Turkish ( Türkçe [ˈtyɾctʃe] , Türk dili ; also known as Türkiye Türkçesi 'Turkish of Turkey' ) is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages , with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languages of Cyprus . Significant smaller groups of Turkish speakers also exist in Germany , Austria , Bulgaria , North Macedonia , Greece , other parts of Europe , the South Caucasus , and some parts of Central Asia , Iraq , and Syria . Turkish is the 18th most spoken language in the world.
98-500: The Vilayet of Scutari , Shkodër or Shkodra ( Turkish : İşkodra Vilayeti or Vilayet-i İşkodra ; Albanian : Vilajeti i Shkodrës ) was a first-level administrative division ( vilayet ) of the Ottoman Empire that existed from 1867 to 1913, located in parts of what today is Montenegro and Albania . In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of 13,800 square kilometres (5,310 square miles). The Scutari Vilayet
196-668: A brief moment of an autonomous administration where local tax was collected into Albanian coffers. Calls for an autonomous united Albania made sultan Abdul Hamid II suppress the League of Prizren movement, especially after Gheg Albanians revolted in 1881 and posed a military challenge to Ottoman authority. Large parts of Gegënia posed a security problem for the Ottoman Empire, due to the tribalism of Gheg society and limited state control. Gheg freedoms were tolerated by Abdul Hamid II and he enlisted them in his palace guard, integrated
294-475: A form of consonant mutation whereby a voiced obstruent, such as /b d dʒ ɡ/ , is devoiced to [p t tʃ k] at the end of a word or before a consonant, but retains its voicing before a vowel. In loan words, the voiced equivalent of /k/ is /g/; in native words, it is /ğ/. This is analogous to languages such as German and Russian , but in the case of Turkish it only applies, as the above examples demonstrate, to stops and affricates, not to fricatives. The spelling
392-465: A large powerful tribe that could mobilise 5,000 irregular troops. The government estimated the military strength of Malisors in İşkodra sanjak as numbering over 30,000 tribesmen and Ottoman officials were of the view that the highlanders could defeat Montenegro on their own with limited state assistance. Dıraç sanjak contained the fertile plain of Zadrima between Mirdita and the Drin river. Political life in
490-415: A negative suffix -me to the verb (the suffix comes after the stem but before the tense): Necla okula gitmedi ('Necla did not go to school'). In the case of a verbal sentence, an interrogative clitic mi is added after the verb and stands alone, for example Necla okula gitti mi? ('Did Necla go to school?'). In the case of a nominal sentence, then mi comes after the predicate but before
588-753: A single person out of respect. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of the Turkic family. Other members include Azerbaijani , spoken in Azerbaijan and north-west Iran , Gagauz of Gagauzia , Qashqai of south Iran and the Turkmen of Turkmenistan . Historically the Turkic family was seen as a branch of the larger Altaic family, including Japanese , Korean , Mongolian and Tungusic , with various other language families proposed for inclusion by linguists. Altaic theory has fallen out of favour since
686-510: A slightly different dialect of the language, and are often taller and thinner than Tosks, but these traditional differences (often exaggerated in vulgar anthropology) have been much diminished by population movement in the post-communist period." There was a distinction between Ghegs and Tosks before the Ottomans appeared in Albania at the end of the 14th century. The Ghegs remained out of
784-407: A verb in the form of the copula ol or y (variants of "be"). Examples of both are given below: The two groups of sentences have different ways of forming negation. A nominal sentence can be negated with the addition of the word değil . For example, the sentence above would become Necla öğretmen değil ('Necla is not a teacher'). However, the verbal sentence requires the addition of
882-531: Is based on the dialect of Istanbul . This Istanbul Turkish ( İstanbul Türkçesi ) constitutes the model of written and spoken Turkish, as recommended by Ziya Gökalp , Ömer Seyfettin and others. Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and in the Turkish education system since the 1930s. Academic researchers from Turkey often refer to Turkish dialects as ağız or şive , leading to an ambiguity with
980-591: Is mutually intelligible with Azerbaijani . In particular, Turkish-speaking minorities exist in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the Ottoman Empire , such as Iraq, Bulgaria, Cyprus , Greece (primarily in Western Thrace ), the Republic of North Macedonia , Romania, and Serbia. More than two million Turkish speakers live in Germany; and there are significant Turkish-speaking communities in
1078-635: Is one of the official languages of Cyprus . Turkish has official status in 38 municipalities in Kosovo , including Mamusha, , two in the Republic of North Macedonia and in Kirkuk Governorate in Iraq. Cyprus has requested the European Union to add Turkish as an official language, as it is one of the two official languages of the country. In Turkey, the regulatory body for Turkish is
