Turkisms in Spoken Albanian: Example of Oral History of Kosova Cover Image

Arnavutça Konuşma Dilinde Türkizmalar: Kosova Sözlü Tarihi Örneği
Turkisms in Spoken Albanian: Example of Oral History of Kosova

Author(s): Zeqije Xhafçe
Subject(s): Oral history, Lexis, Comparative Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Philology
Published by: Uluslararası Kıbrıs Üniversitesi
Keywords: turkisms; loanwords; sociolinguistics; style; register; oral history of Kosovo;

Summary/Abstract: Recent studies on styles and registers have proved that a word can have different meanings in different contexts and situations. Biber (1994), who tries to place registers in social linguistics, emphasizes the importance of splitting registers into two distinct classes: written and spoken, while many sociologists argue that spoken language is the basic form of the language. This paper deals with Turkish loaned words of Albanian language known as Turkizms in the context of forementioned findings. We think that one cannot obtain accurate information about Turkisms’ status in Albanian lanugage without examining their use of speech in different domains, styles and registers. Therefore, in our study, the use of Turkisms in spoken language was examined based on the videos of the Kosovo Oral History project, which includes nearly 100 speakers. We have analized Turkism’s distribution and usage among different varieties of Albanian spoken language by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Based on obtained results, we have tried to determine the current status of Turkisms which are the subject of purism activities since standardization of Albanian spoken language. We have investigated the use of Albanian turkisms as a mean of expression and style and as an active element of Albanian vocabulary.

  • Issue Year: 25/2019
  • Issue No: 100
  • Page Range: 883-898
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Turkish