Latvians, Were They Turks?

7/31/2019 Latvians, Were They Turks?

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Galina Shuke

Latvians, Were They Turks? (The Phenomenon of the Turkic Language Substratum in the

Baltics)

Contents

Introduction

1. The Hypothesis of the Origin of East European Substratum

1.1. The Role of Asia in the History of Europe

1.2. Who Were Ancient Inhabitants of Asia Minor?

1.3. Ancient Inhabitants of the Territory of Modern Latvia

1.3.1. Folklore Symbols Testify

1.3.2. Language of Ancient People on the Territory of Modern Latvia

2. Geographical Names of Turkic Etymology

2.1. Turkic Toponyms and Hydronyms on the World Map

2.2. Turkic Toponyms and Hydronyms of Latvia

2.3. Baltic Hydronyms on the Map of Europe, or ‘the Problem of Pan-Baltic’

3. The Discovery of Turkic Substratum in the Latvian Language

3.1. Ancestors, Gods, Names of People, Symbols3.2. Man, Earth, Water

3.3. Home, Parents, Holidays

3.4. Parts of Human’s Body, Things, Actions

3.5. Animals, Plants, Nature

3.6. Abstract Things

4. Turkic Grammatical Rudiment in the Latvian language

4.1. Phonetics

4.1.1 Changes in the System of Vowels

4.1.2. Changes in the System of Consonants

4.2. Word Formation

4.3. Morphology

4.4. Syntax

5. Turkic roots of the Russian language

5.1. Turkic Word-Forming Models in the Russian language

5.2. Turkic Origin of Russian Suffixes5.3. Phonetic Correspondences

6. Comparison of Substratum Lexis of the Latvian and Russian Languages



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6.1. Early Substratum Lexis of the Latvian language

6.2. Early Substratum Lexis of the Russian language

6.3. Similar Substratum Lexis of the Latvian and Russian Languages

6.4. Parallel Development of the Latvian and the Russian Languages on the Turkic Basis

6.5. Substratum Lexis of the Latvian Language of the Period of Demarcation6.6. Substratum Lexis of the Russian Language of the Later Period

6.7. The Conclusions Based on the Comparative Analysis

7. Polyethnonyms ‘Aesty’, ‘Slavy’, ‘Rusy’ and Other Ethnonyms

Conclusion

Introduction

The world’s languages, are they related and how? Scientists divide them into families and

groups, but haven’t found the common denominator yet.

What was the first language of humanity, that basic mother tongue? The answer to this question

seems to be the most important for solving the great number of linguistic mysteries.

Progressive scientists of the world develop the theory of monogenesis. According to this the

humanity is one and the same species, but human races are subunits within the species

subdivision that sprang as the result of human’s settling in different geographical zones of the

world. The theory of monogenesis proves that peoples rise from a common parental source and

their languages rise from the only ancestral language.

The Finnish linguist and ethnographer of the XIX century Mathias Alexander Castren hasexplored languages and ethnography of Finno-Ugric, Tunguso-Manjurian and Paleo-Asiatic

peoples and has composed grammars and dictionaries for twenty languages. He suggested the

theory of relationship of Finno-Ugric, Samodian, Turkic, Mongolian and Tunguso-Manjurian

languages. In the 1960-ties the Russian scientist V. M. Illich-Svitich analized similarities of

Altaic, Dravidic, Indoeuropean, Cartvel, Semitohamitic and Uralic language families. He

confirmed the scientific basis of the Nostratic theory that was proposed by the Dutch scientistH.Pedersen, who wrote: “The boundaries for the Nostratian world of languages cannot yet be

determined, but the area is enormous, and includes such widely divergent races that one becomes

almost dizzy at the thought. (...) The question remains simply whether sufficient material can be

collected to give this inclusion flesh and blood and a good clear outline.”1

The data given in V.M.Illich-Svitich’s works show that in each language family there are

dozens of elements that coinside with corresponding elements of other language families thathave been compared. Moreover, regardless of their distant relationship, most of the languages

preserve some of the most stable systems of morphemes of identical origin. (Иллич-Свитыч,

1964, 5)

If we study the map of the world we can be surprised at the great number of geographicalnames that sound and look alike. For example, in Russia there is a city in the region of a chain of

mills called Kemerovo. In Latvia we find a chain of health resorts on the coast of the Baltic Sea

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“Holger Pedersen (linguist)” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki (2010.22.03)



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one of them bearing the name Kemeri. On the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in Turkey there is

a resort town with the name Kemer.

The name of a tributary of the Dnieper is Tsna, the same name has the river of the Oka basin

Tsna.

The name of a town in the Perm region (Russia) is Usolye, we find the same name for a town

in the Irkutsk region in Siberia.Everybody knows the river Visla in Poland, but we find a river with the similar name Vizla

in Latvia.

Crimea is the name of the peninsula in the Black Sea. In Latvia there is a town with the

name Krimulda.

Being aware of language relationship we can try to look at the geographical names from a new

angle and try to decipher them with the help of the Turkish language.

In Turkish the word kemer means ‘a belt’, the word tıs - ‘hissing’, usul - ‘roots, ancestors,

forfathers’, Turkish vız means ‘buz, hum’, kırım – ‘slaughter, carnage, cutting (of a forest)’.

Why do we turn exactly to the Turkish language? What distinguishes it from other languages? What is unusual about it?

The Turkish language is one of the Turkic languages, the group that comprises more than 50

living languages.