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#17327767307311176-774: Is sometimes considered illogical because the self-ethnonym Shqiptare seems to have been developed by Ghegs. According to the Austrian-Czech linguist Julius Pokorny , it derived from ( Attic ) Greek "γίγας" (giant). From the Homeric mythology the giants of the Acroceraunian mountains and probably denoting originally warlike invading tribes descending from Epirus . Cognate to Arbëresh ë (dialectal and archaic) "glatë" (tall, long) (Standard Albanian "gjatë", Gheg "gat"); Albanian "gatë" (heron) and Latin "gigas" (giant). In Albania, Ghegs predominantly live north of
1274-642: Is usually made to match the sound. However, in a few cases, such as ad 'name' (dative ada ), the underlying form is retained in the spelling (cf. at 'horse', dative ata ). Other exceptions are od 'fire' vs. ot 'herb', sac 'sheet metal', saç 'hair'. Most loanwords, such as kitap above, are spelled as pronounced, but a few such as hac 'hajj', şad 'happy', and yad 'strange' or 'stranger' also show their underlying forms. Native nouns of two or more syllables that end in /k/ in dictionary form are nearly all /ğ/ in underlying form. However, most verbs and monosyllabic nouns are underlyingly /k/. The vowels of
1372-486: Is usually referred to as yumuşak g ("soft g"), written ⟨ğ⟩ in Turkish orthography , represents a vowel sequence or a rather weak bilabial approximant between rounded vowels, a weak palatal approximant between unrounded front vowels, and a vowel sequence elsewhere. It never occurs at the beginning of a word or a syllable, but always follows a vowel. When word-final or preceding another consonant, it lengthens
1470-414: The fis (clan) was headed by the oldest male and formed the basic unit of tribal society. A political and territorial equivalent consisting of several clans was the bajrak (standard). The leader of a bajrak, whose position was hereditary, was referred to as bajraktar (standard bearer). Several bajraks composed a tribe, which was led by a man from a notable family, while major issues were decided by
1568-713: The Aegean region, with its usage extending to Antalya . The nomadic Yörüks of the Mediterranean Region of Turkey also have their own dialect of Turkish. This group is not to be confused with the Yuruk nomads of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey, who speak Balkan Gagauz Turkish . The Meskhetian Turks who live in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia as well as in several Central Asian countries, also speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, originating in
1666-631: The Germanic runic alphabets . With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages ( c. 6th –11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across Central Asia , covering a vast geographical region stretching from Siberia all the way to Europe and the Mediterranean . The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks , in particular, brought their language, Oghuz —the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into Anatolia during
1764-623: The Laz language ). Kastamonu is spoken in Kastamonu and its surrounding areas. Karamanli Turkish is spoken in Greece, where it is called Kαραμανλήδικα . It is the literary standard for the Karamanlides . At least one source claims Turkish consonants are laryngeally-specified three-way fortis-lenis (aspirated/neutral/voiced) like Armenian, although only syllable-finally. The phoneme that
1862-545: The Malësia region of southeastern Montenegro , in both of which they form of a majority of population, while they have a thinner distribution in central Albania and northeastern Albania and Kosovo. There are also Ghegs who practice Orthodox Christianity, mainly living in the southwest of the Gheg-speaking region, especially Durrës (where they formed 36% of the population in 1918) and Elbasan (where they formed 17% of
1960-437: The Ottoman Empire period ( c. 1299 –1922) is termed Ottoman Turkish , which was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that differed considerably and was largely unintelligible to the period's everyday Turkish. The everyday Turkish, known as kaba Türkçe or "vulgar Turkish", spoken by the less-educated lower and also rural members of society, contained a higher percentage of native vocabulary and served as basis for
2058-558: The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) Bar , Podgorica , İşpozi and Zabyak townships were ceded to Montenegro in 1878. Also Ülgün one was ceded to Montenegro in 1881. In the late Ottoman period, unlike in other areas of the empire, Albanian Catholics in İşkodra vilayet had access to emerging Albanian language schooling subsidized by Austria-Hungary. Local Catholic clergy were also involved in developing mostly religious Albanian literature, aimed at preserving and strengthening
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#17327767307312156-694: The Sanjak of Montenegro was merged with Sanjak of Scutari, as unique administrative unit with certain degree of autonomy. In 1867, the Sanjak of Scutari merged with the Sanjak of Skopje and became the Scutari Vilayet. Its sanjaks were Sanjak of Scutari, Prizren , and Sanjak of Dibra . In 1877, Prizren passed to the Kosovo Vilayet and Dibra passed to the Monastir Vilayet , while Durrës (Dıraç) township became Durrës Sanjak. After
