EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE POLICY IN TURKMENISTAN IN THE PERIOD OF INDEPENDENCE

Abstract

The article analyzes the evolution of language policy in Turkmenistan after independence, clarifies the theory of “language policy – a policy based on the need for identity and the need for mutual understanding” in the context of independent Turkmenistan. Based on this concept, the article consideres two stages in the development of the country’s language policy and identifies the features of the language policy of each stage. The first stage is the time of S. Niyazov, when language policy was aimed at the need to construct a national identity. At the second stage (after G.M. Berdymukhamedov came to power), against the background of globalization, the need for mutual understanding with the outside world is emphasized in the language policy, so adaptation to globalization has become a new important content of the country’s language policy. In the context of nation-state building and the influence of globalization, the coordination of the two opposing needs of languages becomes an urgent task in today’s language policy in Turkmenistan.