Urum language

Infobox Language
name=Urum
nativename=Урум
familycolor=Altaic
pronunciation=uˈrum
states=Ukraine, Greece
speakers=45,000 [cite web |url=http://www.qypchaq.unesco.kz/urums-en.htm |title=North Azovian Urums - Greeks Speaking Turkic Language |last=Garkavets |first=Alexander]
fam1=Altaic [" [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90009] Ethnologue"] (controversial)
fam2=Turkic
fam3=Kypchak, Oghuz
script=Cyrillic alphabet, Greek alphabet
iso3=uum

Urum is a Turkic language spoken by several thousand people who inhabit a few villages in the Southeastern Ukraine and in diaspora communities world wide.

The name "Urum" is derived from "Rûm" ("Rome"), the term for the Byzantine empire in the Muslim world. The Ottoman Empire used it to describe non-Muslims within the empire. The initial vowel in Urum is prosthetic: originally Turkic languages did not have r- in word-initial position, and in borrowed words used to add a vowel before it. The common use of the term Urum appears to have led to some confusion, as most Turkish-speaking Greeks were called Urum. The Turkish-speaking population in Georgia is often confused with the distinct community in the Ukraine. [cite web |url= http://www.publish.diaspora.ru/magazin/articles/russia026_1.shtml |title=Понтийские греки |last=Казаков |first=Алексей |year=2000 |month=12 |language=Russian] [cite web
url = http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=uum
title = Ethnologue Report for Urum
last = Gordon
first = Raymond G. (ed.)
year = 2005
format =
work = Ethnologue: Languages of the World
publisher = SIL International] (see: Urums)

ounds

Consonants

(1) /IPA|ʦ/ is found only in loanwords.

(2) /θ/ and /ð/ are found only in loanwords from Greek.

Writing System

A few manuscripts are known to be written in Urum using Greek characters. [cite web
url = http://www.language-museum.com/u/urum.php
title = Urum
work = Language Museum] During the period between 1927 and 1937,the Urum language was written in reformed Latin characters, the so called New Turkic Alphabet, and used in local schools; at least one primer is known to have been printed. In 1937 the use of written Urum stopped. Alexander Garkavets uses the following alphabet: [cite book |last=Гаркавець |first=Олександр |title=Урумський словник |url=http://www.unesco.kz/qypchaq/Urum_Dictionary.htm |format=pdf, html |year=2000 |language=Ukrainian, Urum |pages=632 ]

Publications

Very little has been published on the Urum language. There exists a very small lexicon [cite book
last = Podolsky
first = Baruch
title = A Tatar - English Glossary
year = 1985
publisher = Harrassowitz
location = Wiesbaden
id = ISBN 3-447-00299-9] , and a small description of the language [cite journal
last = Podolsky
first = Baruch
year = 1986
title = Notes on the Urum Language
journal = Mediterranean Language Review
volume = 2
pages = 99–112] .

References