Gagauz language

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Not to be confused with Balkan Gagauz Turkish.
Gagauz
Gagauz dili, Gagauza
Pronunciation [gaga'uzt??a]
Native to Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey
Region Gagauzia
Native speakers
590,000 (2009)[1]
Language family
Turkic
Common Turkic
Oghuz
Western Oghuz
Gagauz
Writing system
Latin (Gagauz alphabet)
Official status
Official language in
Moldova

Gagauzia
Recognised minority
language in
Ukraine
Language codes
ISO 639-3 gag
Glottolog gaga1249[2]
Linguasphere part of 44-AAB-a
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The Gagauz language (Gagauz dili, Gagauza) is a Turkic language spoken by the
Gagauz people of Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey, and it is the official
language of the Autonomous Region of Gagauzia in Moldova. Gagauz belongs to the
Oghuz branch of Turkic languages, alongside Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Crimean Tatar,
and Turkish. Gagauz has two dialects, Bulgar Gagauzi and Maritime Gagauzi. Gagauz
is a distinct language from Balkan Gagauz Turkish.[3]

Though it was established as a written language in 1957, Gagauz was not used in
curriculum until 1959, when even then it was not used officially or in everyday
life.[4] Gagauz is a language coming from Balkan Gagauz Turkish; Balkan linguistics
was the first to view the consequences of language contact as normal rather than
corrupt.[5] The term Gagauz language and identification of one's language as Gagauz
were established concurrently with or even after the creation of national self-
awareness.[6] About 150,000 Gaguazes resided in Moldava in 1986, where they lived
in settlements within the Komratskii, Chadyr-Lungskii and Vulkaneshtskii Rayons.[7]
Along with the majority of Gagauzes living in Moldova, there are four other cities
in Bulgaria in which the Gagauz reside.[8]

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Phonology
2.1 Consonants
3 Orthography
3.1 Latin alphabet
3.2 Cyrillic alphabet (historical)
4 Current situation
4.1 Education
4.2 Media
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
History[edit]
In 1994, the Gagauz wanted autonomy from the former Soviet Union. The Law on
Special Legal Status of Gagauzia was passed leading the Gagauz case to be the only
case in the former Soviet Union where an ethnic group was granted autonomy status.
[9] On January 14, 1995, The Autonomy Statute for Gagauzia was put into effect,
granting independence and attempting to regain control of the areas surrounding the
Gagauz capital Comrat.[10] Between 1750 and 1846, Gagauz ancestors fled to Russia
and settled in the region that is now the current-day Republic of Moldova. Empress
Catherine allowed the Gagauz to settle in the region under the condition that they
converted to Orthodox Christianity.[11] The districts of Gagauzia were the poorest
in Moldova. In the years leading up to their independence, Gagauzia fought hard
against the government over water supply, health care and native language
education.[12] Gagauzian autonomy led to tough times and turmoil both internally
and with the central government in 2002. Power-sharing is a difficult thing to do,
so international assistance was needed many times for disputes between the power-
sharing Moldova and Gagauzia.[13]

Phonology[edit]
Consonants[edit]
Consonant phonemes of Gagauz
Labial Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n
Plosive p b t d (c) (?) k g
Affricate t?s t?? d??
Fricative f v s z ? ? x h
Approximant (?) l j ?
Flap ?
Orthography[edit]
It appears that the first alphabet to be used for the language was the Greek
alphabet[14] in the late 19th century. For example, orientalist Otto Blau claims
that plays of Euripides had been translated into the Gagauz language and had been
written with Greek letters.[15]

Beginning in 1957, Cyrillic was used up until the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991. Gagauz currently uses a Latin-based alphabet, modelled after the modern
Turkish alphabet, with the addition of three letters ?? to represent the sound of
[] (as ??? in Azeri), ?? to represent the [?] (schwa) sound, which does not exist
in Turkish, and ??? or ?t? to represent the sound [ts] as in Romanian. On the other
hand, unlike Crimean Tatar, Turkish, and some other Turkic languages, Gagauz does
not have the letter ?g?, which had become completely silent in the Gagauz language.

