Turkish, Bulgarian and German Language Mixing Among Bulgarian Muslim Roma in Germany

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TURKISH, BULGARIAN AND GERMAN LANGUAGE MIXING AMONG BULGARIAN MUSLIM ROMA IN GERMANY

Hristo Kyuchukov

University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland

Abstract

bulgarian muslim roma german language mixing

The paper discusses language mixing by Muslim Roma migrants from northeastern Bulgaria living in Berlin, Germany. They identify as Turks and in their everyday communication speak mainly Bulgarian and an old northwestern lect of Turkish, in the scientific literature known as Balkanized Turkish. They can speak relatively little German and have demonstrably low proficiency in the language. The paper examines their language mixing as well as the forms of code-switching between Turkish, Bulgarian and German. These linguistic and social phenomena within the Muslim Roma community are analyzed within the framework of several sociolinguistic theories regarding code-switching and bilingualism. The theory of J. Gumperz (1962) about communication matrix is employed as a dynamic frame and patterns of Turkish-Bulgarian, Turkish-German and Turkish-Bulgarian-German are presented and analyzed. The borrowed grammatical categories in the Turkish-Bulgarian-German language contacts involve nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and negations. However, code-switching is used only in communication with other Bulgarians. In communication with Turks from Turkey the lexical borrowings are from German and they use another variety of Turkish. The Muslim Roma in Berlin observed in this study are diverse in their multilingualism. Among them there are speakers of Romani, Bulgarian and Turkish, and of Turkish and Bulgarian, while German, however learned, is their third or fourth language. Differing emergent patterns among second-generation migrants, born or raised from an early age in Berlin, suggest different patterns emerging and such research is a key desideratum.

Keywords: Muslim Roma, Bulgarian, code-switching, bilingualism.

Кючуков Хрісто

Проблема змішування турецької, болгарської та німецької мов у болгарських ромів-мусульман у Німеччині

Анотація. У статті йдеться про явище мовного змішування в мусульманських ромів- мігрантів із північно-східної Болгарії, що мешкають у Берліні (Німеччина). Досліджувані ідентифікують себе як турки, й у повсякденному спілкуванні розмовляють здебільшого болгарською мовою та давнім різновидом турецької, що в науковій літературі одержало назву балканізованої турецької. Рівень володіння німецькою мовою у досліджуваних мовців відносно низький. У статті описано феномен змішування мови, а також форми перемикання турецького, болгарського та німецького мовних кодів. Ці лінгвістичні та соціальні явища в мусульманській спільноті ромів аналізуються в межах декількох соціолінгвістичних теорій щодо перемикання коду та двомовності. В основу дослідження покладено теорію Дж. Гамперца (1962) щодо матриці спілкування. У статті представлено та досліджено приклади комбінування турецько-болгарської, турецько-німецької та турецько- болгарсько-німецької кодів. З'ясовано, що до граматичних категорій, які підпорядковуються феноменові перемикання коду в турецько-болгарсько-німецькому мовному варіанті, належать іменники, дієслова, прикметники, прислівники та заперечні конструкції. Однак, перемикання коду простежено тільки під час спілкування з іншими болгарами. Визначено, що у спілкуванні з турками з Туреччини перемикання коду наявне лише між турецькою та німецькою мовами, а також виявлено використання іншого варіанта турецької мови. Роми-мусульмани з Берліна демонструють багатомовність. Серед них - носії ромської, болгарської й турецької; турецької й болгарської. Водночас німецька, попри її знання, посідає третє чи четверте місце за частотністю послуговування. Вивчення мовних патернів мігрантів у другому поколінні, - народжених чи вихованих змалку в Берліні, у своєму розмаїтті видається перспективою подальшого дослідження.

Ключові слова: роми-мусульмани, болгарська мова, перемикання кодів, двомовність.

Introduction

Sociolinguistic features of the Bulgarian Muslim Roma community

The Bulgarian Muslim Roma coming to Berlin usually speak a dialect of Turkish that is known as a Balkanized Turkish with features of Ottoman Turkish. In order to obtain employment from the local Turks in Berlin they seek to learn some additional colloquial Turkish from interaction with Turks in Berlin. This is not a standard Turkish, it is a dialect, but the Bulgarian Muslim Roma are not able to recognize and differentiate this from current modern Turkish. They mistakenly think that this is a form of “standard” Turkish as spoken in Turkey. So, the Turkish spoken by Bulgarian Muslim Roma is a hybrid mixture between the two lects - the Bulgarian variety and the Berlin variety these migrants encounter there, exhibiting forms of diglossia (Nikolskij, 1976). In dealings with the local Turkish immigrant population, they state they are Turks, but among themselves they self-identify as Muslim Roma and call themselves “miller (Turkish, meaning `nation'). Some, especially of a somewhat older demographic, also speak Romani among themselves.

The Bulgarian Roma also learn as migrants to speak some German. They use it in communication with Germans for whom they work, and their acquisition is haphazard, generally not done systematically through participation in German language courses. Their comprehension ability in German is better than their production abilities and speaking proficiency in German, and they tend to make many phonological and grammatical errors.

