Habibe Ersoy

Comparative Vocabulary of Bashkir and Turkish Religious Beliefs:
Sample of Surah Yasin

(62nd Meeting Friedensau, 2019)

Although vocabulary has been commented on differently by different researchers, it is generally defined not only as the signs created by some sounds coming together in the language, but as the expression of that society’s world of concepts, material and spiritual cultures and world-view as these signs are the reflections of the life of that society. As belief systems have a very important place on people, society, culture and states, they have also a significant role in the vocabulary of languages. The words constituting the vocabulary of any language regarding its religious belief may sometimes come from own history of that language while they may sometimes be borrowed from other languages through various ways. In any case, the vocabulary of religious belief like the phenomenon of religion is one of the significant reflectors of its own society and culture from past to present. The vocabulary of religious belief presents different point of views especially in the comparison of various vocabularies of languages originating from the same root. On the other hand, the vocabulary is a factor taking shape in accordance with political, social, cultural and religious conditions of its own society, and it also develops and changes depending on the change of all abovementioned conditions. Both Bashkortostan and Turkey are Islamic countries. Political, social and cultural conditions of these two languages, originating from the same root, did not make progress in a similar manner. The sample of Surah Yasin was selected for this paper, which aims at investigating how above-mentioned differences of these two languages, originating from the same root, were reflected in the religious vocabulary. Therefore, revealing what kind of similar and different words were preferred and used in the Quran translations of both languages will uncover the similar and different aspects of two languages concerning their expression of power and other fields. It was aimed in this paper that this comparison made between these two languages within the scope of Surah Yasin will give information about the general vocabulary of belief.