Turkish in the Balkan Linguistic Area

Abstract

In classical Balkan studies Turkish is usually viewed as a language that contributed to the vocabulary and the phraseology of the Balkan languages. In more recent studies it is referred to as a peripheral Balkan language in contrast to the core Balkan ones. In our research, we assume that, due to a shared history and social interactions in the Balkans over several centuries, Turkish is an integral participant in the linguistic and the sociolinguistic processes that are common to the other Balkan languages. We examine the sociolinguistic and linguistic patterns of Balkan Turkish based on data from three varieties spoken in Kosovo, Greece and Bulgaria that are included in the Atlas of the Balkan Linguistic Area. We analyse these specific patterns in the light of the various features investigated across domains (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon) in order to draw a detailed view of the place that Balkan Turkish occupies among the Balkan languages.