Turkish dialects


There is considerable dialectal variation in Turkish.
Turkish is a southern Oghuz language belonging to the Turkic languages. Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey, Bulgaria, the island of Cyprus, Greece, Kosovo, Meskhetia, North Macedonia, Romania, Iraq, Syria and other areas of traditional settlement which formerly, in whole or part, belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Turkish is the official language of Turkey and is one of the official languages of Cyprus. It also has official status in the Prizren District of Kosovo and several municipalities of North Macedonia, depending on the concentration of Turkish-speaking local population. Modern standard Turkish is based on the dialect of Istanbul. Nonetheless, dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and the Turkish education system since the 1930s. The terms ağız or şive are often used to refer to the different types of Turkish dialects.

Balkan Turkish dialects

The Turkish language was introduced to the Balkans by the Ottoman Turks during the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Today, Turkish is still spoken by the Turkish minorities who are still living in the region, especially in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Romania. Balkans Ottoman Turkish dialects were first described at the beginning of the 20th century, and are called Rumelian—a term introduced by Gyula Németh in 1956. Németh also established the basic division between Eastern Rumelian and Western Rumelian group of dialects. The bundle of isoglosses separating the two groups roughly follows the Bulgarian yat border. The eight basic Western Rumelian Turkish features are:
  1. /ı/, /u/, /ü/ > /i/ word-finally
  2. the suffix -miş used for forming perfect tense is not subject to vowel harmony, i.e. it is invariant
  3. /i/ > /ı/ in noninitial and closed final syllables
  4. /ö/ > /oa/, /o/ and /ü/ > /ua/, /u/ in many words
  5. generalization of one of two possible forms in suffixes with low vowel harmony
  6. /ö/ > /ü/ in about 40 words, usually in a syllable-initial position
  7. retention of Ottoman Turkish /ğ/ as /g/
  8. the progressive past participle ending is not -yor but -y
Additional features have been suggested such as the fronting of /k/ and /g/ to palatal affricates or stops, and the loss of /h/, especially in a word-initial position.
Rumelian Turkish dialects are the source of Turkish loanwords in Balkan languages, not the modern standard Turkish language which is based on the Istanbul dialect. For example, Serbo-Croatian :wikt:kapija#Serbo-Croatian|kàpija/:wikt:капија#Serbo-Croatian|капија "large gate" comes from Rumelian kapi, not standard Turkish kapı.

Cypriot Turkish dialect

The Turkish language was introduced to Cyprus with the Ottoman conquest in 1571 and became the politically dominant, prestigious language of the administration. In the post-Ottoman period, Cypriot Turkish was relatively isolated from standard Turkish and had strong influences from the Cypriot Greek dialect. The condition of coexistence with the Greek Cypriots led to a certain bilingualism whereby Turkish Cypriots' knowledge of Greek was important in areas where the two communities lived and worked together. The linguistic situation changed radically in 1974, when the island was divided into a Greek south and a Turkish north. Today, the Cypriot Turkish dialect is being exposed to increasing standard Turkish through immigration from Turkey, new mass media, and new educational institutions.

Karamanli Turkish

Meskhetian Turkish dialect

The Meskhetian Turks speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, which hails from the regions of Kars, Ardahan, Iğdır and Artvin. The Meskhetian Turkish dialect has also borrowed from other languages which the Meskhetian Turks have been in contact with during the Russian and Soviet rule.

Syrian Turkmen dialect

The Syrian Turkmen, which are the descendants of Oghuz tribes, which migrated from Central Asia in the 11th century speak an archaic dialect of the Turkish language. The number of Turkmens in Syria is estimated to be up to 3,000,000, mostly in the Turkmen Mountain region and in the Shahba plain north of Aleppo, but also in Homs and Quneitra Governorate. Under the rule of the Ba'ath party in Syria, the Turkmens suffered under a heavy assimilation policy and were forbidden to write or publish in Turkish.

Turkish within the diaspora

Due to a large Turkish diaspora, significant Turkish-speaking communities also reside in countries such as Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, because of cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants and their descendants in host countries, not all ethnic Turks speak the Turkish language with native fluency.

