Article.
Ірина
Логвиненко
УДК 811.512.161
COLOUR WORDS AS LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL MARKERS OF MODERN
TURKISH ANTHROPONYMS
Незважаючи на великий інтерес,
який викликає сьогодні дослідження антропонімічних систем різних народів, багато теоретичних та практичних аспектів турецького особового імені ще не вивчені. У нашій статті ми досліджуємо семантику турецьких
особових імен з колоративними компонентами як багате джерело культурної, історичної та лінгвістичної інформації.
Ключові слова: антропоніми,
турецькі особові імена, колоративи, міфологічне світосприйняття
Introduction
Word is a universal conservator of a nation’s worldview. Being an intermediary between
all the sign systems, word includes a large amount of culture-specific information. This is especially true for proper
names, which, according to Darzamanova, are “the most specific and at the same time the most
abstract category, which makes it possible to trace the conversion of a
specific nominal value
signs into a symbol, an image, into a
general concept in language contexts, which captures the history of the people,
the history of their worldview, the history of the word” (Darzamanova 110). We can say that every proper name is a word-symbol, a word-image, often metaphorical or metonymic, that
is, in names we can see “the
use of a word in a figurative sense based on similarity in some relation to two
objects or phenomena” (“Linguistic
Encyclopedic Dictionary” 296) or “the use the names of one object instead of the name of another object on the
basis of external or internal ties” (“Linguistic
Encyclopedic Dictionary” 310).
Personal names of Turkic origin form the largest group in the
Turkish anthroponymic system. Often they are two-component names that
contain descriptive or evaluative characteristics. In general, the Turkic
anthroponyms – both single-component and multi-component – are names of common origin and clear etymology. Colour
words refer to one of the oldest layers of the language. Giving a symbolic meaning to colours is a characteristic feature of the mythological worldview. Therefore, when analyzing the semantic meaning of the Turkish anthroponyms with colour components, we take into account that fact, that most of the analyzed names appeared many centuries ago in other social conditions, within the system of other semantic ties.
Brief Survey on the Literaure
Brent Berlin and Paul Kay in their
classical study on colours “Basic Colour Terms: Their Universality and
Evolution”, published in 1969, suggest the existence of colour universals which
“are related to the historical development of all languages in a way that can
properly be termed evolutionary” (Berlin, Kay 1). Experimentally they figured
out eleven basic colour terms that can be drawn in any language. They are
white, black, red, green, yellow, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey. The
scholars worked out the following sequence (Berlin, Kay 2-3):
“1. All languages contain terms for
white and black.
2. If a language contains three terms,
than it contains a term for red.
3. If a language contains four terms,
than it contains a term to either green o yellow (but not both).
4. If a language contains five terms,
than it contains terms for both green and yellow.
5. If a language contains six terms,
than it contains a term for blue.
6. If a language contains seven terms,
than it contains a term for brown.
7. If a language contains eight or more
terms, than it contains a term for purple, pink, orange, grey, or some
combination of these”.
As Berlin and Kay explain, increase
in the number of basic colour terms may be seen as part of general increase in
vocabulary, a response to an informationally richer cultural environment. So
the chronological order may be interpreted as a “sequence of evolutionary
stages” (Berlin, Kay 16).
This hypothesis is disputed by Anna
Weirzbicka, who considers it anglocentric and untenable (Weirzbicka, “The
Semantics of Colour”). To her view, colour itself cannot be a universal human
concept because there are many languages in the world (for example, in Australia,
Papua New Guinea and Africa) which do not have a word for “colour”. In the
Anbarra language there are only two colour terms – for light and dark. The
scholar writes: “People who habitually look at the world in terms of colours
can find it difficult to believe that those from other cultures may have a
profoundly different perspective on the visible world – for example, that they
may habitually distinguish between things of high visibility (like sun, fire
and blood) and those of low visibility, or between brightness and lack of
brightness” (Weirzbicka, “The
Semantics of Colour” 17). Weirzbicka
points out, that different colours have close equivalents in many other
languages, but “even overlapping with
them, they are also different from them
in meaning’(Weirzbicka, “The Semantics of Colour” 10).
