Illustrative image. Photo: gov.kz.
One word has been changed in the article on the state language in the draft of Kazakhstan’s new Constitution. This was announced on February 9 by Bakyt Nurmukhanov, deputy chair of the country’s Constitutional Court, Bes.media reported.
“In Article 9, the use of the word teń (equal) was clarified and replaced with qatar (alongside),” Nurmukhanov said at a meeting of the Constitutional Commission.
Article 9 in the draft published at the end of January addressed the “language issue.” It stated, in particular, that Kazakh is the state language of Kazakhstan. In state institutions and local self-government bodies, Russian is officially used alongside Kazakh. This wording had been fully duplicated from the current Constitution, where the language issue is set out in Article 7. It has now been decided to change it.
Most Russian media reacted to the news in a relatively restrained manner. The state agency TASS wrote that even with the proposed amendments, the Russian language would retain its official status in Kazakhstan. Sputnik.kz, the Kazakh branch of the Russian agency Sputnik, noted that the words “alongside” and “on an equal footing” are synonyms according to Ozhegov’s dictionary. Meanwhile, Moskovsky Komsomolets published the story under the headline “The Russian language has been ‘downgraded’ in Kazakhstan,” arguing that the draft Constitution contains a subtle but fundamental change that significantly alters the language’s position in the official sphere.
Constitutional reform in Kazakhstan was initiated by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. More than 80 percent of the basic law is expected to be updated. Further details are available here.
