At the 10th congress of the international "Qazaq Tili" society, President of Kazakhstan Qasym-Jomart Toqaev addressed the practice of translating certain words into Kazakh, saying moderation is needed in the process, infohub.kz reports.
According to the head of state, the Kazakh language today is noticeably purer than the languages of neighboring countries. He listed a number of words that were once used extremely rarely or not at all and have now become widely established in speech: тұжырымдама (concept), қағидат (principle), жоспар (plan), сыйақы (bonus, reward), шәкіртақы (scholarship), еңбек өтілі (work experience), кешенді (comprehensive), әмбебап (universal), жүйелі (systemic), тыңайтқыш (fertilizer), жанармай (fuel, fuels and lubricants), көгалдандыру (landscaping), босқын (refugee), қырғи-қабақ соғыс (Cold War), қоқан-лоқы (threat, blackmail), лаңкестік (terrorism), есірткі (drugs), бітімгерлік күштер (peacekeeping forces), мәмілегер (diplomat, mediator), ғарыш (space), зымыран (rocket), жаһан (world, globe), ғаламтор (internet), тікұшақ (helicopter), жасанды сана (artificial intelligence), пайыз (percent), сынып (class). The president called this a positive development.
At the same time, Toqaev stressed that any good undertaking must have a sense of measure, and questioned the need to translate certain words. "For example, the necessity of artificial words such as күйсандық (piano), қылтима (balcony), субұрқақ (fountain), себезгі (shower), қырыққабат (cabbage), үнқағаз (newspaper), жеделсаты (elevator), желкөз (vent pane) and a number of others seems doubtful. Recently, the frequent use of Arabic words concerning religion in place of our native words has come into fashion. The need for this also raises doubts," the president said.
According to him, this is a very pressing issue, so professional scholars need to express their authoritative opinion. The head of state noted the importance of developing a universal, publicly accessible digital system in the field of linguistics.
To carry out this task at the state level with quality, according to the president, a special working group should be created that will include professional linguists, scholars, experts and representatives of the public. Coordination of the working group's activities will be assigned to the Presidential Administration.