Turcologists mark the old age of the Oghuz Turkic languages in particular. The name Oghuz

appearantly is made up of the words ak ‘white, grey’ and uz, the most ancient ethnonim of

Turkic tribes, and means ‘old and respectable Turks’. Compare it with the Turkic word aksakal

formed of the words ak ‘white, grey’, sakal ‘beard’ calling old men and bearing a sense of

politeness and respect. One of the most ancient Oghuz Turkic languages is Turkish.

In the Turkish language there is one and the same word‘Türk’ for both the terms ‘Turkish’and ‘Turkic’ that testifies to close relationship of the words.

The area of Turkic languages is extremely vast in its size and geography. Even nowadays wefind a people of East Europe that speak the Oghuz Turkic language and live alongside Slavic

peoples. They are Gök Turks, the Gagauz people. The languages of the peoples of Turkmen andTurkey are also Oghuz Turkic. It means that these peoples of Europe, Asia Minor and Central

Asia speak in closely related languages.

One cannot help being surprised at the ancientness of the Turk runic writing and the area of

its occurence. The Latvian geographer and journalist Juris Paiders writes that Turkic runes arefound all over East Europe and Central Asia. Scientists affirm that the resemblance between

Germanic runes (that gave birth to Scandinavian runic writing) and Turkic runes is striking(Paiders, 2003, 54 – 55).

Linguists prove the presence of Turkic stem morphemes and word-forming affixes in the

languages of the Baskques and American Indians, the languages of the Sumerians and Etruscans,

the ancient peoples whose contribution to the world culture is well known.

With the help of Turkic languages specialists managed to read the Glozel writing found in

France.

It is surprising that we can find Turkic root morphemes in the names of many peoples and

countries of the world. Compare the Turkish word eski ‘ancient’ and the ethnonym of the ancient

people of the world Eskimo, the word ırak ‘far, distant, remote’ and the name of the country

Iraq, the word uğramak ‘to call (at a place) and the name of the Ugric people, the verb

bürümek/bürütü ‘to clothe/clothed, to wrap/wrapped’ and the name of the Buryat people that



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live in Russia and in N. Mongolia as well, the word acar ‘energetic, fearless’ and the name of

the Ajar people of Georgia.

Impressive is the number and geography of mountain ranges of the world containing Turkic

stems: the Ands, the Alps, the Carpat, the Crimea, the Balkans, etc.

All the mentioned facts make us pay especially close attention to the Turkic languages in an

attempt to discover the first language of the humanity, its mother tongue.Having started studying the Turkish language, the author of the research came across an

astonishing phenomenon: many words of her native Russian language appeared to be originated

of Turkic stem morphemes. Studying the Turkish grammar gave awareness of Turkish word -

forming affixes and word-forming models that helped to understand the models used in word

formation of the Russian language. The knowledge of the Turkish affixes impelled the author to

pay attention to the meaning of numerous Latvian geographical names that cannot be explained

with the help of the Latvian language, though they can be easily deciphered by means of the

Turkish language.

The Latvian language is not the author’s mother tongue, nevertheless she has been teaching

it for many years. The look at the Latvian language through the prism of the Turkish languagerevealed deep links of the Latvian language with Turkish. The relationship of these languages

rises to those remoted times when the territory of modern Latvia released from ice and started to

get settled by humans. The discovery of Turkic roots of the Latvian language motivated the

author to conduct this research: to analyse the stages of the mankind’s development, to examinethe place of the origin of the human culture, to look at the time of people’s arrival on the eastern

coast of the Baltic Sea, to study the development of the men’s language and the connection of that language with the environment.

The discovery of the toponymes of Turkic origin on the territory of modern Latvia, the

elements of Turkic substratum lexis and common symbols of the Latvian and Turkic folklore

gave rise to the hypothesis of the birth of the Latvian language on the basis of Turkic on theterritory of modern Latvia in the period of Mesolithic. The Russian language that also has Turkic

basis started its development on the nearby territory around the same time. It took a lot of lexis

of the developing Latvian language, for a certain period was evolving beside it in a parallel way

and then followed its own way not losing its links with the Turkic language, when the Latvian

language lost its connection with Turkic, at a certain time, retaining just possibility to borrow

Turkic words from the Russian language.

The goal of the work is to show the Turkic roots of both the Latvian and Russian languages

and discover the stages of their development on the Turkic basis.

First of all we shall turn to the world history to trace the roots of the Turkic language, its place

in the history of the world languages, answering the question when and how the opportunity of the arrival of the Turkic language on the coast of the Baltic Sea could become possible and what

was the historical period when the forming and developing of the Latvian language on the Turkic

basis could happen. Then we shall have a close look at the geographical map of the world in

order to understand better the outstanding role of the Turkic language in the history of peoples

and languages of the world. After that we shall make the analysis of grammatical system of the

Latvian language in order to understand how the Latvian language could spring and develop on

the basis of the Turkic language. Turning to the Russian language we shall examin its connection

with Turkic. Revealing and comparing the stages of the development of the Latvian and Russian

languages we shall determine the grade of their relationship to one another and to the Turkic

language.

1. The Hypothesis of the Origin of East European Substratum



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Linguists state that in Indo-European languages of the territory of Europe there are elements

of non-Indo-European origin. That is, so called, substratum that leaves its imprints not only in

lexis, but in grammar structure of European languages as well.

Let’s turn to the history of the humanity in order to examin the circumstances and calculate

the time of appearance of substratum lexis on the territory of East Europe.

