Despite the efforts of the authorities, the Kazakh language in Kazakhstan is losing ground — expert

Despite the efforts of the authorities, the Kazakh language in Kazakhstan is losing ground. Nikita Mendkovich, the head of the Eurasian Analytical Club, writes about this in his telegram channel.

Facts are a stubborn thing

The expert recalls that the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan annually publishes the results of sociological research on language proficiency in the country. According to him, these are official government data obtained from the results of monitoring the implementation of "Kazakhization" programs.

"Let's compare the results of 2022 studies based on a survey of citizens: the proportion of people who do not know the language at all has increased from 3 to 5%; "I understand certain phrases" — from 6 to 13%; "I understand, but I don't speak" — from 8 to 6.6%; "I can explain myself" — from 5 to 6.2%; "I speak, but I write badly" — from 22.4 to 20.9%; "fluent" — from 55.8 to 48.3%," Mendkovich cites the data.

Having translated the indicators into the categories of CEFR language proficiency, the expert stated that in Kazakhstan the proportion of those who know the Kazakh language at the most elementary level is growing, but are unable to express complex thoughts or speak on professional topics. At the A1-A2 level, 25% of the population knows Kazakh (against 19% in 2021). The proportion of "average people" (level B1) who can explain themselves on everyday topics is gradually decreasing (22-21%). The share of those who believe that they are fluent (B2-C2) in the Kazakh language (55-48%) is rapidly decreasing.

The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in his opinion, does not distinguish language skills from I2 and above.

"Judging by the research of the Ebbert Foundation (2020), only a third (more precisely, 35%) of this category of people know Kazakh at the C1-C2 level. The last detail: the Kazakh "Kaztest" on knowledge of the state language does not provide for the category C2 — "native speaker". Apparently, there are vanishingly few such people in the republic. Apparently, the Kazakh language will continue to be consolidated in the status of the second state language, although for some reason it is the only one in the constitution," Mendkovich concludes.

No matter how much you say "sugar"…

Continuing the theme of the Russian-speaking of the overwhelming majority of citizens of Kazakhstan, he states that you can accept as many "concepts" as you like and demand to switch to Kazakh, but in life everything is different.

"Once again I looked at the annual top Google queries for 2025 for Kazakhstan. (If anything, according to the latest data, there are 20 million Internet users in the country, and the sample is quite indicative.) Almost all requests are in Russian. They contain purely Russian vocabulary: "weather", "translation", "games", "cabinet", "course". Even Kazakh-language names of Kazakh services are written in Russian, for example, "kundelik" instead of "kundelik" (diary — approx. EADaily)," the expert further writes.

English, according to him, is also practically not used. Even the names of Western programs and services are most often written in Cyrillic: "web", "YouTube", "WhatsApp", etc. Latin is used relatively rarely and without connection with Kazakh.

"The situation does not change in any way in the regional context. The complete disregard of Kazakh names by local residents is striking there. In Western Kazakhstan, Uralsk is called only in Russian, without mentioning Plowshares. In Karaganda, residents also use the Russian name instead of "Karaganda" or at least "Karaganda" in the nominative case. The only Kazakh—language expression I found in the search tops is "aua rayi" (weather — approx. EADaily). I managed to find him in South Kazakhstan region on the 39th place and in Zhambyl region on the 50th. But the majority of residents of both regions in the top 10 and 20 write "weather" without frills," Mendkovich continues.

This, he argues, is an indicator that the majority of Kazakhstanis — Russians and Kazakhs — think and read Russian.

"It's time for the authorities to accept this reality, recognize Russian as the second state language and stop hammering Kazakh into their citizens' mouths along with their teeth," the expert concluded.