On the Medical Texts Written in Old Anatolian Turkish

Abstract

Old Anatolian Turkish contains rich examples of Turkish medical terms. Although the language of science during this period was Arabic, most of the medical texts were written in Old Anatolian Turkish or in pure Turkish. The reason for this seems to be that since medicine is one of the basic sciences dealing directly with individuals so that although dominant language for sciences of the period was Arabic, medical texts were mostly written in Turkish or translated from Arabic or Persian into Turkish to be understood by laymen. Therefore, the language of medical texts of the period provides us with invaluable source to get insights about historical characteristics of Turkish. Additionally, the other texts related to medicine have similar linguistic pattern, and these texts present a rich source of lexical items. Thus, medical texts and other related texts are significant sources for the studies on Turkish. Despite their importance, there is no dictionary concerning the Turkish medicine language. This study deals with the references that can be used to analyse the lexical items in the medical texts and provides examples of the lexical items used in medical texts written in Old Anatolian Turkish.