Arabic Dialects Spoken in Turkey

By Dr. Hüseyin Kara

Arabic Dialects Spoken in Turkey
Contents:
Preface
Introduction
1-Arabic dialects
2-the reality of language
3-historical development of Arabic
4-the effects of Arabic in Anatolia
5-the Arabic dialects in the south and the south-east of Anatolia
6-Adana
7-Antakya (Antiokia)
8-Kilis
9-Mardin
10-Siirt
11-Şanliurfa
Conclusion
Bibliographies and references
Author's biography
Footnotes

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roh Nordic AB
• Release date: Jan 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215606643

Dr. Hüseyin Kara

1953 yılında Rize'nin Güneyce beldesinde doğdu. İlkokul, hafızlık, ortaokul ve Arapça eğitimini bu bölgede tamamladıktan sonra İmam Hatip Lisesini 1976'da Mersin'de bitirdi.Konya Yüksek İslam Enstitüsü tefsir-hadis bölümünden 1980 yılında mezun olduktan sonra sırası ile Antalya, Denizli, Adana, Konya ve Ankara illerinde 25 yıl, lise ve Anadolu İmam Hatip Liselerinde öğretmenlik yaptı.Bu arada Arap Dili ve Edebiyatı’nda doktora çalışmasını tamamladı.2006 yılında aktif öğretmenlikten emekli oldu. Geçen 30 yılı aşkın sürede ülke içinde ve dışında gerçekleşen eğitim faaliyetlerinin devlet ve hizmet sektöründe hem teori ve hem de uygulamalarının içinde yer aldı, eğitim ile alakalı konferanslar verdi, makaleler ve kitaplar yazdı.Son yıllarda kişisel olarak Arap dili ve edebiyatına katkı sağlamakta ve bunun yanında dış dünyada açılan Türk okullarına müşavirlik hizmeti vermektedir.Evli ve dört evlat sahibi olan Hüseyin Kara Arapça ve İngilizce bilmektedir.

Book preview

PREFACE

Since the earliest ages, Anatolia has attracted a number of nations, and become a museum for the civilizations established by nations settled down there. Arab Muslims who are close to Anatolia geographically tried to be the conqueror of the area since A.D. Vilth century.

Arab Muslims coming especially to Southern Anatolia started to be neighbors with Romans by setting down in that area. Today Turks uthem Anatolia and speaking in Arabic continued to survive in both Ottoman and still Republic of Turkey periods.

Ruling of Ottomans within the area was accepted by Arap Muslims together with non-Muslim ones for 400 years. This is supported by the fact that Turkish people speaking in Arabic live at the moment mostly in the areas close to the borders of Iraq and Syria.

The official language of Turkish people living within the borders of the Republic of Turkey is Turkish now. However, the nation has a wealthy civilization and a wide flexibility to use 25 to 30 different languages within the same borders in this way, this nation stays powerful and active all the time, and shows that the basis of civilization and culture mosaics are national and religious values.

It has become and will become impossible to show that this is dangerous for everybody in the past and future because language is merely a tool. The important thing is national identity and spirit.

Moreover, among the local languages, Arabic is one of the most spoken ones which is taught in all levels of education after two most common ones, English and German languages.

Besides being an important lesson for Imam-Hatip schools, it is also in Ilahiyat faculties starting from the preparatory levels.

It is a separate branch in Dil-Tarih-Cografya faculties' graduating teachers. We think this is the first investigation on this subject showing the differences and similarities among Arabic accents spoken in the borders of Turkey. Another more interesting thing is that this subject is being studied abroad, not in Turkey.

In this study, we investigated Arabic which is spoken in Southern Turkey and shares the same borders with Syria and Iraq.

In particular, accents spoken in Antakya, Mardin, Urfa, Siirt, Adana and Kilis are unidentified with their similarities and differences among them.

In addition, socio-cultural status of these cities was also determined alphabetically.

We believe that this study will give an idea to the future studies on this subject.

Hüseyin KARA

1997

INTRODUCTION

The official language of the Turkish Republic is Turkish according to the 1982 3 numbered law of the Constitution.

This law and its execution are accepted by the public, appreciated, and the language has become a rooted structure when it has become the obligatory language of education and teaching in Turkey. It is impossible to act against the existing condition.

There is no need for such an act, either. Besides, the colorful mosaic structure as well as its rich and deep structure of Turkish Nation that is the continuation of the Ottoman has made it quite different than the other nations.

One of these differences is of course that there were many different languages and dialects being spoken. A Turkish nation that continues the colorful and polyphonic structure as a miniature would of course let the local languages and dialects other than the mother language remain as a cultural treasure in this mosaic.

Linguists have cleared out that today, there are 25 different local languages and dialects being spoken and protected within the borders of Turkish Republic. The possibility of having such a richness of language is very rare in other nations. These local languages and dialects have never had a political side in Turkey until recently.

Nowadays, there is not a striking subject other than the utterance of independence of Kurdish from Turkish which appeared with the terror in the southeast region.

In my doctor thesis called Arabic dialects being spoken in Turkey which has helped us to make serious determinations since the year 1993, the year we started our research, we faced many serious problems of starting a study further than the determination of the situation for the first time. We could not find any studies done by local or foreign researchers on this matter, and there are not any.

It is the only language in Turkey being spoken as a local language and taught and used in education in our Religious High Schools and universities.

In recent years, Arabic has been placed in the list of foreign languages of Public Personnel Foreign Language Level Test.

I believe that it is necessary to make more complicated researches with a different approach from the other local languages in Turkey when we consider our historical and religious connections with Arabic language.

After the preface and introduction parts of our thesis called ARABIC DIALECTS BEING SPOKEN IN TURKEY, dialects are studied in general, and the scientific explanations of Arabic dialects are made with examples.

After studying the histories, geographical and cultural structure and demographic conditions of these cities in alphabetical order with the researches made in 6 cities within the borders of Turkey, local dialects recorded on tapes are analyzed and their differences are emphasized.

The thesis is written in English in order to be understood on international basis. This study does not have a political aim and it is only for scientific use.

The biggest problems I faced during my study were that my instructor teacher was in Georgia and there was lack of, in fact absence of the sources.

Against of all these troubles, it is one more time proved that nothing can bear long to studying and endeavor. The thesis is completed with a CONCLUSION part.

1-ARABIC DIALECTS

Just like all other languages, Arabic which is one of the most common languages is not being spoken in only one dialect. People have been adding new words and sounds that they received from their regions from time to time, and serving to create different dialects. This is the same in all languages, and Arabic as well.

It is certain that the Muslims who moved to the other areas have effected their languages, and it is also effected by those languages, too. Even the Arabic language spoken in the areas known as real Arabic is effected and has slight dialect differences in them.

In parallelism with that, although the capital cities of the Middle East are known as the centers of culture and education language, small differences in pronunciation have created dialects.

The dialect is defined as the speech differs between the people living in different regions. Thus, there are not big differences between the nations whose writing and speaking languages are Arabic.

For example: (JJ gala lah) combining these two words, the Saudi nation is pronouncing this word as Kalehu (galah) but writing them as they should be.

The Wordan is reading that word the same by combining these two words but with a pronunciation difference. They read it as (5- gallu).

The Syrians are reading this word without pronouncing (L-ga), and using (-lu) instead. The Iraqi are reading these two with a pronunciation close to Hicaz and saying (J-galah).

I found out that there are dialect differences between the Arabic language spoken in the cities Adana, Siirt, Antakya, Kilis, Mardin and Urfa, cities of Turkey whose native languages are Arabic and have become