Cypriot Turkish

Cypriot Turkish, known locally as Kıbrıs Türkçesi, is a Turkish dialect spoken by Turkish Cypriots.

History

Cypriot Turkish is the vernacular spoken by Turkish Cypriots both in Cyprus and among its diaspora.

Emanating from Anatolia and evolved for four centuries, Cypriot Turkish is the vernacular spoken by Cypriots with Ottoman ancestry, as well as by Cypriots who converted to Islam during Ottoman rule. It is understood by expatriate Cypriots living in the UK, U.S., Australia and other parts of the world.

Cypriot Turkish consists of a blend of Ottoman Turkish and the Yörük dialect spoken to this day in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey. In addition it has absorbed influences from Greek, Italian and English.

Sounds

Differences between standard Turkish and Cypriot Turkish

Cypriot Turkish is distinguished by a number of sound alternations not found in standard Turkish, but some of which are also quite common in other Turkish vernaculars:

• Voicing of some unvoiced stops
• t↔d, k↔g

:Standard Turkish kurt ↔ Cypriot Turkish gurt "worm"

:Standard Turkish taş ↔ Cypriot Turkish daş "stone"

• Preservation of earlier Turkic <nowiki>*</nowiki>ŋ

:Standard Turkish son ↔ Cypriot Turkish soñ "end, last"

:Standard Turkish bin ↔ Cypriot Turkish biñ "thousand"

• Changing 1st person plural suffix
• z↔k

:Standard Turkish isteriz ↔ Cypriot Turkish isterik "we want"

• Unvoicing of......
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