Microsoft Word terra sebvs- special issue final 23 februarie doc

Astana the Capital of Kazakhstan and Astanas in Siberia as a Linguistic-Cultural Aspect  

 

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We assume that toponymical tradition relies on a deeper real tradition, 

with real historical fact as its basis, while the more fantastic and surreal 

aspects of legends came originally from the religious (Christian, Muslim, 

etc.) traditions. The authors propose that toponymical legends in most cases 

are based on the associative perception of names. Chains of keyword 

associations in myths are encountered throughout various kinds of 

mythological works, syncretically connecting pagan beliefs, the spiritual 

traditions of shamanism and other religious beliefs. 

There is no doubt that local linguistic colouring depends on the 

specifics of the populations that came into contact. This colouring is 

expressed in conditions of material and spiritual culture and language. From 

this perspective, the lingual world landscape of the new type of Eurasian 

person is a sort of mosaic formed of various lingual cultures built on the 

foundations of his native language, taking into account ethno-linguistic 

differentiations. 

When we read toponimycal stories about astanas, we can see not only 

archetypal stories about holy places, but also intercultural elements 

connected with the promotion of Islam and Arabic culture in Siberia and 

Kazakhstan. Religious knowledge of Sufi practices is passed from teacher 

 

Toponymical 

myth 

Mythological 

conceptoshere 

 

Toponymical 

legend 

 

Toponymical 

story 

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I. S. Karabulatova, E. N. Ermakova, G. A. Shiganova 

 

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(“murshid”) to disciple (“murid”) orally, and the essence of the tasks ahead 

should not be explained to the murid. Pilgrimage to Siberia represents a true 

spiritual practice for enlightened Sufis. The spiritual and moral quest of 

Siberian Arabic Sufis is reflected in works of art, clearly illustrating the 

nature of the Sufi worldview of the real and the imaginary world. The 

central problem in the life of a Sufi is the search for freedom - the freedom 

of the soul. Astanas serve as a symbol of the freedom of the soul. 

 

Discussion 

The Kazakh government took the word “Astana” as the name of the new 

capital. It could be said that the sacred meaning of the word astana 

strengthened certain archetypes within the Turkic community. The symbolic 

load borne by this name in the past was increased many times with the 

formation of the state. Young states (such as Kazakhstan) need new myths 

to comprehend reality anew. These new myths can be seen as a kind of 

common experience of the transformation of the country. 

In the formation of new independent states, myths are usually 

required as a form of mass culture and a way to interpret reality. Fragments 

of the Turkic world are scattered across a huge area of Eurasia, a testimony 

to the promotion and development of Turkic culture by its ancestors. P. B. 

Golden clearly presents the psychic space of the Turkic world and showed 

the interaction of elements of the archaic and traditional worlds of Islam 

amongst Turkic nomads.

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 Turkic peoples did not just drift towards a 

convergence of East and West, but actively created their new nation, uniting 

disparate ancient worlds. Kazakhstan, declaring itself the successor of the 

great ancient lands of Eurasia, provides to its people a powerful motivation 

for creativity and an awakening of genetic memory which helps to create 

both the present and future. 

Finding the “heart space” in the mystical tradition of any people is a 

crucial step on the path to spiritual ascent. In addition, according to the 

testimony of researchers into Orthodox spiritual culture, the south-west of 

Siberia has a mystical resonance with “the heart of the sacral Topos” and 

the Islamic prayer of Issus. Siberia in Russian culture is a sacred portal of 

prayer, a mystical Belovodye (place of White Water) or Shambhala. A 

parallel can be seen with the Nestorianism

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 of the pre-Islamic period of the 

region.  

                                                 

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 Golden 2011, p. 180. 

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 Nestorianism: A branch of Christianity; its main theological principle is recognition of 

the symmetrical alignment of God and Jesus in the single divine-human person of Christ 

from the moment of conception, without the confusion connected with the two faces of 

God and man. The Christian Church has long treated Nestorianism as heresy. 

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Astana the Capital of Kazakhstan and Astanas in Siberia as a Linguistic-Cultural Aspect  

 

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A Temenos (ancient Greek. Τέμενος) is a sacred piece of land 

dedicated to a specific deity. It was believed that a person could feel the 

presence of the deity when in the Temenos, meeting their personalized 

essence of the unconscious. Tyumen region is just such a sacred place in 

Russian culture: located in south-west Siberia it has a shape of a heart. Thus 

we can assume that the name Tyumen is a distorted form of Temenos. 

Modern onoma (the act of naming) is a kind of myth-making, taking 

on new life, rising to a new level of perception amongst recipients. From 

this perspective, a huge variety of proper names can be identified in 

different nuclear peripheral fields of modern onomastic space in the post-

Soviet states, reflecting the formation of various identities. However, the 

modern onomastic space becomes a platform on which communication 

takes the form of a battle between: a) Russian and English (hence, in the 

authors’ opinion, there is clear polarization in the name of the new micro-

toponymic objects such as Knyazhye Lake and Green House, etc.); b) 

Russian and the official language of other countries (Kabedenov - 

Kabedenuly; Karabulat - Karabulatov - Karabulatidis; etc.); c) the state 

language of the CIS countries and English (Halyk Bank - Nalyk bank, etc.); 

d) Russian and the languages of republics of the Russian Federation 

(Bashkortostan - Bashkortostan, etc.); e) Russian and the language of 

national minorities (Amangeldyevna - Amangeldinovna in the forms of 

patronymic names in the same family). Such a complex communicative 

situation requires a balanced approach to the analysis of modern ethno-

linguistic-informational onomastic systems. 

The polyethnic nature of the Russian-Kazakhstan border region 

impacts not only the formation of specific anthropological population types 

but is reflected in the characteristics of how local languages function, and in 

the formation of bilingualism and biculturalism. 

The authors believe that the specific type of poly-lingualism found in 

the Russian-Kazakhstan border region - namely Tatar-Arabic (confessional) 

and Russian, plus foreign languages (English/German/French), is 

characteristic of Tatar. The suppression of the confessional nature of 

trilinguism amongst Tatar and other Turkic people is a cause of surprise. As 

a rule, almost all Tatars know, in addition to the native Tatar language, 

Russian and also Arabic as an Islamic language. Languages are learned in the 

following order: 1. Tatar, 2. Arabic, 3. Russian, 4. foreign languages 

(English/German/French). The adoption of second and further languages 

and cultures represents the creation, in an individual, of a new lingual and 

cultural system to reflect objective reality. Indeed, “these and other facts 

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