UC San Diego

Laz Turkish (LT) is a nonstandard variety of Turkish mainly spoken by the Laz minority in the northeast of the Black Sea Region in Turkey. LT emerged a second language variety of Turkish and developed into its own distinct dialect in a language contact situation between Turkish (Turkic) and Laz (South Caucasian), and it has been shifting towards Standard Turkish (ST) under the influence of the dominating Turkish culture. Laz has a smaller vowel system compared to Turkish and this has impacted the vowel harmony (VH) system in LT. In contrast to ST, which has a very productive VH system, LT has only partially productive VH. Based on a corpus of fieldwork data, this dissertation investigates how LT displays partial VH in morphologically complex forms. This dissertation also situates LT in a sociolinguistic context by investigating the attitudes in the Laz community towards Laz, LT and Laz identity, and examines the underlying causes of the language shift from LT to ST. This dissertation shows that LT contains forms that are identical to ST, which satisfy VH wherever applicable, as well as forms that show unique characteristics (LT-unique forms), which often do not conform to VH. The main findings of this dissertation regarding the LT-unique forms are as follows. First, three Turkish vowels that are absent in the Laz vowel system, [ɯ, y, œ], are rare in LT-unique forms. ST [ɯ, y, œ] correspond to LT [i, u, o], preserving rounding feature of vowels. This correspondence pattern is especially observed in the first syllable of LT words. Second, non-initial suffixes with high vowels are typically of two kinds: [i] and [u]. The distribution of these vowels cannot be attributed to VH, but it is predictable by syllable type: [i] primarily occurs in open syllables and [u] in closed syllables. Such distribution of high vowels based on syllable structure is likely to be an L1 (Laz) influence. Non-high vowels [a, e] in LT-unique forms do not show correlation with syllable type, and they typically satisfy VH. Overall, there is weak evidence for VH in LT-unique forms, especially for high vowels.

Characteristics unique to LT are produced more consistently by the elderly LT speakers compared to the younger ones. This generational shift from LT to ST is due to increased exposure to ST, which is especially promoted in the context of educational and governmental institutions. However, LT or LT speakers are characterized in the media or other social domains as an object of ridicule. In general, members of the Laz community have positive attitudes towards Laz, LT, and Laz identity. Nevertheless, they also notice the negative stereotypes outside the community.

The findings of this dissertation contribute to our understanding of i) what happens when L1 has a smaller vowel system compared to L2, ii) which patterns emerge when native speakers of a language without VH acquire a VH language as an L2, and iii) whether these patterns can be attributed to the acquisition of the L2 vowel system or other factors linked to L1 phonology.