@article{article_1422250, title={Using Social Media for Preliminary Vocabulary Investigations in Endangered Turkic Languages: Experiments with Gagauz}, journal={Tehlikedeki Diller Dergisi}, volume={14}, pages={63–74}, year={2024}, author={Shartz, Cosmas}, keywords={Gagauzca, söz varlığı, sosyal medya}, abstract={The Gagauz language is considered to be one of the endangered Turkic languages. Indeed, UNESCO’s Languages Atlas lists it as “definitely endangered.” And yet its situation remains ambiguous. On the one hand, the number of speakers appears to be decreasing; on the other hand, we see efforts not only to preserve the folkloric tradition, but also to use it in areas such as journalism and significant new artistic productions. There is no simple answer, then, to the question whether it is flourishing or whether it is increasingly endangered because both are happening at the same time. Only time will tell which prevails. This article examines how social media, primarily Facebook, can be used in preliminary or tentative vocabulary investigation to supplement the lack of adequate dictionaries. We will describe exercises in crowd-sourcing vocabulary for the purpose of translating texts into the Gagauz language and original writing in the language, both fiction and non-fiction. In some cases our crowd-sourcing experiments resulted in verifying vocabulary items already in use; in other cases, they yielded new terms for things from modern life which apparently had not yet had any name at all in common use in the language. Since the methodologies used do not conform to scientific standards for lexicographic / lexicological investigations, though, we weigh the pros and cons of the experiments in the hope that this account may provide a starting point for researchers into other endangered Turkic languages to build on them while exercising due caution.}, number={24-25}, publisher={Ülkü ÇELİK ŞAVK}