2254-615: The Seljuq Turks , who are both regarded as the ethnic and cultural ancestors of the Ottomans , the administrative language of these states acquired a large collection of loanwords from Arabic and Persian . Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry , was heavily influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters and a great quantity of imported words. The literary and official language during
2352-501: The Shkumbin river along its right bank and extends up to modern border between Mat and Mirdita , where Leknia begins. Leknia itself is bordered to the north by Malësia . None of these regions overlap with one another and each has its own self-identification. This is reflected in the fact that only the people of proper Gegnia call themselves Gegë , while moving northwards it is not a form of regional self-identification. For example,
2450-455: The Shkumbin river and in areas of the mountainous north. This region is widely referred to by Albanians as Gegënia or Gegnia and as Gegëria. The Ottoman Turkish term, used during the times when Albania and the wider area was included in the empire, was Gegalık, meaning land of the Ghegs. During the late Ottoman period apart from the term Arnavudluk (Albania) being used for Albanian regions,
2548-579: The Tosks ). They are differentiated by minor cultural , dialectal , social and religious characteristics. The Ghegs live in Albania (north of the Shkumbin river), Kosovo , North Macedonia , Serbia and Montenegro . The Ghegs speak Gheg Albanian , one of the two main dialects of Albanian language . The social organization of the Ghegs was traditionally tribal , with several distinct tribal groups of Ghegs. The Ottoman Empire annexed and ruled
2646-539: The Trabzon region of northeastern Turkey follows the reduced vowel harmony of Old Anatolian Turkish , with the additional complication of two missing vowels (ü and ı), thus there is no palatal harmony . It is likely that elün meant "your hand" in Old Anatolian. While the 2nd person singular possessive would vary between back and front vowel, -ün or -un, as in elün for "your hand" and kitabun for "your book",
2744-590: The Turkish Language Association ( Türk Dil Kurumu or TDK), which was founded in 1932 under the name Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti ("Society for Research on the Turkish Language"). The Turkish Language Association was influenced by the ideology of linguistic purism : indeed one of its primary tasks was the replacement of loanwords and of foreign grammatical constructions with equivalents of Turkish origin. These changes, together with
2842-499: The northern Albanian tribes because they were more useful to them as a stable source of mercenaries. The Ottomans implemented the bayraktar system within northern Albanian tribes, and granted some privileges to the bayraktars (banner chiefs) in exchange for their obligation to mobilize local fighters to support military actions of the Ottoman forces . During the late Ottoman period Ghegs often lacked education and integration within
2940-451: The northern Albanian tribes of Ghegs because they were more useful to them as a stable source of mercenaries. Instead, they implemented the bayraktar system, and granted some privileges to the bayraktars (banner chiefs) in exchange for their obligation to mobilize local fighters to support military actions of the Ottoman forces . Proper Gegnia (the land of the Gegë ) is located north of
3038-586: The 11th century. Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages, Mahmud al-Kashgari from the Kara-Khanid Khanate , published the first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk ( ديوان لغات الترك ). Following the adoption of Islam around the year 950 by the Kara-Khanid Khanate and
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3136-411: The 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used the formal style of Ottoman Turkish that had been common at the time amongst statesmen and the educated strata of society in the setting of formal speeches and documents. After
3234-457: The 1960s, and a majority of linguists now consider Turkic languages to be unrelated to any other language family, though the Altaic hypothesis still has a small degree of support from individual linguists. The nineteenth-century Ural-Altaic theory, which grouped Turkish with Finnish , Hungarian and Altaic languages, is considered even less plausible in light of Altaic's rejection. The theory
3332-529: The French loanword parti ). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example betik (originally meaning "book") is now used to mean " script " in computer science . Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are: Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey and by the Turkish diaspora in some 30 other countries. The Turkish language
3430-711: The Ghegs blossomed at the beginning of 20th century. Gjergj Fishta and the Scutarine Catholic School of Letters led by Fishta significantly contributed to this blossoming. The Ghegs are known for their epic poetry . The revival of Catholicism among Albanians gave a new and important impulse to the rise of Gheg culture. The Ghegs have been described as an immensely tall people, with an average male height ranging from 183 to 187 cm, with round, hyper- brachycephalic heads , long faces, broad chests, robust builds, convex-shaped noses, and flat skulls. According to Pettifer & Vickers in 2007, "Ghegs speak
