Turkish loanwords in the language and minds of young Croatians (based on survey research)

The presence and status of Turkish loanwords in modern Croatian are issues that have not been described in detail in the scholarly literature to date. When this topic was addressed, it was usually in a broader context, particularly in discussions concerning so-called Serbisms. The focus of this article is on the attitudes of young Croatians towards Turkish loanwords. To investigate this issue, a survey was conducted, which was completed by 589 respondents born and residing in Croatia. The opinions of young Croatians regarding the phenomenon of borrowing from foreign languages and especially the use of specific Turkish loanwords were compared with corpus data and information provided in dictionaries and language guides. The research revealed a high level of tolerance among young Croatians towards foreign borrowings, including those from Turkish. Moreover, contrary to the prescriptive recommendations formulated in dictionaries and language guides, respondents use Turkish loanwords on a daily basis, and consider some native synonyms to be artificial and marked.