Berlin and Kay’s assumption that
colour vocabulary relates to the historical development of a given language,
and Weirzbicka’s statement about difference of colour concepts in different
languages seem to me quite argumentative. At the same time I agree with
Weirzbicka, that we can not speak about colour universals which refer to all
the languages of the world without exceptions.
In Turkish linguistics there are a
number of articles devoted to the semantics of colour since the ancient Turkic
times till nowadays. These are valuable works by Zeki Kaymaz (Kaymaz), Reşat
Genç (Genç), Heyet Cevad (Cevad), Metin Ekici (Ekici), Ahmet Akkaya (Akkaya).
But they are mostly concerned with the historical and cultural aspects of the
colours and do not analyze them from the linguistic point of view. Significant
in this respect is the paper of Nesrin Bayraktar “Türkçede Renk Adlarıyla Özel
Ad Yapımı” (Coining Proper Names Through Colour Terms In
Turkish) (Bayraktar),
which, taking as a theoretical basis for her research Berlin and Kay’s theory,
suggests 2,178 proper names - among them 523 personal names - that contain
colour terms. But the linguistic analysis, made in this paper, is not
sufficient either. An interesting research angle is also provided in Kaidi
Rätsep’s paper “Preliminary Rresearch on Turkish Basic Colour Terms With an
Emphasis on Blue”, where the scholar
experimentally distinguishes the most salient colour terms in the modern
Turkish language. According to the results of the experiment, they are yeşil (green), sarı (yellow), siyah
(siyah), kımızı (red) and mavi (blue). Next in line are beyaz (white), mor (purple), kahverengi (brown),
pembe (pink), turuncu (orange) and gri (gray)
(Rätsep 142).
Turkish personal names are analyzed
in the works of Tuncel Gülensoy, Derya Duman, Laszlo Rasonyi,
Aydil Erol, Saim Sakaaoğlu, Ebülfez Kulı Amanoğlu, Oğuz Ergene and others.
Aim and hypothesis
Despite the great interest that
anthroponyms evoke today, many of the theoretical and practical aspects of the
Turkish personal name have not yet been studied. In this paper I will
investigate the semantics of Turkish personal names with colour terms as a rich
source of cultural, historical and linguistic information. I will argue, that
perception and semantics of colour terms varies not only in different
languages, but also in different periods of a nation's development. The meaning
and symbolism of colour concept in the period of the mythological worldview
differs from a modern person’s perception of colour. In order to prove this
hypothesis I will investigate how people use colours in naming from the
diachronic perspective of Turkic names, formed in the ancient times, and from
the synchronic perspective of nicknames, given by Turkish people to each other
nowadays. All these will allows us to gain insight into the cultural and
linguistic changes in the Turkish society.
Methods and material
When investigating Turkish personal
names and nicknames with a colour words, we used the continuous sampling
method, methods of semantic and comparative analysis. The material for analysis was taken from the
dictionaries and encyclopedias of modern Turkish personal names, as well as
from some works of Turkish scholars, dedicated to Turkish nicknames.
Colour terms in Turkish personal names
Russian researcher Gabysheva expresses an opinion, which correlates with
Berlin and Kay’s theory of basic colour terms, and suggests that the most significant for
all the nations is the opposition of white and black in the semantic opposition of
life/death, day/night, good/evil, social top/social bottom, good deities/evil deities, etc., as well as the triad white/red/black, which “forms the main triangle of
the designation of colours in all the languages, representing a
concentrated designation of large areas of psychological experience that affects both the mind and the
senses” (Gabysheva 10). Turkish researcher Cevad Heyet points out, that the
metaphorical meaning of colours arose from a man’s observation of nature and its metonymic
rethinking (Heyet 50). For example, black was associated with the
darkness of the night – the time of man’s rest and sleep, that is, his temporary death. Light colours, like white and pink, were
colours of the dawn, that is, the revival of life; blue was the symbol of the heaven, high and inaccessible, the colour of the gods, etc.
