Sun Language Theory

The Sun Language Theory ( _tr. Güneş Dil Teorisi) was a linguistic hypothesis proposing that all human languages are descendants of one Central Asian primal language. The theory further proposed that the only language remaining more or less the same as this primal language is Turkish. According to the theory, the Central Asian worshippers, who wanted to salute the omnipotence of the sun and its life-giving qualities, had done so by transforming their meaningless blabbering into a coherent set of ritual utterings, and languages were born, hence the name. [cite journal |author=Aytürk, İlker |year=2004 |month=November |title=Turkish Linguists against the West: The Origins of Linguistic Nationalism in Atatürk's Turkey |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=pp.1–25 |location=London |publisher=Frank Cass & Co (Routledge) |doi=10.1080/0026320042000282856 |issn=0026-3206 |oclc=86539631]

The hypothesis was started with the works by the French scientist Hilaire de Baranton entitled "L'Origine des Langues, des Religions et des Peuples", that all languages originated from hieroglyphs and cuneiform used by Sumerians [citation |title=Turks Teach New Theories |date=1936-02-09 |year=1936 | url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70914FC395F167B93CBA91789D85F428385F9 |newspaper=New York Times |place=Istanbul] and the paper of Austrian linguist Dr. Hermann F. Kvergić of Vienna entitled "La psychologie de quelques elements des langues Turques" ["the psychology of some elements of the Turkic Languages"] . [cite journal |author=Laut, Jens Peter |year=2002 |title=Noch einmal zu Dr. Kvergić |journal=Turkic Languages |url=http://www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/1830/pdf/Laut_Noch_einmal_zu_Dr_Kvergic.pdf |format=PDF reprinted online |volume=6 |pages=pp.120–133 |location=Wiesbaden, Germany |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |issn=1431-4983 |oclc=37421320 |accessdate=2007-12-05 | language=German]

Once these works came to the attention of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, he introduced the Sun Language Theory into Turkish political and educational circles in 1935, at the high point of attempts to 'cleanse' the Turkish language of foreign influences. "As Atay (1965) suggests, Atatürk did not mind the Turkish Language Society leaving foreign words in the language, so long as it could demonstrate that they were in fact Turkish".Zuckermann, Ghil’ad (2003), [http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?is=140391723X ‘‘Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew’’] , Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 165.] According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, "it is possible that the Sun Language Theory was adopted by Atatürk precisely in order to legitimize the Arabic and Persian words which the Turkish language authorities did not manage to uproot. This move compensated for the failure to provide a neologism for every foreignism/loanword."

The theory fell into final oblivion in the 1950s.

ee also

*Adamic language
*Lemurian Tamil

References

Further reading

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* [http://tdkkitaplik.org.tr/gdtr/gdtraporu.pdf 1936 Sun Language Commission's Report] (in Turkish and French)