LSCL 03: Kontaktbedingter Sprachwandel in der adygeischen Umgangssprache im Kaukasus und in der ...

Kontaktbedingter Sprachwandel in der adygeischen Umgangssprache im Kaukasus und in der Türkei

Vergleichende Analyse des russischen und türkischen Einflusses in muendlichen adygeischen Texten

Monika Höhlig
Technische Universität Berlin

The North West Caucasian Adyghe language provides ideal conditions for the study of language change because of the sociolinguistic history of its speakers and their contact with typologically and genetically different languages. This study examines the socio-cultural and sociolinguistic factors which determine dominance relations in Adyghe-Russian language contact in the Caucasus and Adyghe-Turkish language contact in Turkey in the present century. The analysis is based on text material in the Abdzakh dialect of Adyghe, collected during fieldwork in Turkey (1979-1990) and Adygheya in the Caucasus (1990-1994).

In the comparisons of both contact situations, the focus is on the description of the linguistic features. The kind and extent of interference are dealt with on different levels of the Adyghe language. Lexical interference includes the borrowing of different parts of speech and devices of integration in Adyghe. Structural interference includes changes in Adyghe phonology, morphology, and syntax due to foreign elements (Russian and Turkish, respectively).

After comparisons of the decisive social factors, the main part of the study closes with a tentative prognosis regarding the process of language change in the Abdzakh dialect and the Adyghe language in general in Turkey and the Republik of Adygheya in the Caucasus.

The book consists of eight chapters with an appendix which includes the proposal of a Latin-Turkish based alphabet for Adyghe and a collection of Abdzakh texts with a German translation. [written in German]

ISBN 9783895860836. LINCOM Studies in Caucasian Linguistics 03. 300S.