Main Characteristics Determining The Morphology Of Gaziantep Dialect

Although the term “dialect” is always referred as “ phonetic variety” in the related bibliography, numerous morphological differences also exist in a local dialect in addition to phonetic ones. Moreover, the borders of a local dialect and dialect varieties can often be determined by the morphological characteristics. Gaziantep dialect, besides its significant phonetic characteristics, has an outstanding place among other Anatolian dialects in terms of its morphological characteristics. The main aim of this paper is to study and examine the main characteristics determining the morphology of Gaziantep dialect with respect to the features stemming from the Old Turkish and the features resulting from the phonetic shifts affecting grammatical components and thus making this local dialect different among the other Anatolian dialects. These characteristics will also be compared to historical and contemporary Turkish dialect, giving priority to the Anotalian dialects. Consequently, it will be clarified that Gaziantep dialect has a particular status among the other Anatolian dialects in terms of its morphological characteristics as well as its phonetic and vocabulary features.

Keywords

Dialect, morphology, Anatolian dialects, Gaziantep dialect.