Emotional and Functional Speaker Attitudes towards Gagauz as an Endangered Language

Abstract

The Gagauz language spoken in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia in Moldova is one of the endangered languages. This article aims to investigate the Gagauz speakers' attitudes towards the Gagauz, Russian and Moldovan languages. The results were analyzed on the basis of age, gender and the place of residence. It is seen that Gagauz speakers who are younger and living in cities have more positive functional attitudes towards the Russian language. On the other hand, the participants who are older and reside in villages have more positive emotional attitudes towards the Gagauz language.