On the Verb Balki- in the Book of Dede Korkut

Abstract

The Book of Dede Korkut has an important place in Turkish literature and is one of the monumental works that have managed to stay in the center of attention since the day it was discovered. In order to benefit from the work, which contains important information about the Oghuz Turks, a substantial number of attempts at reading and interpretating the work have been made. The etymology of the words in this epic has attracted attention in this context and been made the subject of many studies. The current study will discuss the verb balk- [to shine] passed in the D207/2 line in the Book of Dede Korkut. No consensus is seen to exist regarding the sources about the origin of the verb, which is also mentioned as bal ġi- and bal ġu- in the Gunbed manuscript of the Book of Dede Korkut. The word is not covered in many etymological dictionaries but is discussed in the Tietze and Nisanyan dictionaries. The first correct views on the verb balki- were put forward by Tietze, who associated the word with the word bark [lightning] of Arabic origin and argued it to have developed as barki- > balki- with the denominal verb suffix +i-. This study presents the morphological and semantic adventure of the word from the first texts to today's Anatolian dialects and attempts to reveal that Tietze's etymology needs to be corrected alongside the proofs for this. Thus, the study suggests that the word did not develop in Turkish as bark> barki- > balki-, as Tietze had stated, but developed as balk> balki- > barki- as the word was written as balk in earlier Turkish texts.