Cyprus-Forum.com

by **denizaksulu** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:42 pm

Tim Drayton wrote:Whilst we are on the subject of Cypriot Turkish, maybe somebody can help me out.

I have an excellent dictionary which helps me out a great deal, but I wonder if anywhere, online or in printed form, one can find a simple grammar of this threatened tongue. Even a few tables showing the conjugations of verbs and declensions of nouns would be useful. I have searched, but so far in vain.

Thanks

If someone of your abilities has tried and failed.....what can one say. Perhaps no online sources exist apart from Halil.

Have you tried a once Editor Ismail BOZKURT, of a very useful Journal, the Journal of Cyprus Studies,/ Kibris Arastirmalary Dergisi of the EMU (Eastern Mediterranean University) ISSN:1303-2925. Owned by Zafer Erturk (if not mistaken, the Journal that is)

Regards

Deniz

by **Tim Drayton** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:57 pm

denizaksulu wrote:
Tim Drayton wrote:Whilst we are on the subject of Cypriot Turkish, maybe somebody can help me out.

I have an excellent dictionary which helps me out a great deal, but I wonder if anywhere, online or in printed form, one can find a simple grammar of this threatened tongue. Even a few tables showing the conjugations of verbs and declensions of nouns would be useful. I have searched, but so far in vain.

Thanks

If someone of your abilities has tried and failed.....what can one say. Perhaps no online sources exist apart from Halil.

Have you tried a once Editor Ismail BOZKURT, of a very useful Journal, the Journal of Cyprus Studies,/ Kibris Arastirmalary Dergisi of the EMU (Eastern Mediterranean University) ISSN:1303-2925. Owned by Zafer Erturk (if not mistaken, the Journal that is)

Regards

Deniz

Thanks for your kind words and helpful suggestions.

I can't help thinking that, since the official policy of the Turkish Cypriot leadership for a long time was to deny the existence of a separate unique Turkish Cypriot cultural and linguistic identity, research into the Turkish Cypriot dialect has been frowned on. Hopefully some researchers will take advantage of the current more favourable climate and turn their attention to this dialect while it still exists.

I love the avatar.

by **BirKibrisli** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:02 pm

Tim Drayton wrote:There is a situation described in linguistics as diglossia, described in the dictionary as:

A sociolinguistic situation in which complementary social functions are distributed between two different varieties of language, a prestigious, formal, or high variety and a common, colloquial or low variety. (American Heritage Dictionary)

A very good is example is provided by the German-speaking areas of Switzerland. The Swiss speak a dialect of German which is virtually unintelligible to people from Germany, yet in formal settings standard German is used. Newspapers are written in standard German, and this is the language used in schools, parliament and the courts. Swiss German, on the other hand, is spoken in everyday situations.

I think the same thing applies in Cyprus. It would be very strange, wouldn't it, if a television newsreader or a deputy making a speech in parliament spoke Cypriot Turkish? Or if laws were framed in this dialect. Standard Turkish is the appropriate language for such settings, and it is right that Turkish Cypriots have a good command of the standard language. What I find sad is that the standard language also seems to be displacing Cypriot Turkish in informal settings.

Diglossia clearly also applies to the Greek Cypriot community, but I don't think the vernacular language is under threat in the same way in the latter community.

I know what you are getting at,Tim..And I think there is some validity in expecting "standard"Turkish in certain professions or situations...But the problem is people feeling intimidated to try to "sound" like someone from Turkey....As if speaking Cypriot Turkish is something shameful...Even when we are reading a text written in standard Turkish the expectation is to sound like a mainlander,using their intonations and accents and dictions etc...My point is that Cypriot Turkish is not considered a distinctive dialect but a poor form of standard Turkish...And more and more Turkish Cypriots are believing it too...There are other countries in which Turkish is spoken.Like Azerbaycan or Turkmenistan to name a few...But they speak their own Turkish dialect without being self-conscious or apologetic...While TCs seemed to have succumbed to the brainwashing that they are simply second class Turks in all aspects of life,not only in their speech...

by **Tim Drayton** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:27 pm

I have found the following interesting description of the Turkish Cypriot dialect (in Turkish):

http://turkoloji.cu.edu.tr/DILBILIM/nur ... turkce.pdf

The author notes in the introductory section that, compared to people who speak similar regional dialects in Turkey, Turkish Cypriots feel less ashamed about speaking in dialect and use their dialect even in quite formal settings in which mainland Turks would only use the standard language.

The following conjugation is given for the present tense of the verb. The author states that Cypriot Turkish only has one present tense, and does not make the distinction that standard Turkish has between yaparım (I do) and yapıyorum (I am doing), which confirms the impression I had made.

Yap-ar-ım / yapar-ın yap-ar-ık
Yap-a-ñ/yap-a-n yap-ar-sıñız
Yap-ar yap-al-lar

NEGATIVE:

Yapma-m Yapma-y-ız
Yapma-ñ Yapmaz-sıñız
Yapmaz Yapmaz-lar

I am going to study this paper carefully when I have time.

by **denizaksulu** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:42 pm

Tim Drayton wrote:I have found the following interesting description of the Turkish Cypriot dialect (in Turkish):

http://turkoloji.cu.edu.tr/DILBILIM/nur ... turkce.pdf

The author notes in the introductory section that, compared to people who speak similar regional dialects in Turkey, Turkish Cypriots feel less ashamed about speaking in dialect and use their dialect even in quite formal settings in which mainland Turks would only use the standard language.

The following conjugation is given for the present tense of the verb. The author states that Cypriot Turkish only has one present tense, and does not make the distinction that standard Turkish has between yaparım (I do) and yapıyorum (I am doing), which confirms the impression I had made.

Yap-ar-ım / yapar-ın yap-ar-ık
Yap-a-ñ/yap-a-n yap-ar-sıñız
Yap-ar yap-al-lar

NEGATIVE:

Yapma-m Yapma-y-ız
Yapma-ñ Yapmaz-sıñız
Yapmaz Yapmaz-lar

I am going to study this paper carefully when I have time.

Thanks for that Tim.

Very interesting. Your studies are deeper than mine obviously. I will spend more time studying Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot when I retire next year.

Regards

by **halil** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:32 pm

Tim Drayton wrote:
halil wrote:
Tim Drayton wrote:Whilst we are on the subject of Cypriot Turkish, maybe somebody can help me out.

I have an excellent dictionary which helps me out a great deal, but I wonder if anywhere, online or in printed form, one can find a simple grammar of this threatened tongue. Even a few tables showing the conjugations of verbs and declensions of nouns would be useful. I have searched, but so far in vain.

Thanks

Tim,
i would like to give you a book called ''Hakeri'nin kıbrıs Türkçesi Sözlüğü '' as a present .
when are you planning to come to North .pls let me know it few days ago before you come .

it will be very useful for you as a professional translator . It is 325 pages .
published by Samtay Vafkı Yayınları.

As I said, I have a very good dictionary of Cypriot Turkish words by Orhan Kabatas.

Thank you for the offer, all the same. I may be in Nicosia at the end of this week.

i never heard this name (Orhan kabataş) .

thanks for the link .

here is another link for u . it is very informative too
http://yordam.manas.kg/ekitap/pdf/Manas ... d-1-09.pdf

Let me know , when u will be at Nicosia . we can go to Book shop called Deniz plaza .

too many books about TC's calture .