Re: [hrl_2] Turkish basic word list etymology

Dear David,

Regarding your question about the "basic" words in Turkish.  First of all I am not aware of such a publication although there is a book called "TÜRK DILININ ETIMOLOJI SÖZLÜGÜ" (The Etymological Dictionary of Turkish Language" by Ismet Zeki Eyuboglu.  I personally do not have a concise list as you describe. Therefore, I am sorry that I will not be able to send you the information you asked.

You may remember that in my earlier writings I talked about Turkish being a mono-syllabic language in which basic words are monosyllabic words. These basic syllables are in the form of V, VC, CV, VCV and CVC where V stands for "vowel" and C stands for "consonants".  Thus the "basic" words are the "base" words, that is, they are the root words of the language.  Similarly "basic" words are the lowest structured words that cannot be reduced further without destroying the meaning.  Turkish is an agglutinative language in wich many suffixes, which themselves are syllabic words in Turkish, are added to the root word.  Thus the larger words in Turkish are made up with all basic words put together in an order.  It seem in Turkish there has been no need for identifying the etymology of the basic monosyllabic words since they are the root words. Only some words are identified as being from another language.

With regards your question about the word "DUNYA".  Word "DUNYA" is said to be from "Arabic" which I doubt.  Its meaning in Turkish is " 1. world, earth. 2. this life. 3. everyone, people",  [Redhouse Turkish-English dictionary, 1987].  My personal view is that it is originally a Turkish word.  The words DÜNYA is related to Turkish "BÜNYE" (BUNYA) meaning "body", "a structure, a building (Tr. BINA). Conceptually, "DUNYA"  is a self supporting "body" or "building", of course, with the help of Sun. The so-called Persian word "BÜN" as used in Turkish, has the meaning of: "base, foundation; bottom; trunk; root". [Redhouse Turkish-English dictionary, 1987]. There is the Turkish word "BÜNLÜ" meaning "with base, with foundation, having a base".  Thus, DUNYA (DÜNYA  from BÜNYA or BINA) is a "building" on which all creatures of the world live.  When we rearrange "BÜNYA" as "BÜN-AY" is very much a form of "BÜN ÖY" meaning "the basic home, the foundation home, the bottom home" which all refer and describe "DUNYA" (world, earth) and "BÜNYE" (human body, body of anything, building (BINA)).  Thus, in this context, I would say that the basic word for DUNYA is the Turkish words "BÜN" + ÖY" meaning "the fundamental home" which is the earth.

But again we have the Turkish word "DUN" meaning "low, base; vile".  When the word "DUNYA" is rearranged as "DUN-AY", it is a form of Turkish "DUN + ÖY" (YER ÖY, YERDEN ÖY, ALÇAK ÖY) meaning "the base home, the dirt home, the basic home" where  Turkish "ÖY" means "home, house".  This again refers to the "earth" or "DUNYA" which is the "basic home" for all those who live on earth. Please note that basic words BÜN, DUN and OY (ÖY) are monosyallable words and very much belong to the Turkish language.

Since you are talking about the "basic" words, I want to point out that the English words "BASE" and "BASIC" are from Turkish verb "BAS-mak" meaning "to step on" the root of which is "BAS". For example, the Turkish word "BASI", in one meaning, is the thing that one steps on which is the supporting "floor" which is with respect to man's body is the lowest part, that is, the bottom of the feet. Turkish word "BASI" is the source for the English word "BASE" and the Turkish word "BASIK" meaning "low thing, stepped on thing, basic" is the source for English word "BASIC".

Similarly the word "ETYMOLOGY", from Greek "ETUMOLOGIA", has its source in Turkish.

"ETUMOLOGIA" when rearranged letter-by-letter as
"ATIM-OLGU-O-E", is a restructured and disguised form of the Turkish expression
"ADIM OLGU O" meaning "it is the forming of my name" where ADIM means "my name", OLGU means "becoming, forming, formation" and O means "it, it is".  The words are names for concepts.  As people have names to identify each individual, so do the concepts. Evidently, the linguists of the "Indo-European" languages described and defined the "concept" to be named first in Turkish language, and then, restructured the Turkish source expression into encrypted words, thus, artificially making the newly structured words to appear as if they belonged to another set of languages so-called "Indo-European" languages.  This Greek word "ETUMOLOGIA" and hence the English "ETYMOLOGY" are such words.

As you know I have always pointed out that the so-called "Semitic" languages were also manufactured from Turkish by way of anagrammatizing Turkish words and expressions, just like the "Indo-European" languages were done so.

Best wishes to you and to all,

Polat Kaya



David L wrote:

I would like to obtain etymologies of basic words in Turkish. I do not know what publications Polat Kaya has available. Please Mr. Kaya email me at david_89793@... if you have a publication of etymologies of basic words in Turkish.
I am not on the internet much any more. I am on once a week.
I was just discussing the etymology of Dunya on my group, but I do not know the origin of this word.
Dave