3528-568: The Ghegs. Although Albanian writers in former Yugoslavia were almost all Ghegs, they chose to write in Tosk for political reasons. This change of literary language has significant political and cultural consequences because the language is the main criterion for Albanian self-identification. The social organization of the Ghegs was traditionally tribal . The Ghegs of Northern Albania are one of only two tribal societies which survived in Europe until
3626-527: The Latin alphabet for speakers of eastern dialects. Some immigrants to Turkey from Rumelia speak Rumelian Turkish , which includes the distinct dialects of Ludogorie , Dinler, and Adakale, which show the influence of the theorized Balkan sprachbund . Kıbrıs Türkçesi is the name for Cypriot Turkish and is spoken by the Turkish Cypriots . Edirne is the dialect of Edirne . Ege is spoken in
3724-612: The Latin rite and Catholic missions in central Albania in the 12th century fortified the Catholic Church against Orthodoxy, while local leaders found an ally in Catholicism against Slavic Orthodox states. During the Ottoman period in the history of Albania (1385–1912), the majority of Albanians converted to Islam. Today, the majority of Ghegs are Sunni Muslims , with a large minority being Catholic. Catholic Albanians are most heavily concentrated in northwestern Albania and
3822-567: The Latin script, encoded for many of the dialectal variations between Turkish dialects, the modern Latin script fails to do this. Examples of this are the presence of the nasal velar sound [ŋ] in certain eastern dialects of Turkish which was represented by the Ottoman letter /ڭ/ but that was merged into /n/ in the Latin script. Additionally are letters such as /خ/, /ق/, /غ/ which make the sounds [ɣ], [q], and [x], respectively in certain eastern dialects but that are merged into [g], [k], and [h] in western dialects and are therefore defectively represented in
3920-666: The Ottoman government: the rights of Albanian ethnicity and rights for the highlander population during the Albanian revolt of 1912 . The Ghegs were dominant in the political life of Albania in the pre-communist period. During World War II Nazi Germany recruited Ghegs from the northern territory of the Albanian Kingdom into the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) . This recruitment
4018-459: The Ottoman political system. The Malisors (highlanders) lived in three geographical regions within İşkodra sanjak. Malesia e Madhe (great highlands) with its religiously mixed Catholic-Muslim five large (Hoti, Kelmendi, Shkreli, Kastrati and Gruda) and seven small tribes; Malesia e Vogel (small highlands) with seven Catholic tribes such as the Shala, Shoshi, Toplana, Nikaj; and Mirdita, which was also
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4116-424: The Ottoman system, while they had autonomy and military capabilities. Those factors gave the area of Gegënia an importance within the empire that differed from Toskëria. Still many Ottoman officers thought that Ghegs, in particular the highlanders were often a liability instead of an asset for the state being commonly referred to as "wild" ( Turkish : vahşi ). In areas of Albania were Malësors (highlanders) lived,
4214-634: The Roman Catholic faith in the region. Due partly to the location of being near the border with Montenegro the state exempted the townspeople of İşkodra from regular military service and unlike other urban dwellers within the empire they paid fewer taxes. Ottoman control mainly existed in the few urban centres and valleys of the vilayet and was minimal and almost non-existent in the mountains, where Malisors (Albanian highlanders) lived an autonomous existence according to kanun (tribal law) of Lek Dukagjini . Disputes would be solved through tribal law within
4312-576: The SOV structure has diminished relevance and may vary. The SOV structure may thus be considered a "pragmatic word order" of language, one that does not rely on word order for grammatical purposes. Consider the following simple sentence which demonstrates that the focus in Turkish is on the element that immediately precedes the verb: Ahmet Ahmet yumurta-yı Geg%C3%ABnia The Ghegs (also spelled as Gegs ; Albanian : Gegët ) are one of two major ethnic subgroups of Albanians (the other being
4410-469: The TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries. In 1935, the TDK published a bilingual Ottoman-Turkish /Pure Turkish dictionary that documents the results of the language reform. Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before
4508-608: The Tosk-inhabited south at the beginning of the 15th century, while the territory populated by Ghegs remained out of the reach of the regular Ottoman civil administration until the beginning of the 20th century. As a consequence, the Ghegs evolved isolated from the Tosks. Similarly, the Islamization of the Ghegs was incomplete, with a large area of northwestern Albania remaining Catholic. The Ottomans never completely subdued
4606-450: The Turkish language are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination . The basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb . Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender . The language makes usage of honorifics and has a strong T–V distinction which distinguishes varying levels of politeness, social distance , age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to