1.1. The Role of Asia in the History of Europe

The unique role of Asia in the history of Europe was ascertained long ago. The Russianhistorian and writer of the beginning of XIX century N. M. Karamzin says that the opinion that

Asia is the cradle of peoples seems to be fair as all European languages, regardless of the varietyof changes, continue keeping the similarities with ancient Asiatic (Карамзин,1995, 51).

Archaeological discoveries of recent years presume that the motherland of humanity is Africa,

though thanks to its geographical position and climate one of the centers of birth anddevelopment of human culture and its subsequent spread to other regions was Asia Minor. Therevolutionary stage of the history of humanity was the period of Neolithic. In Asia Minor it

ended several thousands years earlier than in Europe.

The period of Neolithic is the highest stage of the Stone Age that is characterized by new

technologies in making stone tools and producing articles of clay hardened by heat, the ceramics.

This stage is a transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and farming and consequently

to the settled lifestyle: permanent settlements, firmer dwellings, so-called country lifestyle.

The foundation of new, basically different economy was a long and complex process that had

independent and original character only in some centers of the world. According to the modern

data Europe didn’t belong to any of them, but it was situated close enough to one of them, WestAsian, the ancient centre of agriculture and farming.

1.2. Who Were Ancient Inhabitants of Asia Minor?

About the ancient inhabitants of Syria and Palestine the researchers tell us the following. The

Bible contains a number of dim memories about prehistoric tribes. The ancient inhabitants are

depictured now giants speaking a completely strange language, now spirits of dead. Sometimes

they are called more realistically as ‘cave people’. All of them are contrasted with the Jews and

Hananians, the later Semitic inhabitants (Удальцова З.В и др., 1988, 97).

In his monumental research work the famous turkologist M.Z. Zakiev gives a detailed

description of ancient areas of Turks, mentioning the names of ethnic groups inhabiting the areas

and explaining their names with the help of the Turkic language. As the most ancient region

inhabited by Turks the scientist names the regin of West Asia with a part of Asia Minor and

Caucasus. He points out that examining Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Urartu sources gave

opportunity to show the ancient history of West Asia in a new way. So the Azerbayjanian

linguist Firidun Agasioglu Djalilov having studied the above mentioned sources ascertains that

in IV-III millenniums BC between Assyria and Urartu, near the upper currents of the river Tiger,the Turkic speaking Subar (sub-‘river’, ar – ‘people’ that means ‘people of the river’) were

residing in. A little downstream the Turkic speaking Kuman, further on the Turkic speakingGutii and Lulu and on the southern shore of the Lake Urmia the Turkic speaking Turuki settled.



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Among these groups the Turkic speaking Kumug, Kashgay, Salur and other tribes were also

represented.

The existence of the Turkic speaking areas of West Asia and Asia Minor is also proved by the

geographical objects bearing Turkic proper names that were common names in ancient times.

M. Z. Zakiev reflects on the roots of the Sumerians, the people famous all over the world as

inventors of writing, creators of first civilization, etc.After Akkadian sources the region to the south of modern Bagdad was called Kienkir

(Kangar), there the Sumerians were residing in. The Sumerian people didn’t call themselves

‘Sumerians’, but ‘Kangars’. ‘Kangar’ is a Turkic ethnonym. The Kangars could live there before

the arrival of the Sumerians, or the Sumerians could be the Kangars themselves. If the Sumerians

were Turks in IV millennium BC they were undergoing assimilation living among Semitic

speaking Akkadians. In this case Turkic words of their language are not derivations, but Turkic

substratum, i.e. remains of the Turkic language, native speekers of which accepted the Akkadian

speech (Закиев, 2002).

The great number of Turkic tribes living in Asia Minor in IV-III millenniums BC, Turkic

toponyms and hydronims preserved in this area, mentioning of ancient non-Semitic inhabitantsof this region in the Bible allows us us to suppose that the language of the earliest inhabitants of

this area could be entirely Turkic.

1.3. Ancient Inhabitants of the Territory of Modern Latvia

Archaeological explorations of the territory of Latvia show that first people arrived there at theend of IX millennium BC. The remains of their staying were found near the old mouth of the

river Daugava. The anthropological phenotype of first inhabitants of the East Baltic region2

anthropologists describe as ancient Mediterranian of the south origin (Моора и др., 1959, II,146).

Archaeologists revealed two Mesolithic settlements that can be referred to VI millennium BC.

One of them was situated on the shore of Lake Burtnieku, near the mouth of the river R ū ja. Nearby, there is a Mesolithic burial-ground. Until now this is the only burial-ground that has

been found in the East Baltic region. The fact that red ochre was used there in burial rihtual is

very important, as it shows the roots of the first inhabitants’ culture. They lead to the burial-

grounds on the territories of Iraq and the Czech Republic, where red ochre was used already in

X-IX millenniums BC.

Not far from the Mesolithic burial-ground of Latvia there is a Neolithic burial-ground, too,

where red ochre was also used, though in smaller quantities.

On the territory of modern Latvia Neolithic sites were found alongside the Mesolithic ones.Archaeological discoveries prove the consecutive order in economic and cultural life of the

ancient people on the territory of modern Latvia. For example, first evidence of using harpoonrefers to the end of the Palaeolithic. In the period of Mesolithic the same kind of harpoon was

used by ancient people on the territory of modern Latvia. Fish-hook of the same kind occurred in

the Mesolithic and also Neolithic that is another evidence of this uninterrupted continuity.

