Questioning of the elite dominance theory

[Geoffrey SUMMERS]

> I don't think it's possible to generalize like this.  Take the Turks.

> The Turkish conquest of Anatolia resulted in the almost total
> replacement of the earlier languages in favor of Turkish.

Is this sweeping statement correct?. How many languages were spoken on
the Central Plateau in, say, AD 1900? How long did the replacement take?
To what extent did replacement spread through Turkish controlled lands
beyond Anatolia, depending on what you mean by Anatolia? What was the
Ottoman court language.

To go one step further, the script was changed. To what extent did the
change of script (rather than, say, cultural or political orientation)
influence the incorporation of European words into modern Turkish?

> But we
> cannot conclude that this came about because vast numbers of
> Turkic-speakers poured into the area and overwhelmed the indigines.

Exactly!

Geoff

--
Geoffrey SUMMERS
Dept. of Political Science & Public Administration,
Middle East Technical University,
Ankara TR-06531, TURKEY.

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