246 masculine and feminine personal names out of 4,000 under
analysis contain colour terms. Among the colours that are a part of the Turkish personal names there are ak (white), kara (black), al (red), gök (blue), mavi (blue), sarı (yellow), ala
(light brown;
variegated), boz (gray,
grayish brown, colour of soil), kır (light gray, dirty white), çakır (blue-gray eye colour), beyaz
(white), pembe
(pink), mor (purple). The following table shows the ratio and the number of masculine and feminine names with colour terms:
Colour term
|
Musculine names
|
Feminine names
|
Names which can be both musculine and feminine
|
Total (%)
|
Ak
|
91
|
25
|
9
|
125 (40%)
|
Gök
|
42
|
4
|
10
|
56 (18%)
|
Al
|
17
|
4
|
6
|
27 (9%)
|
Kara
|
45
|
-
|
-
|
45 (14%)
|
Ala
|
1
|
7
|
-
|
8 (2,5%)
|
Sarı
|
7
|
4
|
-
|
11 (3,5%)
|
Mavi
|
-
|
3
|
-
|
3 (1%)
|
Yeşil
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
1 (0,3%)
|
Boz
|
15
|
-
|
-
|
15 (5%)
|
Kır
|
9
|
-
|
-
|
9 (3%)
|
Çakır
|
3
|
-
|
1
|
4 (1,3%)
|
Beyaz
|
-
|
2
|
-
|
2 (0,6%)
|
Pembe
|
-
|
3
|
-
|
3 (1%)
|
Mor
|
-
|
1
|
1
|
2 (0,6%)
|
According to the Turkish researcher Cevad Heyet, it is
peculiar for the Turks to endow colours with religious, divine, national, geographical and
emotional connotations (Heyet 50).
Some colours were loved, respected and considered to be lucky by the Turks. Sometimes they endowed the colours with divine meaning (as it was with the blue colour (gök)). Other colours, on the contrary, were considered to be unlucky, and in respect to them the Turks felt
hostile. For example, they are such
colours as kara (black) and sarı
(yellow). For comparison, in modern
Turkish the verb sararmak means “to pale”, “to wither”, “to fade”, “to get old”, “to grow lean”, “to yearn”, “to grieve”. As researchers note, the Turks used colours to denote the sides of the world. White corresponded to the
west, red – to the south, blue (from the
11th century – green) – to the east. The colour of the
north was black.
As it can be seen from the table above, the most significant for the Turks were white, blue and clear-red.
Symbolic meaning of colours in Turkish history
White (ak) in the Turkic culture symbolized purity, noble origin, greatness,
holiness, old age (wisdom). Among the Huns, which are
considered to be the ancestors of the
Turks, it also meant power and justice. The
aristocratic elite during the war wore white clothes and rode horses of the sacred white colour. (A nice example for this is the entry of the conqueror of
Constantinople Fatih Sultan Mehmet into the conquered city on a white horse).
The hats and flags of
the nobility were white. As already
mentioned above, white was a symbol of the west.
In this regard, Cevad Heyet puts forward a hypothesis that the Turkic name of the Mediterranean “Akdeniz”
(lit. “The White Sea”) is not random (Heyet 50).
Since ancient times, white has been considered the colour of good, and black has been the colour of evil. In the mythology of
Altaic Turks, Ak Ata (lit. “White Father”), like Adam, was the forefather of the mankind. In the Oghuz
Turks’ epic stories (“Oğuz Destanı”), Ak Han
(lit. “White
Khan”) is an alegitimate ruler of noble
descent. In contrast, Oghuz’s father Kara
Han (lit. “Black
Khan”) is presented as a cruel man opposed to Islam. The binary opposition “white/black” is
also reflected in the opposition “nobility (ak kemik)/common people (kara kemik)”. In the myths of the Altai and Northern Turks White Shamans (Ak Şamanlar) brought iron from the heaven to the earth. In the “Book of Dede Korkut” the white colour of the
house and the tent means happiness and good luck.
