Historical Layers of Bismil Turkmen Society and Dialect in the Light of Linguistic Data

Abstract

Extending process of Turkish language,which is one of the most important elements of Turkishness, in Meyyafârikîn (Silvan), Hısn-Keyfa (Hasankeyf) and Âmid (Diyarbakır) in East Anatolia was pannned out under favour of Inalids, Nisanids and Artuquids' efforts and Oghuz Turkish was seeped into here under favour of Aqqoyunlu and Safavids. But unfortunately, migration from East Anatolia into Iran due to dispute between Ottomans and Safavids, mostly made inroads on Oghuz Turkish, most common and honourable language on the area as of the date of sixteenth century. Natural speakers of Bismil Turkmen dialect we touched on historical background in the light of its Mongolian, Arabic, Eastern Turkish and Oghuz Turkish elements, saved their language during five centuries studiously in the face of regression of Oghuz Turkish on the area and created one of the most valued specimens of Turkish language in this day and age in East Anatolia with not only its Oghuz Turkish but also older periods' elements. It is in the running for making a detailed study about history of Bismil Turkmens as an Oghuz-Turkmen society showed success about saving their language. In this paper, it is touched on historical layers of Bismil Turkmen society and dialect whose foundation are laid by members of Döger and shaped by members of Musullu tribe, whose center occurs by Bekteş family belonging to Bayındır. Besides, in order to examine formation and relations of Bismil Turkmen dialect in a wider historical perspective, it is applied to Azerbaijan area.