Urum language

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Urum Урум
Pronunciation:	IPA: uˈrum
Spoken in:	Ukraine, Greece
Total speakers:	45,000<ref>Garkavets, Alexander. North Azovian Urums - Greeks Speaking Turkic Language.</ref>
Language family:	Altaic<ref>"[1] Ethnologue"</ref> (controversial) Turkic Kypchak, Oghuz Urum
Writing system:	Cyrillic alphabet, Greek alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`to be added`
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	`uum`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

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

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. The common use of the term Urum appears to have led to some confusion, as most Turkish-speaking Greeks were called Urum. The Turkish-speaking population in Georgia is often confused with the distinct community in the Ukraine.<ref>Казаков, Алексей (12 2000). Понтийские греки (Russian).</ref><ref>Gordon, Raymond G. (ed.) (2005). Ethnologue Report for Urum. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. SIL International.</ref> (see: Urums)

1 Sounds
- 1.1 Consonants
2 Writing System
3 Publications
4 References

[edit] Sounds

[edit] Consonants

**Consonant phonemes**
	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosive	p	b	t			d			c	ɟ	k	g
Affricate					ʦ ¹		ʧ	ʤ
Fricative	f	v	θ	ð ²	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			x	ɣ	h
Nasal	m		n								ŋ
Flap/Tap			r
Lateral			l
Approximant									j

(1) /ʦ/ is found only in loanwords.

(2) /θ/ and /ð/ are found only in loanwords from Greek.

[edit] Writing System

A few manuscripts are known to be written in Urum using Greek characters.<ref>Urum. Language Museum.</ref> 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. Alexander Garkavets uses the following alphabet:<ref>Гаркавець, Олександр (2000). Урумський словник (pdf, html) (in Ukrainian, Urum), 632. </ref>

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Ғ ғ	Д д	(Δ δ)	Д′ д′
(Ђ ђ)	Е е	Ж ж	Җ җ	З з	И и	Й й	К к
Л л	М м	Н н	Ң ң	О о	Ӧ ӧ	П п	Р р
С с	Т т	Т′ т′	(Ћ ћ)	У у	Ӱ ӱ	Υ υ	Ф ф
Х х	Һ һ	Ц ц	Ч ч	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы
Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я	Θ θ

[edit] Publications

Very little has been published on the Urum language. There exists a very small lexicon<ref>Podolsky, Baruch (1985). A Tatar - English Glossary. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-00299-9.</ref>, and a small description of the language<ref>Podolsky, Baruch (1986). "Notes on the Urum Language". Mediterranean Language Review 2: 99–112.</ref>.

[edit] References

v • d • e</div> Turkic languages
West Turkic
Bolgar	Bolgar* \| Chuvash \| Hunnic* \| Khazar*
Chagatay	Aini²\| Chagatay* \| Ili Turki \| Lop \| Uyghur \| Uzbek
Kypchak	Baraba \| Bashkir \| Crimean Tatar¹ \| Cuman* \| Karachay-Balkar \| Karaim \| Karakalpak \| Kazakh \| Kipchak* \| Krymchak \| Kumyk \| Nogay \| Tatar \| Urum¹
Oghuz	Afshar \| Azerbaijani \| Crimean Tatar¹ \| Gagauz \| Khorasani Turkish \| Ottoman Turkish* \| Pecheneg* \| Qashqai \| Salar \| Turkish \| Turkmen \| Urum¹
East Turkic
Khalaj	Khalaj
Kyrgyz-Kypchak	Altay \| Kyrgyz
Uyghur	Chulym \| Dolgan \| Fuyü Gïrgïs \| Khakas \| Northern Altay \| Shor \| Tofa \| Tuvan \| Western Yugur \| Sakha / Yakut
Old Turkic*
Notes: ¹ Listed in more than one group, ² Mixed language, * Extinct