Róna-Tas A. An introduction to Turkology

Szeged: Készítette a JATEPress, 1991. — 170 oldal. (Studia Uralo-Altaica 33) — ISSN: 01334239.The contents of this introduction had a long conception period. I tried to re- and reshape it since I begun teaching Turkology at the Attila József University, Szeged, Hungary, in 1974. I first outlined the basic contours of this variant in Bonn in the academic year 1982/83, when I tought there as a visiting professor in the Zentralasiatisches Seminar. Coming' back to Szeged I changed the language from German to English and used the draft for graduate courses. In the meantime I learnt that several of my colleagues were preparing similar introductions. I almost left my manuscript unfinished when I met some of these colleagues and realized that our approaches were basically different. I became convinced that our respective introductions would fit into a greater framework complementing each other. Thus I set myself to finish the work. Unfortunetely other inevitable duties have hindered me to complete the entire work. This volume is only the first of a series but does not bear this numeral because I am in this respect superstitious. The second volume is practically ready. It will contain the introduction to the sources in the Manichean, Sogdian, Uighur and Arabic scripts. These systems of writing were used to render Old Turkic texts. In a further part I intend to deal with those writing systems in which we find Old Turkic words, names and isolated phrases, such as Chinese, Pahlavi, Georgian, Armenian, Greek, Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew. In an Appendix I shall summerize our knowledge on the inscriptions written with the East European "Runic" script(s) wich I consider practically undeciphered. If space will allow I plan to add Syriac and Phagspaal though Turkic texts written in these systems pertain to the Middle Turkic period. Thus volumes I and II will offer a kind of graphematic and ortographic analyzis of Old Turkic. In Volume HI all loanwords from Old Turkic into non Turkic languages will be dealt with. Here the earliest Turkic layers in Mongolian and in the Uralic languages, among them of course Hungarian, will have our main attention. I hope very much that the three volumes will lay a solid foundation for a phonetic and a phonological analyzis of Old Turkic.Compiling this book I have tried to write for graduate level students of Turkology. I hope, however, that it will be useful for undergraduates, as well, presupposing a well qualified instructor. Perhaps some parts will be useful for non Turkologists in the adjacent fields.