Ottoman-Turkish loanwords in Egyptian and Syro-Lebanese-Palestinian Arabic – Part 3

Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2022

Although the earliest Turkisms that entered Arabic go back to the 9th century-when the Arabs began establishing regular contact with speakers of Turkic languages-a significant number of Turkish loans in both written and spoken Arabic only date from the time of the Ottoman Empire, which in the course of its expansion conquered and for centuries ruled a large part of the Arab world. This paper aims to examine the words of Turkish origin found in the dialects spoken in Egypt and parts of the Middle East (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine), i.e. the Arabophone regions that have been most exposed to Turkish influence for historical and cultural reasons. It has also been endeavoured to provide information about the etymology of the Ottoman-Turkish words (interestingly, as some of these come from Arabic, the Egyptian, Syrian, etc. words borrowed actually prove to be backborrowings).

International Journal of Old Uyghur Studies, 2023

This study shows that the Old Uyghur word, which has been read kat to date, should be read katıt in the light of data from modern Turkish languages. The most probable etymology of the word is that it is derived from the verb kat-'to mix, to mingle, to join' with the formative-(U)t, which means that katıt originally denoted 'someone who is joined'.

This study deals with a short text on a small piece of paper, a conversational glossary, found in the Cairo Geniza. It is likely to be nearly a millennium old, and consists of a list of twenty Judaeo-Arabic words and phrases with their equivalents in Armenian written in Hebrew script. It suggests that members of the two communities met in a convivial setting , possibly a Barekendan (Mardi Gras) party where an official was parodied as a goat in effigy-a custom encountered in other Armenian celebrations of the holiday at Lvov in the 16th century; and Tiflis, in the 19th. The other words in the list reflect economic and cultural realia of the 11th-13th centuries.

Belleten

The various words and terms used in the Ottoman archival documents most of the times have connotations that differ from their actual meaning. One, therefore, should use such words and terms that are vital for making research on the social life in the Ottoman Empire carefully. Otherwise grave mistakes can not be avoided in carrying out such researches. The words of this type such as Türk and its plural Etrak and Kürd and its plural Ekrad used in various figurative meanings in the Ottoman documents. One often comes across the words mentioned above in the Ottoman archival documents, in particular in the Tahrir Defters that have very important statistical information, and in the kanunnames.

Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2022

Although the earliest Turkisms that entered Arabic go back to the 9th century -when the Arabs began establishing regular contact with speakers of Turkic languages -a significant number of Turkish loans in both written and spoken Arabic only date from the time of the Ottoman Empire, which in the course of its expansion conquered and for centuries ruled a large part of the Arab world. This paper aims to examine the words of Turkish origin found in the dialects spoken in Egypt and parts of the Middle East (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine), i.e. the Arabophone regions that have been most exposed to Turkish influence for historical and cultural reasons. It has also been endeavoured to provide information about the etymology of the Ottoman-Turkish words (interestingly, as some of these come from Arabic, the Egyptian, Syrian, etc. words borrowed actually prove to be backborrowings). pabuç ~ (Osm., dial.) babuç / babuc 'shoe, slipper' (NR 913; Stachowski Pab. 181; DS 454). E bâbûg 'slipper' (Sp.¹ 27, Sp.² 44); '[pantofole] indigene di pelle gialla, con punta acuminata e rialzata, aventi per tacco un piccolo ferro di cavallo, usate dalle donne in casa (quando non camminano sui tappeti) e fuori' (Nallino 237). ‹babougui› 'mes bottes (mes soulliers)' (Bérézine 55f.). S bâbûǧ 'pantoufles, babouches' (Barth. 25); 'babouche' (S. 98). • < NPers. pāpūš 'a shoe, slipper' (Stachowski Pab. 181).

2013

Ottoman Sunnism: New Perspectives (ed. Vefa Erginbaş), Edinburgh University Press, 2019

This chapter aims to explore the origins, as well as the often-neglected variances, in the meaning of the term “Kızılbaş” within the context of early modern Ottoman literature (defined here as the period from the late fifteenth century to the mid-seventeenth-century). I argue that Ottoman central authorities began to refer the sympathizers (both Ottoman and non-Ottoman) of the Safavid court as “Kızılbaş” immediately before the reign of Sultan Selim I, who changed the nature of the relationship between Istanbul and the Safavid court with open military engagements and economic sanctions. In this earlier context, the term “Kızılbaş” provided the negative labeling that the Ottoman central authority required to identify and pursue the enemy of the “religion and state” (dīn ü devlet), given that the geopolitical legitimacy of Istanbul was at stake with the rapid emergence and expansion of the Safavid state on its eastern frontier. As Guy Burak has cogently argued, this period also corresponds with Ottomans’ adoption of the Hanafi sect (madhab/mezhep) as the official school of law under the aegis of the office of the chief mufti (or shaikh al-islam/şeyhülislam), bridging the gap between the religious and sultanic laws. Therefore, Ottoman policy-makers, more often than not, disguised their non-religious concerns with increasingly sectarian rhetoric provided by various influential members of the same religious elite group. But in the wake of this foundational period, I also argue that after the short reign of Selim I, the Ottoman court embraced a more complex approach to both its Kızılbaş subjects and its rival, the Safavids. In this subsequent era, the term Kızılbaş carried different, and in many cases, conflicting meanings depending on the context, as well as the genre of the documents making these references. These documents include imperial chancery records (mühimme defterleri), edicts (fermans), religious rulings (fetvas), chronicles, and polemical literature, each of which targeted different audiences for different purposes. Therefore, a meticulous examination of the origins and use of the term Kızılbaş in the early modern Ottoman context reveals a significant fluidity in terms of the loyalties of various groups, along with their religious, regional, and political identities, which have often been assumed to be non-existent during the so-called “age of confessionalization” in the Middle East.

