State Language (Kazakh) Proficiency and Official Document Language Requirements
This section tests Kazakh state-language proficiency and the language requirements for official documents. It covers the Constitution and the Law on Languages of 1997, official style, document requisites and correct Kazakh usage. The exam checks whether a document is legally and linguistically fit for official use.
Core rules
- Kazakh is the state language. Russian has official use on an equal footing with Kazakh in state organizations and local government; this does not make Russian the state language.
- Official documents are drafted in Kazakh; where the law allows, a Russian version is provided. A civil servant must be able to understand and produce official text in Kazakh.
- A document must contain the correct requisites: author, addressee in the proper case, date, registration number, title, text, signature and, where required, seal or approval.
- Official style requires accuracy, neutrality and standard formulas; avoid colloquialisms, dialect and unnecessary Russian calques.
- Kazakh morphology matters: case suffixes, vowel harmony and possessive endings change the addressee form.
Worked example
The addressee line is Қазақстан Республикасының Премьер-Министріне. The form is dative: Премьер-Министріне means to the Prime Minister. A candidate who writes Премьер-Министрге ignores the possessive ending and produces an incorrect official form. The test is not translation; it is control of the standard official construction.
Traps
Do not write Республика Казахстан in Kazakh text when the official form is Қазақстан Республикасы. Do not omit the date or registration number. Do not assume Russian is the state language because it is widely used. Do not use a literal calque where Kazakh has a standard term.