Gagauz is a member of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family. It is spoken mainly in southern Moldova, southwestern Ukraine and northeastern Bulgaria. There are also some Gagauz speakers in Romania, Greece, Turkey, and in a number of other countries. It is the official language of the Autonomous Region of Gagauzia in Moldova, and is recognized as a minority language in Ukraine. There are about 143,000 speakers of Gagauz, including 115,000 in Moldova (in 2014), 22,800 in Ukraine (in 2001) and 5,000 in Bulgaria (in 2007).
Gagauz at a glance
Native name: Gagauz dili / Gagauzça [ɡaɡaˈuzt͡ʃa]
Linguistic affliation: Turkic, Common Turkic, Oghuz, Western Oghuz
Number of speakers: c. 143,000
Spoken in: Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Turkey
Writing systems: Greek, Cyrillic and Latin alphabets
Status: official language in the Gagauzia region of Moldova, and recognized as a minority language in Ukraine
There are two dialects of Gagauz: Bulgar Gagauzi and Maritime Gagauzi. The language is most closely related to Azerbaijani, Turkmen and Crimean Tatar.
A number of newspapers in Gagauz are published in the Gagauzia Region in Moldova. There are also radio and television programmes in the language.
Gagauz was written with a version of the Greek alphabet until 1812. From 1909 it was written with a version of the Cyrillic alphabet. From 1932 it was written with a version of the Latin alphabet, and from 1957 a different version of the Cyrillic alphabet was used. Since 1993 a version of the Latin alphabet based on the Turkish has been used. A standard orthography for Gagauz was created in Gagauzia in 2014.
Gagauz Latin alphabet (gagauz alfaviti)
Notes
G, K and L are palatalized / palatal before ä, e, i, ö and ü
H = [h] at the beginning of words
The letter Ţ is only used in loanwords
Gagauz Cyrillic alphabet (гагауз алфавити)
Notes
В, Г & К are palatalized and Л is palatal before ä, е, и, ö and ÿ
Е = [je] and Ё = [jo] at the beginning of words, after ъ and after vowels
The letters Щ and Ь are only used in Russian names and loanwords
Insannar hepsi duuêrlar serbest hem birtakım kendi kıymetindä hem haklarında. Onnara verilmiş akıl hem üz da läazım biri-birinä davransınnar kardaşlık ruhuna uygun.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Other languages written with the Cyrillic
and Latin alphabets
If you need to type in many different languages, the Q International Keyboard can help. It enables you to type almost any language that uses the Latin, Cyrillic or Greek alphabets, and is free.
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