Abstract:

There has not been an etymological dictionary of Turkish published so far despite a number of studies in this field. Those studies are the publications which do not comprise the lexis of Turkish and they neglect academic studies. It is not sufficient to have knowledge of Old Turkish or other Turkic languages only so that an etymological dictionary of republican Turkish could be prepared. It definitely requires some sound background on Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Greek, Italian, and other languages with which a mutual cultural influence has taken place. Due to his acquaintance with those languages, S. Nişanyan has prepared a brief and useful “guide” dictionary. However, it seems to lack some information in the lexicographic entries on the comparative phonology of Old Turkish, Altaistic and Turkic languages. In the present article, the entries starting with the letter “B” in Nişanyan’s dictionary are evaluated.

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