The Tense-Aspect-Mood/Modality System of the Turkish Spoken in Cyprus

In this book, the tense, aspect and mood – modality system of the Turkish spoken in Cyprus is tackled. Initially a theoretical outline of the concepts of tense, aspect and mood – modality in general and that of the Turkic finite system is given followed by outline of the historical development of Turkish grammar-writing tradition. The finite system of the Cypriot variety is compared and contrasted to that of Modern Standard Turkish (MST) since the latter is the standard form used by the speakers of Turkish in Cyprus, has always been the dominant variety in formal environments and therefore the donor variety in inter-varietical contacts especially since 1974. A comparison is made to the finite system of Old Anatolian Turkish (OAT) as well, as it is the parent variety of both the Cypriot variety and MST;therefore the main source contributing to the formation of both varieties. OAT also has been socio-linguistically tackled since it is a variety of a multicultural region. It is concluded that the finite verbal system of the Turkish spoken in Cyprus displays great similarities with that of MST and OAT in addition to local forms resulting from internal developments and language contact.