Abstract
ABSTRACT: In the 1930s, historiography in Turkey underwent a massive shift. Among the primary interests that emerged as part of the new nationalist historical narrative were a fascination with the physical appearance and the language of the ancient Turks. This paper explores one specific connection between these two topics: the influence that racial anthropology exerted over historical linguistics. By using the speeches made at the First and Second Historical Conferences, and those documented from the first three Turkish Language Congresses, I identify the seeds that were sown for a racial linguistics. I track the evolution of arguments for a physiological basis to narratives about language development, and the eventual harvest of a clear view about the importance of skull types for histories of language. The paper ends with a brief look at the fates of those engaged in enunciating a racialist linguistics in Turkey.
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