SUMERIAN - TURKISH COMPARISON LIST

(WITH 200 CONCEPT GROUP ENGLISH WORDS)

by

Polat Kaya

(Part 5 of 5)

NOTES:

1. "u" has been widely used in Turkish literature as a word corresponding to the word "and". It might be considered by some as a loan word into Turkish from Persian. Although it is not clear who got this word from whom, however, in our view, it is a Central Asiatic word which has migrated into Persian: a) by way of Sumerians and/or 2) by way of other Central Asiatic peoples such as Sakas, Huns, Turks who ruled the Persian land mass many times and each time for very long durations of time throughout the known history. So, in Persia there were a lot of interaction between Central Asiatic Turkish peoples and Persians throughout the hystory. During these times of interactions, there have been linguistic and cultural borrowings between the two ethnic groups.

2. Sumerian "pa" is reported to mean the "top", the "upper part of a tree", "the upper part of a bird", "supervisor", "chief" and "coming from upper sides" [AZ, 223]. If this definition is correct, then we would have direct correspondence for it in Turkish. The Turkish version of this Sumerian word would be as follows: "bas^ = head"; "the upper part of a bird" is 'bas^'; father "apa" in Turkish is a supervisor of a household as well as the chief of the family. So evidently Sumerian "pa" and Turkish "bas^ are related to each other. Probably the earliest form of Turkish "bas^" was also "pa". This we can se from the Turkish word "tepe" meaning hill, mountain top, top of the head and figuratively, someone above others. In Turkish, there is also the saying of "dag~ bas^i" meaning "mountain top". If we want to synthesize this two words in old Turkish, we would need to put together the Turkish word "tau (dag~) = mountain" and the word "bas^ = pa". Thus we would have {tau+pa ----> taupa ----> tapa} which is exactly the Turkish word "tepe" in form and meaning, thus, meaning "mountain top" or hill. When one looks at a mountain chain at a horizon, "mountain peaks" will look like "small hills = tepes" with respect to the main bodies of the mountains. So Turkish word "tepe" fits well to these two different but similar concepts. Let us now consider the Turkish word "apa" meaning "father". If we use the same approach to its synthesis as we did for the word "tepe, one could say that "father is the "head of a house', "father" is a "supervisor" and "father" is the "chief" in the house and hence we would have {a + pa} where the Sumerian word "e" is "house" and "pa" is "top". The Turkish word for "house" is "ev" the very ancient version of which was probably "e" or "a". When we put them together, we have {(ev+bas^) ----> (e + pa) ----> (a+pa) ----> apa = father}. Again we see that we have a likely explanation for Turkish word "apa" having total affinity to the Sumerian words "e = house" plus "pa= top".

3. The concept inbedded in the words "bud", "leaf" and "sprout" have one aspect in common to them all which is they all develop at the tip of the branch of a tree or plant. So Sumerian "pa" meaning "top", as also suggested by the Turkic words "tepe" and "apa", seems to be a fitting interpretation of the Sumerian sign for this word.

4. For Central Asiatic people, whose economy in ancient times was based on herds of sheep, cattle, horse and other herbivorous animals, lamb and/or sheep, i.e., Sumerian "udu for sheep and Turkish "kuzu" for lamb, was one source of meat. This culture, i.e., using "lamb meat" for their meat intake, has been carried on to the present times by Turkic peoples.

5. In Turkish, change from d to y is very common. Because of this type of consonant changes, some Turkic dialects are classified as d group and some others as y group, eg. adak versus ayak meaning "foot",[TDEK2].

6. The word "mar" for snake, serpent is used both in Turkish and Persian. Some would claime it as a Persian loan word in Turkish. Who got the word from whom is not certain.

7. In archaic Turkish, there is the -en, -an suffix used as suffix for plural. A good example of this is in the Turkish word "er-en" meaning "men, soldiers, brave men". When the 3rd p. s. pronoun o or when it is in the form of an, en receives the plural suffix -an or -en, we get 'an+an' or 'en+en' form which would correspond to the present form 'onlar'. Thus the archaic form en-en or an-an of this Turkic word would be related to the corresponding Sumerian word 'e.ne.ne'.

