The Turkish Dialects of Trabzon

The dialects spoken in Trabzon on the Eastern Black Sea Coast are the Anatolian dialects that have preserved the most archaic features. At the same time, they are the ones that display the greatest number of innovations, due to the influence of other languages in the region. The archaisms indicate that the first speakers of Turkish must have settled in the area more than a hundred years before the Ottoman conquest, i.e. in the 14th century, although historical sources give no information on Turkish settlements at that time. The main aim of this study is to analyze the Trabzon dialects synchronically and diachronically and to explain the features that distinguish them from other Anatolian dialects. The study also makes a hypothesis about the turkization of the area. The second volume contains dialect texts which constitute the material for the analyses in the first volume. These texts, which have been recorded and transcribed by the author, are provided with numerous foot-notes, and give a unique impression of the folkloristic and historical richness of the region.