Latin alphabet[edit]
A a B b C c D d E e
[?] [~?] [b] [d?] [t?] [d] [e] [?]
F f G g H h I i I i J j K k L l
[f] [g, ?] [x, h~h] [?~?] [i] [?] [k, c] [l, ?]
M m N n O o P p R r S s S s
[m] [n, ?] [o] [] [p] [r] [s] [?]
T t T t U u V v Y y Z z
[t] [ts] [u] [y] [w, v?] [j] [z]
Cyrillic alphabet (historical)[edit]
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Current situation[edit]
A study in 2012 was conducted on the Gagauz community to assess the current
situation and sociocultural context. The findings show that within Gagauzia,
official documents, printed publications, and official web sites are only in
Russian. The National Passport System in Moldova does not allow the spelling of
names in Gagauz. Signposts in Gagauzia are mostly in Romanian, and the names of
squares and streets have not changed since the time of the Soviet Union.[16]

Education[edit]
Despite various laws that support the rights of citizens to education in their
native language, almost all instruction in Gagauzian schools is in Russian. Gagauz,
while the native language of all students, is only taught as a native language
class for a few hours per week.[17] Research has also shown that there are not
serious desires or attempts to institute Gagauz as a language of instruction. In a
study, 80.6% of respondents preferred Russian as the medium of instructions at
schools.[17] There are, however, some notable efforts to increase Gagauz language
education. Todur Zanet, editor-in-chief of the Ana Sz local newspaper, has played
an active role in encouraging readers and local authorities to promote instruction
in their mother tongue. Zanet has also contributed significantly to efforts to
standardize the language, and increase its accessibility through print and other
mediums.

Media[edit]
Ana Sz is the largest local newspaper in Gagauzia. It is also the only local
newspaper still written entirely in Gagauz, and was the first newspaper of any kind
published in the Gagauz language. Apart from Ana Sz, there are various newspapers
published in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, including Aik Gz,
Gagauz Yeri, Gagauz Sesi, Halk Birligi, Noviy Vzgled, Vesti, Gagauzii, and Znamea.

In addition to printed materials, the company Gagauz Radio Televisionu (GRT)

produces radio and television broadcasts in Gagauz.

References[edit]
Jump up ^ Gagauz at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Jump up ^ Hammarstrm, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017).
Gagauz. Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human
History.
Jump up ^ Lewis, M. Paul, ed. (2009). Language Family Trees Altaic, Turkic,
Southern, Turkish. Ethnologue Languages of the World. Dallas, TX SIL International.
Retrieved 2011-04-29.
Jump up ^ Menz, Astrid (2000). Indirectivity in Gagauz. In Johanson, Lars; Utas,
Bo. Evidentials Turkic, Iranian and Neighbouring Languages. Walter de Gruyter. p.
103. ISBN 978-3-11-080528-4.
Jump up ^ Friedman, Victor A. (2011). The Balkan Languages and Balkan Linguistics.
Annual Review of Anthropology. 40 275291. JSTOR 41287733.
Jump up ^ Kvilinkova, E. N. (2013). The Gagauz Language Through the Prism of Gagauz
Ethnic Identity. Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia. 52 7494. doi10.2753AAE1061-
1959520105.
Jump up ^ Varsahr, A. M.; Spitsyn, V. A.; Bychcovscaya, L. S.; Kravchuk, O. I.
(2001). To the research of the gene pool of the Gagauz population of Moldavia.
Anthropologischer Anzeiger. 59 (1) 1117. JSTOR 29540987.
Jump up ^ Chinn, Jeff; Roper, Steven D. (1998). Territorial Autonomy in Gagauzia.
Nationalities Papers The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity. 26 (1) 87101.
doi10.108000905999808408552.
Jump up ^ Protsyk, Oleh (2010). Gagauz Autonomy in Moldova The Real and the Virtual
in Post-Soviet State Design. In Weller, Marc; Nobbs, Katherine. Asymmetric Autonomy
and the Settlement of Ethnic Conflicts. University of Pennsylvania Press. JSTOR
j.ctt3fhcx2.13.
Jump up ^ Autonomy and Conflict Transformation (PDF).
Jump up ^ Nasidze, I.; Quinque, D.; Udina, I.; Kunizheva, S.; Stoneking, M. (2007).
The Gagauz, a Linguistic Enclave, are not a genetic isolate. Annals of Human
Genetics. 71 379389. doi10.1111j.1469-1809.2006.00330.x.
Jump up ^ Moldova and the new Bessarabian questions. JSTOR 40396520.
Jump up ^ Gagauzia and Moldova Experiences in Power-sharing.
Jump up ^ M. Ciachir. Basarabial gagauzlarn istoriassi Chi?inau 1933, p. 133
Jump up ^ Macri?, Anatol. Gagauzii Bucharest Editura PACO, 2008, p. 71.
Jump up ^ Sirkeli, M. & Lisenco, S. (2012). Policy Brief Implementation of
linguistic rights of the Gagauz of Moldova. Integration of the Gagauz Community
into the Society of Moldova.
^ Jump up to a b Dagdeviren Kirmizi, Glin. Emotional and Functional Attitudes of
Native Speakers Towards Gagauz as an Endangered Language. (2015).
Further reading[edit]
Ulutas, Ismail. 2004. Relative clauses in Gagauz syntax. Istanbul Isis Press. ISBN
975-428-283-8
Shabashov A.V., 2002, Odessa, Astroprint, Gagauzes terms of kinship system and
origin of the peopl