Cyprus-Forum.com

[Alasya]

Kibrislica-is the dialect or language spoken by Turkish Cypriots.

Below are just a few of the differences between Standard and Cypriot Turkish. Bener Hakeri has just published the first Kibrislica dictionary. The details are below for anyone who wants to look it up.

Bener Hakkı Hakeri: Kıbrıs Türkçesi Sözlüğü, Samtay Vakfı Yayınları no: 8, 8 Kemerli Yol, Kaleiçi, G. Mağusa, Kibris.
ISBN: 975-6653-06-9

Interesting points about Kibrislica:

INTONATION> Unlike other Turkic tongues, Cypriot Turkish uses intonation to make questions out of declarative statements.

Example: Magusaya gidecen. (Declarative statement)
-> I am going to Famagusta.

To make a question we keep the same form but raise our voice toward the end of the statement. Magusaya gidecen?

*In High Turkish the statement changes in the interrogative form, you would add the form -misin to the statement in order to form a question. Magusaya gidecekmisin?

LEXICAL ITEMS BORROWED FROM OTHER LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS>Kibrislica has a over a thousand words borrowed from Cypriot Greek (Kypriaki dialectos) as well as over a thousand words of unknown origin. Thousands of Old Ottoman words are still used in Kibrislica despite disappearing in Turkey. In addition to this hundreds of words come from Yoruk, a Turkic language in Turkey, that is closest to Turkmenian.

Phonetic value> Standard Turkish is pulmonic, that is, sounds are made by air being expelled from the lungs passing over the various mouth organs. English is like this too. Kibrislica, on the other hand is glottalic, sounds are made by pressing the glottis up or down in the back of the mouth (you can feel the glottis moving up in your throat if you say "hi" and put your hand to your Adam's Apple). Speakers of Kibrislica, Catalan and Spanish share this feature.

GRAMMAR> Turkish speakers throughout Turkey regardless of what Anatolian dialect they speak follow certain syntactical rules. For example, they say "Buraya gel" - Come here! (Litterally: Here to Come)

In Kibrislica, we say "Gel Bura" (Literally: Come Here) this difference in order may suggest influence from an indo-European language, possibly Greek!

Kibrislica also use -dir alot more than in Standard Turkish, this is an Ottoman feature. Ottoman tended to use-dir alot.

Kibrislica uses Aorist present tense instead of Present progressive as is used in Turkey.

Kibrislica ignores the auxiliary verb "yapmak" and over uses "etmek"instead.

Anyway thats enough for now, I gotta go.

[Alasya]

Magusaya gidecem (My apologies)!

[devil]

Interesting. I think that all "offshore" languages tend to keep words and syntax that have changed in the parent language in the course of years. The ones I'm most familiar with is American and English. Changes:

Pronunciation: American is pronounced more like 17th c English, which has evolved to less of a drawl and crisper vowels. Apart from that, some words have distinctly different sounds, e.g., solder is pronounced as it is spelt in the UK but the l is silent in all regions of the US, "sodder".

Orthography: e.g., color/colour

Meaning: e.g., momentarily: in US, any moment now; in UK, for a brief moment. Sidewalk/pavement

Vocabulary: e.g., gotten: common in US but never used now in UK

Neologisms/slang: These evolve separately in UK/US, but often cross the Atlantic in both directions. One outstanding example in recent times is slang for to masturbate. In the UK, to wank has been current for over 60 years (hence wanker for a silly person). In the US, the term to jerk off has been current for at least 60 years, probably longer. In the last 20 years, both terms have become very current on both sides of the Atlantic. (Apologies for the sexual content, but it is a really outstanding example of 2-way mixing). It is possible that the Internet has been partly responsible for recent exchanges.

Another example are the Swiss and Austrian German dialects, which are closer to oral languages (the written language is called Schriftdeutsch and is very close to good Hochdeutsch). Schwyzertuutsch, comprising about half-a-dozen distinct dialects, often totally incomprehensible to each other, has every imaginable change from Hochdeutsch.

Even within the UK, regional dialects are terrible: try listening to a conversation between a Cockney and a Geordie: no worse than between a Chinaman and a Frenchman!!!!

Its therefore not surprising to me that Cypriot Turkish is different to High Turkish, any more than Cypriot Greek is quite different from High Greek in many aspects. Ask an Athenian what a mukhtar is, for example, an Arab word which has come to us through Turkish, I believe, as a past participle of the Arabic verb ikhtara, to elect. I doubt whether he would know.

[brother]

even i did not know that the first kibrislica dictionary was being done..thanx.

[Alasya]

Kibrislica uses glottal sounds B, D, G were as Turkish uses pulmonic sounds P, T, K. This gives Turkish Cypriots an unmistakable nasal twang.

For example: Turkish: Purro (Cigar) is Burro in Kibrislica.
Kadin (Woman) -> Gadin in Kibrislica, Kavga (fight) -> Gavga, Kara (Black) -> Gara, Tuz (Salt) -> Duz, Parmak (finger) -> Barmak.

I have even heard people saying Gibris instead of Kibris.

Can you give me a few examples of Turkish / Arabic loan words in Cypriot Greek?