4704-539: The Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, ⟨a⟩ , ⟨e⟩ , ⟨ı⟩ , ⟨i⟩ , ⟨o⟩ , ⟨ö⟩ , ⟨u⟩ , ⟨ü⟩ . The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by how and where they are articulated focusing on three key features: front and back , rounded and unrounded and vowel height . Vowels are classified [±back], [±round] and [±high]. The only diphthongs in
4802-592: The United States, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Due to the cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic members of the diaspora speak the language with native fluency. In 2005, 93% of the population of Turkey were native speakers of Turkish, about 67 million at the time, with Kurdish languages making up most of
4900-548: The Vilayet: During the 1880s, the population of İşkodra vilayet ranged between 200,000 and 300,000 people, split between the two sanjaks of İşkodra (Catholic majority) and Dıraç (Muslim majority). Albanians were the main ethnicity in the vilayet consisting more than 90 percent of the population. Ottoman-Albanian intellectual Sami Frashëri during the 1880s estimated the population of Shkodër as numbering 37,000 inhabitants that consisted of three-quarters being Muslims and
4998-493: The adoption of the new Turkish alphabet in 1928, shaped the modern Turkish language spoken today. The TDK became an independent body in 1951, with the lifting of the requirement that it should be presided over by the Minister of Education. This status continued until August 1983, when it was again made into a governmental body in the constitution of 1982 , following the military coup d'état of 1980 . Modern standard Turkish
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#17327767307315096-406: The aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a language reform to replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by
5194-484: The areas of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin and sharing similarities with Azerbaijani , the language of Azerbaijan. The Central Anatolia Region speaks Orta Anadolu . Karadeniz , spoken in the Eastern Black Sea Region and represented primarily by the Trabzon dialect, exhibits substratum influence from Greek in phonology and syntax ; it is also known as Laz dialect (not to be confused with
5292-415: The communist takeover was accompanied by the transfer of political power from the Ghegs to the Tosks. The Ghegs were consistently persecuted by the predominantly Tosk regime, which saw them as traditionalist and less developed. After Enver Hoxha died in 1985, he was succeeded by Ramiz Alia , who was one of the few Ghegs among the leaders of the country. He took cautious steps towards changing direction on
5390-535: The contention between Tosks and Ghegs. In 1998 Berisha exploited the traditional Gheg—Tosk rivalry when he encouraged armed anti-Government protesters in Shkodër in actions that forced the resignation of prime minister Fatos Nano . During the Kosovo War , rivalry between Ghegs and Tosks faded, and a huge number of refugees from Kosovo were catered for with no internal conflict, despite unavoidable grumbles about
5488-513: The continuing work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language, mostly from English. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance. However, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka , "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval ( fırka has been replaced by
5586-530: The country is very high. The rising presence of this very similar language in Azerbaijan and the fact that many children use Turkish words instead of Azerbaijani words due to satellite TV has caused concern that the distinctive features of the language will be eroded. Many bookstores sell books in Turkish language along Azerbaijani language ones, with Agalar Mahmadov, a leading intellectual, voicing his concern that Turkish language has "already started to take over
5684-558: The designation Gegalık was also used in documents by Ottomans. Gegëni or Gegalık encompassed the İșkodra , Kosovo , and a small area of the Monastir vilayets. In the 1880s, Albanians defined the wider region of Gegalık (Ghegland) as encompassing the Ottoman administrative units of İșkodra (Shkodër) and Duraç (Durrës) sanjaks that composed İșkodra vilayet (province), the sanjaks of Yenipazar (Novi Pazar), İpek (Pejë), Priștine (Prishtinë), Prizren , Üsküp (Skopje) of Kosovo vilayet and
5782-523: The discovery and excavation of these monuments and associated stone slabs by Russian archaeologists in the wider area surrounding the Orkhon Valley between 1889 and 1893, it became established that the language on the inscriptions was the Old Turkic language written using the Old Turkic alphabet , which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to a superficial similarity to
5880-454: The early 20th century. Marriage was basically an economic and political deal arranged among the members of the tribe, while those who got married had no say in the matter. Sworn virginity was occasionally practised among the Ghegs. Child betrothal was also practised by the Ghegs, sometimes even before birth. Christianity in Albania was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome until
5978-553: The eighth century. Then, dioceses in Albania were transferred to the patriarchate of Constantinople . In 1054 after the schism, the north became identified with the Roman Catholic Church . Since that time all churches north of the Shkumbin river were Catholic and under the jurisdiction of the Pope. Various reasons have been put forward for the spread of Catholicism among northern Albanians. Traditional affiliation with
