By Cagin Kazimoglu
The term dialect is explained as a variety of a language, showing differences in pronunciation, construction of grammar and words' idiomic usage from the standard or literary form of a language (Pei & Gaynor 1954:56). These varieties of languages are not regarded as different languages but instead they are ‘associated with a regionally or socially defined group of people' (Wolfram, Christian & Adger 1997:1)
Cyprus is the third largest Mediterranean island which is located 40 Miles south of Turkey and 60 Miles West of Syria(Keefe, Cover, Giloane, Moore, Teleki, White 1971:7). The population of Cyprus was estimated to be 739.100 of whom 80,7% are Greek Cypriots (including Armenians, Maronites and Latins), 11.0% Turkish Cypriots and remaining 8.3% are foreigners according to 2001 figures (CYSTAT, 2007).
A dialect of Standard Turkish, which is referred to as Cypriot Turkish is spoken by one third of the island's population, the majority of whom are living on the Northern part of the island. South Cyprus, where a dialect referred to as Cypriot Greek is spoken, is the home to Greek Cypriots who make up the majority of the population in Cyprus.
Albeit there are adverse examples, the term dialect is described by Chambers and Trudgill (1998:3) as ‘subdivisions of a particular language' and the term language as ‘a collection of mutually intelligible dialects'. Standard language on the other hand is ‘...learned and accepted as correct across a community or set of communities in which others are also used'' (Matthews 1997:352). Consequently, it is acceptable to conclude with the help of the explanations that, Cypriot Turkish is a dialect of the Turkish language and that the prestigious dialect of the standard language is ‘Istanbul Turkish' which is used in media, education and writing. In the so called ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus', the language of education, media and writing is also the prestigious dialect of the Turkish language, ‘Istanbul Turkish'. Further definition of key terms are explained thoroughly in section 1.3.
There are no official governmental documentation clearly stating the current language policy in North Cyprus. Although this is the case, the language used in the schools is ‘Türkçe' which is ‘Standard Turkish' (ST). The national curriculum in Turkey is closely copied by the TRNC and used in its education system. Even though the language used at home and brought to school by the Turkish Cypriot children is the Turkish Cypriot Dialect, the prefered and applied language in education is Standard Turkish. Cypriot children do not use the standard version of the language as it is widely known and they prefer communicating in their own dialect instead. The reason for this is said to be that, they do not come accross nor are encouraged to speak the standard language before they enter primary school. There is a general belief that Turkish Cypriots are aware that the prestigious standard version of the language is needed if they intend to carry on into higher education.
In the Cyprus educational setting, previously two different studies investigated the use of non-standard languages and dialects but only Greek Cypriot Dialect (hence, GCD) and Modern Greek (hence MG) were studied. There are no published sources specifically investigating the adequecy of TCD as a linguistic system nor any investigations carried out to find out the educators' attitudes towards the TCD, nor the public's opinion concerning the language in education policy and the spoken dialect. As TRNC is a very new republic which is currently recognized by Turkey only, the bodies at the Ministery of Education in TRNC do not take this as a vital subject of investigation at present.
This work got its motivation from the fact that there is no documentation reflecting on the public and educators' opinions about the language policy in North Cyprus, nor about their home language. It is obvious that the considerable number of Turkish Cypriots who migrated to the United Kingdom and Australia in the second half of the previous century attributed to the decrease in the number of native Turkish Cypriots living on the island. In fact, migration of Turkish Cypriots to other countries, especially amongst the younger generation, is still in progress.
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