A Karamanlıdıka Psalm: Spelling features and example texts

Abstract

Karamanlides, known until thirteenth century, were Orthodox Christians that spoke Turkishand wrote Turkish in Greek alphabet. Throughout history they lived in especially Anatolia, Black Sea,Crimea, Balkans, Mediterrian Sea, Syria etc. Hundreds of Karamanlidika books written in Greekalphabet after 1718 have come up today. This important collection of both non-religious and religiousbooks has a lot of Holy Books translations and another religious books concerned the Holy Books.In this study, however, spelling features of a Turkish Psalm (Zebur) written in Greekalphabet have been examined. According to this examination, it has been observed that this text hasvery varied features in terms of some not common characters in Karamanlidika text. It could beargued that this text, namely the Turkish Psalm written in Greek alphabet, is a different andremarkable text. Remarkable characters in this text are: / /, / /, / /, / /, / /, / /, / /, / /,/ /, / /, / /, / /, / /, / /.