This volume presents the results of the project Kazakh - Its structure
and function in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. The project was unique in so far
as for the first time the Kazakh language was the subject of a
scientific project in a Western country. The aim was, on the one hand,
to provide a snapshot of Kazakh as it is spoken and written in
contemporary Kazakhstan, and, on the other, to analyze Kazakh in its
sociocultural context. Linguists from Kazakhstan, Germany, China, Turkey
and Sweden came together at the Justus-Liebig-Universitat Giessen to
discuss current issues on Kazakh. The papers presented in this context
cover language planning, language contact, language and identity,
latinization of the alphabet, terminology as well as varieties of
Kazakh.