The Attitudes of Ghurbeties in Northern Cyprus Towards Turkish and Ghurbetcha and Their Language Use

The Ghurbeties (Moslem Gypsies of Cyprus) are one of the groups of people living in Cyprus. These people speak a language called Ghurbetcha. However, they are also fluent in Turkish. Although they have been living in Cyprus for centuries, there is not much research into the languages of the Ghurbeties. This research aims to reveal the attitudes of Ghurbeties in Northern Cyprus towards Turkish and Ghurbetcha, and their language use. In this study, the matched-guise procedure is used to investigate the attitudes of Ghurbeties in Northern Cyprus towards Turkish and Ghurbetcha and the interview technique to describe their language use. One of the findings obtained in this research is that the participants representing "Ghurbetcha" are believed to be sincere, dependable and friendly. Another finding is the fact that the participants consider the Ghurbeties who speak Turkish are educated, intelligent and the Turkish language as an modern language. In addition to this, all the participants have the opinion that they communicate more successfully in Turkish rather than in Ghurbetcha. Eventually, this research reveals the fact that the use of Ghurbetcha decreases as the age gets younger. In other words, the language is not transmitted from the parents to the children. In addition, the participants point out that Ghurbetcha is the last language that they want their children to learn. This indicates that Ghurbetcha is bound to become extinct.