Abstract:

The Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (Gagauz Yeri) is a region found in the Republic of Moldova where the official language is Romanian. The uniqueness of this region is that the people living here speak a mix of at least three languages: Gagauz, which is a Turkish language, Russian, which is Slavic and Romanian, which is Romance. There are also instances of Bulgarian and Ukrainian that can be heard among the speakers of the community. If multiculturalism and multilingualism are mostly the direct result of the cultural openness which ultimately describes the linguistic globalization phenomenon, on the Gagauz territory the multicultural and multilingual character has been shaped as the result of the political context which has engaged a clash of cultural identities. Despite the controversies that surround the origin of the Gagauz people, i.e. whether they are of Turkish or Bulgarian Turkish origin, one thing is certain, they are the only Christian Turkish people. Chronologically speaking, the Gagauz people has been subjected to the political administrations of the Romanian Kingdom - 1812-1917, the Soviet Union - 1941-1944, and the Republic of Moldova – 1991 to the present-day. Of the three, the Russian period has had the biggest impact since the real lingua franca is still Russian. Thus, in this socio-political frame, people are confronted with the need to communicate and transfer meaning while also preserving traditions and customs which in the end translates into the interesting and very original mixture of Russian, Romanian and Gagauz. Our attempt here is to analyse to what extent these languages mix and how meaning is achieved, now, more than ever, when we also must keep in mind the import of cultural and linguistic elements made possible by the globalization phenomenon.

Keywords:

Globalization, multiculturalism, multilingualism, communication, meaning.