The Urums are Turkish-speaking Greeks living in Georgia. They are also known as the Tats, and their language is sometimes called Urum-Tat. In the Urumli language, the influence of Turkish is noticeable and they often use words of Turkish origin, not remembering the Urumid version of it.
Urum
Population in the Project Area: 2000
The People
Tsalka
The Urum people are descendants of Greek settlers who migrated to the Black Sea region during the Byzantine era. Over time, they adopted the Turkic language and culture of the local population while maintaining some elements of their Greek heritage. Today, they are a minority group in the countries where they reside. This commune referred to the population of the provinces conquered by the Turks, regardless of their ethnic origin. Greek Urums settled down in Tsalka in the second half of the 19th century. According to the 2021 census, 14% of the population living in Tsalka municipality are Urums (Greeks). They are mainly engaged in family farming, growing potatoes and various vegetables. They are engaged in cattle breeding. They have a variety of cattle and poultry. Middle-aged people often go to Greece and have contacts with Greek people. Because of this, the rural population of the villages consists of elderly people. Many of them who went to study did not return. Most of the people are Orthodox Christians following traditions. They have mixed marriages with Georgians. They do not remember any traditional specific holidays, but depending on their religion, they celebrate Christian holidays together with the local Orthodox people.
The Project
Mother-Tongue literacy.
Nowadays, the small population speak “Urumul” language and live in three villages of Tsalka municipality: Gumbati, Khareba, Santa. The Urum language is a dialect of the Crimean Tatar language, spoken by the Urum people, who are a community of Turkic-speaking Greeks living mainly in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. They believe that their language is older than the current Greek. They call their own language “Pontouri” and nowadays Greek – Hellenic. As they mention, 70% of the words match between “Pontouri” and Hellenic. The Urum (Pontouri) language is spoken daily in the families. With the Georgian-speaking population they speak in Russian, some of them speaks Georgian as well. But mostly they understand and cannot speak Georgian. The form of today’s Urums speak in villages has plenty differences with Urum language common in the town area of Tsalka, a large part of spread vocabulary in town is more influenced by Turkish and Azerbaijani words and endings. Families speaking the Urum language can be counted on the fingers, and also families doesn’t include high amount of the members. Urumul-speaking population feel and believe that as soon as their generation leaves, there will be no one left to speak this language. When writing the material, they used the Russian alphabet. There is no print and broadcast media in this language in the region. Lite georgia team has conducted a sociolinguistic survey to better understand the Urum language and its speakers. Many of the socio- cultural features and the challenges are identified. We have wider plans for developing a language based training method and orthography development.
Progress
As of March 2023
Our team has conducted a sociolinguistic survey to better understand the Urum language and its speakers. Through this survey, your team aims to gain insights into the stability of the Urum language, the attitudes of Urum people towards their language, and the socio-cultural features of the Urum community. It also helped in identifying the language usage and bilingual ability of the speech in a community.
The survey results will be instrumental in developing a better training program that takes into account the unique linguistic and cultural needs of the Urum community. By understanding the level of proficiency and use of the Urum language, your team can tailor the training program to address specific linguistic challenges and promote language development among Urum speakers.
Moreover, by investigating the attitudes of Urum people towards their language, your team can gain a better understanding of the cultural significance of the Urum language and its role in the Urum community. This can inform the development of culturally sensitive training materials and methods that resonate with the Urum community’s values and traditions.
Overall, the sociolinguistic survey conducted by your team represents a crucial step towards improving the literacy and language development of the Urum community. By leveraging the insights gained through this survey, your team can create a more effective and culturally appropriate training program that meets the unique needs of the Urum community.