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#17327767307316076-565: The empire only posted Ottoman officers who had prior experience of service in other tribal regions of the state like Kurdistan or Yemen that could bridge cultural divides with Gheg tribesmen. The Great Eastern Crisis resulted in Albanian resistance to partition by neighbouring powers with the formation of the Prizren League (1878) which issued a Kararname (memorandum) that declared both Ghegs and Tosks had made an oath to defend
6174-438: The fall of the communist regime, religion was again the major factor which determined social identity, and rivalry between Ghegs and Tosks re-emerged. The new political leaders of post-communist Albania appointed by Gheg Sali Berisha were almost all Ghegs from northern Albania. The administration of Sali Berisha was identified as northern nationalist Gheg in opposition to southern Socialist Tosk, which additionally increased
6272-499: The framework of vendetta or gjakmarrja (blood feuding) and the activity was widespread among the Malisors, while Ottoman officials strongly disproved of the practice. Nineteen percent of male deaths in İşkodra vilayet were caused by murders due to vendetta and blood feuding during the late Ottoman period. Malisors viewed Ottoman officials as a threat to their tribal way of living and left it to their bajraktars (chieftains) to deal with
6370-569: The highlanders of the Dibra region known as the "Tigers of Dibra". Western Kosovo during the late Ottoman period was dominated by the Albanian tribal system, while parts of Albanian society within wider Kosovo were also part of the urban-professional and landowning classes of major towns. The Ghegs, particularly those who lived in the north-eastern area, were the most faithful supporters of the set of traditional laws ( Kanun ), traditional hospitality , and blood feud . Among Gheg Malësors (highlanders)
6468-473: The lack of ü vowel in the Trabzon dialect means -un would be used in both of these cases — elun and kitabun . With the exceptions stated below, Turkish words are oxytone (accented on the last syllable). Turkish has two groups of sentences: verbal and nominal sentences. In the case of a verbal sentence, the predicate is a finite verb, while the predicate in nominal sentence will have either no overt verb or
6566-466: The language are found in loanwords and may be categorised as falling diphthongs usually analyzed as a sequence of /j/ and a vowel. The principle of vowel harmony, which permeates Turkish word-formation and suffixation, is due to the natural human tendency towards economy of muscular effort. This principle is expressed in Turkish through three rules: The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to
6664-429: The language reform, the Turkish education system discontinued the teaching of literary form of Ottoman Turkish and the speaking and writing ability of society atrophied to the point that, in later years, Turkish society would perceive the speech to be so alien to listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995. The past few decades have seen
6762-525: The linguistic concept of accent , which is also covered with these words. Several universities, as well as a dedicated work-group of the Turkish Language Association, carry out projects investigating Turkish dialects. As of 2002 work continued on the compilation and publication of their research as a comprehensive dialect- atlas of the Turkish language. Although the Ottoman alphabet, being slightly more phonetically ambiguous than
6860-613: The middle of the 20th century (the other being the Montenegrin highlanders in Montenegro and southern Serbia ). The tribal organization was based on the clan system of loyalties, and the dispersed settlement pattern of separate, scattered, mostly fortified homesteads. There are several distinct tribal groups of Ghegs which include Mirëdita , Kelmendi , Palabardhi , Kuqi , Vasajt , Hoti , Kastrati , Berisha , Krasniqi and Shala . Other important tribal groupings include
6958-402: The modern Turkish language. While visiting the region between Adıyaman and Adana , Evliya Çelebi recorded the "Turkman language" and compared it with his own Turkish: Reforms Kemalism After the foundation of the modern state of Turkey and the script reform , the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , with
7056-410: The national and natural dialects of Azerbaijan". However, the presence of Turkish as foreign language is not as high as Russian. In Uzbekistan, the second most populated Turkic country, a new TV channel Foreign Languages TV was established in 2022. This channel has been broadcasting Turkish lessons along with English, French, German and Russian lessons. Turkish is the official language of Turkey and
7154-424: The national identity issue by gradually assuming the cause of the Ghegs from Kosovo . This change was accompanied by a long-lasting fear that the introduction of "too-liberal" Albanians from Kosovo might disturb the fragile balance between the Tosk and Gheg sub-ethnic groups. Absorbing Yugoslav Ghegs, who were almost as numerous as all Albanians from Albania, could have ruined the predominantly Tosk regime. After