There is a remarkable hypothesis of the famous leader of the Turkish people
Mustafa Kemal Pasha Ataturk as for the word “ak” (white). Taking as a basis the theory of an Austrian linguist Herman
F. Kvergić,
according to which all the languages arose from the exclamations of a person watching
the nature, Turkish linguists, inspired by Ataturk, created their “Sun Language Theory”. Proceeding from the fact that the main cult of the ancient people was the cult of the Sun, and the sound “a” was the simplest sound of human speech, they declared the word “ag” to be the initial word for all the languages of the
world, the derivative of which was the word “Aryan” (ag + er), and
thereby set the connection between the Turks and Aryans.
Black (kara) in the Turkic culture had a number of opposite meanings. Using the example of phraseological units we can trace some negative connotations that people have inclosed in this colour: kara günler (black days), kara
bayram (a mournful day), kara
haber (bad news), kara yüzlü (an unscrupulous man), aralarından
kara keçi geçti (lit.
a black goat crossed between them - their relations have deteriorated). However, in
addition to negative connotations, Habysheva
distinguishes the following
metaphorical meanings of the word “kara” in the Turkic
anthroponymy: large, major, powerful, strong, formidable, fearsome (Habysheva 7). For example, high, majestic
mountains are called often Karadağ
(lit. Black Mountain).
Another major colour in the worldview of the
Turkish people is red. It was believed to be the colour of the rulers and
the colour that brought good luck. The Turks
had two words for it: al and kızıl. In the
Turkic onomastics al is used more widely. Its material matches are fire and
roof. The ancient Turks had a cult of the god of fire, which was called Al Ruhu (Red Spirit) or Al Ateş (Red Fire). Reşat Genç believes that the use of red flags in the ancient Turkic states is also a reflection of this cult (Genç 2). Thus, red was a symbol of strength, aggression and excitement. In the
Turkic mythology the eyes of heroes were red. As Ekici states, red was considered sacred in
the Turkic culture, proving this by the fact that the
ancient Turkmen wore red
hats (that is the part of the clothes
which is the closest
to the sky and to the gods), as well as by the
fact that nowadays in some dialects the word “al” preserves the meaning of “great”, “higher”, “omnipotent” (Ekici 104).
Red is also the
colour of the Sun – heavenly
fire, a source of power and energy. When the
sun rises and sets, it colurs the sky red – «ğöğün kızıllığı».
The time of sunset and dawn was a sacred time when the Turks prayed. In the
Turkish traditions red for a girl is a
colour of happiness and maturity, as well as the colour of a wedding room for newlyweds. In “The Book of Dede Korkut” the bride and the groom
wear a red dress (“Stories of Dede Korkut”).
The word “gök” stands in the Turkic languages as
a determinant of blue, the semantics of which also included the
meaning of green (göğermek – “to green”). As Berlin and Kay note: “To a group whose members have frequent occasion
to contrast fine shades of leaf colour and who possess no dyed fabrics,
colour-coded electrical wires and so forth, it may not be worhwhite to
rote-learn labels for gross perceptual discrimination such as green/blue,
despite the phsycophysical salience of such contrasts” (Berlin\ Kay 16).
The ancient Turks worshiped the god of the sky (Gök Tanrı), as a result blue obtained connotations “great”, “elevated”. The researcher of Turkic
mythology Bahaeddin Ögel points out that in the myths
the face of the saint people had a blue colour, the face of good people – white, and
that of bad people – black. Moreover, Gök Boru
or Bozkurt (Blue Wolf) which was described
in the epic “Oghuz Khan” and was believed to have shown the Turks the road to their new homeland, was
sent by the god of heaven or was the god itself, embodied in the body of a wolf (Ögel 111-112). Later, the blue colour gained the connotations of maturity and experience.
As we see from the table, the word “yeşil”, which indicates green, is not a productive component of the
Turkish anthroponyms. The only name that contains it is a feminine name Yeşil, which is
the name of the colour
itself. In the Turkic tradition green colours were a symbol of nature, youth and
life. The word “yeşil” does not occur in “The Book of Dede
Korkut”, the word “gök” is used instead of it. However, in later works this word is mentioned quite
often. As we know, the green colour during the Islamic era
also gained some spiritual significance and became the colour of the Prophet Muhammad’s lineage.
