Risâle-i Tevhîd’de Eskicil Kelimeler: Geçiş Dönemi Söz Varlığına Metin Temelli Bir İnceleme
Abstract
This study investigates archaic lexical items in Risâle-i Tevhîd, a religious–mystical text that reflects the transition from Old Anatolian Turkish to Classical Ottoman Turkish. The aims are (i) to identify lexical items that have fallen out of use in present-day Turkish (or survive only marginally), (ii) to sketch their phonological and semantic developments with brief etymological notes, and (iii) to highlight lexical layering in a transitional text by observing the co-occurrence of older and newer near-synonyms. The analysis is based on the 1594 manuscript copy of the work and follows a comparative procedure drawing on major historical dictionaries and grammars (e.g., Tarama Sözlüğü, the index of Dîvânü Lügâti’t-Türk, Clauson, Gabain, Erdal). Eighteen archaic items are identified: aġ-, aṣṣı, degzin-, depret-, düzet-, irgür-, issi, ḳaçan, key, neliksüz, ṭamu, ṭapu, ṭon, uçmaḳ, yaraḳlan-, yatlu, yigirek, and yügrüş-. The findings show that the text preserves a considerable amount of Turkic vocabulary while also displaying lexical replacement and synonymy (e.g., ṭamu/cehennem, uçmaḳ/cennet), making it a useful window into lexical change during the transition period.
Keywords
Archaic word, Old Anatolian Turkish, Risâle-i Tevhîd, transition period, lexicon, historical forms