The Gagauz of Moldova

[Catcher in the Rye]

Actually, găgăuz and găgăuţă (idiot) are related. That's what the linguists are saying. One story I've read is that the Turks severed the tongues of people so that they couldn't teach their language to the children. As a result, the children adopted the only language they could from the few Turks in the area. But the fact that their parents were mutes made them a sort of idiots. I don't know if there's any truth to it.

Anyway the Căcăuzes were colonized by the Russians in Basarabia in the XIXth century, because they were Christians so they were Christians also during the time they lived in the Ottoman Empire.

[Catcher in the Rye]

I just remembered a thing for the TV show Sopranos. Tony Soprano sometimes called his son - Googootz (Guguţ), which meant fool, idiot, pretty much as the Romanian word Găgăuţ(ă). This two words sound almost the same and have the same meaning. It's obvious the word are related. I'm sure the linguists missed this because Googootz is a word present only in some Italian dialects.

[hellboy87]

Cather,

Bulgarians you say? Not Turkicized Romanians?? The DNA studies above show that their not Turkic in descent.

[Catcher in the Rye]

Găgăuzes alongside with Bulgarians were moved from S of Danube by Russians and colonized S of Basarabia (Bugeac) around the year 1812, after the eastern part of Moldavia was treacherously stolen by Russians. So, it's obvious that Găgăuzes used to live close by Bulgarians before 1812. IMO they are an invented nation. I don't think there are any old mentioning about them. AFAIK they were called Bulgarians at first after colonization, until people started noticing they are a strange kind of Bulgarians, Turkish speakers. Probably then the term Găgăuţi (idiots) was applied to them by Romanians who were the indigenous people of Basarabia.