Bilingualism, Polylingualism in Central Asia and Their Interaction in a Multicultural Turkic-Speaking Environment: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan

The research deals with the problem of bilingualism and polylingualism in the aspect of intercultural communication in the conditions of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in diachronic and synchronic aspects. Multilingualism, multiculturalism, intercultural communication has an ancient history in the republics of Central Asia, on the territory of which Arabic, Farsi, Russian functioned in different periods of history along with Turkic languages (Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Karakalpak, etc.). Each of these languages in different epochs fulfilled the functions of the language of state documents, the language of education and science, and communication in the process of intercultural communication. Bilingualism and transcultural practices had three sides until the beginning of the 20th century: 1. Implementation of linguistic and intercultural communication in Arabic as a result of the adoption of Islam: introduction of Muslim religious concepts, principles, rules of behavior, culture of interpersonal and social communication, school education (in maktabs), education in madrasas into everyday life. 2. Implementation of linguistic and intercultural communication in Farsi due to the functioning of the Bukhara Emirate and the prevalence of Farsi in the spheres of education, fiction, science. 3. Realization of intra-state linguistic and intercultural communication in the Turkic language by the majority of the population. After 1917, with the formation of the USSR, the Russian language was actively introduced on the state ideological basis. The total introduction of the Russian language through the system of compulsory school education, in the system of science and culture has yielded its results: by 1990 Turkic-Russian bilingualism and biculturalism had covered the overwhelming majority of the population (up to 90%, in some regions of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan - up to 100%). The varieties of polylingualism actively functioning are: Kazakh-Russian-Uzbek, Kazakh-Russian-Kirghiz, Uzbek-Russian-Tajik, Uzbek-Russian-Karakalpak, Karakalpak-Russian-Uzbek, Karakalpak-Uzbek, Karakalpak-Uzbek-Kazakh and others. At present, with the active entry of English into the education system, bilingualism and poly-lingualism with its participation are being formed: Kazakh-Russian-English, Uzbek-Russian-English, Uzbek-Russian-English and others. Varieties of bilingualism and polylingualism with the participation of English are characterized by localization in diplomacy, joint enterprises, international projects, etc. Before the arrival of the Russian language, people mainly became bilinguals in the conditions of natural functioning of bilingualism, and in the XX century - in the combination of natural non-native (Russian) language environment in Turkophone conditions with the system of school and university polylingual education. In the course of the work the comparative, intra-language comparison, deductive and inductive methods were used, which helped to determine the theoretical and practical significance of the topic of scientific research.