Iranian Kazakhs and the Vocabulary of Iranian Kazakh Dialect

Abstract

Most of the Kazakhs in the world live within the borders of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and they continue their existence in more than forty countries. Among these countries, the names of countries such as Uzbekistan, China, Russia, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, and Kyrgyzstan can be mentioned, respectively, according to their population density. An important part of the Kazakh diaspora lives in Turkey, Afghanistan and Iran.

Iran is home to a wide variety of Turkish communities, including many belonging to the Oghuz group. As a matter of fact, although the history of the studies does not go back very long, a number of studies have been carried out on the Oghuzs and the their languages in Iran. Studies on dialects such as South Azerbaijani Turkish, Qashqai Turkish, Khalaj are some of them. The only Turkish community belonging to the Kipchak tribe in Iran is the Kazakhs. Today, they live in the Turkmen cities of Gorgan, Gonbad-e Kavus and Bandar-e Gaz in the Golestan Province of Iran.

After the independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazakhs living in foreign countries started to return to their homeland from the beginning of the 1990s’ with immigration policies. 26% of the nomads living in Kazakhstan are settled in the Turkestan Province. The second place with the highest immigrant population after Turkestan Province is Mangyshlak Province. Kazakhs who migrated from Iran to the homeland also live in these provinces.

In this paper, information about the migration history and settlements of Iranian Kazakhs is given. Due to the fact that they lived at an intersection with various Oghuz groups and that the official language in Iran is Persian, the differences that distinguish the Iranian Kazakh dialect from the literary language on the basis of vocabulary and the changes in their language are emphasized.