditionally, Kazakhs are pastoral nomads,
raising horses, sheep, goats, two-humped camels,
and cattle. Horsemeat and fermented mares
milk are still
favorite Kazakh
foods. Soviet
policies forced on
Kazakhs ended
in famine and
a mass out-
migration of
Kazakhs to the
neighboring China. Beginning in the 1990s, due
to Kazakhstans economic boom, many ethnic
Kazakhs began returning to their historic lands
from China, Mongolia and other post-Soviet states.
Contemporary Kazakh culture is truly Eurasian: a
unique blend of nomadic traditions, Russian and
Soviet past and modern-day Western influences.
Regional and clan influences remain strong among
the Kazakhs, who were traditionally divided into
three jz (hordes): the Senior jz, the Middle jz,
and the Junior jz. Each jz has a dozen or more
different clans, and although belonging to a certain
jz or clan does
not play a major
role in peoples
social-economic
lives todays, many
Kazakhs are still
proud to identify
themselves within
their jz and know
their ancestors
within seven generations.
Kazakhs are avid musicians. Dombra, a traditional
Kazakh musical instrument, accompanies all
kinds of Kazakh ceremonies and get-togethers.
Traditionally, Kazakhs arrange song contests,
aitysh, during festivity or holidays and the public
chooses the best folk singer among the contestants.