[English abstract after the French] Apprenons quelques mots de turc: un glossaire arabo-turc de la Genizah du Caire Cet article traite d'un carnet de comptes en judéo-arabe qui a probablement appartenu à un agent consulaire en Egypte Au début du 17ème siècle. Il contient des listes de produits achetés et toutes sortes de relevés comptables. Mais, quelques pages sont en fait un glossaire arabo-turc rédigé en caractères hébraïques. Nous avons ainsi la preuve de l’intérêt certain que portaient les Juifs de l'Empire ottoman pour la langue turque, un intérêt d'ordre culturel et économique. Par le passé, la thèse dominante préconisait que si les Juifs ottomans parlaient le ladino et l'arabe, ils ne parlaient pas le turc. Cependant, des recherches publiées ces dernières décennies ont montré que les Juifs vivant dans l’Empire ottoman participaient de façon active à la scène culturelle turque et possédaient, du moins pour beaucoup d'entre eux, une maîtrise indéniable de la langue turque. C’était surtout vrai pour les hommes. Cette constatation, que nous mettons ici en exergue, vient renforcer la thèse soutenue par d'autres articles et révèle donc l'intérêt des Juifs pour la langue turque, et ce, non seulement parmi la classe supérieure dont les médecins, les Juifs de Cour par exemple, mais aussi parmi la This article discusses a Judeo-Arabic accounting book composed by a Jew who, it appears, served as an agent of one of the European consuls in Egypt. The accounting book, which seems to have been written in early 17th century, contains primarily lists of products bought by the agent and various other accounting notes; however, some of its pages contain a unique text – an Arabic-Turkish glossary composed by the agent, written in Hebrew letters. This glossary reflects the interest displayed by the Jews of the Ottoman Empire in the Turkish language, an interest driven by both cultural and economic motives. In the past the accepted assumption has been that the Jews of the Empire spoke only Ladino or Arabic and had no command of Turkish. Studies published in the past few decades have disproven this assumption and exposed the deep involvement of the Jews of the Empire in Ottoman culture, and the command many of them – primarily men – had over the Turkish language. The finding discussed in this article joins previous findings on this topic, and teaches us that the interest in the Turkish language was not limited to member of the Jewish elite (doctors, courtiers, etc.), but can also be clearly identified amongst members of the Jewish middle class.

Abstract: Arabic (and Persian) loan-words in Ottoman Turkish are, despite their great number and significance, far from being adequately examined, even if numerous studies on this topic have been published in various journals. If an Arabic etymon of an Ottoman Turkish word is exactly determined one can safely use it for establishing phonological processes leading to its perfect adaptation in Turkish. In addition, this knowledge helps to chronologically arrange and explain sound changes affecting the indigenous vocabulary of Ottoman Turkish. However, two conditions should be met that determine the sense and the eventual success of such an investigation. One of these conditions is that the Arabic etymon should be established with due regard to chronology and dialectology, the other being that the Ottoman Turkish record has been correctly read. The latter condition is more or less assured if one uses so called transcription texts, i.e. those written in non-Arabic scripts, as is the case with an Ottoman Turkish dictionary compiled by Arcangelo Carradori in 1650.

Robert Barkley Shaw's Uyghur-English dictionary called A Sketch of the Turki Language as Spoken in Eastern Turkistan (Kàshghar and Yarkand) is an important source for the researchers studying on Modern Uyghur and Uyghur culture. In his dictionary, Shaw not only gives simply English definitions of the Uyghur words but he also sometimes gives detailed information about Uyghurs' and other Turkic peoples' cultural features. Also, this dictionary includes some entries about mythical beliefs, magical activities, and superstitions of Uyghurs. Especially, in this article, we focused on the general names of soothsayers, magicians or shamans that took roles among Uyghurs. Belonging to this sphere we gave the brief etymological and cultural background of six words (rambal ‫ﺭﻣﺒﺎﻝ[‬ rambal], ḳuşnaç ‫ﻗﻮﺷﻨﺎچ[‬ qushnâch], yaġrünçi ‫ﻳﺎﻏﺮﻭﻧﭽﻲ[‬ yaghrün-chi], sinçi ‫ﺳﻴﻨﭽﻲ[‬ sin-chi], arbaḳçi ‫ﺍﺭﺑﺎﻗﭽﻲ[‬ arbáq-chi], and közluk ‫ﻛﻮﺯﻟﻮک[‬ köz-luk]) that we collected from Shaw's dictionary. Also, concerning to the mourning tradition of Uyghurs we laid stress on the word ḳaraliḳ ‫ﻗﺎﺭﺍﻟﻴﻖ[‬ qara-liq]. Through this word, we tried to show how the religions and the cultures integrate into each other.