A Comparative Study on Old Turkic and Yakut Vocabularies: Words Starting with Vowels

Yakut is one of the few languages that best preserve Proto Turkic or Old Turkic features. Compared to other Turkic languages, Yakut displays some more archaic features in terms of semantics, vocabulary, word formation and phonology. Many Old Turkic words survive in Yakut with their archaic semantics in the present day. This article is written in order to compare the vocabulary of Old Turkic to Yakut. Old Turkic data is limited to words whose initial sounds are vowels and in total, 60 words are examined in the study. The results of the study show that the Old Turkic words adg？rlan-, ad？n, anala-, argur-, a？ag, a？la- II, atla-, aytur-, ？dgül？-, ？dgür-, ？dgürt-, ？dl？？-, ？rgür-, erp？-, erp？g, erp？gl？-, erp？？-, erp？t-, ？d？？-, ？dtur-, ？ragu, igidtür-, irkl？-, irkl？t-, irt？？-, ogullan-, ortunk？, ？girt-, ？girtür-, ？gl？n-, ud？k, usak, üpl？n- and üz？ki survive only in the current vocabulary of Yakut out of all the Turkic languages. Moreover, it is proven that the Old Turkic words agruk, agtur-, alkan-, ar？g II, artak, asurt-, at？n-, ？k？？, ？mig, ？？ II, ？rl？n-, ？？- I, ？tl？n-, ？dala-, i？l？-, ilintür-, irt？-, ？？？？-, ？zl？-, ud？n-, urugla-, us？t-, uzlan-, ük？k, üpl？- and ütl？？- also survive in Yakut together with a few select other languages