Mechanism of contact and change in Turkic languages

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It has been said that Turkic languages are relatively homogeneous in spite of the vast geographical distribution they have. This is, however, due to the fact that previous studies have been based mainly on the material of modern standard literary varieties, which were artificially simplified and idealized. Little attention of scholars to smaller languages and language-internal variation is also the reason for such a common view. This research project thus organized fieldwork, aiming for collecting data concerning non-standard linguistic phenomena, as well as variation, within standard languages, and material of smaller languages least described so far. The main research region includes China, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Turkey and Germany. Such languages as Sarigh-Yoghur, New Uyghur, Saxa (Yakut), Dolgan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Qashqay, Crimean Tatar and the Abdal jargon of Turkish have been investigated in parallel with surrounding non-Turkic languages. During fieldwork we paid due attention to language contact situation among Turkic and non-Turkic languages, especially to its function of producing variation. Preliminary analyses have been finished for establishing salient types of language change induced by language contact and re-writing grammars of major Turkic languages. Language contact in history has been also examined, using data of written languages such as Old Uyghur and Chagatai. Two international conferences were held for the exchange of research findings and discussion. Leading scholars in Turkic linguistics from Mainz, Oslo, Uppsala, Istanbul, Guangzhou and Pekin willingly participated in them and also discussed future cooperation with us.