Yellow (sarı) had ambiguous
semantic connotations in the Turkic culture. As Reşat Genç points out, the golden hue of the yellow colour (altın sarısı) embodied wealth, reign, scholarship, center of the
world (Genç 3). In the time of Gennghis Khan, yellow became a symbol of statehood; the headquarters of Batu Khan was called Sarı
Ordu, which later was transformed into Altın Ordu (Golden Horde). The name of the Altai Mountains (Altay), which are considered sacred
among shamans, comes from two words altın
– “golden” and tay (tağ / dağ) – “mountain”.
On the other hand, in the Turkic epics yellow was a symbol of illness and misfortune. In the Turkic fairy tales a yellow dragon embodied suspicion and bad feelings (Heyet 5), and fairy-tale heroes, in order to prove their
strength and courage, had to fight with this
animal. However, yellow was often used in descriptions of nature and spring
flowers.
Colour terms like boz (gray, grayish brown, colour of
soil) and kır (light gray, dirty
white) make up components of 8% of Turkish personal names, and these terms can
be found in old Turkic epics (Akkaya 529). The wide use of such “non-basic”
colours in the Turkic language can be explained by the fact that for a long period
of time the Turks were nomadic people and used these colour terms to denote
horses’ coat colour – roan (kır) and bay (boz). The horses with the coat colour
of ak-boz were important in the
Turkic culture, they were ridden by military commanders and thought to be
sacred (Akkaya 531). This once again proves that colour terms can be cultural
markers and to some extent disproves the hypothesis of Berlin and Kay about the
basic colours, which are similar for all the nations in the world.
Semantics of colour terms in Turkish personal names
Among the Turkish anthroponyms, which include the word “ak”/ “ağ”, the most numerous group is personal names where the second component is a name of a nature object such as rock (kaya,
dağ), water (su), stream (sel), stone (taş), fire (alev), moon (ay), iron (demir, timur), cloud (bulut),
wind (yel), sea (deniz), branch (dal), sun (güneş), etc. For example, Akay,
Akkor, Akpolat, Aksel, Aktaş, Aksu, Ağçelik, Aktimur, Akdağ, Akyel, Akduman,
Akdeniz, Akbaşak, Akdal. That is, the word “ak” here states the white (light) colour of the objects (Akay, Akduman, Akbulut, Akgüneş), or imparts the connotation of purity (Aksel, Aksu, Akkor, Akdal). The second largest group is a group of anthroponyms, which mean an “honest, pure-hearted person”. They are also composed names that
have a component which denotes a person, his moral qualities or a part
of a human body: man (man), hero (alp,
batur), warrior (er), can (can), self (öz), maturity (ergin), hand (el),
forehead (alın), voice (ses). For example, Akcan, Aköz, Akergin, Akersan, Akalp, Akbatur, Akman, Akmaner, Özakay,
Akata, Akel, Akalın. There are also many anthroponyms that reflect a noble lineage,
nobility of the family. The components of these names are words denoting different titles (han, bek, giray), as well as words like family (soy), mister (bay), glory (un, san), name (ad). For
example, Akbay, Akbek, Akgiray, Aktekin,
Aksoy, Akersoy, Akunal, Akad, Akadlı. We can
also single out a group of anthroponyms where the
word “ak” means “bright”, “happy”: Akgün, Akmut, Akşit, Akgüner. The word
"ak" can also denote a light colour of skin: Akdoğan, Akdoğmuş, Akça. It should be noted that in feminine names
white is mostly used to emphasize the
physical or spiritual beauty and purity of a girl (Akpınar (Pure Source), Akyıldız (White Star), Akgüneş (White Sun), Akipek (White Silk), Akgül (White Rose), Akses (Pure Voice), Akcan (Pure
Soul), Akkız (White Girl)) or is used to wish happiness: Akgüngör (lit.
see the light day), Akkutlu (white + joyful), Akmutlu (white + happy).
