Re-Reading aġ and aġ ban ėv in Dede Korkut - Is There aġ ‘high’ in Turkish?-

Abstract

Trying to read a text like Dede Korkut, which has historical depth and is integrated with a wide geography, is like trying to explore the depths of an ocean. It is very difficult to predict where you will encounter, which cultural element and which geography’s vocabulary in this ocean filled with an endless accumulation of history and geography. The subject is about the borrowed words as well as the material of the language itself. While tracing the words, syntax and context in the text, you can come across unpredictably misleading and just as surprising examples of the tangle of problems. Some of these problems may be related to phonetics, morphology, syntax, borrowed words, idioms and phrases. Some problems are related to meaning and context. In addition, a structure in the text you are reading may not be seen in another old text or may not be used in the meaning of the text you read in another text. Context is the only key to correctly reading and understanding a language structure that is not mentioned in another text. The old texts, which are the source of Turkish, are few in number and limited in width. They do not bear witness to all the words, language structures and all meanings of the language used at the time they were written. Also, sometimes you may encounter more than one of the above-mentioned problems for the same item. In such a text, the problems become the unknown of the unknown and follow each other. This article focuses on aġ and aġ ban ėv in Dede Korkut manuscripts as examples of the subject.