Turkish

[Adam Hyllested]

On Sat, 25 Nov 2000, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

>	Aren't the Gaugaz [sp?] an Anatolian Turkish-speaking Christian
> ethnic group in Ukraine, Rumania et al.?
> 	BTW: On maps I've seen references to Pomaks, Sanjaks & Nogays
> (among others) in the Balkans. Are these Turkish groups, former
> Turkish-speakers or local Muslims speaking Slavic languages?

The Gagauz live mainly in southern Moldova around the city of Comrat, but
there are also smaller groups in Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria. They
are Orthodox by religion and speak a language closely related to Turkish,
to some degree influenced by neighbouring Slavonic languages. They descend
from Christian Turks given refuge by the Ottomans in the 19th century.

The Pomaks are a Muslim, orginally nomadic, ethnic group living in
Western Thrace (Greece). They speak a dialect of Bulgarian, or, if you
like, a language closely related to Bulgarian. The Pomak research centre
in Komotini publishes a newspaper (Zagalisa) in Pomak.

Sandz^ak Novi Pazar is the name of a region in Southern Serbia and
Northern Montenegro with a Muslim, Serbian-speaking population. The
Sandz^aks define themselves as an ethnic group.

The Nogays live in the Russian republic of Dagestan in North-Eastern
Caucausus. They number about 75 000, and most of them speak Nogay, a
Turkic language.

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Adam Hyllested
Editor of etymologies and language surveys
Danish National Encyclopedia
Student of Indo-European, Uralic and Balkan linguistics
University of Copenhagen
adahyl at cphling.dk