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Gagauz (Gagauz dili, Gagauzca) is a Turkic language spoken by the Gagauz people of Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey and it is an official language of the Autonomous Region of Gagauzia in Moldova. Gagauz belongs to the Oghuz branch of Turkic languages, alongside Azerbaijani, Turkmen, and Turkish. Gagauz is a distinct language from Balkan Gagauz Turkish to some degree.[2]

Gagauz
Gagauz dili, Gagauzca
Gagauz in Latin and Cyrillic scripts
Pronunciation	[ɡaɡaˈuzt͡ʃa]
Native to	Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey
Region	Gagauzia
Ethnicity	Gagauz
Native speakers	148,720 (total speakers), 115,000 (in Moldova) (2014)[1]
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Oghuz Western Oghuz Gagauz
Writing system	Latin (Gagauz alphabet, current) Cyrillic (historical)
Official status
Official language in	Gagauzia (Moldova)
Recognised minority language in	Ukraine
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gag
Glottolog	gaga1249
ELP	Gagauz
Linguasphere	part of 44-AAB-a
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Though it was established as a written language in 1957, Gagauz was not used in schools until 1959.[3] Gagauz is a language derived from Balkan Gagauz Turkish; Balkan linguistics was the first to view the consequences of language contact as normal rather than corrupt.[4] The term "Gagauz language" and the identification of one's language as "Gagauz" were established concurrently with or even after the creation of national self-awareness.[5] About 150,000 Gagauz resided in Moldova in 1986, where they lived in settlements within the Comrat, Ceadîr-Lunga and Vulcănești Rayons.[6] Along with the majority of the Gagauz living in Moldova, there are four other cities in Bulgaria in which the Gagauz reside.[7]

History

Between 1750^{[citation needed]} and 1846, ancestors of the Gagauz today emigrated from the current-day Bulgarian Black Sea coast north of Varna to Russia and settled in the region that is now the current-day Republic of Moldova, allowed to do so on the condition that they converted to Orthodox Christianity by Empress Catherine.[8] In the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the 1994 law on Special Legal Status of Gagauzia was passed in Moldova, which was put into effect in 1995, granting the Gagauz territorial autonomy.[9][10]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Gagauz

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡s	t͡ʃ	k
	voiced	b	d		d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	ʃ		h
	voiced	v		z	ʒ
Rhotic				ɾ~r
Approximant				l	j

Vowels

Vowel phonemes of Gagauz

	Front		Central	Back
Close	i	y		ɯ	u
Mid	e	ø	ə	o
Open	æ			ɑ

Orthography

It appears that the first alphabet to be used for the language was the Greek alphabet[11] 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.[12]

Beginning in 1957, Cyrillic was used until 1993. On May 13, 1993, the parliament of the Republic of Moldova passed a decision providing for the official adoption of the Latin-based alphabet for the Gagauz language.[13] This was subsequently amended in 1996.[14] The Gagauz alphabet adopted is modelled on 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 ⟨ţ⟩ to represent the sound [ts] from the Romanian alphabet. On the other hand, unlike Crimean Tatar, Turkish, and some other Turkic languages, Gagauz does not have the letter ⟨ğ⟩, which had become completely silent in the Gagauz language.

Note that dotted and dotless I are separate letters, each with its own uppercase and lowercase form. I is the capital form of ı, and İ is the capital form of i. The Gagauz alphabet has no q, w or x. Instead, those characters are transliterated into Gagauz as k, v and ks.

Modern Gagauz 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

Current situation

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.[15]

Education

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.[16] 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.[16] There are, however, some notable efforts to increase Gagauz language education. Todur Zanet, editor-in-chief of the Ana Sözü 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

Ana Sözü 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 Sözü, there are various newspapers published in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, including Açık Göz, Gagauz Yeri, Gagauz Sesi, Halk Birlii, Novıy Vzgliad, Vesti Gagauzii, and Znamea.

In addition to printed materials, the company Gagauz Radio Televisionu (GRT) produces radio and television broadcasts in Gagauz.

References

Further reading

External links

• A Gagauz song "Yaşa, Halkım!" by Andrey İVANOV
• "A Concise Gagauz-English dictionary with etymologies and Azerbaijani and Turkmen cognates" by Andras Rajki (download)
• Russian-Gagauz Gagauz-Russian Dictionary
• anasozu.com Gagauz language web site

На других языках

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[de] Gagausische Sprache

Die gagausische Sprache (Eigenbezeichnung Gagauz dili oder Gagauzça; ehemalige kyrillische Schreibweise Гагауз дили, Гагаузча) ist die Sprache der Gagausen, die zu den Turkvölkern gehören. Sie basiert auf einem balkantürkischen Dialekt und gehört somit zu den südwesttürkischen Sprachen innerhalb der Turksprachen.[3] Gagausisch ([.mw-parser-output .IPA a{text-decoration:none}gagaˈuːzɪʃ]) ist heute eine Amtssprache der autonomen Region Gagausien in der Republik Moldau.

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- [en] Gagauz language

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[es] Idioma gagaúzo

El idioma gagaúzo[1] o gagauz (Gagaúz dilí) es una lengua túrquica hablada por los gagaúzos. Es uno de los idiomas oficiales de Gagauzia, entidad autónoma de Moldavia. Es hablado por aproximadamente 150 000 personas. Originalmente, se escribía usando el alfabeto griego; en 1957 se introdujo la escritura en alfabeto cirílico y hoy se usa el alfabeto latino, siguiendo el modelo del turco.

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[fr] Gagaouze

Le gagaouze (autonyme : Gagauz dili, Gagauzça ou Gökoğuzca) est une langue turque parlée par les Gagaouzes, peuple turcophone et chrétien orthodoxe vivant dans les régions constituant de nos jours l'Ukraine, la Moldavie, la Roumanie et la Bulgarie. Officiellement, il est parlé par environ 162 200 personnes et il est langue officielle en Gagaouzie, région autonome de la Moldavie, mais n'est pratiqué au quotidien que par environ 50 000 personnes, car les Gagaouzes s'expriment usuellement en russe depuis le XIXe siècle[2].

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[it] Lingua gagauza

La lingua gagauza o gagausa[1] (Gagauz dili) è una lingua turca parlata in Moldavia, nell'entità autonoma della Gagauzia.

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[ru] Гагаузский язык

Гагау́зский язы́к (гаг. gagauz dili, gagauzça) — язык гагаузов, генетически относится к огузской подгруппе тюркских языков, государственный язык АТО Гагаузия, наиболее близок к крымскотатарскому, турецкому, и азербайджанскому языкам. Находится под влиянием иноязычных систем (болгарской, балканороманской и русской)[2]. Гагаузский язык стал письменным в 1957 году[3].

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