• Corpus ID: 154525501

Some Remarks on Language Use and Arabic Dialects in Eastern Turkey

@article{Lahdo2009SomeRO,
  title={Some Remarks on Language Use and Arabic Dialects in Eastern Turkey},
  author={Ablahad Lahdo},
  journal={Orientalia Suecana},
  year={2009},
  volume={58},
  pages={105-114}
}

• Ablahad Lahdo
• Published 2009
• Sociology
• Orientalia Suecana

Questions of language, minorities, and ethnicity are extremely complex. The essence of the terms themselves is open to discussion and, consequently, consideration of their relationships is fraught with difficulties. The complexity of the mentioned issues increases when matters of religion and identity are involved. In this case study I will describe the problems connected with a small minority living side by side with a larger one, describe the consequences of this kind of interaction between groups on ethnicity, and account for its consequences on language. In this study Arabs represent the small minority and Kurds the larger one. The State of Turkey represents the majority. It is needless to mention that all three groups belong to different ethnicities, whatever this may mean, and speak different languages. In Tillo, a village in South-eastern Turkey, both minorities live together, and the Turkish state is represented by officials and by all forms of mass media. The main source of the data analyzed for this study is a corpus consisting of ca. 18 hours of tape-recorded material and interviews with people, mainly Arabs, from October 2000 and onwards. 20 informants are interviewed, three of whom are female: a 12-year-old schoolgirl, a 37-year-old unmarried woman living with her parents, and a 55-year-old housewife. The male informants are between 20 and 65 years old. Their levels of education show a great disparity. The 20-year-old informant works at a wholesale dealer’s in Istanbul. A 21-year-old informant studied (in November 2000) to become a mullah in Tillo. A 33-year-old informant started training to become a pilot in the Turkish air force, but never finished. At the present time he owns a linen-draper’s shop in the town of Siirt, some 9 km from Tillo. A 33-year-old informant works as a car-park attendant in Istanbul. A 39-year-old informant is an imam in Tillo. A 60-year-old informant is a mullah in Tillo. The rest have various professions, such as a circumciser, a hotel owner (in Istanbul), a wholesale dealer (in Istanbul) etc. The final interviews with Arabs in Tillo were made by telephone in April 2005.