Volume 2006, Issue 181

The interest in the study of Turkic contacts with other languages is currently increasing. Recent investigations have shown that language contacts have played an important role in the development of the Turkic languages. On the other hand, developments due to encounters of different variants of Turkic have played similar roles, although they have not attracted much attention so far. The most common reasons for Turkic-Turkic contacts have been migrations, through which various varieties have come to influence each other. One of the most intensive contact regions is Anatolia. Cypriot Turkish, generally described as an extension of Anatolian Turkish, offers a good basis for investigating inner-Turkish contact processes. The local dialect is naturally confined to the island, and its contact with external cultural centers has been rather restricted. The dialect has thus developed without a strong influence from Standard Turkish. As a result, a Cypriot Turkish dialect with specific characteristic properties has emerged. Due to migrations from Anatolia, Cypriot Turkish has, however, also been confronted with external varieties, which has led to mutual influence. Various intensive stages of this influence have been observed since 1974. Because of immigrants and university students from Turkey, Standard Turkish, Anatolian dialects and Cyprus Turkish dialects have come into close contact with each other. The present contribution will focus on some linguistic changes that have occurred due to this development. In the framework of the code copying model (see, e.g., Johanson 1992, 2002b), we will deal with the question of which typical features of Cypriot Turkish are used by groups that have arrived after 1974. We will also try to answer the question whether the typical features of Cypriot Turkish (see Demir 2002) have changed under the impact of incoming varieties. The features studied include the absence of the evidential suffix, the preference for the old present tense form over the new one in -iyor , vowel shortening, etc. The contribution is essentially based on our own collections of materials.

The language used in the press has aroused interest in recent years for a variety of reasons. It not only provides evidence for a register that is so widely used and encountered in all modern societies but also shows how means can be manipulated to “justify the ends.” In the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (henceforth TRNC), where Turkish is the state language, ten daily newspapers are published with an approximate circulation of 12,000. The aim of this article is to try to find out to what extent the ideological viewpoint of these papers influences the language they use. The data comprise samples from headlines and advertisements over a 45-day period of the five most popular papers. The analysis shows that the language used in the papers is not a simple, neutral representation of reality as such, but an effective means to manipulate it in line with the ideology of the newspaper and the expectations of its readers, which is best done through the language used in the headlines. The study of the sample advertisement texts, on the other hand, indicates that the global role of English as a means of communication is increasing every day even in a small community such as that in the TRNC.

This study is an attempt to describe the traces of spoken language in the written language in Cypriot Turkish in a longitudinal manner, starting from the early 1960s and proceeding to the present day. It should be noted that since 1974 the use of standard mainland Turkish on the island has become steadily more common due to the considerable increase in the number of settlements from Turkey. Nevertheless, the Cypriot Turkish dialect is still distinctively alive within the speech community. The first part of the article describes the features of the spoken language in Cypriot Turkish dialect. In the second part, examples are provided to show that the Cypriot Turkish dialect reveals itself not only in spoken language, but also in written language. The article also discusses the fact that the impact of oral language on written language is neither related to the formality of the context nor to one's schooling experience, that is, whether or not one has received formal education where “standard” variation is imposed. In order to base these observations on a firm ground, a number of informal and formal written language texts were analyzed and the impact of oral language on written language was investigated. Since the study has an ethnographic nature in terms of its scope and content, the author followed the principles of qualitative research techniques in data collection and analysis.

Turkish speakers in Britain have settled mainly in London and the southeast of the country. This study concerns a much smaller population in the city of Birmingham in the Midlands, and looks at whether Turkish is surviving in the language repertoires of this group of Northern Cypriots. Its members live in a highly multicultural and multilingual city, and language maintenance would not be exceptional. However, despite this fairly positive setting, there are signs that intergenerational transmission of Turkish is not taking place. The reason for this may be the scattered nature of settlement and adults' dispersal in different employment sectors. There are no concentrations in particular industries and areas as in London and the southeast. The subjects studied were likely to be among those most committed to language maintenance since they were all attending Turkish Saturday school. The Turkish that the group was using was distinctive. The variety bears traces of the origin of older members of the group, is highly conservative, and has features which seem to derive from language contact in Birmingham. Members of the group were clearly losing (or not acquiring) competence in Turkish. However, group commitment to maintenance of culture and tradition was high. The researchers conclude that the group's reason for language maintenance derives to a much greater extent from loyalty and integrative motivation than instrumental reasons, and that identity needs may be served by cultural maintenance in place of language maintenance.

Although language is a primary means of communication, the language use of individuals differs in many ways. The differences, in fact, can be related to the nature of language as well as to other variables such as educational background, age, power relations, social status, and individual characteristics. From a sociolinguistic point of view, one of the significant characteristics of an individual to be specifically taken into consideration in the analysis of language use is the sex variable. In this study the attitudes of Turkish Cypriot women towards the use of foreign words in Turkish Cypriot dialect will be evaluated.

As pointed out by researchers in earlier studies, different languages in the same geographical area tend to develop similar properties deviating from their original forms. One of the reasons for this development in different languages is related to dialect contact. In this study, the primary aim is to focus on the dialect contact between Turkish Cypriot Dialect (henceforth TCD) and Greek Cypriot Dialect (henceforth GCD) with specific reference to the intonation pattern of the interrogatives.

This article explores the changing patterns of language choice, code switching, and borrowing in naturally occurring conversations of Turkish Cypriot adults in a London workplace. The small representative sample contains workers of second and third generation Cypriot women. It is shown that language use can be variable with intergenerational patterns. In Cyprus while Cypriot Turkish (henceforth CT) is influenced by Standard Turkish (henceforth ST), the shift is more towards English in London. However, CT continues to have an important social function in both communities and is used to convey culturally specific experiences in routine daily conversations. The purpose of this case study is to highlight language shift in a London sample, to show that language use in the Cypriot Community — as in other linguistic communities in the UK — is changing increasingly to adapt to new sociolinguistic paradigms.

A. Pehlivan: Aya İrini'den Akdeniz'e: Kıbrıs Ağzının Değişimi [From Aya Irini to the Mediterranean: the change of Turkish Cypriot dialect]. Lefkoşa: Adım, 2003. i–x + 145 pp. (Ali Sidki Ağazade)

This article investigates the process of language maintenance and language shift among ethnic minority groups living in Khartoum, the capital state of Sudan. A 22-item questionnaire was used to collect data on language proficiency, language use, and language attitude. The results show that a considerable number of younger-generation migrants have adopted Arabic as their primary language. Arabic was also used predominantly in most domains of communication. Although most respondents showed a positive attitude to their ethnic languages, they actually did not make any efforts to maintain them.