Gibrizlija

Infobox Language
name=Gibrizlija, Western Turkic
rank=
nativename=Gibrizlija, Gibriz
familycolor=Altaic
states=Northern Cyprus,
UK,
United States,
Australia,
Canada,
New Zealand.
region=Cyprus Island
speakers=More than 0.5 million
fam2=Oghuz

Gibrizlija, Gibrizlidja, or Kibrislica, is a Turkic language widely spoken in Cyprus. It is spoken in other English-speaking countries, in southern Turkey (Antalya, Mugla, Aydin), Silifke, and Taşucu) and in Latakia, Syria, as well.

Classification

The ascription of Gibrizlija to the Oghuz branch of Turkic languages is not shared by all linguists.

*Turkic languages
**Oghuz languages

Although Gibrizlija language is often thought of as very similar to Turkish, this characterization is not accurate. For instance, phonologically, Gibrizlija is more similar to Azerbaijani than to Turkish. Strong similarities also exist with the Yoruk dialect spoken in the Taurus mountains in Southern Turkey.

Some Gibrizlija words, like many Turkic languages like Azeri, Tartar and Turkmen uses more archaic sounds. For example in consenants.

Writing System

Gibrizlija is usually written as standard Turkish, using the Turkish latin alphabet. When it is necessary to express sounds not represented in the Turkish alphabet, the following symbols are used: Unicode|ḳ(IPA|q), Unicode|ġ(IPA|ɢ), Unicode|ḥ or Unicode|ḫ(IPA|x), Unicode|ñ(IPA|ŋ).

Grammar

Gibrizlija is structured as VO language as oppose to standard Turkish which is OV language. It is verytypical in forming a question.

* Standard Turkish "Okula gidecek misin?" in Gibrizlija "Gideceng okula?" (Are you going to School?)

In Gibrizlija, reflexive pronoun in third person is different, which is "genni" (him, himself, them, themself).

emantics

Typical question sentences most of the time do not qualify as standard Turkish question. See example above. This is due to question suffixes are most of the time dropped by native Turkish Cypriots.

Another subtle difference is the emphasis on verbs.