The Role of the Oral Culture in the Protection of Siirt Arabic Dialects

Arabic is one of the ancient and most widely spoken languages in the world today. In the regions that extend to the south and southeast of Turkey, there are people who speak dialects of Arabic. One of these regions is Siirt province. Arabs living in this region have managed to preserve their native languages for centuries, without any written culture, on the basis of a completely oral tradition. Oral culture, which is formed naturally in the historical process, is the black box that contains all the codes that constitute the identity of the people of the region. In addition, the oral literature products used in Siirt Arabic dialect have played an important role in preserving the dialect and transferring it to future generations. In this study, the oral literature products of Siirt Arabic dialect and the importance of these products in the protection of dialect will be discussed