The Mesolitic settlements on the territory of modern Latvia belong to the warm Atlantic periodwhen people’s settling on the coast of the Baltic Sea became possible. Historians state that about

VII millennium BC people of Europe acquired skills in making boats of hollowed out trees. At

that time the Baltic Sea was a huge basin of sweet water merging with a vast territory of swamp.

2The area of the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.



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Rivers flowing from the territory of the Carpat Mountains brought their water to the Baltic Sea.

Moving from one place to another people used rivers and settled not far from them.

Archaeologists confirm that people went to the dense woodlands by rivers.

The warm Atlantic period made people more active than they were in the previous climatic

period. Till the beginning of the Neolithic period the population of settlements on the territory of

modern Latvia meaningly increased.

The fragments and whole objects of ceramics found on the territory of modern Latvia testify

that the art of ceramics didn’t arise here. To the territory of Latvia it was derived from southwest

or southeastern regions, and there it was highly developed.

1.3.1. Folklore Symbols Testify

Symbolic depictions left by first inhabitants of the East Baltics on implements and then on

ceramics remind us tribe symbols of ancient Turks.

The depiction of comb is an element of ornament after which the comb-pit ceramics of the EastBaltics was called. The symbolic sign tarak ‘comb’ is one of the tribe symbols of ancient Turks.

Symbolic depiction of the eternity of the world and the sun in the ancient ornaments of Baltic

settlers is entirely identical to the symbolic signs of ancient Turks called bersh and baybakti.

The Turkic sign kocey, is depicted as a vertical line. The vertical line is an ancient symbol of

force and fortitude in Latvian ornamental drawings. The horizontal line known in Latvian

ornamental art from time immemorial as a symbol of constancy and peace reminds us of the

Turkic sign ‘bura’.

Latvian symbolic depiction of the sky and home absolutely coincides with the depiction of the

Turkic sign ‘cherkesh’.Known on the territory of modern Latvia since the Palaeolithic, the sign of light and fire,

energy and happiness depicted like a cross reminds us the ancient Turkic sign ‘bagana’.

The symbol of the sky, the universe, the God is known in Latvian ornamental art as an

equilateral triangle with the upward top. It is known to Turks as the sign ‘tumar’. The Turkic

sign ‘tumar’ depicted as a triangle with the downward top is known as a symbol of earth and

fertility in Latvian ornamental drawings.

Both the Turks and Latvians depicted the sign of ‘fire cross’ that is connected with four parts

of the world.

The sign depicted on sacred stones and later on articles of ceramics on the territory of modernLatvia reminds us two horses’ or cocks’ heads or twin cereal spikes. Since ancient times it has been known to both the Turks and Latvians as a symbol of fertility, wealth and happiness,

decorating roofs of dwellings.

1.3.2. Language of Ancient People on the Territory of Modern Latvia

Investigators of ethnic Anthropology of the Easy Baltic region find ethnic links of ancient

inhabitants of this territory with southern tribes of Europoids. They speak about the fact of pastexistence of multiple non-Indo-European peoples on the European coast of the Mediterranean

Sea, as well as in the North (e.g. Scotland) that makes them think of similar ethnic units in other



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parts of ancient Europe, for example, on the territory of the modern Baltics. The scientists mark

the influence of non-Finno-Ugric and non-Indo-European languages on the languages of the East

Baltics and nearby territories (Моo ра, 1959, II, 153 – 155).

We have already mentioned Sumerians, the people that takes a particular place in the forming

of knowledge and culture of Asia Minor. The Sumerians called themselves ‘Kangars’. ‘Kangar’is the name of an ancient Turkic ethnos of Mesopotamia. It permits scientists to suppose the

Turkic origin of the Sumerians that has been approved by the analysis of their language.

It is fascinating that in the geographical center of Latvia we find the name Kangarkalni that being translated from Latvian means ‘the mountains of Kangars’.

At some distance from the sea we find a chain of towns. One of them has the name Kangari.

Other names of this chain attract one’s attention by ending in – ži: Ainaži, Ropaži, Suntaži, etc.

Turning to the Turkish language we can see that with the help of the affix –ci [dΖi] and its

phonetic variants Turkic words for a man by his occupation, inclination, connection are formed.For example, in Turkish kundura means ‘shoes’, kunduracı ‘shoe-maker’, demir ‘iron’-

demir ci ‘blacksmith’. With the help of Turkish stem morphems we decipher the names of these

Latvian towns:

Ainaži: in Turkish aynacı means ‘one who makes or sells mirrors’. We must point outthat obsidian mirrors were produced on the territory of modern Turkey in VI millenium

BC(Маслийчук, 2006, 18).

Ropaži: in Turkish rop means “woman gown without sleevs”. Adding the affix -ci [ i] people could call woman gowns maker or seller;

Suntaži: sunta in Tukish means ‘fiberboard’, accordingly, its maker must be called

suntacı;

Limbaži: in Turkish the word limba means ‘barge’, with the help of –ci [ i] could be

called its maker or seller;

Kirbiži: in Turkish kırba means ‘waterskin’, it’s maker or seller must be called

kırbacı;

Allaži: the Turkish word allık/allığı means ‘rouge’, to make the name of maker/seller we

must add the affix –cı;

Pabaži: in Turkish pabuç – means ‘shoe’, pabuççu - ‘shoemaker, who makes and sellsshoes’.

İt can be surprising, but we really find out a number of towns that got their names due to

the things that were made or sold there.

We can’t explain by means of the Latvian language the names of places and other geographical objects on the territory of modern Latvia where the Mesolithic and Neolithic

settlements were found.

