Özet:

Turks have a lively creation that has migrated to many parts of the world. The Turkish language, by taking its share from these migrations to different parts of the world, affected and was influenced by the languages in the migrated regions in terms of vocabulary and structure. In the historical process, some words have fallen into archaic status and left their place to other words, both for linguistic reasons and by the effect of languages in interaction. One of these words is the word budun / bodun / bodan, the oldest testimony of which is found in the inscriptions using the old Turkic script (runic / runiform) from the 8th century, and includes the meaning of ‘folk’. Although the meaning of the word ‘people’ is fixed, there are differences of opinion on the form of formation, the suffix it contains and how it should be read. In this study, it will be tried to clarify the obscure and controversial aspects of the word budun / bodun / bodan. From a methodological point of view, the structure of the word will be analyzed through the meaning it represents. In order to achieve this, there will be plenty of sample testimonies from the word sea of Old Turkic. In addition, the words related to the concept of ‘folk’, which are seen in the vocabulary of Old Turkic, will be emphasized in order to be seen the meaning world of the word more clearly. Then, with the guidance of semantic images, the structural explanations of the word will be passed. Afterwards, suggestions will be made on the phonological and phonetic status of the word, taking into account the characteristics of the alphabets in which the word is written. In the study, the development paths of the related word in the historical process will be followed diachronically. In addition to all these, which words were used to meet the meaning of ‘folk’ in Old Turkic will also be discussed simultaneously.