| Balkan Gagauz | |
|---|---|
| Rumelian Turkish | |
| Native to | Turkey, Greece Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia |
| Native speakers | ~500,000[1] |
| Language family | Turkic
|
| Writing system | Latin script,[citation needed] Cyrillic alphabet[citation needed] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bgx |
| Glottolog | balk1254 |
| ELP | Balkan Gagauz Turkish |
Balkan Gagauz, or Rumelian Turkish, is a Turkic language spoken in European Turkey, in Dulovo and the Deliorman area in Bulgaria and in the Kumanovo and Bitola areas of North Macedonia.[2] Dialects include Gajal, Gerlovo Turk, Karamanli, Kyzylbash, Surguch, Tozluk Turk, Yuruk (Konyar, Yoruk), Prizren and Macedonian Gagauz. Although it is mutually intelligible with both Gagauz[2] and Turkish to a considerable degree, it is usually classified as a separate language due to foreign influences from neighboring languages spoken in the Balkans. The language is believed to have originated after the remaining Bulgar, Cuman, and Pecheneg tribes around the Balkans got influenced by Bulgarian, Byzantine and Ottoman rule.
Balkan Turkish was recently 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.
Dialects[edit]
Seven varieties have been accorded ISO 639-3 language codes: Danubian, Gajol, Gerlovo Turks, Kyzylbash, Razgrad, Surguch, Tozluk Turks.[3]
Population[edit]
| Surguch | Yoruk |
|---|---|
| 7,000 | 320,000 |
Population total all countries: 331,000 without children (Johnstone 1993),[2] 418,000 (cited 2014).[4]
References[edit]
- ^ Balkan Gagauz at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ a b c Ethnologue entry for Balkan Gagauz Turkish
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Turquie: situation générale". Axl.cefan.ulaval.ca. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
 | Balkan Gagauz Turkish test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
