Researching and teaching Tuvan language in Turkey: a concise history
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2018.1.5Keywords:
Tuvan language; Turkey; Turkic language; problems of teaching language; review; Turkology; Master’s thesis; Doctoral dissertation; Tuvan studiesAbstract
The earliest studies of Tuvan language in Turkey go back to A. C. Emre’s grammar (1949). Emre was the first scholar in Turkey to do a comparative study of phonetics of Turkic languages. The 1960s saw the publication of S.I. Çağatay’s studies in Turkology. The first classes of Tuvan language in Turkey were offered in the 1980s by Prof. Dr. Talat Tekin at Hacettepe University.
The author of the article was Dr. Tekin’s student and studied Tuvan in 1986-1987 while on a post-graduate program. Relying on the works of Soviet researchers, the author published articles on historical phonetics and archaic aspects of Tuvan language. In 2007, the author compiled “A Wordlist of Tuvan Language” (over 4500 entries), wherein he traced the lexical links between Old Turkic and Tuvan languages and described the influence that Mongolian language had on Tuvan vocabulary. In 2009, the author published a collection of 100 Tuvan proverbs. All of these publications were prepared after the author’s research work in Tuva, including the library of the Tuvan Institute for the Humanities.
Since the 2000s, the author has been teaching Tuvan. He was the supervisor of A. Ş. Usta (Fındık)’s Master’s and Doctor’s dissertations and of H. Aras’s Master’s thesis. Besides Hacettepe University, two more institutions now offer classes of Tuvan and do research in the language – Ankara University and Gazi University. In addition to the departments of modern Turkic languages and literatures, those of Turkish language and literature now also offer programs in Tuvan language.
The author believes that research in Tuvan language and studying it in Turkey will gain wider traction in Turkey and attract ever more interest from both learners and scholars.
References
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Emre, A. C. (1949) Türk Lehçelerinin Mukayeseli Grameri, İlk Deneme. 1nci Kitap: Fonetik [A Comparative Grammar of Turkic Languages: A First Attempt, vol.1. Phonetics], TDK, İstanbul. (In Turkish).
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Usta (Fındık), A. Ş. (2014) Tuvaca “İyi Ösküs Ool” (İki Öksüz Çocuk) Hikâyesi [Iyi өlkүs ool», a Tuvan Fairytale]. Türk Dünyası Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, no. 38, pp. 79–125. (In Turkish).
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Fındık, A. Ş. and Ölmez, M. (2016) Tuva Çocuk Edebiyatı ve Tuvacanın Söz Varlığı [Tuvan Children’s Literature and the Vocabulary of Tuvan Language]. In: Uluslararası Yulduz Türk Dili Sempozyumu. Nisan 25, Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi [International Symposium on Turkic Language. April 25. Yıldız Technical University], Ankara. Pp. 377–383. (In Turkish).
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Author Biography
Mehmet Ölmez, Yıldız Technical University
PhD, Professor, Department of Turkish Language and Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey.
Postal address: Davutpaşa Yerleşimi, № 127, 34210 Esenler/İstanbul. Turkeı.
Tel.: +90212 383 44 41.
Email: olmez.mehmet@gmail.com, molmez@yildiz.edu.tr
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