Documentation and Analysis of Kabardian as Spoken in Turkey
|Depositor||Ayla Applebaum Bozkurt|
|Affiliation||University of California, Santa Barbara, Linguistics Department|
|Collection Status||Collection online|
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Documentation and Analysis of Kabardian as Spoken in Turkey
|Depositor||Ayla Applebaum Bozkurt|
|Affiliation||University of California, Santa Barbara, Linguistics Department|
|Collection Status||Collection online|
|Landing Page Handle||http://hdl.handle.net/2196/42aeb8d2-4fbe-4e7a-88a4-8feee51d36c2|
Summary of the collection
Kabardian is a typologically rare and threatened Northwest Caucasian language. Preliminary research by the author established phonetic differences between Kabardian spoken in Russia and Turkey, and suggests further undocumented differences. This project builds upon active cooperation of the Turkish Kabardian community enjoyed during preliminary research, to collect an audiovisual corpus of Turkish Kabardian. Practical outcomes include multimedia materials of varied speech genres to support reversal of language decline, and training of community members in documentation practices. The project contributes to documentation of Turkish Kabardian through the completion of a doctoral dissertation focusing on analysis of Turkish Kabardian phonology and morpho-syntax.
Kabardians, Circassians, East Circassian, North West Caucasus, Kabartay, Çerkez, Adige, адыгэ
Materials collected consist of audio and video data collected in Ankara and Istanbul, as well as at least three isolated rural communities in mid-Anatolia: Karakuyu (population: 253), Kurbagalik (population: 127), and Kazancik (population: 53).
Kabardian is an understudied and endangered Circassian (Northwest Caucasian) language spoken by approximately 647,000 people, primarily in Russia and Turkey. Although the largest concentration of Kabardian speakers is found in the Kabardino-Balkar republic of Russia, approximately one half of Kabardian speakers now reside in Turkey after a mass exodus from Russia in the 19th century.
The need for documentation of Turkish Kabardian is acute. Turkish Kabardian is phonetically distinct from Russian Kabardian, as shown in pilot work by the author, which suggested there may be other morphological, syntactic and semantic differences between Turkish and Russian Kabardian which have not yet been documented. Investigation of Turkish Kabardian is particularly important due to the dearth of materials dealing with this variety of Kabardian.
The dearth of research on Turkish Kabardian is largely attributed to many years during which the Turkish government actively discouraged use of Kabardian. No formal instruction in Kabardian has been available in Turkey and the number of people using Kabardian at home has declined due to factors such as intermarriage with non-Kabardian speakers, movement of speakers into large cities where Kabardian is not perceived as a socio-economically viable language, and a series of laws that actively discouraged use of minority languages. The prolonged period of decreased value placed on Kabardian has led many Kabardian-speaking couples to speak only Turkish to their children. The number of children acquiring Kabardian has been reduced to the point where systematic documentation is urgently needed. Most North Caucasians, including Kabardians, in Turkey now speak Turkish as a first language and knowledge of the native North Caucasian language is exceptional in urban areas. In general, there is severe doubt about the long-term survival of North Caucasian languages within diasporic communities like the one in Turkey.
Kabardian is of great typological interest for its rich phonological inventories and its complex morphosyntax. A few points of salient interest are indicated below:
Phonetics and phonology: Phonetically and phonol