Saving 'Romeika', a Fading Language of the Eastern Black Sea

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 26 July 2019)


                                     Linguistic lifesaver.

According to UNESCO's "Atlas of Endangered Languages", there
are 11 languages in Turkey that are in danger of extinction.  Researcher
and writer Vahit Tursun has blazed new territory with a dictionary of
'Romeika' (Trabzon Greek), one of the endangered tongues.  Emeritus
Professor of Modern Greek Peter Mackridge, of Oxford University,
provided advice for Tursun's dictionary.

Tursun completed his work in 8 years, not quite with 'field work',
but rather by recording the remarks of his elderly neighbors for years.
Since the 1990s, Tursun has had the goal of preparing a Turkish-
Romeika dictionary and for 30 years he has been noting down new
words he discovers.  He explained that "it was like putting pennies
in a piggy bank and now that piggy bank has become a dictionary."



Tursun has been worried about the possible extinction of Romeika,
noting that once it's gone it's gone forever.  His dictionary, published
by Heyamola Yayınları (Heyamola Publishers), contains words and
sayings from various parts of Trabzon's mountainous areas - in
particular, from villages in the districts of Çaykara, Dernekpazarı,
Sürmene, Of and Tonya, where Romeika is still spoken as a first
language.

Via the internet, Tursun found many Romeika speakers and learned
new words from them.  He noted that "besides in Turkey, there is a
significant Black Sea population living in certain villages in the TRNC
(Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) like Yeni Erenköy (Gialousa)
and Kaplıca (Davlos) in the vicinity of Güzelyurt (Morfu) and Dipkarpaz
(Rizokarpaso), that still speak Romeika."




Of district in Trabzon was one of the first areas in the region to adopt
Islam but, nevertheless, it remains a place where Romeika is spoken
and Tursun thinks that the reason is the women there whose contact
with the outside world, up until 40 years ago, was quite limited.  He
noted that "we are indebted to these women for Romeika words that
pertain to botany and zoology - areas that men were not involved in."

In addition, Tursun said that schools were founded in Trabzon's
mountainous areas late, keeping these places insulated from Turkish
and other languages.  Out-migration to cities from the villages began
later, as well, and TV and social media arrived in these areas long
after it did in others.  Tursun added that 40 years ago in some villages
in Trabzon, the Kuran was taught in Romeika and the imam's sermon
during Friday prayers was given in Romeika, too.  Tursun himself
began to learn Turkish only after elementery school.