ULAHLAR (KARAKAÇANLAR) ve TÜRKÇE
THE KARAKACHAN VLACHS AND THE TURKISH

Summary/Abstract: The languages that were subjected to the biggest Turkish influence over the course of the history of the Turkish language are found in the Balkan Peninsula. Despite the many works in which the Turkish influence over the Balkan languages is researched, the influence over the small ethnic groups has not been sufficiently taken into account. They way the language of the Vlachs, who lived a nomadic life by constant change of the places in the mountainous Balkan Peninsula was influenced by the Turkish is a mystery which arises curiosity. Especially, the influence in the language of this society, which leads a life which can nearly be referred to as isolated, shows us the depth and the stregth of the Turkish influence over the Balkans. Undoubtedly, the influence of the Turkish over the Vlach language is weaker than the one over the Slavic Languages. But neverhteless, it is important. Apart from the thousands of words, proverbs and phrases, Turkish suffixes and verbs are also used by the Vlachs. Some of the elements that can be seen in the Vlach language are words like: bılıgica < bilezik, binae < bina, cacac < kaçak, direc < direk, dirvis < derviş, elbete < elbette, filan < filan, elbete < elbette, yera < yara, ikindie < ikindi; proverbs and phrases like“ala bin bereket versin”, “ala kerim”, “cacir keif”, “dur bakalım”; verbs like artirisire < arttırmak, cabardisire < kabarmak, docunisire < dokunmak, surdisire < sürmek; sufixes like -ci (çi), -li,-lik: ibrikçu < ibrikçi, batakçi < batakçı, hairli < hayırlı, nişanlı < nişanlı etc.. In this paper, by analysing some of the Turkish words, grammatical elements, proverbs and phrases in the language of the Vlachs (Karakachans), we will shortly elaborate the Turkish influence over the language of this minority group.

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