Prominent Stylistic Features in the Liturgical Texts of Manichaean Turkish Circle

Abstract

Manichaeism, which emerged in Mesopotamia in the 3rd century AD, was accepted as the official religion by the Turks in the 8th century and The doctrines of this belief system began to be written in Old Uyghur Turkish. These texts, which are evaluated in four main groups in terms of their subjects: Liturgical Texts, Ecclesiastical Texts, Doctrinal Texts and Literary Texts, were first unearthed as a result of archaeological studies carried out at the beginning of the 20th century; since then, studies other than archiving, cataloging and text publication have not been given due attention. This study is the product of a linguistic analysis made on all the fragments we could access of the Manichaean Turkish circle liturgical texts consisting of confessions, prayers and hymns. In the article, the stylistic features that are found to be prominent in terms of usage style and frequency, as a result of syntactic and semantic analysis, will be evaluated in general and at the level of sub-genres of liturgical texts.

Keywords

• Manichaeism
• Old Uyghur Turkish
• Liturgical Texts
• Linguistic
• Syntax
• Semantic

Manihaist Türk Çevresi Tören Metinlerinde Öne Çıkan Üslup Özellikleri

Abstract

MS 3. yüzyılda Mezopotamya’da ortaya çıkan Manihaizm, 8. yüzyılda Türkler tarafından resmî din olarak kabul edilmiş ve bu inanç sisteminin öğretileri Eski Uygur Türkçesiyle kaleme alınmaya başlanmıştır. Konuları bakımından Tören Metinleri, Tapınak Metinleri, Öğreti Metinleri ve Edebî Metinler olmak üzere dört ana grupta değerlendirilen bu metinler ilk olarak 20. yüzyılın başında yapılan arkeolojik çalışmalar sonucunda ortaya çıkarılmaya başlanmış; o zamandan bu yana arşivleme, kataloglama ve metin yayımı dışındaki çalışmalara gereğince yer verilmemiştir. Bu çalışma, tövbe, dua ve ilahilerden oluşan Manihaist Türk çevresi tören metinlerinin ulaşabildiğimiz tüm fragmanları üzerinden yapılan dil bilimsel incelemenin ürünüdür. Makalede, söz dizimsel ve anlam bilimsel inceleme sonucunda kullanım biçim ve sıklığı bakımından öne çıktığı tespit edilen üslup özellikleri, tören metinleri genelinde ve alt türleri düzeyinde değerlendirilecektir.

Keywords

• Manihaizm
• Eski Uygur Türkçesi
• tören metinleri
• dil bilimi
• söz dizimi
• anlam bilimi
• üslup özellikleri

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