“I don’t think Turkish used here is normal”: language attitudes of Turkish university students towards Cypriot Turkish

As a significant factor in social relationships, language attitudes of students are important to explore when building a school culture of tolerance. This study examines the language attitudes of university students from Turkey towards Cypriot Turkish (CT) and Standard Turkish. A mixed methods approach was adopted where 94 Turkish university students studying in the northern part of Cyprus where the two varieties are spoken, responded to a questionnaire in the first phase. The results of the analysis of this survey showed that the participants had somewhat negative attitudes towards CT. In the second phase of the study, where three focus groups were conducted, the findings of the first phase were confirmed. Intertwined with discourses of class, the participants specifically referred to “correctness” and “intelligibility” as important issues for their evaluations of CT and its speakers. CT was also perceived as an important marker of Turkish Cypriotness by the participants and was projected to be lower than any other variety of Turkish spoken in Turkey.