Sun Language Theory

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

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


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Sun Certified Professional — (SCP) is a professional certification program by Sun Microsystems. It is meant to verify a particular skillset in Sun technologies, especially the Java programming language and the Solaris Operating System.Java certification programsun Certified… …   Wikipedia

  • Proto-World language — The term Proto World language refers to the hypothetical, most recent common ancestor of all the world s languages ndash; an ancient proto language from which are derived all modern languages, all language families, and all dead languages known… …   Wikipedia

  • Sun Lu-t'ang — (Sūn Lùtáng 孫祿堂, 1861 1932) was a renowned master of Chinese Neijia (internal) martial arts and was the progenitor of the syncretic art of Sun style Tai Chi Chuan (孫家). [cite magazine|last=Yip|first=Li (Faye)|title=Principles and Practice of Sun… …   Wikipedia

  • Proto-Turkic language — The Proto Turkic language is the proto language of the family of Turkic languages that predates the separation of the Turkic peoples in the course of the Turkic expansion from ca. the 4th century AD. The oldest records of a Turkic language, the… …   Wikipedia

  • Sun — This article is about the star. For other uses, see Sun (disambiguation). The Sun …   Wikipedia

  • language — /lang gwij/, n. 1. a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition: the two languages of Belgium; a Bantu language; the French… …   Universalium

  • Language — This article is about the properties of language in general. For other uses, see Language (disambiguation). Cuneiform is one of the first known forms of written language, but spoken language is believed to predate writing by tens of thousands of… …   Wikipedia

  • Theory of Colours — Infobox Book name = Theory of Colours title orig = Zur Farbenlehre translator = Charles Eastlake [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi m0422/is 2 82/ai 64573524/pg 6] image caption = Light spectrum, from Theory of Colours – Goethe observed that… …   Wikipedia

  • Theory — The word theory has many distinct meanings in different fields of knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion.In science a theory is a testable model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena,… …   Wikipedia

  • Theory of Forms — Plato s Theory of Forms [The name of this aspect of Plato s thought is not modern and has not been extracted from certain dialogues by modern scholars. The term was used at least as early as Diogenes Laertius, who called it (Plato s) Theory of… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”