Many research studies have been conducted in order to learn the historical development, source, and primary meaning of many words in Kazakh local language heirlooms. Dialectology specialists who’ve participated in linguistic research trips or researched the language of a particular region have focused on the etymology of the words they have found and identified in their studies. In the regional dictionary of the Kazakh language, semantic analyses have also been made over certain oral words, with their different forms in Turkic languages having also been shown. The source of certain lexical units has also been examined in research on kinship names and honorifics. This topic especially attracts the attention of neighboring and distant foreign language experts and researchers.

Words whose meaning has expanded or narrowed or whose original meaning has changed are a characteristic phenomenon of language. Words can have several meanings in Turkic languages, including in Kazakh. A certain word may quite possibly have a figurative meaning in dialects or examples from oral literature. One example of this is the literary word täte, which is used in dialects in the derivative (as well as original) sense of the word to refer to older female relatives, with its opposite meaning of “father” or “uncle” also being used in relation to men, showing this word to have a dialectical character. Nevertheless, writers from the southern regions of Kazakhstan continue to use this word’s dialectal meaning mainly when describing their native land, childhood, and family. In addition, such usage is observed in earlier works, such as in a letter to Abai’s brother, Khaliolla, where Abai used the word täte to mean father. If one considers the earlier usage of the honorific täte, this word can be seen to have been used in relation to relatives on the father’s side not only in southern regions of Kazakhstan but also in some western, eastern, and even northern areas of Kazakhstan. The kinship honorific täte had some reason for being used over such a vast territory with a meaning different from that used in the literary language, and therefore an explanation must exist for this. When studying the origin of the word, one must refer to samples of Kazakh oral literature, to works written in antiquity, and to sources in other Turkic languages. From ancient Turkic monuments, one can trace the use of the word täte as having meant father. The article examines the reasons and justifications for using the word täte in the Kazakh language when addressing a man while analyzing its scope and origin. The article also examines the meanings of other Kazakh kinship honorifics such as äje, äke, and apa, which have undergone more semantic changes compared to in other Turkic languages.

Täte, äje, äke, and apa are some of the words used to signify age or gender regarding kinship honorifics in Turkic languages. Standard forms and phonetic variants of words are actively used both in the literary language and in Kazakh dialects. These words have been preserved with their old meanings and old phonetic forms in Kazakh proverbs and stereotyped expressions. For example, although the honorific täte is used to refer to related men in the language of the local people in the southern and some western regions, it is also used to refer to related women in the northern region as well as in the standard language. 

The honorific apa is used in southern regions as the equivalent of the word aje [grandmother], while western regions use it to denote an older woman or an older sister. The east also uses the form apay, which means “sister” or “aunt”. The interesting thing is that täte [aunt] in the literary language is never used in the same sense. Some parts of the east use täte to mean mother, while it means father in western Kazakhstan. In the stereotypical expression “Ay der aja, koy der koja jok,” the word äje in the standard language is used in the form of aja to mean elder or elder of a house. However, one dialectical difference is that the word äke, which is part of the noun äpeke (apa+eke), expresses its elder meaning.

While apa, äje, and äke were initially used to address elders in Turkic languages, the male or female meanings have changed over time. For this reason, difficulty is had in saying that every encountered kinship honorific is used only for women or only for men. Some kinship honorifics were initially used to address men, while they later began to be used differently to address women.

Kinship honorifics that are used without having undergone any change and by preserving the original meaning are very rare in modern Turkic languages. In particular, the meanings of kinship honorifics in Kazakh do not coincide with old Turkic. Instead, they are observed to have taken on completely opposite meanings. The Turkic cognates täte, äke, äje, and apa are all used to denote different meanings than in the Kazakh of the old Turkic period. Although changes have occurred in meaning in the standard language, the old meanings clearly are sometimes preserved in dialects and idioms as has been shown in the examples above, as well as in old Turkic inscriptions.