Shala Kazakhs

In the Kazakh language, the word "shala" means "half" ^[3] , "raw" ^[4] . Together with other words, “shala” gives them the meaning of “inferiority”: shala tuғan - “premature”, shala jansar - “half- alive ”, shala sauatts - “illiterate”.

In Soviet times, indigenous ^{[ specify ]} schools were replaced by mixed schools, of which more than 2 thousand are currently in Kazakhstan. According to Myrzakhmetula, ^{[ specify ]} mixed schools have become a "factory of shala-Kazakhs" ^[5] . According to Kazakhstani political scientist Aidos Sarym, the separation between the “real” and “shala” Kazakhs took place in the 1980s, when many began to be interested in their roots, and the origins of the issue originate in the 1950s ^[6] .

In modern Kazakhstan, shala-Kazakhs primarily mean Kazakhs who have introduced themselves into Russian culture , studied in a Russian school and brought up in the appropriate spirit, speaking and thinking in Russian. “True Kazakhs” have a widespread opinion that the Shala-Kazakhs are “inferior”, they cannot be trusted and they lead the country “not there” ^[2] . The Russian-speaking shala-Kazakhs themselves look at the Kazakh-speaking “as natives” and consider themselves experts in world literature, not paying attention to the fact that the powerful intelligentsia of the late XIX - early XX centuries was the bearer of traditional Kazakh values. In the resonant book of Zhumabay Zhakupov “Shala-Kazak”, the author’s sympathies are completely on the side of the shala-Kazakhs, whom he draws in a positive manner, representing smart and educated ^[6] .

Kazakh national - patriots are called "shala-Kazakhs" and those who do not know their native language and despise their ethnicity, and those who do not deny their belonging to the nation ^[7] . The main requirement of the national patriots is the knowledge of the Kazakh language of all “Russified” Kazakhs and representatives of other nationalities, because it is the state language of Kazakhstan. According to the Kazakh writer Smagul Ylubay , all those who refer to the equality of Russian with the state language “haven’t even learned to say hello in Kazakh in 20 years or simply don’t want to”, almost all nationalists of Kazakhstan speak Russian and Kazakh, and Russian speakers who speak against the reforms speak one language. only Russian ^[8] . “If all Russian-speakers spoke the two main languages ​​of the republic, the language problem would disappear by itself,” he said.

And among the Kazakhs themselves there are people who do not know the Kazakh language, you yourself know. And this is not their fault either, their parents lived in a Russian-speaking environment. And do not call them shala-Kazakhs or something like that, we are all Kazakhs. And are representatives of other nations really to blame for not speaking Kazakh? No, not to blame. This must be understood.

- Nursultan Nazarbayev ^[9]

According to researcher Talgat Mamyraimov, the reason for this separation is the “inferiority complex” among the Kazakh people and the intelligentsia due to the fact that the Kazakh culture in the Soviet era was declared “backward”, and Russian - “advanced”. In Soviet times , speaking Kazakh and being a bearer of this culture was considered “indecent”, and lack of knowledge of Russian became a sign of “mambetism” and impeded career growth ^[7] .

According to Bolat Zhanaev, "the cultural gap between Kazakh-speaking and Russian-speaking Kazakhs is greatly exaggerated," because all Shala-Kazakhs have relatives of Nagyz-Kazakhs and they have adopted many Kazakh traditions since childhood ^[10] .

Shala-Kazakh language is called pidginized Kazakh language with a lot of borrowings from Russian, similar to surzhik in Ukraine and tarsian in Belarus . Shala-Kazakhs themselves, as a rule, do not speak this language. Kazakh-speaking Kazakhs speak it, adding Russian words to the Kazakh language. According to the sociological survey “Channel 31” of Kazakhstan, the most popular Shala-Kazakh expressions among students were the phrases “handsome”, “dining room” ( Russian dining room ), “load etpe” ( Russian do not load ), “interfere with etpe” ( rus . Don’t bother ), “congratulate etu” ( Russian. Congratulate ), etc. ^[11]

The phenomenon of Shala-Kazakhs was played out first in the heading of the sketch “Kyzyk Radios” on the KTK channel, where the Shala-Kazakh heading was conducted by Nurtas Adambaev and Daut Shaykhislamov, then in the sketch “ Our KZasha ”, in which the Shala-Kazakh “is taught” already at school .

• The Kyzylasker village of Almaty region used to be called Chala-Cossacks.

• Kazakhization
• Kazakh nationalism
• Russian speakers
• Language policy and Russian in Kazakhstan
• Russification and derusification
• Kazakh-Russian bilingualism
• Shala-Kazakhs (ethnographic group)