ON THE HISTORY OF RESEARCH INTO THE LEXICON OF THE GAGAUZ LANGUAGE

Abstract

When studying any language, it is essential to consider the history of its linguistic research. Examining the history of research into the Gagauz language’s lexicon enables us to trace the developmental directions of its lexicology. As a member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family—alongside Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Turkmen—the Gagauz language has been studied primarily in terms of the origins of its vocabulary. While its lexicon is predominantly composed of Turkic-origin words, it also contains a significant number of loanwords from Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Greek, Arabic, Persian, English, French, and other languages.
The first scholarly work on the lexicon of the Gagauz language is N.K. Dmitriev’s article titled On the Vocabulary of the Gagauz Language, written in the early 1950s. This article focused on the borrowed lexical items in Gagauz. The author examined the etymology of the core Turkic vocabulary used in the early 20th century and concluded that the majority of Gagauz words are of Turkic origin. He classified the loanwords in the Gagauz language into three groups according to their sources: Greek, Romanian, and Slavic.
A review of the research history on the Gagauz lexicon reveals a primary focus on borrowed vocabulary. The onomastic system of the Gagauz language has also attracted scholarly attention. The earliest studies in this area emerged in the early 1970s. S.S. Kuroglu conducted research on personal names in the Gagauz language. His findings show that most Gagauz names in contemporary usage are derived from the Christian calendar and originate from Ancient Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.
Studies on the vocabulary of the Gagauz language began in the second half of the 20th century and continue to the present day.