PhD Dr. and Acting Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages Lyazzat Ayanovna Nakhanova delivered a paper on sound variation in the Kazakh language at an international congress dedicated to the cherished memory of Ganira Pashayeva

The International Congress «Ganira Pashayeva and the Turkic World: Literature, Culture, Politics, and the Ideal of Unity,» organized by the Union of Turkic Academics, was held online on September 27–28, 2026. Dedicated to the cherished memory of the late Ganira Pashayeva, who made significant contributions to the ideal of unity and solidarity across the Turkic world, the congress gathered numerous scholars from 22 countries. Over the two-day event, a total of 201 papers were presented across seven parallel sessions in five virtual conference halls.

Acting Associate Professor, PhD Dr. Lyazzat Ayanovna Nakhanova, faculty member in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of International Relations at the L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, participated in the congress and delivered her paper entitled «On Issues in Sound Variation in Kazakh: A Transcription-Based Analysis,» providing substantial contributions to the fields of Turkic studies and general linguistics.

 Focusing on the sound shifts that emerge in spontaneous natural speech and examining the scientific methodologies for transcribing spoken language into graphic form, Dr. Nakhanova highlighted the linguistic significance of phonetic, phonological, and prosodic transcription systems. She pointed out that phonological phenomena occurring in connected discourse through mutual sound influences - such as assimilation, voicing, devoicing, elision, and vowel raising - cannot be fully or accurately represented by conventional orthographic conventions. Drawing upon systematic analyses of textual excerpts from the contemporary short story Anasyn Sagyngan Bala (The Boy Who Missed His Mother) by renowned Kazakh writer T.Nurmagambetov, she demonstrated how the authentic pronunciation features and intonational structure of Kazakh speech can be documented through specialized transcriptions.

The presentation, which also evaluated the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) alongside phonetic notation systems utilized across the Turkic world, was received with keen interest by session attendees and the chair for its relevance to documenting the sound systems of Turkic languages through modern empirical methods and preserving normative pronunciation standards of language. At the conclusion of the session, Lyazzat Nakhanova extended her sincere appreciation to the Union of Turkic Academics and the congress organizing committee for bringing together scholars on a shared academic platform across the Turkic world.