Reflections on the Use of Turkish Elements in the Archive of Ali Pasha of Ioannina (Late 18th Century)

Authors

Abstract

The present contribution studies the use of Turkish lexical elements in a specifically selected corpus of petitions (αρζουχάλια, arzuhal) from the Archive of Ali Pasha of Ioannina in terms of sociolinguistic function and the structural adaption of the words. The material includes letters written in Greek between 1792 and 1798 by various supplicants, both Christians and Muslims, addressed to Ali Pasha and his court. From the analysis of the Turkish elements, conclusions can be drawn about the sociolinguistic and cultural-historical background of the texts and the complex di(tri)glossic and multilingual situation in Epirus during the end of the 18th century. The importance of Greek as a cross-cultural and cross-religious L1 may thus be linked to the function of Turkish as a H-variety and prestige language. What is more, the linguistic analysis of the data contributes to the knowledge of the diachronic and diatopic distribution of Balkan Turkish.

Author Biography

Matthias Kappler, University of Cyprus

Department of Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies / University of Cyprus, Associate Professor

Main research fields:

  • Turkish texts in Greek letters (“Karamanlidika”)
  • Balkan Turkology and Turkish influence on South-East-European languages
  • Turkish-Greek linguistic contacts
  • Ottoman language and literature of the 18th and 19th centuries
  • Modern Greek Islamic Philology (“Greek Aljamiado”),
  • History of Greek-Ottoman grammarianism
  • Languages and Literatures in Cyprus

Published

2023-04-15

How to Cite

Kappler, M. (2023). Reflections on the Use of Turkish Elements in the Archive of Ali Pasha of Ioannina (Late 18th Century). Zeitschrift für Balkanologie, 58(1+2). Retrieved from https://zeitschrift-fuer-balkanologie.de/index.php/zfb/article/view/630

Issue

Section

Articles