Resumen de A polycentric regime of linguistic legitimacy: language policy from below in Kazakhstan

Alina Kamalova, Murat Daniyar

• This article examines how language policy in Kazakhstan is understood and enacted in everyday life. Since independence, state initiatives have aimed to strengthen Kazakh while maintaining multilingual stability, yet most research has focused on top-down policy. This study adopts a bottom-up perspective, combining survey data from 6,260 respondents with 1,775 written narratives to explore language use, beliefs, and lived experiences. The findings show a domain-based distribution of languages rather than a linear shift from Russian to Kazakh. Kazakh is primarily associated with identity and private life, while Russian remains central in professional and urban contexts, and English gains importance in global and digital domains. At the same time, respondents express hierarchical and moralized language ideologies, often linking Kazakh proficiency to ethnic authenticity and civic duty. These dynamics are reflected in lived experiences of linguistic discrimination, including both institutional barriers and everyday forms of shaming and exclusion. The study argues that Kazakhstan’s linguistic order is best understood as a polycentric multilingual configuration, in which different languages carry distinct symbolic, practical, and aspirational value. Rather than a simple case of language replacement, the findings highlight ongoing tensions between policy goals, social practices, and competing forms of linguistic legitimacy.