7252-575: The new Young Turk government resulted in four years of local revolts by Ghegs who fought to keep tribal privileges and the defense system of kulas (tower houses). Ghegs from the Shkodër region supported the Greçë Memorandum that called for Albanian sociopolitical rights within the Ottoman Empire during the Albanian revolt of 1911 . On the eve of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) Gheg and Tosk Albanians managed to secure two concessions from
7350-536: The people of the Dukagjin highlands when asked about their regional appellation would reply na nuk jemi gegë, gegët janë përtej maleve (we are not Gheghs, the Ghegs live beyond the mountains). The popular perception in non-Albanian literature of all northern Albanians as Ghegs is a product of identifying major dialect groups with all corresponding regional groupings. Likewise, only the people of certain regions in southern Albania identify as Tosks. The etymology of
7448-489: The personal ending, so for example Necla, siz öğretmen misiniz ? ('Necla, are you [formal, plural] a teacher?'). Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally subject–object–verb , as in Korean and Latin , but unlike English, for verbal sentences and subject-predicate for nominal sentences. However, as Turkish possesses a case-marking system, and most grammatical relations are shown using morphological markers, often
7546-435: The phenomenon of labial assimilation: if the lips are rounded (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels. If they are unrounded for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently. Grammatical affixes have "a chameleon-like quality", and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony: Practically,
7644-568: The population in 1918). Orthodox Ghegs were traditionally also heavily concentrated in the region of Upper Reka (Reka e Epërme) in North Macedonia. There are also some groups of Ghegs who practice Bektashism , living in areas such as Kruja and Bulqiza . Additionally, as is the case with all Albanians as a legacy of the Enver Hoxha regime, many people don't identify with any faith, and a large number of people do not usually attend
7742-638: The preceding vowel. In native Turkic words, the sounds [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] are mainly in complementary distribution with [k] , [ɡ] , and [ɫ] ; the former set occurs adjacent to front vowels and the latter adjacent to back vowels. The distribution of these phonemes is often unpredictable, however, in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. In such words, [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] often occur with back vowels: some examples are given below. However, there are minimal pairs that distinguish between these sounds, such as kar [kɑɾ] "snow" vs kâr [cɑɾ] "profit". Turkish orthography reflects final-obstruent devoicing ,
7840-440: The principles of i-type vowel harmony in practice: Türkiye' dir ("it is Turkey"), kapı dır ("it is the door"), but gün dür ("it is the day"), palto dur ("it is the coat"). These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony: The road sign in the photograph above illustrates several of these features: The rules of vowel harmony may vary by regional dialect. The dialect of Turkish spoken in
7938-439: The reach of the regular Ottoman civil administration until the end of Ottoman rule. In areas where Ghegs were still tribesmen they followed their own laws and lived an autonomous existence. The fact that the tribes of northern Albania were not completely subdued by the Ottomans is raised to the level of orthodoxy among the members of the tribes. A possible explanation is that the Ottomans did not have any real interest in subduing
8036-401: The remainder. Azerbaijani language , official in Azerbaijan, is mutually intelligible with Turkish and speakers of both languages can understand them without noticeable difficulty, especially when discussion comes on ordinary, daily language. Turkey has very good relations with Azerbaijan, with a multitude of Turkish companies and authorities investing there, while the influence of Turkey in
8134-591: The rest Christians made up of mostly Catholics and a few hundred Orthodox. According to Russian consulate Ivan Yastrebov's estimations, there were 80.000 Catholic males, 20.000 Orthodox males, and 9.500 Muslim males in the Sanjak of Scutari. The majority of the population spoke the Albanian language . He asserted that the Orthodox, and a number of Muslims, spoke the Serbian language . According to Ottoman census data,
8232-617: The sanjak of Debre (Debar) in Monastir vilayet. Little more than half of ethnic Albanians from Albania are Ghegs. Except for a Tosk population in north-western Greece and around lake Prespa as well as southern North Macedonia, the ethnic Albanians in the Balkans who live in Kosovo, North Macedonia (mostly) and Montenegro are Ghegs. The Ghegs speak Gheg Albanian, one of the two main Albanian dialects. The Albanian communist regime based
8330-482: The sanjak was dominated by a few powerful Albanian landowners such as the Toptani family who controlled the area around Kruja and Tirana as a personal fiefdom with family holdings amounting to some 123,000 acres. To protect economic interests landowning beys in the area maintained small private armies numbering between 200 and 500 men that also served as bodyguards during travel. In the 1880s from an Albanian point of view
