Ethnolinguistic Features of Social and Kinship Names Containing the “Ak” (White) Element (A Case Study from Western Kazakhstan)

Abstract

The term “Ak” (White) is a significant element in Turkic societies, particularly among Kazakh communities and across Turkic dialects. Numerous studies and sources address its usage, and the present study, titled Ethnolinguistic Features of Social and Kinship Names Containing the “Ak” (White) Element (A Case Study from Western Kazakhstan), represents one example among them. Kazakhstan spans a vast territory, renowned for its extensive steppes, stretching thousands of kilometers from east to west. Across this large geography, each region exhibits unique dialectal features and linguistic variations. Western Kazakhstan, in particular, stands out due to its rich and distinctive local speech characteristics. These features extend from the southwest to the west and even reach Russia’s Astrakhan region. The “Ak” element appears widely in words and morphemes across all Turkic languages; however, in the corridor from the Aral, Kazaly, and Atyrau regions to Oral, its usage displays notable regional variations. For instance, kinship terms such as “ak jenge” (aunt-in-law) and “ak jezde”(uncle-in-law) are used in the Aral and Kazaly regions, while the term “akuday” serves as a region-specific identity marker. In Oral city, the “Ak” element is often pronounced as “әқ,” reflecting local phonetic characteristics. This study aims to examine these differences and to analyze the ethnolinguistic features of “Ak” usages unique to Western Kazakhstan.