Personal names with the colour term “kara” are fewer, and they occur only in the names of men and mean “big”, “fearsome” (Karahan,
Karabey, Karatay) or “dark-skinned” (Karaalp, Karayağız, Karaca, Karacan, Karacaoğlan).
As already mentioned above, in the ancient Turks’
tradition red was a symbol of fire
and blood, that is, aggressiveness, fearlessness and heroism, which is
reflected in the names with the lexeme “al”: Alkan (Red Blood), Alkın (Red Sheath), Alkor
(Red Fire), Aldemir (Red (Hot) Iron).
Taking into account that red was also a
sacred colour and the colour of the rulers, we
can distinguish a group of personal names with this meaning: Alhan
(Red Khan), Alsan (Red Glory), Altuğ (Red Tug (Banner)), Aldoğan (Born of Red). Another group of anthroponyms with the lexeme “al” are names with a component which denotes natural phenomena, that emphasize a person’s beauty (this is especially true for women’s names): Algün (Red Day), Altan (Red Dawn), Özaltan (Red Dawn Itself), Altaner (red dawn + warrior), Algül
(Red Rose), Almıla (Red Apple), Özal
(Red in its Essence),
Altuna (red
Danube). The anthroponym Alsaç (Red Hair) is the
only one that describes appearance.
The lexeme “gök” conveys two concepts: it denotes the blue colour and the sky. Among the personla names that contain this component, we can distinguish a group of names, the second component of which is a natural phenomenon: leaf, lightning (berk), branch (dal), sea (deniz), stream
(sel), water (su), stone (taş), mountain pass (bel),
dawn (tan), etc. In these examples,
the word “gök” denotes the colour of an
object or phenomenon (blue or green) or emphasizes its
beauty. For example, Göğen, Gökbel,
Gökbelen, Gökberk, Gökdal, Gökdeniz, Göksel, Göksu, Göksun, Göktaş, Göktuna,
Gökşin, Göktan, Göktunç. When analyzing the semantics
of blue in the ancient Turks’ tradition, we found out that it had connotations like “higher”, “great”, “holy”. Proceeding from this, we can distinguish a group of anthroponyms, the
second component of which contains the title of a
ruling person (bay, bey, han, tekin)
or the name of a nation of divine origin (Hun, Türk): Gökbay, Gökbey,
Gökşen, Göktekin, Göktuğ, Gökhun, Göktürk.
In combination with the words like man (men),
warrior (alp), warrior (er), soul
(can), in addition to the meaning “hero” the name also obtains the connotation “a light-skinned and blue-eyed man”: Gökalp, Gökbaran, Göker, Gökmenalp, Gökçer,
Gökcan. The same
connotation is found in the names which mean tones of blue: Gökçe,
Gökçen, Gökçin, Gökşin.
One more group includes the names in which
the lexeme “gök” means “sky” and
which are related to heavenly objects or phenomena: Gökada (Galaxy), Gökhan
(Ruler of the Sky), Gökseven, Göksever (one, who loves the sky), Gökben (lit. sky + me), Göksen
(lit. sky + you).
Above we found that the yellow in the Turkic culture obtained some negative connotation, but at the same
time it had a positive meaning when describing nature and flowers. Therefore, names with the colur term “sarı” are few, and they are
mostly feminine
names-descriptions of natural objects: Sarıyıldız
(Yellow Star), Sarıgüzel (yellow +
beautiful), Sarıgül (Yellow Rose), Sarıçiçek (Yellow Flower).
Another small group includes anthroponyms with the lexeme “ala” – “light-chestnut colour”, “variegated”. They are also mostly feminine names-descriptions of
natural phenomena and objects: Alatan
(Dawn), Alapınar
(Colourful Spring), Alanur (Colourful Beam), Ala
(Variegated), Alaca
(Colourful), Alagün
(Cloudy Day).
