ENU Linguist Presents Project on Developing an Academic Kazakh Language Corpus in Germany and Türkiye

As part of the implementation of the research project AP23488585, “Digital Humanities: Developing a Corpus of Academic Kazakh,” the project leader, Gulnar Sarseke, Candidate of Philological Sciences and Associate Professor at the Department of Kazakh Linguistics, undertook research visits to leading international higher education institutions, including Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, as well as Mersin University and Toros University in Türkiye.

The main objectives of these research visits were to advance the tasks of the research project, exchange expertise with international colleagues in corpus development, and strengthen international academic cooperation between the participating universities.

The first destination of the research visit to Türkiye was the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Mersin University. The university is one of the higher education institutions where scholars involved in the development of the National Corpus of Turkish have conducted their research. The department is recognized as one of the leading academic centers conducting fundamental and applied research into the history, contemporary structure and development of the Turkish language, as well as Turkish literature.

During the visit, Gulnar Sarseke met with Hürriyet Gökdayı, Professor, PhD, and Head of the Department, a prominent scholar in Turkish linguistics. Professor Gökdayı has conducted extensive research in the linguistics of Turkic languages, syntax, semantics, and language contact. The meeting focused on experience in developing a corpus of academic Kazakh, and potential areas for future joint research based on materials from the Kazakh and Turkish languages were identified.

In addition, Gulnar Sarseke met with Ümit Demirhan, PhD, Associate Professor at the Department of Translation and Interpreting at Toros University in Mersin and a member of the research team responsible for developing the National Corpus of Turkish, as well as with doctoral students. During the meeting, she presented the research project, its key results and the project website, and answered questions from the participants. In turn, Dr. Ümit Demirhan, as a member of the research team that developed the National Corpus of Turkish, presented their experience and work in developing the national corpus.

The next destination of the research visit was Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, which is ranked among the world’s top 500 universities according to the QS World University Rankings 2026. There, Gulnar Sarseke met with Julian Rentzsch, Professor, PhD, and Head of the Department of Turkology. During the meeting with Julian Rentzsch, a specialist in general Turkic linguistics, typology, historical linguistics, morphosyntax and semantics, the results of the research project on developing a corpus of academic Kazakh were presented. The textbook Corpus Linguistics and the dictionary Academic Keyword Lists, published within the framework of the project, were also presented and donated to the university.

As part of the research visit, Gulnar Sarseke visited the research library of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and worked with scholarly literature on corpus linguistics and the theory and practice of corpus development in accordance with the aims and objectives of the project. The meetings also addressed prospects for strengthening academic cooperation between the departments. As a result of the discussions, an agreement was reached on establishing an international cooperation agreement between Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University.

During the research visits, the project leader was provided with individual workspaces equipped with computers, as well as full access to the resources of university and research institute libraries, creating favorable conditions for conducting research.

We express our sincere gratitude to the Department of Turkish Language and Literature of Mersin University and its Head, Professor Hürriyet Gökdayı; to Professor Julian Rentzsch, Head of the Department of Turkology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz; and to all our international colleagues for the high level of organization of the research visits, for establishing fruitful academic cooperation, and for sharing their valuable expertise and experience in corpus development.