If we have a look at them through the prism of the Turkish language we can guess that

the name Osa, one of two Mesolithic settlements, initially could have the name Osı. The Turkicsound [1] could get transformed into [а]. The words ‘as, os’ are ancient Turkic ethnonyms

(Закиев, 2002).



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The name of the river Iča [itΣ≅] that flows near the settlement cannot be explained with

the help of Latvian either. In Turkish the word iç/içi [itΣ/itΣi] means ‘inside, inner, inland’, and

also ‘heart, soul’; the verb içmek and verbial noun içe mean ‘to drink/drinking’.

The name of the river R ū ja, where the second Mesolitic settlement was situated, in

Turkish means ‘dream’ (rüya).

The name of Lake Burtnieku , where the river R ū ja flows into, is in tune with the Turkishverb burtmak ‘to make twist’. In Latvian the verb burt means ‘to make magic movements,

action to reach that is wished’. Turkic word burt ‘beehive', appearently, gave birth to the

Russian word ‘бортник’ [bortnik] – one who collects honey of forest bees.

In Mesolithic settlements of Latvia a great number of bone harpoons, 2,10m long runner of a

sledge, a hoe made of bone, a bone knife with the handle in the form of an elk’s head as well as

other articles were found. Latvian names of these articles remind us of corresponding Turkish

stems and sound so alike that we can suspect the origin of these Latvian words from the Turkishstems:

• the Latvian kamanas ‘sledge’ concur with the Turkish keman ‘bow’;

• shafts of sledge were attached to the first pair of uprights3; the Latvian word ilk ss ‘shaft’

concur with the Turkish word ilk ‘first’;

• the Latvian word žebērklis ‘harpoon’ finds a similar stem morpheme in the Turkish

words cebretmek/cebren ‘to force/by force’, when -ki/-k and -li are frequantly usedaffexis of the Turkish language meaning correspondingly ‘which’ and ‘with’;

• the Latvian kaplis ‘a hoe’ is close in its meaning and sounding to the Turkish verb

kapamak ‘to cover, to bury, to hide’, here we also find the Turkish affix –li ‘with’, so

the word ‘kaplis’ initially could mean ‘the thing to cover with’.

As the result of ecological changes that took place in the post-glacial period, Mesolithic

population of East Euorope was engaged mainly in fishing and hunting solitary animals(Удальцова 1988, 66)

• The name of the animal that was one of the main sources of nutrial and economic

resources of first people on the territory of modern Latvia is suprisingly connected with

the Turkish verb аlınmak ‘to be taken’, аlın is the verb noun. The Latvian name of this

animal is alnis ‘elk’.

Thus findings and explorings on the territory of the modern Baltics affirm that the culture that

was inherited by the Latvians came here from the South. That can testify that the language brought by first settlers was the language of people of the South. The great number of Turkicethnic groups forming the ancient population of Mesopotamia makes us think that the first

residents of South-East Europe were ethnic groups speaking Turkic, as, probably, at that time

any other language just didn’t exist.

Revealing the connection of Latvian geographical names, Latvian names of things used byancient people, designations of nature, animals and plants of ancient man’s environment with the

Turkic language gives us the ground to suppose that the language of ancient inhabitants on the

territory of modern Latvia arises from the Turkic language.

The mastery, knowledge and culture of the Sumerians inherited by them from their Turkicancestors makes us think that for their knowledge, mastery and culture the Latvians are obliged

3Rods that fasten a sledge seat to runners.



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to lucky circumstances of appearance of that or another highly developed Turkic ethnic group on

the coast of the Baltic Sea in the Metholoitic period.

‘The traditions, religion and symbols of folk songs and arts of Lithuanians and Latvians are

saturated with the past… The Pro-Christian layer appeared to be so old that it undoubtedly arises

to the prehistorical times’ (Гимбутас, 2004, 187).

The only revealed Mesolithic burial place of the modern Baltics in the region of Lake

Burtnieku in Latvia witnesses that there were permanent dwellings of ancient people there. This

fact makes us think that later the knowledge, mastery and culture of those dwellers were

overtaken by other groups of people who settled in the neighbouring regions.

As acknowledgement of the fact that the substratum was a language of an ethnos of a high

culture can be archeological excavations of sites of workshops on the territory of Latviaevidencing of high skills of their owners. Craftsmen of modern Latvia keep their mastery of

treating skins and producing leather articles, of making ceramics, weaving of willows and osiers

and other crafts.

Historians testify to high spiritual culture of the ancient Latvians. Cultic knowledge of Latvian priests, highly respected by neighboring tribes, spread a great distance away from

residential places of inhabitants of the territory of modern Latvia.The power of this knowledge,

connected with the nature, has been preserved by the Latvians till nowadays in spiritualization of

nature, extensive usage of folk symbols, keeping ancient traditions, transferring spiritual culture,

knowledge and mastery to young generations.

2. Geographical Names of Turkic Etymology

From historical sources we know that at the beginning of the Common Era peoples of Europewere polyethnic. Scientists affirm that among Kimmerians, Scythers and Sarmatians there weremore Turkic tribes than tribes of any other ethnic representatives living in Europe nowadays

(Закиев, 2002).

The aim of the chapter is to show the endless list of Turkic geographical names that we find

not only in Europe, but all over the world. The fact can testify that apparently there were times

when the humanity didn’t speak any other language, but Turkic.

The territory of modern Latvia is remarkable for the numerous ancient toponyms and

hydronyms of Turkic etymology that has been preserved there. This fact witnesses that

inhabitants of that region were initially conspicuous for their high spiritual culture. They were

preserving their cultural heritage and defending it zealously.