The colour term “Kır” can be found in
four Turkish masculine names: Kırhan,
Kırbay, Kırtay and Kırboğa, where
this lexeme indicates the colour of hair – grayish white. Boz is found in 13
masculine names and has a meaning of “garay, grayish brown, colour of soil”: Bozdemir, Bozyel, Bozdağ, Bozyiğit etc.
I can suggest that, being at the same time the name for equine coat colour,
these colour terms, used in personal names, get an additional connotation of “a
warrior”, “a rider”, “a brave man”. This is confirmed by the meaning of the
second component of the name: dağ
(mountain), yiğit (brave), tay (foal), boğa (bull), demir (iron), etc.
A masculine name Bozkurt needs a special mention. Bozkurt
was the main totem of the ancient Turkic tribes and was considered a national
symbol since the time of the Huns till the Ottoman Empire.
The first written mention of the
colour term çakır occurs in Divan-i Lugat-it Türk (1070) by Mahmut
Kashgarli, where it is used in the meaning of “blue-gray, eye colour”, which is
relevant today too. Among all the names we have found only three masculine
names with this colour term: Çakır (blue-gray
eyed), Çakırbey (blue-gray eyed lord), Çakırer (blue-gray eyed worrier).
Lexemes beyaz, pembe, mor and mavi
are borrowings from Arabic, Persian and Greek languages in the later
period of the Turkish language’s development, and we can see that personal
names, containing these colour terms, are quite few. Basically, these are
feminine names. The colour here does not have any symbolic meaning, but conveys
the connotation of beauty and youth, which is clearly seen in the second
components of these names – “gül” (rose) and “ay”
(moon): Morgül, Gülbeyaz, Pembegül,
Gülpembe, Moray. Also names with these colour terms may reflect some
physical characteristics of a woman (blue or light blue eyes): Mavi, Maviş, Mavisel.
Colour terms in modern Turkish nicknames
On the basis of the results of
Turkish scholars’ researches on modern nicknames in different regions of Turkey
(Özkan), (Oğuz, Oğuz), (Kaya), (Erol) it appeared that about 13% of the
nicknames under analysis contain colour terms. The most popular colour words
are kara (black), ak (white), sarı (yellow)
and gök (mavi). Meanwile, colour
terms like yeşil (green), mavi (blue), kır (light gray, canescent, grayish white), çakır (blue-gray), ala (light
brown; variegated), kızıl (kırmızı), pembe (pink) are used less. It is
remarkable, that even nowadays Turkish people in small towns and villages use
the traditional lexemes kara (gara), ak, gök and kızıl, like in
old Turkic personal names, instead of modern words siyah, beyaz, mavi and kırmızı to denote black, white, blue and red respectively.
The Turkish investigators in their
papers give the explanation why people use this or that colour word when naming
each other. And it turns out, that nowadays colour terms have lost their
symbolic meaning, reflected in the mythopoetic picture of the world of the
ancient Turks, and are mostly used to denote a colour in a person’s appearance
– colour of his hair, moustache, beard, eyes, skin etc. Kara states for dark skin or hair, sarı for blond hair and light skin, mavi and gök for blue
eyes, kızıl for red hair. Colour
terms and their derivatives formed by suffixation can be used by themselves: Mavi, Sarı, Yeşil, Gökçe, Kızılca,
Karaca, Akça, Maviş. However, in most cases, colour terms attribute a person’s name: Gara
Osman, Gök Ali, Ak Mehmet, Sarı Hayri, Çakır Hüseyin.
Colour terms can also be used in a combination
with:
- kinship terms: Gök Kız, Gök Oğlan,
Karadayı, Karadayıoğlu, Karaoğlan;
- words denoting a person: Kara Yiğit,
Gökmen;
- terms of social status: Yeşil Ağa, Sarı Bey, Akkoca;
- parts of a human
body: Garagaşla (Karakaşlar),
Garabıyıkla, Ak kaş, Karabacak, Karabaş, Kara göz, Kara kaş, Kızılbaşoğlu, Gara
Sakal, Gırbaş, Alabaş;
- names of profession: Gara Öğretmen;
- names of animals and plants: Gara Bakla, Bozkurt, Karaşahin.