8. If a Sumerian word starts with a vovel and ends with a consonant, i.e., in the format of VC, it is very likely that in the original Sumerian form, that word may actually ended in a vovel, i.e., having a VCV format whereby the final V was dropped when reading the Sumerian cuneiform writing, eg: us[u], ug[u]. Similarly, if a Sumerian word has been read in the CV format, it is likely that that word was originally in VCV format, but somehow the first vovel got dropped in the evolution of the Sumerian language or in the reading process of the Sumerian cuneiform writings.

9. In Sumerian pantheon "an" is the topmost god who created everything on the earth and in the sky. The underliying theme of this word is that "an" is the "mother creator" of everything. In view of this understanding, it seems that the Turkish word "ana" for mother is related to the Sumerian "an". It is reasonable to think that even during proto Sumerian times, "an" and "ana" not only were related but probably were the same word used for a number of differing meanings as indicated by the Sumerian word "an" and the Turkish word "ana". This again implies that the ancestors of Turks and the Sumerians were very closely related people, sharing a common culture in a homeland common to both of them. All indications are pointing to Central Asian steppes.

10. It seems that the Sumerian suffix -ag and Turkish suffix -ag or -ak have the similar meaning as suggested in the following examples: bar-ag vs otur-ak, or dur-ak.

11. In Turkish the saying "men menem" has two meanings; 1) 'I am myself, I do not resemble anyone else but myself; 2) 'I am my fate' which again means 'I represent my fate only' or 'I am the living representation of my fate'. In this Turkic saying, one gets the meaning of Sumerian "me" for fate. Therefore, there seems to be a kinship between the Sumerian word "mae = I", the Turkish word "men = I" and the Sumerian word "me" for fate.

12. As one interacts with the ground, one picks up dirt, "kir" in Turkish, which comes from the ground. Thus it seems that Sumerian word "ki" and Turkish word "kir", in addition to Turkic "KIR" = countryside, are related and coming from the same root word.

13. In Turkish the root word "kat" signifies "layers" of layered object in which layers are tied or attached together, eg. 'apartman kati' a floor of a building, 'ipin kati' a layer of a rope, 'kat' of any weaving eg. basket, socks, rug weaving, etc. In the case of rope, the layer threads are tied or hold together by twisting, "bükmek" in Turkish, them together. Thus the Turkish word "büküm" signifies a kind of tie or knot, i.e., "dügüm" in Turkish.

14. Turkish villager who raise sheep keep their herd in enclosed pens during winter. The waste of sheep in the pen is stepped on and pressed down by the sheep all winter long. In the spring time when sheep are let out, then the pressed sheep waste is cut and put out to dry. The dried waste is used for burning. These cut and dried waste bricks are called "kesek" or "kerme" or "tezek" depending on the local dialect of people using it.

15. This Sumerian word pronounced as abzu by some Sumerologist is written as zuab in its original Sumerian writing [JLHa], that is to say that the sign for zu is written before the sign for ab. Therefore, I feel that it should have been read as zuab rather than abzu. If these two signs written together as zuab stands for underground waters in Sumerian, then we have a correspondence between this Sumerian word and the Turkic word "su" for water. Why the order of the Sumerian words zuab has been changed to abzu is a mistery. This kind of arbitrary change alters the character of the word making the word Akkadian rather than Central Asian as written in its Sumerian form.

16. The ancient Turkic word for "sky" is "tang > tan". This is written in the form of "Tan" in "IRK BITIG" hand written Gök Türk manuscripts, [HNO,271, line 38. XXVI]. The Turkic words "tengri", tenger", "tengere", "tangara" and "tanri" which all come from the same root, initially must have consisted of the root words "tang" or "Teng" plus "er" plus "-i" meaning the "man of the sky/heaven" and hence "the God". These roots put together as (teng + er + i) ---> tengeri ---> tengri. The suffix -i is indicative of the accusative form of the Altaic word "tengri".

