Mother Tongue as a Symbol of National Identity Among the Poets of Turkish World

Abstract

Language has many other functions apart from being a means of communication. One of the most important of all these is that it turns a community into a nation. Nations are named and exist with their languages because the language of a nation is the most powerful means that involves the basic elements such as culture, customs and traditions and that transfers these from generation to generation. A nation will survive as long as its language survives; otherwise, it will die. The Turks, throughout the history, have given importance to their language and conducted many works to protect and enrich it. Aware of this very fact, many scientists and poets have created Works that have aimed to make their people more conscious. On the vast Turkic geography a number of poets have used "mother tongue" as the main theme of their poems thereby making their people aware of the richness and power of their own language.In this study, I will focus on the importance the Turkic poets have given to their language and the common feelings of the Turkic poets through their poems on mother tongue from Anatolia to Kazakhstan, from Tatarstan to Cyprus, from Uzbekistan to Crimea and Bashkotorstan