Balkan Gagauz language
| Balkan Gagauz | |
|---|---|
| Rumelian Turkish | |
| Native to | Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo |
| Region | Balkan Peninsula |
Native speakers | 460,000 (2019)[1] |
Turkic
| |
| Latin script,[citation needed] Cyrillic alphabet[citation needed] | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bgx |
| Glottolog | balk1254 |
| ELP | Balkan Gagauz Turkish |
Balkan Gagauz, Balkan Turkish or Rumelian (Turkish: Rumeli Türkçesi), is a Turkic language spoken in European Turkey, in Dulovo and the Deliorman area in Bulgaria, the Prizren area in Kosovo, and the Kumanovo and Bitola areas of North Macedonia.[2] Dialects include Gajal, Gerlovo Turk, Karamanli, Kyzylbash, Surguch, Tozluk Turk, Yuruk (Konyar, Yoruk), Prizren Turk, and Macedonian Gagauz.[citation needed]
Although it is mutually intelligible with both Gagauz[2] and Turkish to a considerable degree, it is usually classified as a separate language,[citation needed] due to foreign influences from neighboring languages spoken in the Balkans.
Balkan Gagauz Turkish was given international prominence through the Oscar-nominated 2019 film Honeyland, in which the protagonist is an ethnic Macedonian Turk and mostly speaks in the local dialect throughout the film.
Population
[edit]There were around 460,000 speakers of Balkan Gagauz Turkish in Turkey in 2019[1] and an estimated 4,000 in North Macedonia in 2018.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Balkan Gagauz at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
- ^ a b Ethnologue entry for Balkan Gagauz Turkish
- ^ "Macédoine (République de)". www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca. Retrieved 2021-10-07.
