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Lexical copies in Khalaj: A contribution to the World Loanword Database (WOLD)

Mehmet Akkuş


Seiten 31 - 52

DOI https://doi.org/10.13173/TL/2022/2/31




This paper provides a quantitative analysis of lexical copies in Khalaj, an endangered Turkic language spoken in a compact language ecology in Central Iran. Surveying lexical copies in a language allows one to trace historical linguistic contact between two or more speech communities. The more intense the language contact is, the more likely it is that lexical items are hierarchically code-copied from a Model Code, in Johanson’s terminology. This study thus focuses on the lexical copying (loanword) patterns of two Khalaj varieties, both of which are enclaves at the edges of the language ecology. The database for this study was constructed based on an adapted list of 1,353 items, titled Loanword Typology list (Haspelmath and Tadmor 2009). The Khalaj data was obtained through direct elicitations from four Khalaj-speaking language consultants in Iran. These elicitations were undertaken in July and August, 2021, in the villages of Shānegh, and Telkhāb. Since Khalaj lacks standardized orthography, the data was transcribed using IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) conventions. As for data analysis, Worterbuch des Chaladsch (Doerfer and Tezcan 1980) was used to verify the meanings of Khalaj lexical items and their meanings. A quantitative analysis was conducted to identify the extent of possible sources of lexical copying. The findings revealed that the number of copied lexical items varied between two speech communities, probably because the language ecology has had an impact on the source of items copied.



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