Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Söylem Filoloji Dergisi, cilt.6, sa.3, ss.937-953, 2021 (Hakemli Dergi)
This study aims at explaining morpho-lexical and morpho-syntactic patterns in Domani, as the
two basic features related to the lexicon and grammar of this secret and endangered Romani dialect,
which is also a substrate and contact language. The data was obtained by conducting face-to-face
interviews with Doms living in Van and Ağrı-Doğubayazıt regions in Turkey making use of their oral
narratives. The recordings between 2017 and 2019 are over 10 hours. Kurmanji, which has a typological
affinity with Domani, was used as a mediating language in the communicative process. The structures
exhibiting significant permeability from Kurmanji to Domani are izafe, ergative case and the light verb
kirin ‘to do’, and its combinations. It is understood that the morpho-lexical and morpho-syntactic
affixes such as {-xete-}, {-gev}, {-ole} and {–ote}, which belong to Domani, lose their functionality, and
continue to exist as redundant structures. On the other hand, some units such as {-gi} and {-ge},
function as dative and locative case markers, and in predicative domains {-avi(n)} retains some of its
domain of use in Domani. Some derivational morphemes of Turkish, such as {-Iş} and {-CI} with the
negation prefix of Kurmanji {ne-} are distinctive in the lexical formation of Domani. Compositional
words consisting of different language features should be considered as ‘creative languaging’ for
substrate language Domani, which is losing its lexical properties due to contact with superstrate
languages.