Mehmet Akkuş

Turkic Languages, Volume 26 (2022), Issue 2, Page 31 - 52

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.

Mehmet Akkuş, Çiğdem Sağın-Şimşek

Turkic Languages, Volume 25 (2021), Issue 2, Page 191 - 209

In multilingual contexts, mutual intelligibility can be achieved using a variety of communication modes, one of which is Receptive Multilingualism. This study aims to examine the forms and functions of interjections that are utilized by Turkish and Azeri participants to ensure mutual intelligibility in receptive multilingual communication. The data used in this study was collected via a language background questionnaire, a word-guessing card game played by speakers of Azeri and speakers of Turkish, and stimulated recall interviews. The data was transcribed using the data transcription software EXMARaLDA. A functional analysis was conducted to identify the forms and the functions of the interjections that signal the participants’ stages of understanding in a number of extracts that demonstrated the speakers’ (non-)understanding. The findings revealed that the Turkish and Azeri interlocutors utilized interjections as communicative tools signaling mutual intelligibility in their receptive multilingual communication. The findings also revealed that while the interlocutors used cross-linguistically identical interjections to signal similar functions, some interjections were used for multiple functions.