In
this paper I do not
take into consideration nicknames formed on the basis of a person’s place of
birth, like Akdereli, Aksazlı, Akyalı,
Alaağaçlı, Akhisarlı, Akşehirli,or a celebrity’s personal name,
like Gara Daşak, Garaböce, Karayel.
Concept of colour in modern Turkish
nicknames is also expressed by such lexems like Arap and Kurt for dark skin: Arap Şikilop, Kurt; and kına
(gına) for red: Gına Bıyık
(red moustache).
Conclusion
Our analysis showed that colour
terms, in addition to designation of colour itself, have certain cultural and
historical connotations. It can be clearly seen in personal names, formed in
the ancient Türkic period, when each of the base colours had a profound symbolic
meaning. Today, as we can see on the example of modern nicknames, colour terms
in a personal name mostly have a direct meaning but add some emotional
connotations and are used to indicate the features of a person's appearance.
Both in ancient times, and in modern Turkish society the following colour terms
are actual: ak
(white), kara (black), al (red), gök (blue), sarı (yellow), ala (light brown; variegated), boz (gray, grayish brown, colour of soil), kır (light gray, dirty white), çakır (blue-gray eye colour). Beyaz
(white), pembe
(pink), mor (purple) and mavi (blue), being borrowed words from other languages, are quite few.
It should be said that Berlin and
Kay’s theory regarding colour universals is not entirely plausible with regard
to the Turkish language, as in the early periods of the development of the
Turkish language we can see not only the basic 11 colour terms, that they
singled out (although, of course, black, white, red and blue are of primary
importance in the ancient Turkic culture), but also such colours as boz, kır, ala. The name reflects only
the most significant and important realities and events for the people,
therefore the presence of such colour terms as boz, kır, ala in personal names indicates their importance and is
specific for the culture of the nomadic Turks, that, as we suggest, is related
to the earth and animal breeding. However, Berlin and Kay’s hypothesis about
the evolution of colour terms related to the historical development of language
is confirmed by our research.
In modern Turkish, we can see more
colours and more words for their reference, including borrowed words, such as kırmızı, beyaz, siyah, mavi, which almost supplanted the Turkic
terms in the literary language. However, as we can see on the example of modern
Turkish nicknames, the traditions of the use of old Turkic terms are preserved
among the people in small towns and villages.
Turkish anthroponyms with colour words are generally two-component words, the first component of which
is a colour lexem which has descriptive or evaluative characteristics
(sometimes in combination with the words öz,
tunç, gün, and tan, the colour lexeme may be placed at the end of the word, for example, Özaltın, Tanaltan, Özal, Tunçal, Günal).
Single-component names are words, denoting the colour itself or its hues: Akca, Alaca, Gökçe, Yeşil,
Mavi;
All the anthroponyms with colour terms have a positive meaning, although the colours that are included in them, may have some negative connotations (for example, sarı (yellow) and kara (black));
The most important colours in the Turkish culture are ak (white), gök (blue), kara (black) and al
(red).
Two personal names contain a combination of two colours: Akal, Aksarı.
By their
lexical meaning all the Turkish personal names with colour terms can be divided into the following groups: 1) names
that represent natural phenomena; 2) names that reflect a person’s high position in society and his nobility; 3) names that reflect the external and internal
beauty of a person, his positive qualities. Positive qualities for
men are heroism, strength, courage,
reflected in such
lexemes like demir,
taş, alp, batur, er, tunç; positive qualities for women are beauty, tenderness, purity, reflected in the lexems ipek, pınar, başak, nur, gül. However, in modern nicknames colours are generally used to denote a
person’s apperence – colour of hair, eyes, beard etc.: Kızılbaş, Karakaş, Sarı, Maviş.
In two- and three-component personal
names all the colour lexemes can be combined
with the words er, alp, can, öz, tan, taş, tunç, demir,
deniz, sel, su, Tuna, bey, bay, han, indicating their significance for the Turks, that requires more detailed
research.
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