Knowing rules of forming and connecting Turkic words gives us opportunity to see and

recognize them wherever they appear: in geographical names, vocabularies of languages, etc.

What is the Turkic word distinguished for and why can it be easily spotted?

1. An affix of the Turkic language is almost invariable. It has a fixed

meaning and is clearly visible.

2. A Turkic word has distinct inner forms that helps readily detect semanticmotivations in word formation.



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3. Turkic words can be easily divided into morphological units.

4. Turkic word roots are laconic and stable.

5. A great number of Turkic words is noticeable because of their sound

symbolism, i.e. the words can arouse appearance of ideas or senses: dırdır – ‘annoying

chattering’, tırtık – ‘a nick, a notch'. This particularity of the Turkic language is the

brightest evidence of the exceptional antiquity of the language that takes us to that stagein the development of human’s language which stands close to the definition ‘the

language of children’.

2.1. Turkic Toponyms and Hydronyms on the World Map

It’s not surprising that we find lots of Turkic toponyms and hydronyms on the map of Central and Middle Asia. Obviously, the name of the continent itself arises to the ancient Turkic

ethnonym аs.

Maybe the origin of the word асe that we find in some languages (in Turkish as means ‘a person who excels in some activity’) is also connected with the ethnonym аs. Then the word

Asia should be translated ‘to aces’ (the final -а is the affix of the Turkish –e hali that indicates

the direction of an action).

The geographical name Siberia also corresponds with the Turkic ethnonym sabır, but the

Turkish meaning of the word sabır is ‘patience’.

On the geographical map of America the name of the Central American plateau Ozark

catches our eye. It reminds us of a combination of the Turkish words öz ark that mean ‘the

essential irrigation trench’. The name of the Andes corresponds to the Turkish word аnt/andı ‘an

oath’. The name Canada apparently has originated from Turkish kanat/kanadı ‘a wing, a flank’.

In the geographical centre of Australia there is mountain Uluru sacred for aboriginals. Its

name may sprung from the Turkic stem morphemes ul ‘great’, ur ‘outgrowth, swelling’ and the

Turkic affix of the 3-rd person -u.

On the territory of Nicaragua there is an island Оmetepe where the world’s first signs of farming have been found out. The second part of the word must be the Turkic word tepe ‘a hill’.

On the geographical map of Turkey there are lots of compound names with tepe: Kızıltepe ‘Red

Hill’, Gültepe ‘Hill of Roses’, Gök tepe ‘Hill of the Sky’.

There are plenty of islands of Turkic ethimology in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. On

one of them, Sulavesi, the Kayan people live. The people believe that the motherland of humanity Tanatova is on their island. They believe that the life started in the sacred wood where

first people appeared and where they live now, so nobody is allowed to enter that sacred wood.

Drawings made in red ochre paint on the steep lime cliffs of the island approve that people

settled there 30 000 years ago (Enigma, 2008, 67).

The name of the island contains the Turkic stem morpheme su – ‘water’ and the Turkic

word-forming affix -la meaning ‘with'.

The name Tanatova consists of three Turkish stem morphemes: tan atmak ‘(for day) to

break, to dawn’, ova – ‘grassy plain, meadow’ and means ‘the plain where it dawns’.

One of the meanings of the Turkish verb kaymak is ‘to escape’, kayan is the form of the present participle, that is why the name of the folk can mean ‘the escaping’.



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The Turkish – Russian dictionary explains the words kara yel as ‘North-West wind’ (Юсипов,

2005, 316).

Literally translated kara yel means ‘black wind’. This wind in the Baltics in winter is a

serious trial for the world of animals. The geographical name Karelia could have derived from

these words, then it may be translated ‘to the black wind’, because the Turkish affix – а (-ya)

indicates the direction of an action.

The name of the Donegol plateau in North-West Ireland can be translated from the Turkish

language as ‘icy lake’. It reminds us of the compound name of the Bingöl plateau in Turkey

meaning ‘thousand of lakes’. This place of Ireland is connected with Celtic legends about the

aborigines of the island the Great Folk of the Goddess Danu (in Old Turkic dana means ‘wise’(Enigma, 2008, 38).

Kaldra, the name of the ancient graveyard of Boa island in Ireland, corresponds to the

Turkish verb kaldırmak that means ‘to bury according to the rituals’, but the name of the island

concurs with the Turkish verb boğmak ‘to torture, to torment a person’s nerves’.

In ancient times the name of the Latvian river Daugava was Duna that corresponds to the

Turkish word dun meaning ‘low, lower’. It’s remarkable that in ancient times the name of theriver Danube was Duna, too.

The names of Visla, Oka, Volga, Kama, Yenisey also stem from theTurkic language.

It’s noteworthy that the geographical names of Turkic etymology trace to the ancient

world’s history. In one or another way they are connected with stories about ancient tribes and peoples. It allows us to make the conclusion that the Turkic language stands closest to the

mankind’s cradle than any other language.

2.2. Turkic Toponyms and Hydronyms of Latvia

Having heard the answer ‘I’m from the Baltics’, a Turkman asked: ‘Baltic, is it a

swamp?’

There is a linguistic hypothesis connecting the name ‘Baltic’ with the Rumanian word balta

‘swamp, pond, lake’, Albanian balte ‘mud’ Lithuanian and Latvian bala ‘pool’, Old-Slavic

блато[blato] ‘swamp’ (Dini, 2000, 29).

