Balkan Gagauz, Balkan Turkish or Rumelian (Turkish: Rumeli Türkçesi), is a Turkic language spoken in European Turkey, in Dulovo and the Deliorman area in Bulgaria, the Prizren area in Kosovo, and the Kumanovo and Bitola areas of North Macedonia.[2] Dialects include Gajal, Gerlovo Turk, Karamanli, Kyzylbash, Surguch, Tozluk Turk, Yuruk (Konyar, Yoruk), Prizren Turk, and Macedonian Gagauz.[citation needed]

Balkan Gagauz
Rumelian Turkish
Native toTurkey, Greece, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo
RegionBalkan Peninsula
Native speakers
460,000 (2019)[1]
Turkic
Latin script,[citation needed] Cyrillic alphabet[citation needed]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bgx
Glottologbalk1254
ELPBalkan Gagauz Turkish

Although it is mutually intelligible with both Gagauz[2] and Turkish to a considerable degree, it is usually classified as a separate language,[citation needed] due to foreign influences from neighboring languages spoken in the Balkans.

Balkan Gagauz Turkish was given international prominence through the Oscar-nominated 2019 film Honeyland, in which the protagonist is an ethnic Macedonian Turk and mostly speaks in the local dialect throughout the film.

Population

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There were around 460,000 speakers of Balkan Gagauz Turkish in Turkey in 2019[1] and an estimated 4,000 in North Macedonia in 2018.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Balkan Gagauz at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)  
  2. ^ a b Ethnologue entry for Balkan Gagauz Turkish
  3. ^ "Macédoine (République de)". www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca. Retrieved 2021-10-07.