The Findings upon the Designation of Turkish Words among Balkan Languages

The Findings upon the Designation of Turkish Words among Balkan Languages

İYİYOL, Fatih
KESMECİ, Ahmet Musab

The presence of the Turks in the geography of Balkans can be track back to the centuries before Ottomans. The actual impact of the Turkish language and culture began with the start of Ottoman conquests. With the Ottoman conquest, there have been great changes on the structure of the Balkan communities. As a result of this comprehensive and large impact, thousands of Turkish words entered into the Balkanic Languages. The quantity of Turkish words, their effect of the Balkanic Cultures and Languages have directed the researchers to search these words. The researchers who investigated the Turkish words in the Balkanic Languages faced a fundamental problem. The main problem that the researchers faced was the issue of designation of these words in question. Due to the appearance of the words of Arabic and Persian origin along with Turkish, some researchers have applied the term ―Orientalism‖ for these words in question. Since the vast majority of words in the Balkanic Languages are Turkish, the researchers, considering the fact that Arabic and Persian words entered into the Balkanic Languages through Turkish, have preferred the concept ―Turkism‖ for these words. Researchers, without making a detailed evaluation on either ―Orientalism‖ or ―Turkism,‖ have stated their more general preferences. However, the designation issue of these words, which have such effect on the Balkanic Languages and their numbers getting closer to ten thousand in some languages, requires a detailed analysis in order to formulate an opinion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the words in question in terms of grammatical, cultural and historical process and to contribute to the issue of designating through Ottoman institutions and community life. Within the scope of this study, the emphasis is given, in addition to all the Balkanic Languages, on the Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian and Albanian Languages where Turkish words are dominantly present.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2011-05

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