ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD YALĞAN “LİE”

Fecri Yavi

Article Details

ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD YALĞAN “LİE”

Authors:

Fecri Yavi

Publisher:

Dokuz Eylul University

Main Topics:

Dünya Dilleri | Edebiyatı ve Kültürü (Diğer)

Journal:

Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi Vol.27 Issue 3, pp.1230-1249

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

9/2025

Document Language:

Turkish

Document ID (Org No.):

2001345823

pISSN:

1308-0911

Keywords:

Abstract:

 Turkic vocabulary has evolved in a way that has remained open to change, from the earliest sources written in various Turkic dialects across different historical periods to the present day. The fact that Turkic has a rich word derivation system has led to the words being exposed to many phonetic and morphological changes during their formation stages and sometimes to the generation of new words that have a different appearance from the root from which they were derived. This situation makes it difficult to draw definitive and clear inferences about the origins of the oldest words. One of these words is yalğan meaning lie, which has been attested since Old Uyghur Turkic. Although various inferences have been made about the origin of the word to date, in most of these studies the word has either been based on a hypothetical verb root or associated with words belonging to different conceptual fields. This situation has led to the inability to make a definitive etymological analysis of the words origin. In this study, a connection based on the semantic similarity between the words yalğan meaning lie and al meaning deception, trickery has been established, and suggestions regarding the etymology of the word have been made. Indeed, the word al trickery, deception and its derivatives are based on the meaning of deceiving and reflect the lexical field associated with the word yalan. The stages of formation and phonetic changes of the word yalğan lie have been attested with examples from historical and contemporary Turkic dialects and it has been related to other derivatives made from the word al trickery, deception. In this study, a new perspective on the origin of the word has been presented with the aim of contributing to future etymological dictionaries.

 Turkic vocabulary has evolved in a way that has remained open to change, from the earliest sources written in various Turkic dialects across different historical periods to the present day. The fact that Turkic has a rich word derivation system has led to the words being exposed to many phonetic and morphological changes during their formation stages and sometimes to the generation of new words that have a different appearance from the root from which they were derived. This situation makes it difficult to draw definitive and clear inferences about the origins of the oldest words. One of these words is yalğan meaning lie, which has been attested since Old Uyghur Turkic. Although various inferences have been made about the origin of the word to date, in most of these studies the word has either been based on a hypothetical verb root or associated with words belonging to different conceptual fields. This situation has led to the inability to make a definitive etymological analysis of the words origin. In this study, a connection based on the semantic similarity between the words yalğan meaning lie and al meaning deception, trickery has been established, and suggestions regarding the etymology of the word have been made. Indeed, the word al trickery, deception and its derivatives are based on the meaning of deceiving and reflect the lexical field associated with the word yalan. The stages of formation and phonetic changes of the word yalğan lie have been attested with examples from historical and contemporary Turkic dialects and it has been related to other derivatives made from the word al trickery, deception. In this study, a new perspective on the origin of the word has been presented with the aim of contributing to future etymological dictionaries.

 Turkic vocabulary has evolved in a way that has remained open to change, from the earliest sources written in various Turkic dialects across different historical periods to the present day. The fact that Turkic has a rich word derivation system has led to the words being exposed to many phonetic and morphological changes during their formation stages and sometimes to the generation of new words that have a different appearance from the root from which they were derived. This situation makes it difficult to draw definitive and clear inferences about the origins of the oldest words. One of these words is yalğan meaning lie, which has been attested since Old Uyghur Turkic. Although various inferences have been made about the origin of the word to date, in most of these studies the word has either been based on a hypothetical verb root or associated with words belonging to different conceptual fields. This situation has led to the inability to make a definitive etymological analysis of the words origin. In this study, a connection based on the semantic similarity between the words yalğan meaning lie and al meaning deception, trickery has been established, and suggestions regarding the etymology of the word have been made. Indeed, the word al trickery, deception and its derivatives are based on the meaning of deceiving and reflect the lexical field associated with the word yalan. The stages of formation and phonetic changes of the word yalğan lie have been attested with examples from historical and contemporary Turkic dialects and it has been related to other derivatives made from the word al trickery, deception. In this study, a new perspective on the origin of the word has been presented with the aim of contributing to future etymological dictionaries.

 Türkçe söz varlığı, farklı dönemlerde ve çeşitli Türk lehçeleriyle yazılmış en eski kaynaklardan günümüze kadar değişime açık bir şekilde gelişim göstermiştir. Türkçenin zengin bir sözcük türetme sistemine sahip olması, sözcüklerin oluşum aşamalarında pek çok ses ve şekil değişimine maruz kalmasına, kimi zaman türetilmiş olduğu kökten farklı görünüşe sahip yeni sözcükler türetilmesine yol açmıştır. Bu durum, en eski sözcüklerin kökenleriyle ilgili kesin ve açık çıkarımlarda bulunmayı güçleştirmektedir. Bu sözcüklerden biri de eski Uygur Türkçesinden itibaren tanıklanan yalğan yalan sözcüğüdür. Bugüne kadar sözcüğün kökeniyle ilgili çeşitli çıkarımlarda bulunulmuş olmasına rağmen bu çalışmaların çoğunda sözcük, ya farazi bir fiil köküne dayandırılmış ya da farklı kavram alanlarına ait sözcüklerle ilişkilendirilmiştir. Bu durum, sözcüğün kökeniyle ilgili kesin bir etimolojik çözümlemenin yapılamamasına neden olmuştur. Bu çalışmada yalğan yalan sözcüğü ile al hile, kandırma sözcüğü arasında anlam yakınlığına dayalı bir bağ kurulmuş ve sözcüğün etimolojisine dair önerilerde bulunulmuştur. Nitekim al hile, kandırma sözcüğü ve türevlerinin temelinde kandırmak anlamı yatmakta ve yalan sözcüğüne ait kavram alanını yansıtan söz varlığı bulunmaktadır. Yalğan yalan sözcüğünün oluşum aşamaları ve geçirdiği ses değişimleri tarihî ve çağdaş Türk lehçelerinden örneklerle tanıklanarak al hile, kandırma sözcüğünden yapılmış diğer türevlerle ilişkilendirilmiştir. Çalışmada, sözcüğün kökenine dair yeni bir bakış açısı sunularak hazırlanacak etimolojik sözlüklere katkıda bulunulması amaçlanmıştır.

Article Details

ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD YALĞAN “LİE”

Authors:

Fecri Yavi

Publisher:

Dokuz Eylul University

Main Topics:

Dünya Dilleri | Edebiyatı ve Kültürü (Diğer)

Journal:

Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi Vol.27 Issue 3, pp.1230-1249

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

9/2025

Document Language:

Turkish

Document ID (Org No.):

2001345823

pISSN:

1308-0911

Turkic

Etymological

The Word “Yalan”

Phonetic ChangesTürkçe

Etimoloji

“Yalan” Sözcüğü

Ses Değişimleri

Issues

Article Details

Authors: Fecri Yavi

Publisher: Dokuz Eylul University

Main Topics: Dünya Dilleri | Edebiyatı ve Kültürü (Diğer)

Journal: Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi Vol.27 Issue 3, pp.1230-1249

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 9/2025

Document Language: Turkish

Document ID (Org No.): 2001345823

pISSN: 1308-0911

Issues

Authors:

Fecri Yavi

Publisher:

Dokuz Eylul University

Main Topics:

Dünya Dilleri | Edebiyatı ve Kültürü (Diğer)

Journal:

Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi Vol.27 Issue 3, pp.1230-1249

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

9/2025

Document Language:

Turkish

Document ID (Org No.):

2001345823

pISSN:

1308-0911