Political Contexts of Dialect Continuum of Turkic Languages
International Symposium on Altai Communities: Migration and Emergence of Nations, İstanbul, Turkey, 19 - 21 July 2011, pp.1, (Full Text)
- Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
- City: İstanbul
- Country: Turkey
- Page Numbers: pp.1
- Istanbul University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY AMONG TURKIC LANGUAGES AND THE CONTEXT OF DIALECT CONTINUUM
There are more than 2000 living dialects in today’s world. 200 of them are counted as languages under which several dialects constitute sub groups. The distinction between language and dialect is made at least as much on a political basis as on a linguistic one, and can lead to great political controversy. The interrelational positions of Ukrainian to Russian, Croatian to Serbian and vice versa, are typical examples of such controversies. Therefore, like in other language families, the question of taxonomy of the Turkic languages is not only related to the linguistics or ethno-linguistics, but also to the politics.
The presumption that a group speaking a separate “language” is seen as having a greater claim to being a separate “people”, while a group speaking a “dialect” tends to be seen as a sub-group, constitutes the ground and context of problematic. So when we consider the political map of numerous Turkic speaking countries, autonomous republics and regions, the problem of naming and grouping different varieties of Turkic languages and dialects implies a political imposition rather than a purely linguistic debate. This paper aims at understanding the logic of different taxonomies proposed for the varieties of Turkic languages and dialects, basically by referring to the theories of lingual continuum.