Joan Smith discusses the decline of spoken Arabic in the Turkish province of Hatay (formerly the Sanjak of Alexandretta, a part of Greater Syria in Ottoman times).
Although there are no official statistics on language use or on ethnic groups in Turkey, it is clear that in the province of Hatay (in the south, bordering Syria), most people are descended from Arabic speakers. Arabic entered the area as a result of the Arab conquests in the seventh century. Prior to this, the cities were Greek-speaking; people in surrounding areas spoke Aramaic. (Trimingham, 1979) The area first came under Turkish rule for a brief time at the end of the eleventh century, when Seljuks and Turkmen began eroding Byzantine control. Crusader rule followed.... The area subsequently came under Mameluke rule (from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries), then under Ottoman rule (from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries).... As part of Greater Syria, Hatay was still largely Arabic-speaking when it was annexed by the Turkish Republic in 1938.Smith's is one of a number of interesting articles on endangered languages (for example, Language Shift on the Kamchatka Peninsula, about the situation of Itelmen, and Gumbaynggirr, about the comeback of an Aboriginal language of New South Wales in Australia) in a special issue of Cultural Survival. (Via wood s lot.)Until annexation, Turkish and Arabic co-existed for centuries; under republican policies, however, the use of Arabic began to decline.
who are yhe arabic speeking minorities in hatay?
Posted by: karaali zied at September 17, 2003 08:10 AMI presume they're ethnic Arabs who have been there all along.
Posted by: language hat at September 17, 2003 11:08 AMafter researches about my family(ben karaali or karaalooglu)they are an alawite from ahlalbeyt family wich was turkmen-that family learnt arabic in irak before coming in hatay-from there they convert to maronit religion and others to kurdish ethny -
Posted by: karaali at May 24, 2004 02:46 PMHi,
My Greatmother was a Karaali from Zihrin (Syria).
Greetings
Nurten
hi nurten fikir can you give me more informations about the family karaali from zihrin,their religion for example?
Posted by: karaali at January 16, 2005 07:00 AMkaraali: You might want to send Nurten an e-mail (click on the name) rather than hope for a return visit.
Posted by: language hat at January 16, 2005 08:39 AMmy family name (fatherside) karaalioğlu ı am from maraş-turkey
Posted by: özcan at February 18, 2005 04:53 AMHello Zied,
The family from Zihrin are Aribic.
They are alawite.
The family from Baghdad, about 1000 families living in Iraq now. we been in baghdad since 1523 since Karaali been Killed.
Posted by: Basman Karaali at February 22, 2005 09:52 PMplease ozcan and basman contact me
Posted by: karaali zied at March 17, 2005 04:12 PMhello ozcan and basman and thank you-i want to know from basman from where they came in1523 and who wanted to kill them
Posted by: karaali zied at March 18, 2005 07:53 AMhi, my parents born´s samandag - hatay - we live in germany. greetings.
Posted by: karaali at March 30, 2005 10:44 AMhi MY EMAIL IS KARAALIZIED@YAHOO.FR i'm writng abook abouy karaalis since 7 years if your parents have an important informations as trees or some dates contact me.i'm ready to give you all i have bye
Posted by: zied at April 2, 2005 01:25 PMhello.my name is ali.ı live in hatay samandağ.arabic not in hatay.we are turkish.ı love turkey.
Posted by: ali at December 17, 2005 07:21 AM