Urum language

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

Related Topics:
Turkic language - Ukraine - Georgia

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The name Urum is derived from the medieval Greek word for Rome designating Constantinople and Greece in general. 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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A few manuscripts are known to be written in Urum using Greek characters (see #References). 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.

Related Topics:
Greek characters - #References

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Very little has been published on the Urum language. There exists a very small lexicon (Baruch Podolsky, A Tatar - English Glossary, Harrassowitz 1985 ISBN 3447002999), and a small description of the language (Baruch Podolsky, Notes on the Urum Language, Mediterranean Language Review vol. 2, 1986, pp. 99-112).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~