Kurbetcha (or Gurbetcha) is a

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fl ...

with what appears to be predominantly

Domari language Domari is an endangered Indo-Aryan language, spoken by Dom people scattered across the Middle East and North Africa. The language is reported to be spoken as far north as Azerbaijan and as far south as central Sudan, in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Isr ...

vocabulary and

Cypriot Turkish Cypriot Turkish () is a dialect of the Turkish language spoken by Turkish Cypriots both in Cyprus and in the diaspora. History Emanating from Anatolia and evolved for four centuries, Cypriot Turkish is the vernacular spoken by Cypriots with Ot ...

grammar, spoken by the ''

Gurbeti Gurbeti (also Kurbet or Kurbat or غربتی in Persian) are a sub-group of the Romani people living in Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, Cyprus, and the former Yugoslavia whose members are Eastern Orthodox and predominantly Muslim Ro ...

'' of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

and North Cyprus. The Gurbetler have traditionally also spoken

. The Gurbetler of Ottoman Cyprus are of mixed ancestry.

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Dom people The Dom (also called Domi; / ALA-LC: ', / , Ḍom / or , or sometimes also called Doms) are descendants of the Dom caste with origins in the Indian subcontinent, who through ancient migrations are found scattered across the Middle East and ...

from

Ottoman Syria Ottoman Syria () is a historiographical term used to describe the group of divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of the Levant, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Ara ...

settled there after Siege of Famagusta. The majority settled in the

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

after

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

. The language is not protected by the

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, t ...

, unlike

Cypriot Maronite Arabic Cypriot Arabic (, ), also known as Cypriot Maronite Arabic or Sanna (, ), is a moribund language, moribund Varieties of Arabic, variety of Arabic language, Arabic spoken by the Maronites in Cyprus, Maronite community of Cyprus. Formerly speakers ...

and

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

. Kurbetcha has been very little studied. A dissertation on its linguistics was done by Chryso Pelekani (2018). Children are not learning the language; it has been supplanted by Turkish in the north and Greek in the south.

References

Gurbeti Languages of Cyprus Romani in Cyprus {{pidgincreole-lang-stub

See also

References