Anatolian dialects

There are three major Anatolian Turkish dialect groups spoken in Turkey: the West Anatolian dialect, the East Anatolian dialect, and the North East Anatolian group, which comprises the dialects of the Eastern Black Sea coast, such as Trabzon, Rize, and the littoral districts of Artvin.
The classification of the Anatolian dialects of the Turkish language:

1. Eastern Anatolian Dialects

1.1.1. Ağrı, Malazgirt

1.1.2. Muş, Bitlis

1.1.3. Ahlat, Adilcevaz, Bulanık, Van

1.1.4. Diyarbakır

1.1.5. Palu, Karakoçan, Bingöl, Karlıova, Siirt

1.2.1. Kars

1.2.2. Erzurum, Aşkale, Ovacık, Narman

1.2.3. Pasinler, Horasan, Hınıs, Tekman, Karayazı, Tercan

1.2.4. Bayburt, İspir, Erzincan, Çayırlı, Tercan

1.2.5. Gümüşhane

1.2.6. Refahiye, Kemah

1.2.7. Kars

1.3.1. Posof, Artvin, Şavşat, Ardanuç, Yusufeli

1.3.2.1. Ardahan, Olur, Oltu, Şenkaya; Ahıska Turks

1.3.2.2. Tortum

1.3.2.3. İspir

1.4.1. Kemaliye, İliç, Ağın

1.4.2. Tunceli, Hozat, Mazgirt, Pertek

1.4.3. Harput

1.4.4. Elazığ, Keban, Baskil

2. Northeastern Anatolian Dialects

2.1.1. Vakfıkebir, Akçaabat, Tonya, Maçka, Of, Çaykara

2.1.2. Trabzon, Yomra, Sürmene, Araklı, Rize, Kalkandere, İkizdere

2.2.1. Çayeli

2.2.2. Çamlıhemşin, Pazar, Hemşin, Ardeşen, Fındıklı

2.3.1. Arhavi, Hopa

2.3.2. Hopa

2.3.3. Borçka, Muratlı, Camili, Meydancık, Ortaköy bucak of Artvin

3. Western Anatolian Dialects

3.1.1. Afyonkarahisar, Eskişehir, Uşak, Nallıhan

3.1.2. Çanakkale, Balıkesir, Bursa, Bilecik

3.1.3. Aydın, Burdur, Denizli, Isparta, İzmir, Kütahya, Manisa, Muğla

3.1.4. Antalya

3.2. İzmit, Sakarya

3.3.1. Zonguldak, Devrek, Ereğli

3.3.2. Bartın, Çaycuma, Amasra

3.3.3. Bolu, Ovacık, Eskipazar, Karabük, Safranbolu, Ulus, Eflani, Kurucaşile

3.3.4. Kastamonu

3.4.1. Göynük, Mudurnu, Kıbrıscık, Seben

3.4.2. Kızılcahamam, Beypazarı, Çamlıdere, Güdül, Ayaş

3.4.3. Çankırı, İskilip, Kargı, Bayat, Osmancık, Tosya, Boyabat

3.5.1. Sinop, Alaçam

3.5.2. Samsun, Kavak, Çarşamba, Terme

3.5.3. Ordu, Giresun, Şalpazarı

3.6.1. Ladik, Havza, Amasya, Tokat, Erbaa, Niksar, Turhal, Reşadiye, Almus

3.6.2. Zile, Artova, Sivas, Yıldızeli, Hafik, Zara, Mesudiye

3.6.3. Şebinkarahisar, Alucra, Suşehri

3.6.4. Kangal, Divriği, Gürün, Malatya, Hekimhan, Arapkir

3.7.1. Akçadağ, Darende, Doğanşehir

3.7.2. Afşin, Elbistan, Göksun, Andırın, Adana, Hatay, Tarsus, Ereğli

3.7.3. Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep

3.7.4. Adıyaman, Halfeti, Birecik, Kilis

3.8. Ankara, Haymana, Balâ, Şereflikoçhisar, Çubuk, Kırıkkale, Keskin, Kalecik, Kızılırmak, Çorum, Yozgat, Kırşehir, Nevşehir, Niğde, Kayseri, Şarkışla, Gemerek

3.9. Konya, Mersin