Slavic and Romanic Origin Words in the Gagauz Versions of Tepegöz and Köroğlu Legends

Abstract

Every language may take loan words from surrounding languages as a result of contact. The relationship may vary depending on the size of contact. The Turks who have a long history of migration and shifts in relıgious beliefs al so have com e under the influence of ıts neighbors in the area of culture and language. As a result of this, Turkish language took many words from languages such as Arabic, Persian, French, Russian and English. The Gagauz people who are members of Orthodox Christianity stayed under the Slavic influence for a long time and could not stand against the penetration of Russian words in to Gagauz language In o ur artıcle, we examined epic stories of Gagauz folk literature and tried to fınd the words which have Slavic and Rumanian origin.