Bazakhstan Research Paper
Bazakhstan’s Language Policy
Bazakhstan, a newly established nation, was placed in a dilemmatic situation upon achieving its independence on August 2012. With multiple ethnic groups, deciding which language or languages to standardize is crucial to the country’s stability. Bazakhstan could accommodate each ethno groups’ preference by promoting either official monolingualism or linguistic pluralism; however, from a third party’s point of view, Bazakhstan should promote monolingualism because linguistic pluralism would require an enormous amount of resources from the government. As a newly independent nation, Bazakhstan needs to allocate their resources carefully. Therefore, between the six choices of languages, the Kumikh language should be promoted as the national language. The Kumikh language would serve its purpose, by fulfilling the four functions, as Bazakhstan’s national language.
Kumikh should be selected as the national language as it fulfils the four functions of a national language better than the other five languages. The Kumikh people make up thirty percent of the entire Bazakhstan population, which makes them the second largest population in the nation. The language of a majority group should be selected as the national language because more people can identify with it. Furthermore, The Kumikh people are generally well liked by the other ethno groups. Because of the good relationship that the Kumikh has with the other groups, the selection of the Kumikh language is not likely to upset the rest of the groups. Taking an example from another country, Indonesia took similar steps in selecting Malay as their national language. The government of Indonesia chose Malay, as it was easy to learn and did not upset any particular ethnic group. Their strategy in the selection process has brought them success, and it should bring Bazakhstan success as well. The national language should be highly symbolic and representative of a nation. The use of the language
Bazakhstan, a newly established nation, was placed in a dilemmatic situation upon achieving its independence on August 2012. With multiple ethnic groups, deciding which language or languages to standardize is crucial to the country’s stability. Bazakhstan could accommodate each ethno groups’ preference by promoting either official monolingualism or linguistic pluralism; however, from a third party’s point of view, Bazakhstan should promote monolingualism because linguistic pluralism would require an enormous amount of resources from the government. As a newly independent nation, Bazakhstan needs to allocate their resources carefully. Therefore, between the six choices of languages, the Kumikh language should be promoted as the national language. The Kumikh language would serve its purpose, by fulfilling the four functions, as Bazakhstan’s national language.
Kumikh should be selected as the national language as it fulfils the four functions of a national language better than the other five languages. The Kumikh people make up thirty percent of the entire Bazakhstan population, which makes them the second largest population in the nation. The language of a majority group should be selected as the national language because more people can identify with it. Furthermore, The Kumikh people are generally well liked by the other ethno groups. Because of the good relationship that the Kumikh has with the other groups, the selection of the Kumikh language is not likely to upset the rest of the groups. Taking an example from another country, Indonesia took similar steps in selecting Malay as their national language. The government of Indonesia chose Malay, as it was easy to learn and did not upset any particular ethnic group. Their strategy in the selection process has brought them success, and it should bring Bazakhstan success as well. The national language should be highly symbolic and representative of a nation. The use of the language