Gagauz language

Gagauz
Gagauz dili, Gagauzca
Native to Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey
Region Gagauzia
Native speakers
 590,000 (2009)[1]
Turkic

  • Oghuz

    • Western Oghuz
      • Gagauz
Latin (Gagauz alphabet)
Official status
Official language in
  Gagauzia
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-3 gag
Glottolog gaga1249[2]
Linguasphere part of 44-AAB-a

Gagauz (Gagauz dili, Gagauzca) is a Turkic language spoken by the ethnic 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 Azeri, Turkmen, Crimean Tatar, and Turkish. Gagauz has two dialects, Bulgar Gagauzi and Maritime Gagauzi. Gagauz is a distinct language from Balkan Gagauz Turkish.[3]

Alphabet

It appears that the first alphabet to be used for the language was the Greek alphabet[4] 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.[5]

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: ⟨ä⟩ to represent the sound of [æ] (as ⟨ə⟩ in Azeri), ⟨ê⟩ to represent the [ə] (schwa) sound, which does not exist in Turkish, and ⟨ț⟩ or ⟨ţ⟩ to represent the sound [ts] as in Romanian. On the other hand, Gagauz lacks the Turkish letter ⟨ğ⟩, which had become completely silent in the Gagauz language.

Latin alphabet

A a Ä ä B b C c Ç ç D d E e Ê ê
F f G g H h I ı İ i J j K k L l
M m N n O o Ö ö P p R r S s Ş ş
T t Ţ ţ U u Ü ü V v Y y Z z

Cyrillic alphabet (historical)

А а Ә ә Б б В в Г г Д д Е е Ё ё
Ж ж Ӂ ӂ З з И и Й й К к Л л М м
Н н О о Ӧ ӧ П п Р р С с Т т У у
Ӱ ӱ Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ Ъ ъ
Ы ы Ь ь Э э Ю ю Я я

See also

Gagauzia Flag

References

  1. ↑ Gagauz at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Gagauz". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ M. Ciachir. Basarabialâ gagauzlarân istoriassi / Chișinău: 1933, p. 133
  5. ↑ Măcriș, Anatol. Găgăuzii / Bucharest: Editura PACO, 2008, p. 71.

Further reading

External links

Gagauz edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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