Abstract:

Woman have almost always been a matter in which both negative and positive ideas have been put forward. Through over history, woman have been considered the sub-species of men, sometimes as second class citizens and at times as human beings to be ashamed of and almost never equal to men. In Turkish history however, woman has been portrayed as equal to men and men and woman have been classified as equal partners. In this study, the image of women will be investigated in Dīvānu Lugat al-Turk, which is known as the first Turkish dictionary that was written by Mahmut of Kashgar after he accepted Islam. In the aforementioned work, the presence of one or more words in almost all areas related to women in the work is important because it shows the significance the Turkish nations gave to women. Some of the words regarding women in Divanu Lügâti’t-Türk are as follows: “Uragut” meaning women, “katun” meaning shorty, “ana/hana” meaning mother, “awurta” meaning foster-mother, “kükü/ küküy” meaning aunt, “kunçuy” meaning noblewoman, “oqlagu katun” meaning female descendant dynasty, “tarım” meaning princes girls, “baldır kız”,  meaning stepdaughter, “as, ay, awınçu, kaçaç, kız, kümüş, kün, tal bodlug, yinçü /cinçü, yinçge kız” meaning concubine, “kurtga”meaning old woman, “yaldrık” meaning dolly / decorated woman, “başın and kalın” meaning mehr, “tul uğsak” meaning widow, “bürüncük and saraguç” meaning scarf, “tolgag” meaning earring, “özök” meaning clean-smooth, “sürtük” meaning lesbian, “baldız” meaning the youngest sister of the woman, “ekek” meaning whore, “sinil” meaning younger sister of men, “yurç” meaning younger brother of the woman, “kelin ve egetlig”meaning bride, “namıja” meaning womens brother-in-law, “yenge” meaning the woman’s brother’s wife, “tünür” meaning relatives of the woman, “kılınç” meaning coquetry and twist and “beglenmek” meaning woman to marry. 

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