In Turkish the word balçık means ‘clay’. Taking into consideration the importance of clay

in the Neolitic we can presume that the name Baltic was originated from the word balçık

[baltΣ1k].

As we marked earlier, words of Turkic origin are ‘given away’ by the distinctive formand stable meaning of their affixes.

Examining Latvian toponyms ang hydronyms we find some of them ending in -dа

(-tа). Let’s try to translate them keeping in mind that the Turkic morpheme -dа (-tа its voiceless

form) points to the local case and means ‘to be/to be located somewhere’.

The geographical name Dagda that we find in East Latvia will mean ‘on the hill’ (Turk.

dağ means ‘highland, mountain’), and the town is really situated on a high hill. The name of the

river Amata will mean “at the blind person’s”, i.e. ‘blindly’, as ama in Turkish means ‘blind’,

and countless windings of this river approve this name: going down by the river admired by

tourists is not an easy deed.



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The Turkish morpheme – le (-la) shows belonging to the instrumental case and means

‘with, together with, by means of, by’, then the name of the Latvian river Memele may be

translated ‘with mother’s breast’ (Turk. meme ‘breast, udder’)

The name of the Latvian river Mūsa reminds us the Profit’s name Musa who later in

Christianity and Judaism got the name Moses. The name of the highest peak of the Balkans is

Musala meaning ‘with/by Musa’. Maybe the name of the sacred town Musasir of the ancient

state Biainili (Urartu) is also connected with the name of the Profit Musa.

With the help of the Turkish language we can decipher innumerous names on the

geographical map of Latvia:

Mustkalni - ‘hills where an exciting message was received’ as muştu in Turkish means

‘an exciting news’;

Kalupe - ‘river that stays at a place’ (Turk. kalmak ‘to stay’);

Durupe - ‘river that doesn’t move’, in Turkish durmak means ‘to remain at a place;

Balupe - ‘honey river’, тур. bal –‘honey’;

Kurma (lake) - in Turkish kurma means ‘an edifice’;

Iča (river) – in Turkish içmek means ‘to drink’, iče is the form of present participle;

Sab ī le, the name of the town may be related to the Turkish word sap ‘a bundle of

cornstalks’, the affix -le means ‘with’, i.е. ‘with bundles of cornstalks’;

Talsi, the name of the town associates with the Turkish tali – ‘secondary, subordinate’, -

si the affix of the 3rd person;

Īk šķ ele, iskele in Turkish means ‘pier, port’, from the history we know that the town

used to be a significant port on the river Daugava;

Bulduri, the name of this health resort on the coast of the Baltic Sea may apply to theTurkish verb buldurmak ‘to make sombody remember something’;

Sigulda, in Turkish sığlık/sığlığı means ‘shallow’, af. – da means ‘on, in’, so the name of

the town can be read as ‘on the shallow place’;

R ū jena, Turk. rüya ‘dream’, the af. of the 2nd person –n, the af. of –e hali – а, that

means ‘to your dream’;

Koknese, Turk . köken ‘motherland’, - si –af. of the 3rd person, i.е.‘their motherland’;

Atašiene, Turk. ateş ‘fire’, ateşine - ‘to your fire’ (af. of the 2nd person -in, af. of direction

– е);

Kamalda, Turk. kama ‘strengthening’, -la > l ‘with’, -da ‘in’, i.e. ‘in a strengthened place’;

Krimulda,Turk. kırım of kırmak ‘to exterminate, to break, to destroy, to cut down (trees)’,

af. –da ‘in’: the name may be explained ‘in a clearing’.

Azanda, Turk. az ‘little’, af.–ın (ı > a) of –in hali4, af. – da ‘in’; the name can be explained

‘in a small number, in a shortage’;

Džindžas[∀δΖιnδΖ≅s], Turk. cinci [δΖιnδΖι] ‘a charmer (bringing an evil spirit)’;

Jērsika[∀ je:rsik ≅], the name of the town apparently derives from the Turkish yer[jer]

‘place’, af. of the 3rd person –si, af. -ki ‘that, which’, so the name means ‘belonging to that place; of that place’. Compare it with the Russian ecclesiastical term ‘ересь’ [jeres’] that means

4Corresponds to the genitive



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‘something that is opposite to a common point of view and belongs to a certain place’; it

originates from the same Turkish morphemes.

Kente, the name of the first fortified town on the territory of modern Latvia, surprisingly

coinsides with the Turkish word kent ‘town’. As there is the Turkic affix –te meaning ‘in’, the

name probably meant ‘in the fortified place’.

The Russian historian and writer of ХIХ century N.М. Karamzin spoke about Slavic pagansthat had the same gods with the tribes on the territory of modern Latvia. He presumes that the

name of the Russian tribe Krivichi approves that the tribe regarded the Latvian priest Krive as

the Head of their religion (Карамзин, 1995, I, p. 91).

The name of the Latvian town Krivanda may arise from the name Кrive, but the Turkish

affixes -n- (3rd person) and – da ‘in, at’ make us translate it ‘at Кrivе’s people’.

Oziņī ki, Turk. özini ‘a place abundant with water ’, -ki ‘that’. The name of the town couldmean ‘the place that is abundant with water’.

The etymology of the Latvian city Rezekne apparently can be explained with the help of the

Turkish word rızk /rızkını (form of 2nd or 3rd person, accusative) meaning ‘one’s daily bread’.

Compare it with the Russian verb рыскать[ryskat’], that means ‘to seek a prey’.

The name Užava may be derived from the Turkish word uca ‘high’ and ova ‘plain’.

