September 5 is the Day of languages of the people of Kazakhstan. In 2017, the Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintaev decided to establish September 5 as the Day of languages of the people of Kazakhstan. It is on this day that Akhmet Baitursynov was born.
Akhmet Baitursynov, a scientist and literary critic, was one of the founders of Kazakh linguistics and literature studies. He developed the basics of Kazakh linguistics, as well as scientific terminology to define grammar.
On December 8, 1937 Baitursynov was shot as “enemy of the people”. The scientist was rehabilitated only in 1988.
Zhanseit Tuimebayev, Deputy Chairman of the Assambella of the People of Kazakhstan, noted: “The Day of Languages of the People of Kazakhstan is a holiday for every Kazakh, for the representatives of a single friendly family of more than 100 ethnic groups. The Day of Languages unites all the people and reflects our common Kazakh civil identity. It is based on our state Kazakh language and culture of a multi-ethnic state, common values and Kazakh patriotism. This holiday cultivates in our citizens respect for the state Kazakh and native languages, love for our Motherland – the Republic of Kazakhstan. It promotes knowledge about languages and traditions of different ethnic groups of our country. The first President – Yelbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev defined the knowledge of three languages by each citizen as an important direction of language policy: Kazakh as the state language, Russian as a language of international communication and English for “successful integration into the global economy. President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Jomart Tokayev noted the strategic task to accelerate the development of “Kazakh language, which will be the language of international communication in the future”.
Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askhat Kanatovich Aimagambetov shared his plans for the development of language policy in our country in the coming years on his Facebook page.
