Solar language theory
The solar language theory (Turkish: Güneş Dil Teorisi ) was a pseudoscientific linguistic psychological construct, according to which the " primitive man " belonged to the "Turkish race ". Proto-Turkish is said to have developed from its original sounds as the origin of all languages. The solar language theory has been propagated in Turkey since 1935 and was considered a state doctrine from 1936 to 1938. It marked the beginning and the end of the extreme phase of the Turkish language reforms .
Origin of the solar language theory
The solar language theory goes back to the Serbian scholar Hermann Feodor Kvergić (1895–1948 / 49), who received his doctorate in Vienna in 1927. In an unpublished book, The Psychology of Some Elements of the Turkish Language, he made the claim that Turkish is the mother of all languages . Early man's astonishment at the sun led to certain ancient sounds. In Turkish , Kvergić thought he could localize these sounds. According to this theory, all languages in the world went back to the “proto-Turkish” of “primitive man”.
Ataturk's politics
It is controversial whether Mustafa Kemal Ataturk believed in the solar language theory or used it as a measure to end the linguistic purism led by the Turk Dil Kurumu .
Presumably, the solar language theory was adopted because Ataturk was not entirely satisfied with the language reforms and the efforts made by the Turk Dil Kurumu for language purism. If Turkish was accepted as the mother of all languages, Arabic and Persian words no longer had to be replaced by Turkish words, since the theory behind these languages was Turkish anyway.
On the initiative of Ataturk, the solar language theory was taught from 1936 to 1938 as a compulsory subject at the linguistic faculty of Ankara University . As a result, grotesque etymologies were developed to support this theory. Furthermore, the solar language theory served to linguistically secure the Turkish historical thesis ( Türk Tarih Tezi ), according to which the high cultures of the Hittites and Sumerians can be traced back to the immigration of ethnic groups of Turkic origin. The history thesis was gradually abandoned after Ataturk's death in 1938, and the solar language theory dropped very suddenly.
literature
- Uriel Heyd: Language Reform in Modern Turkey. Jerusalem 1954.
- Klaus Kreiser : Small Turkey Lexicon. Munich 1992, p. 134
- Jens Peter Laut: Turkish as an original language? Linguistic Theories in the Age of Awakening Turkish Nationalism. Wiesbaden 2000.
- Jens Peter Laut: Chronology of important events in the course of the Turkish language reform. From the beginning to 1983. In: Materialia Turcica 24 (2003), pp. 69-102.
- Geoffrey L. Lewis: Turkish Language Reform: The Episode of the Sun-Language Theory. In: Turkic Languages 1 (1997), pp. 25-40.
- Geoffrey L. Lewis: The Turkish Language Reform. A Catastrophic Success. Oxford 1999.
- Karl Steuerwald: Studies on the Turkish language of the present. Part I. The Turkish Language Policy since 1928. Berlin-Schöneberg 1963.
- Ayşe Tetik: The Soviet linguist N. Yes. Marr and the Turkish solar language theory. In: Archivum Ottomanicum 20 (2002), pp. 231-267.
- Türk Dil Kurumu [Turkish language society]: Ücüncü Türk Dil Kurultayi 1936 [The 3rd Turk. Language Congress 1936]. Istanbul 1937.
Web links
- Jens Peter Laut: Back to Dr. Kvergić (PDF file; 604 kB)
- Original Turkish text with the results of III. Turkish Language Congress 1936 with enclosed French translation (PDF file; 158 kB)
- Historical correspondence on the solar language theory in Turkish
- Geoffrey L. Lewis on the solar language theory (English)
- Arkadiusz Christoph Blaszczyk: From Duchińszczyzna to solar language theory. About the entanglements between Polish anti-Russianism and Turkish nationalism