Türkçede “Tengri / Tanrı” Kavramı Bir Örtmece Midir?

Abstract

In almost every language, there are unwelcome words that arouse disgusting or fear to people. These words are mostly of taboo origin and are prohibited words that are unpleasant to use. Instead of such negative associative words, other words that evoke positive emotions in people are used. These words, which are used in place of bad associative words, are called “euphemism” or “beautiful naming.” People sometimes worry about saying the name of the being they respect so much. This situation arises from a mixed feeling of respect and fear. Societies sometimes resort to “euphemism” in order to get rid of the burden given by the real names of supreme beings. One of the beings that reflect respect and fear together are “God” and extraordinary beings. For this reason, many societies either use another word instead of God's real name, or speak of God without saying his name. In many societies “God” and “heaven” (the upper being) are used interchangeably as “synonymous” with each other. One of the oldest known words in Turkish is “tengri”. This word was used in ancient times to mean both “sky” and “God”. In this study, we discussed whether the word “tengri”, which means both “sky” and “God”, which we have come across since Old Turkish, is euphemistic (beautiful naming).

Authors

Ferhat KARABULUT, Yusufhan GÜZELSOY

Keywords

God, Tengri, euphemism, beautiful naming, Turkish.

Publication Information

Volume , Issue 3, 2020

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