Serbo-Croatian vernacular has over time borrowed and adopted a lot of words of Turkish origin. The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans began a linguistical contact between Ottoman Turkish and South Slavic languages, a period of influence since at least the late 14th up until the 20th century, when large territories of Shtokavian-speaking areas became conquered and made into provinces of the Ottoman Empire, into what was collectively known as Rumelia. As the Ottoman Turkish language itself extensively borrowed from Arabic, Persian and Central Asian Turkic languages other than itself, many words of such origins also entered Serbo-Croatian via Turkish. Numerous migrations in the war-torn Western Balkans helped spread Shtokavian and its enriched vernacular. Some Turkisms in Serbo-Croatian have entered the language through other languages, such as Italian, while some words of Greek origin have been adopted in their Turkish forms.
Over the passage of time, many Turkish loanwords were completely adopted into standardized varieties of Serbo-Croatian and are no longer considered loanwords, if not for lack of true synonyms. Numerous such Turkisms (e.g. , or ) are often preferred to later introduced Germanisms and Latinisms (). This is mostly the case with the Croatian variety of Serbo-Croatian, which has historically been more stringent to internationalisms. Out of all four varieties of the language, Bosnian has by far introduced and retained the most of Turkisms, largely due to its cultural Islamic ties. Turkish loanwords underwent pronunciation changes, principally on gender suffixes and adaptations of that are non-existent in Serbo-Croatian. Turkisms are also commonly called "Orientalisms".
Characteristics Turkisms often end in one of the following suffixes: –luk, –ci, –li, which come from the original –lik, –çi, –lı. Other suffixes include –ak, –hana, –ija, –suz and –uk. Persian –dār is also a common suffix. Many Serbo-Croatian words that are not of Turkish, Arabic or Persian origin have adopted these suffixes (e.g. ), showing that influence of Turkish onto Serbo-Croatian extends past loanwords, into morphology and other linguistic characteristics.
Number of Turkish loanwords
There is an uncertainly high number of Turkish loanwords (a lot of which are themselves loanwords from Arabic and Persian) in the modern Serbo-Croatian language, mostly contained within the prestige Shtokavian dialect, and fewer in Kajkavian and Chakavian. The first edition of Srpski rječnik from 1818 listed around 2,500 Turkisms among 26,270 total words (~9,5%), while the second edition from 1852 listed around 3,700 out of 40,000 (~9,25%).
Orientalist expert Olga Zirojević deems that a lot more Turkish loanwords have been used in Serbia's distant past - around 8,000 - than in the present, which is estimated to be around 3,000. First dictionary of Turkisms in Serbia was written by Djordje Popović-Daničar in 1884, called Turkish and other Eastern words in our language (). The book contains around 6,000 words. Another academic, Dušan Marjanović, compiled a corpus of 5,000 Turkisms in early 1930s.
A prominent Sharia and jurist writer spent several years at the Institute for the study of folklore of University of Sarajevo thoroughly documenting Turkisms in the folk literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He subsequently created the most comprehensive dictionary of Turkisms, first published in 1957 in two volumes, then called Turkisms in the vernacular and folk literature of Bosnia and Herzegovina (). Encouraged by great interest among domestic and international scientists and the demand for the dictionary, Škaljić expanded his research to the entirety of Serbo-Croatian-speaking area. In 1965 he published the dictionary named Turkisms in the Serbo-Croatian language (), which after several additions and revisions ended up having 8,742 words and 6,878 terms.
An academic research in the Croatian dialectological field was done by Silvana Vranić and Sanja Zubčić at the University of Rijeka. They analyzed a corpus of 443 Shtokavian, 122 Chakavian and 95 Kajkavian phrasemes typical of Croatian speech, in which they found 118, 45 and 29 Turkisms respectively. The ratio of phrasemes per Turkisms was found to be 4.1, 2.7 and 3.3 respectively, showing that Shtokavian contains the most Turkisms, although not equally distributed along regions where it is spoken - the most were found in Dalmatian Hinterland at 39%, then Slavonia at 36%, and Lika at 25%.
List of loanwords Only a number of Turkish loanwords are common to all four standardized varieties of Serbo-Croatian. Many more Turkisms lie in the vernacular speeches, which vary across regions and cultures. A large number of such loanwords are mainly found in the Bosnian standard, and are considered colloquial or non-existent in other varieties. The following is a non-exhaustive list thereof.