However, almost all such Roma families send their children to school, and to after-school activities, because most state that they plan to stay as migrants in Germany. They have their own properties in Bulgaria, they often travel back to Bulgaria, they help the family members who are in Bulgaria providing financial support, but they are planning to stay in Germany. Because of that their children are attending German schools and are highly motivated to be integrated into German society and to learn German fluently.

Their attitude towards the Bulgarian language is different. They use Bulgarian in their everyday communication between members of the community and family members. Bulgarian serves as a communicative tool or sometimes a secret language when they want to hide something from the local Turks.

Bulgarian Roma live in most of the larger German cities and it is known that the Roma from Pazardzhik are mainly settled in Cologne, the Roma from Shumen are in Dьsseldorf, Roma from Plovdiv are in Dortmund, etc., a chaining phenomenon of in-migration where many migrants are attracted to settle where other migrants from their own city of origin have come and settled earlier.

Muslim Roma living in Berlin migrated from northeastern Bulgaria, principally the cities of Varna, Dobrich, Russe, Razgrad and Targovishte and nearby villages. The Berlin districts where Bulgarian Muslim Roma have settled in greater numbers are mainly Spandau, Wedding, Kreuzberg and Neukцlln. These are the districts where the Turkish migrants from Turkey live as well, a key factor in attracting Turkish-speaking Bulgarian migrants to settle there. The Muslim Roma in Berlin evince a broad diversity in their multilingualism. Among them there are trilingual speakers of Romani, Bulgarian and Turkish, bilingual speakers of Turkish and Bulgarian, while German, however learned, is their third or fourth language. This also varies among the now emergent and growing second-generation Roma from a migrant background, born and raised in Germany.

The Turkish community in Berlin is not homogeneous. There are speakers of different dialects from across the territory of Turkey. Some have settled there now as third-generation from a migrant background. The Turkish spoken by Turks in Berlin is highly valued (H) and the Turkish spoken by Bulgarian Roma is less (L) valued, according to the terminology of Schiffman (1997). The Bulgarian Muslim Roma speak a variety of Turkish stemming from Ottoman Turkish and to some extent it has almost the same structure as the Gagauz language (i.e. a Bulgarian grammatical structure with Turkish lexicon). In the eyes of most Turks from Turkey, such a lect is deemed to be a very low and corrupted form of Turkish.

Theoretical background

Gumperz (1962) shows that each community has its set of roles in the society, depending on the reticulations of forms of relationship between individuals in the society. The common roles in a community are termed by Gumperz the communication matrix (CM).

The CM differs in communities and depends on the dominant specific social structures present. In some communities the CM is very complex and the communication behavior of the person is restricted. It depends on traditional and religious rituals, where the behavior and the speech of the person are stable. The differences between the language used for everyday communication and the language used performing certain roles in the society are sometimes very great. People who know the two forms of the same language, the colloquial lect and the official language, rarely use them in the same situation. Usually the role in the society and the forms of the language (the CM) are interconnected.

Nikolskij (1976, p. 48) defines the language community as a “stable group of people, which are united by a sign that in intergroup communication they use one form of the language and it does not depend on the situation and the topic of communication”. Furthermore, Nikolskij identifies the following forms of diglossia among bilingual speakers (pp. 103-110):

1. Diglossia, where the speaker knows and uses two dialects or two subdialects.

2. Diglossia, which combines a dialect with other dialectical tools of communication, among speakers of different dialects, which do not understand each other in communication.

3. Diglossia, where the speaker knows the regional dialect and the official language.

4. Diglossia, where the speaker knows the conversational style and the official language.

5. Diglossia, where the speaker is acquainted with different styles of the same official language.

The Bulgarian of Muslim Roma born and raised in Bulgaria is nonetheless not a standard Bulgarian. They speak a vernacular, highly colloquial Bulgarian, and being in a new situation abroad there are numerous influences of Turkish and German on their Bulgarian. In earlier publications Kyuchukov (1995; 1996; 1997; 2007) and Freedman (2003) described the processes of code-switching among different Roma groups. Kocheva-Lefedzhieva (2004; 2017) investigated the mixed language of Bulgarians living in Vienna and found that on the phonological and grammatical level, the Bulgarian speakers have more stable peculiarities, while on the lexical level they exhibit more variant peculiarities. In the mixed language they use on phonological level, Bulgarian characteristics are dominant, while on a lexical level the German characteristics dominate.

Bugarski (2005) discusses the issues of language and ethno-cultural identity. The Muslim Roma have their cultural characteristics as Muslims who are Roma in family origin and basic identity, but in the new situation they identify as Bulgarians and speak vernacular Bulgarian, with differences from the norms of the Bulgarian grammar. The four languages - Bulgarian, Turkish, Romani and German - being in dynamic contact, all share the phenomenon of all languages in contact familiar as “code-switching” and “code-mixing” (Matras, 1990; 2004; 2009; Matras and Tufan, 2007).

Methodology