Dialect contact in Northern Cyprus

• Published in: International journal of the sociology of language 2006, Vol.181 (181), p.1-9
• Main Authors: Demir, Nurettin, Johanson, Lars
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cultural change; Cultural interaction; Culture Contact; Cyprus; Dialects; Empirical research; Immigration; Language; Language change; Language use; Sociolinguistics; Turkey; Turkish language
• ISSN: 0165-2516; 1613-3668
• DOI: 10.1515/IJSL.2006.047

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.