8428-470: The sanjaks of İşkodra and Dıraç along with the whole of İşkodra vilayet belonged to the region of Gegënia . In 1912 and beginning of 1913 it was occupied by members of Balkan League during the First Balkan War . In 1914 the territory of Scutari Vilayet became a part of Principality of Albania , established on the basis of peace contract signed during London Conference in 1913. Sanjaks of
8526-476: The services of any religion. After the Tanzimat reforms in the second half of the 19th century, aiming to gain influence over Catholic Albanians, Austria-Hungary , with Ottoman approval, opened and financed many schools in the Albanian language, and Franciscan seminaries and hospitals, and trained native clergy, which all resulted in the development of literature in the Albanian language . The culture of
8624-604: The sons of local notables from urban areas into the bureaucracy and co-opted leaders like Isa Boletini into the Ottoman system. During the Young Turk Revolution (1908) some Ghegs were one group in Albanian society that gave its support for the restoration of the Ottoman constitution of 1876 to end the Hamidian regime. Subsequent centralising policies and militarism toward the Albanian Question by
8722-433: The standard Albanian language mostly on Tosk Albanian . This practice has been criticized, notably by Arshi Pipa , who claimed that this decision deprived the Albanian language of its richness at the expense of the Ghegs, and referred to the literary Albanian language as a "monstrosity" produced by the Tosk communist leadership which conquered anti-Communist north Albania militarily, and imposed their Tosk Albanian dialect on
8820-479: The state and homeland in the name of Islam. During the crisis Ghegs and Tosks made besas (pledges of honor) to arm themselves and shed blood to defend their rights. Better armed than its southern Tosk counterpart, Gheg society was in a more effective position to resist the redrawing of borders in the region. Ottoman officials initially assisted Gheg Albanians in their efforts to resist incorporation of their lands into Serbia, Montenegro or Bulgaria. Ghegs experienced
8918-427: The term Gheg is not completely clear. According to the writer Arshi Pipa , the term Gegë was initially used for confessional denotation, being used in pre-Ottoman Albania by its Orthodox population when referring to their Catholic neighbors. Some theories say that the term Gegë is derived from the onomatopoeic word for "babbling", in contrast to Shqiptare which is the Albanian word for those who speak clearly. This
9016-487: The total population of the vilayet in 1911 was 349,455 with the following ethnoreligious composition (Orthodox Serbs and Albanians were counted as Greeks): A publication from 21 December 1912 in the Belgian magazine Ons Volk Ontwaakt (Our Nation Awakes) estimated 185,200 inhabitants: "Scutari" . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 24 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 518–519. Turkish language To
9114-648: The tribe assembly whose members were male members of the tribe. The organization of once predominantly herder Gheg tribes was traditionally based on patrilineality (a system in which an individual belongs to his or her father's lineage), and on exogamy (a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside of a social group). The land belongs to the clan, and families are traditionally extended, consisting of smaller families of many brothers who all live in one extended ménage ( Albanian : shtëpi . Gheg Albanian: shpi). Girls were married without their consent, while bride stealing still existed to some extent until
9212-432: The twofold pattern (also referred to as the e-type vowel harmony) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the e-form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the a-form. The fourfold pattern (also called the i-type) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back. The following examples, based on the copula -dir ("[it] is"), illustrate
9310-613: The west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish —the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire —spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Perso-Arabic script -based Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with the Latin script -based Turkish alphabet . Some distinctive characteristics of
9408-552: Was also supported by some anthropological research which considered Ghegs an Aryan race . At the end of World War II , communist forces predominantly composed of Tosks captured Albania after the retreat of the Wehrmacht . That was perceived by many Ghegs as the Tosk takeover of Gheg lands. Most members of the post-war communist regime and three quarters of the Communist Party of Albania members were Tosks. Therefore,
9506-489: Was based mostly on the fact these languages share three features: agglutination , vowel harmony and lack of grammatical gender. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia . Erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan , these date back to the Second Turkic Khaganate (dated 682–744 CE). After
9604-465: Was established in 1867. The Sanjak of Scutari was established when Ottoman Empire acquired Shkodra after the Siege of Shkodra in 1478–79. A big part of Principality of Zeta was added to territory of Sanjak of Scutari in 1499. In 1514 this territory was separated from the Sanjak of Scutari and established as separate Sanjak of Montenegro , under the rule of Skenderbeg Crnojević . When he died in 1528,
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