REFERENCES

ARAT ..... Resid Rahmeti Arat, "Makaleler, cilt I", Turk Kültürünü Arastirma Enstitüsü, hazirlayan: O. F. Sertkaya,

..... ..... ....Ankara, 1987.

AVG ....... A. von Gabain, Eski Türkçenin Grameri", Ceviren: Mehmet Akalin, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayinlari, 332,

..... ..... ....Ankara, 1988.

AYB1 ..... Azerbaycan Yurt Bilgisi, Cilt1, Sayi 1-12, Burhanettin Matbaasi, Istanbul,1932.

AYB2 ..... Azerbaycan Yurt Bilgisi, Cilt 2, Sayi 13-24, Burhanettin Matbaasi, Istanbul,1933. AYB3 Azerbaycan Yurt

..... ..... ....Bilgisi, Cilt 3, Sayi 25-36, Burhanettin Matbaasi, Istanbul,1934.

AZ ..... ....Andraz Zakar, "Sumerin-Ural-Altaic Affinities", Current Anthropology, vol. 12, No. 2, April 1971,

..... ..... ...p. 215-224.

FH ..... ....Fred Hamori : "100 word Hymes List"

FH2 ........ Fred Hamori : "Ural - Altaic Language Page"

IZEy ..... ..Ismet Zeki Eyüboglu, "Türk Dilinin Etimoloji Sözlügü", Sosyal Yayinlar, Istanbul, 1991.

IBML ..... Abdullah Battal, "Ibni-Muhenna Lugati", Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu, Türk Dil Kurumu

..... ........ Yayinlari: 9,Ankara, 1988.

JLHa ..... John L. Hayes, A Manual of Sumerian Grammar and Texts", Undena Publications, Malibu, 1990.

KTLS .....Karsilastirmali Türk Lehçeleri Sözlügü, Kültür Bakanligi /1371, kaynak Eserler Dizisi /54, Ankara, 1992.

UYAT .....Kurtulus Oztopcu, "Uygur Atasözleri ve Deyimleri", Dogu Türkistan Vakfi Yayinlari, Istanbul, 1992.

MiEl ...... Mircea Eliade, "Shamanism Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy", Bollingen Series LXXVI, Princeton University

..... ........ Press, 1974.

MuEr ..... Muharrem Ergin, "Bir Azeri Sairi Ahmet Bey", Azerbaycan Yurt Bilgisi, Cilt 4, Sayi 37, Burhanettin Erenler

..... ........ Matbaasi, Istanbul,1954, s. 18-21.

ODes ..... Oguz Hakan Destani, part of ARAT above, pages 605-672.

ONT ...... Osman Nedim Tuna, "Sümer ve Türk Dillerinin Tarihi Ilgisi Ile Türk Dilinin Yasi Meselesi", Atatürk Kültür,

..... ..... ...Dil ve Tarih Yüksek Kurumu, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayinlari : 561, Ankara, 1990.

PK ........ Polat Kaya, "A Study of the Lemnos Island Inscription: a preliminary report", ISBN 0-9696949-3-8, Ottawa,

..... ....... Ontario, Canada, 1977.

RDH1 ... "Türkçe-Ingilizce Redhouse Sözlügü", Redhouse Yayinevi, Istanbul, 1987.

RDH2 ... "Ingilizce-Türkçe Redhouse Sözlügü", Redhouse Yayinevi, Istanbul, 1980.

TDK ...... Türk Dil Kurumu, "Türkçe Sözlük", sayi 175, Ankara, 1959.

TDEL1 ... Türk Kültürünü Arastirma Enstitüsü, "Türk Dünyasi El Kitabi", Birinci Cilt, Cografya-Tarih, Ankara, 1992.

TDEL2 ... Türk Kültürünü Arastirma Enstitüsü, "Türk Dünyasi El Kitabi", Ikinci Cilt, Cografya-Tarih, Ankara, 1992.

ABT ....... Abdullah Battal Taymas, "Kazan Türkçesinde Ata Sözleri ve Deyimler", Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve Tarih Yüksek

..... ........ Kurumu, Türk Dil Kurumu Yayinlari : 275, Ankara, 1988

END OF 5 OF 5