Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Cypriot Turkish

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Glottolog
  
None

Native to
  
Northern Cyprus, Cyprus

Native speakers
  
177,000 all varieties of Turkish in Cyprus (1995)

Language family
  
TurkicCommon TurkicOghuzWestern OghuzTurkishCypriot Turkish

Writing system
  
Latin (Turkish alphabet)

Cypriot Turkish (Turkish: Kıbrıs Türkçesi) is a dialect of the Turkish language spoken by Turkish Cypriots both in Cyprus and among its diaspora.

Contents

History

Emanating from Anatolia and evolved for four centuries, Cypriot Turkish is the vernacular spoken by Cypriots with Ottoman ancestry, as well as by Cypriots who converted to Islam during Ottoman rule. It is understood by expatriate Cypriots living in the UK, United States, Australia and other parts of the world.

Cypriot Turkish consists of a blend of Ottoman Turkish and the Yörük dialect that is spoken in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey. In addition it has absorbed influences from Greek, Italian and English.

Cypriot Turkish is mutually intelligible with Standard Turkish.

Differences between standard Turkish and Cypriot Turkish

Cypriot Turkish is distinguished by a number of sound alternations not found in standard Turkish, but some of which are also quite common in other Turkish vernaculars:

  • Voicing of some unvoiced stops
  • t↔d, k↔g
  • Preservation of earlier Turkic *ŋ
  • Changing 1st person plural suffix
  • z↔k
  • Unvoicing of some voiced stops
  • b↔p
  • Lenition of final affricates
  • ç ([tʃ]) ↔ ş ([ʃ])

    • The last two alternations are more specific to Cypriot Turkish.

    Grammar

    Cypriot Turkish is structured as VO language as opposed to standard Turkish which is OV language. It is very typical in forming a question.

  • Standard Turkish "Okula gidecek misin?" is, in Cypriot Turkish, "Gideceŋ okula?" (Will you go to school?)

    • Cypriot Turkish uses the aorist tense instead of the present continuous tense, and very often in place of the future tense as well.

  • Standard Turkish "Okula gidiyorum" (I am going to school) or a "Okula gideceğim" are, in Cypriot Turkish, "Giderim okula" (I go to school / I am going to school / I will go to school)

    • Cypriot Turkish does not use the narrative/indefinite past, and only uses the simple past instead.

  • Standard Turkish "Eve gitmiş" (He is reported to have gone home) is, in Cypriot Turkish, not used. Instead "Eve gitti / Gitti eve" (He went home) suffices.

    • Cypriot Turkish also lacks the question suffix of "mi".

  • Standard Turkish "Annen evde midir?" (Is your mother at home?) is, in Cypriot Turkish, "Anneŋ evdedir?"

    • In Cypriot Turkish, the reflexive pronoun in third person is different, namely geŋni (him, himself, them, themself). In Standard Turkish, kendisini.

    Semantics

    Typical question usually do not qualify as standard Turkish questions (see the example above) because question suffixes are usually dropped by native Turkish Cypriots. Another subtle difference is the emphasis on verbs.

    References

    Cypriot Turkish Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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