Serbo-Croatian Turkish Origin English meaning alat alet arab. ʔāla tool amidža amca turk. Amca (father's brother, uncle) Nişanyan Dictionary "amca" uncle (father's side) aršin arşın arşın (unit of length) avlija avlu courtyard babo baba turk. baba Nişanyan Dictionary "baba" father, grandfather badava bedava pers. bādihäwā gratis, free bajagi, kobajagi bayaǧı as if, apparently, quasi bakar bakır copper baksuz bahtsız jinx bakšiš bahşiş pers. bahšīš tip, fee barem, bar bari at least barjak, bajrak bayrak turk. batrak, batruk Nişanyan Dictionary "bayrak" banner, flag baška başka aside bašta, bašća bahçe pers. bāǧçe garden bećar, bećarac bekar turk. short version of bekaret Nişanyan Dictionary "bekar" derived from arab. bikr بكر bachelor, reveler bedem beden arab. badan defensive wall bekrija bekriya pers. bakravi from arab. bikr tippler, drunkard belaj bela arab. balāʔ trouble bešika beşik bladder bilmez bilmez dimwit, goof boja boya color bre bre more (interjection) bubreg böbrek kidney budala budala arab. budalāʔ fool bumbar bumbar pers. būnbār, būmbār̕ bumblebee bunar pınar a well burazer birader pers. birāder brother in law burma burma wedding ring čak çak turk. çak Nişanyan Dictionary "çak" or çok Nişanyan Dictionary "çok" even čalabrknuti, čalabrcnuti çala fast + bite čamac çamac small boat čarapa çorap arab. cawrab جورب or cūrāb جوراب Nişanyan Dictionary "çorap" sock čaršija çarşı bazaar čekić çekiç hammer čelik çelik steel česma çeşme fountain, faucet čiča, čika, čiko çiçe uncle (both sides) čičak çiçek burdock čizma çizme boot čoban, čobanac çoban pers. šubān shepherd, shepherd's stew čukun-, šukun- kökün great-great- (kinship) ćelav kel bald ćenifa kenef, tuvalet arab. kanaf toilet ćorav kör, körlük pers. kūr blind ćošak köşe pers. kūše corner ćup küp turk. kūp Nişanyan Dictionary "küp" jar ćuprija köprü turk. köprüg Nişanyan Dictionary "köprü" bridge dadilja dadı pers. dādā nanny, babysitter darmar tarumar pers. tār-u mār higgledy-piggledy dernek dernek fair, festivity deva deve camel dućan dükkan arab. dukkān shop dugme düğme turk. tukme, düğüm Nişanyan Dictionary "düğme" button duhan, duvan duhan, nargile arab. duḵān / duḵḵān tobacco dušek döşek mattress dušman düşman pers. dušmen enemy džaba çaba free, for nothing džep cep arab. jayb pocket džin cin arab. jinn giant džukela cahil, cühela arab. juhalāʔ mutt, big dogdžumbus cümbüş pers. ǧunbiš uproar, disorder đon gön sole (of a shoe) đubre gübre garbage ekser ekser nail fišek fişek ice cream cone fitilj fitil arab. fatīl fuse galama ağlama noisiness hajde, ajde haydi go ahead, come on hajduk haydut hajduk hajvan, ajvan hayvan arab. ḥaywān animal (pejoratively) halka, alka halka arab. ḥalqa / ḥalqa quoit, alka hašiš haşiş, esrar arab. ḥašīš hashish inat inat arab. ʕinād spite, defiance jarak yarak trench jastuk yastık pillow jok yok nope, no jorgan yorgan quilt jorgovan ergüvan pers. ergevwn lilac juriš yürüyüş rush, onslaught, storm kajiš, kaiš kayış belt, strap kaldrma kaldırım turk. kaldırmak(to uplift)-kaldırım Nişanyan Dictionary "kaldırım" cobblestone kandža kanca claw kapak kapak eyelid kapija kapı gateway, gate karaula karavulhane, saat kulesi watchtower karavan karavan caravan kat kat storey kavez kafes arab. qafaṣ cage kazan kazan turk. kazğan-kazan Nişanyan Dictionary "kazan" cauldron, kettle kesa kese pers. kīse bag, sack kesten kestane greek. kástana chestnut kiosk köşk pers. kūšk kiosk komšija komşu neighbor kopča kopça buckle krevet kerevet, yatak greek. kreváti bed kula kule arab. koleh Nişanyan Dictionary "kule" tower kusur kuruş germ. Grosch Nişanyan Dictionary "kuruş" change (money) kutija kutu greek. kouti box lakrdija lakırdı a variety of farce lepeza yelpaze handheld fan leš leş pers. läše corpse lula lüle pers. lūle tobacco pipe makaze makas arab. maqaṣṣ scissors majmun maymun arab. maymūn monkey mamuran mahmur arab. maḵmūr hungover marama mahrama, başörtüsü arab. maḥrama scarf mušterija müşteri arab. muštari(n) customer nanule nalin, sandal arab. naʕlayn wooden sandals nišan nişan pers. nišān gunpoint odžak, odžačar ocak chimney, chimney sweep oroz, horoz horoz pers. hurūz rooster ortak ortak partner pamuk pamuk pers. pambeh cotton pandža pençe pers. penǧe claw papuča pabuç, ayakkabı pers. pāpūš slipper pare para pers. pāre money pazar pazar pers. bāzār bazaar, piazza, marketplace pendžer pencere pers. penǧere window peškir peşkir, havlu pers. pīšgīr towel raja raya, kalabalık arab. raʕiyya rayah, commoners, crowd raskalašan kalleş pers. qalāšprofligate sačmarica, sačma saçma shotgun, shot pellets saksija saksı flowerpot sanduk sandık arab. sandūq / sundūq chest, crate, box sapun sabun lat. sapo soap sat saat arab. sât Nişanyan Dictionary "saat" clock sevdalinka sevdalı sevdalinka sokak sokak arab. zuqāq alley sunđer sünger sponge surla zurna pers. sūrnā trunk (of an elephant) šamar şamar slap, smack šah şah pers. šah chess šator, čador çadır turk. çatır,çaşır Nişanyan Dictionary "çadır" tent šuga şuga pers. šūg scabies taban taban sole (of a foot) taman tamam arab. tamām just right tambura, tamburica tambur tamboura, tamburica tava tava pers. tābe pan tavan tavan attic testera testere pers. destere saw top top cannon trampa trampa ital. tramuta barter, exchange tulipan tülbent, lale pers. dülbend tulip tulum tulum, parti party (having fun) turpija törpü file (tool) zanat sanat arab. ṣanʕa trade, occupation, profession zumbul sümbül pers. sunbul hyacinth
Food and cuisine loanwords