(Istanbul University)
On Sanskrit Loanwords in Old Uyghur Texts
68th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, Bangkok 2026
Turkic speaking peoples have been in contact with Sanskrit literature and Buddhism since the 6th century. But most close and intensive contact began after the 9th century when Uyghurs moved from Mongolia and settled at Gansu and Xinjiang in today’s China or at the Silk Road. Sanskrit words borrowed in Uyghur through different “bridges” and in different eras (like Chinese, Sogdian and Tocharian). Some of them borrowed from Uyghur to Mongolian, even to Manchu. I will deal in my paper about the ‘adventure’ of Sanskrit words in Old Uyghur and in modern Turkic languages.
Mehmet Ölmez, “Über die Sanskrit- und Chinesisch-Kenntnisse der Uiguren”, Turfan, Khotan und Dunhuang. Vorträge der Tagung “Annemarie von Gabain und die Turfanforschung“, veranstaltet von der Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin (9.-12.12.1994) (ed.) R. E. Emmerick, W. Sundermann, I. Warnke u. P. Zieme, Akademie Verlag, 1996: 245-253.
Mehmet Ölmez, Eski Türkçenin Kısa Sözlüğü / Kurzgefaßtes Wörterbuch für Alttürkisch. Ankara, BilgeSu