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Language Information

Kazakh is spoken principally in the Kazakh S.S.R. of the Soviet Union, which stretches from the Chinese border to the Caspian Sea, and whose capital is Alma-Ata. There it is spoken by about 4 million peo~e, with another one million in the rest of the Soviet Union, about 500,000 across the border in China, and some 50,000 in Mongolia. Kazakh is one of the Turkic languages for which the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced just prior to World War II.

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China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia.

Family: Altaic
Subgroup: Turkic
Branch: Northwestern (Kipchak)

Writing Sample

Translation

The flocks had left the pastures and were herded together on the bleak crest of a distant hill, whence they had been driven by the tireless an vicious gadflies. The sheep returning from the meadows wallowed limply in the mud at the side of the river. The cows had waded into the water and stood dozing, only their heads showing above the water. The few calves left on the bank were rushing frantically to and fro, trying to shake off the gadflies. With lashing tails, distended nostrils, and bulging eyes, they dashed about, as if to escape slaughter.

—MUKHTAR AUEZOV, Abai