Digital linguistic sovereignty and Kazakh language policy in the digital environment

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the digital environment on the status and place of language. The focus is on the concept of digital linguistic sovereignty, understood as a nation’s ability to ensure the functional competitiveness of the language in the age of artificial intelligence and big data. In this regard, Kazakhstan presents a unique case study of a country transitioning from traditional language protection to the active construction of digital sovereignty. As a state undergoing active nation-building, the country simultaneously demonstrates one of the highest levels of digitalisation in the post-Soviet space. The implementation of large-scale state programmes (such as “Digital Kazakhstan”) has led to the formation of a new communicative environment – a virtual linguistic landscape – in which the dynamics of interaction between the state language and global languages are assuming qualitatively different forms. The methodological basis of the study is an interdisciplinary approach combining critical discourse analysis of official documents, institutional analysis of technological projects such as the National Corpus of the Kazakh Language, the Coursera platform in Kazakh, the translation of educational materials for higher education institutions, and others, as well as the study of expert discourses in new media. The study’s findings illustrate how the state regulates the process of language planning in the context of increasingly pervasive technological advancement, transitioning from a protective model toward digital modernisation. The creation of mass digital content in academic and technical fields has been demonstrated to contribute to the growing intellectual recognition of the Kazakh language. The authors of the study argue for the need to transition from formal status planning to an inclusive model of digital citizenship in order to achieve “linguistic justice.” It has been established that language digitalization is becoming a tool of “soft power,” transforming civic identity and expanding access to digital capital. The practical significance of this study lies in the potential application of the proposed analytical framework to the study of language processes in other multilingual societies undergoing digital transformation.