Lexical Analysis of a Seventeenth Century Chaghatay Treatise on Medicine

Károly László

Lexical Analysis of a Seventeenth Century Chaghatay Treatise on Medicine

(45th Meeting of the PIAC, Budapest 2002)

A great number of documents written in the Chaghatay literary language have come down to us, but only few of them deal with medicine. Therefore, the treatise of Subhān Qulï Muhammad Bahādur khan, who reigned in Bukhara from 1680 to 1702, is an important source for research into the Turkic lexicon.

As the treatise provides numerous lexical data concerning herbs, animals and diseases, my presentation aims at introducing this work with an emphasis on the following points:

  • First, the interference of the Arabic, Persian and Turkic lexical systems.
  • Second, examination of some problematic words of Turkic origin.