Cypriot Turkish (''Kıbrıs Türkçesi'') is a dialect of the
Turkish language
Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...
spoken by
Turkish Cypriots
Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,00 ...
both in
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
and among
its diaspora.
History
Emanating from
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
and evolved for four centuries, Cypriot Turkish is the
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
spoken by Cypriots with
Ottoman ancestry, as well as by Cypriots who converted to
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
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
Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
and the
Yörük dialect that is spoken in the
Taurus Mountains
The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar'') are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğirdir ...
of southern
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. In addition, it has absorbed influences from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. Cypriot Turkish is mutually intelligible with
Standard Turkish.
Since the 1974
Turkish invasion of Cyprus
The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of Cypriot intercommunal violence, intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots, Greek and Turkish ...
, Turkish is found almost exclusively in
Northern Cyprus
Northern Cyprus ( tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs), officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC; tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti, ''KKTC''), is a ''de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the Geography of Cyprus, isl ...
, with approximately 300,000 native Turkish speakers (including all dialects of Turkish) as of 2016 and 1,400 speakers in the south as of 2013. Of these, a significant number are
immigrants from Turkey who do not speak the Cypriot variety of Turkish. Cypriot Turkish is not used officially in the north, where
modern standard Turkish
Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...
became the ''de facto'' official language of schools, government, and the media.
Phonology
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
Stop may refer to:
Places
*Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Facilities
* Bus stop
* Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck dri ...
** t↔d, k↔g
::Standard Turkish ↔ Cypriot Turkish "stone"
::Standard Turkish ↔ Cypriot Turkish "wolf"
::Standard Turkish ↔ Cypriot Turkish "potato"
* Preservation of earlier
Turkic
::Standard Turkish ↔ Cypriot Turkish "how are you?"
::Standard Turkish ↔ Cypriot Turkish "thousand"
::Standard Turkish: ↔ Cypriot Turkish: "getting in the car"
* Changing 1st person plural suffix
** z↔k
::Standard Turkish ↔ Cypriot Turkish "we want"
* Unvoicing of some voiced stops
** b↔p
::Standard Turkish: ↔ Cypriot Turkish: "broad beans"
*
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonority hierarchy, sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronic analysis, s ...
of final
affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
s
** ç () ↔ ş ()
::Standard Turkish ↔ Cypriot Turkish "no, none"
The last two alternations are more specific to Cypriot Turkish and are seen less often in other Turkish vernacular.
Consonants
Vowels
Grammar
Cypriot Turkish is structured as a
VO language
Vo or VO may refer to:
Businesses and brands
* Austrian Arrows (2003-2015, IATA airline code VO)
* VLM Airlines Slovenia (2016-2018, IATA airline code VO)
* Seagram's VO Whiskey
Language
* Volapük language (ISO 639-1 code vo)
* VO language, a ...
as opposed to standard Turkish which is an
OV language. It is very typical in forming a question.
* Standard Turkish is, in Cypriot Turkish, ("Will you go to school?")
Cypriot Turkish uses the
aorist
Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the I ...
tense instead of the present continuous tense, and very often in place of the future tense as well.
* Standard Turkish or ("I am going to school") are, in Cypriot Turkish, ("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 ("He is reported to have gone home") is, in Cypriot Turkish, not used. Instead or ("He went home") suffices.
Cypriot Turkish also lacks the question suffix of .
This is similar to colloquial Azerbaijani.
* Standard Turkish ("Is your mother at home?") is, in Cypriot Turkish,
In Cypriot Turkish, the
reflexive pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that refers to another noun or pronoun (its antecedent) within the same sentence.
In the English language specifically, a reflexive pronoun will end in ''-self'' or ''-selves'', and refer to a previously n ...
in third person is different, namely ("him, himself, them, themself"). In Standard Turkish, this would be .
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.
See also
*
Languages of Cyprus
The official languages of the Republic of Cyprus are Greek language, Greek . In Northern Cyprus, Turkish was made the only official language by the 1983 constitution. The everyday spoken language (vernacular) of Greek Cypriots is Cypriot Greek, ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
List of Cypriot Turkish Vocabulary (in Turkish)Turkish Cypriot Idioms Search Engine
{{Languages of Cyprus
Turkish language
Turkish, Cypriot
Turkish, Cypriot
Turkish dialects
Subject–verb–object languages
mk:Кипарски Турци