One of the Turkic ethnic names is Kangali. It reminds us of the Baltic ethnic names

Zemgali and Latgali.

The Turkish word göl ‘a lake’ can be found in geographical names of Turkey: Bingöl, Karagöl, Göl pazar.

The name of the region of Latvia Letgola may arise from the Turkish word göl ‘a lake’

and mean ‘the lakes of Letts’; the name of the Latvian region Zemgale may originate from the

Turkish word cemi ‘all’ and göl and mean ‘all the lakes’.

The Baltic ethnic name žemaiti [ emaiti] corresponds to the Turkish word cemaatti

[ emaati] that has the following meanings: ‘group, crowd, religious community’.

2.3. Baltic Hydronyms on the Map of Europe, or ‘the Problem of Pan-Baltic’

In 1960-s linguists started to speak about innumerable hydronyms of Baltic origin on the

vast territory of East Europe. Further research work leads to expanding the area of the

hydronyms so far that the explorers cannot stop being surprised. Due to the phenomenon anumber of Lithuanian scientists trace out the border of ancient Baltic peoples’ residing area near

the Urals. As to the West border of their permanent dwelling, earlier it was marked alongside the

river Visla, but now it stretches much further, and the phenomenon is discussed vigorously.

The Italian specialist of Baltic philology P.U. Dini points out that this surprising prevalence of

Baltic elements asks following strict methods in hydronyms research work not to make the

comfortable panacea of pan-Baltic as the simplest decision of all questions (Dini, 2000, 34).

The Latgalian scientist A.Breidaks wrote, that linguists had discovered innumerous Baltic

- Old Balkan parallels in the field of onomastics. One third of Latgalian names of rivers havesimilarities with Old Balkan, partially with Central European and Asia Minor onomastic as awhole and hydronimic in particular (Breidaks, 2002, 3540).



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As it has already been shown great part of ancient Baltic hydronyms and toponyms

concur with Turkic lexis and can be easily deciphred with the help of Turkish stem morphemes.

Their semantic is very close to the semantic of Turkish stems. Moreover, Turkish stems are

always motivating for them.

Let us look for some more geographical names of Europe that could arise from the Turkic

stems.

On the map of Central and East Europe there is a great number of geographical names

that in Latvian end in –ava/-ova: Daugava, Kuprova, Var šava, Maskava (Turk. Moskova). In the

Turkish language the word ova means ‘plain, meadow’, then the name Varšava could mean ‘the

meadow of the suburb’ (Turk. varoş ‘suburb’). Compare it with the geographical name Yeşilova

‘the green meadow’ that we find in Turkey.

One of the earlest names of the river Daugava/West Dvina as well as the name of the

North Dvina was the Duna. İt can be explained with the Turkish dun ‘low, lower’.

In the Turkish language the word vızlamak means ‘to buzz, to hum, to keep on

complaining’. The name of the river Visla reminds us of the Turkish word vız ‘buzz, hum’, the

Turkish affix -la means ‘with’, so the name can be translated as ‘with buzzing, or keeping oncomplaining’. We find a river with the same name Vizla in Latvia as well.

The name of the river Volga in Russia (on the banks of that even nowadays many peoples

which languages are not understandable for the Russian people live) may correspond to the old

Turkish name of a kind of a fishing net volı ağı.

The name of the tributary of the Danube, the Tisa, reminds of the Turkish verb tıslamak

‘to hiss’.

The name of the river Nеmunas (Niemen), with widely open sound ‘е’ in the Lethuanian

language,may arise from the Turkish stem nam ‘name, reputation, fame’.

The name of Мazuria (North Poland) that once was a part of Prussia can have its originsin the Turkish word mazur ‘excused, excusable’.

Both in Europe and in the Urals we find rivers with the same name Kuma that could

spring from the Turkish word kum ‘sand’.

A great number of geographical names of Turkic etymology on the territory of Europe

must refer to the times when Neolithic inhabitants of Asia Minor were settling on uninhabited

territories of Europe. They were bringing their knowledge, culture and their language stem

morphemes which served as the basis of producing new lexis naming their ancestors, pagan godsand people, geographical objects, implements and nature, parts of human’s body, clothes, people

activities, fruits of their labour, definitions of human social life and so on and so forth.

It is remarkable that the Russian scientist Drozdov Y. N., showing the panorama of Europe

of the first centuries of AD, finds the countless number of Turkic ethnic names on its territory.The names of modern European countries the scientist also explains by means of the Turkic

language: Austria – ‘Country of As5 Sewers’, England – ‘Country of Quick-witted men’, Russia – ‘Country of As Men’, etc., etc. (Дроздов, 2008, 366).

3. The Discovery of the Turkic Substratum in the Latvian language

So, the great number of Latvian geographical names that can be read with the help of the

Turkish language leads to finding out and dechiphering substratum lexis of the Latvian language.

5The word ‘As’ is the most ancient Turkic ethnonym.



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As the revealed substratum lexis makes a great number of words of the Latvian language

it is possible to unite the words in groups according to their meanings.

3.1. Ancestors, Gods, Names of People, Symbols

Probably, preserving traditions of polytheism helped Latvian people to save the words

that make the greatest interest for a linguist. In the Latvian language spirits of dead name the

words veļi, urguči, iļģi, elki. In the Turkish language the word veli means ‘patron, saint’, the

word uruk/urğu means ‘tribe, clan’, when the Turkish affix – сi/çi is used in creayting nouns of

nominal stems naming a person related to the nominal stem’s meaning. The Turkish word ilgi which the Latvian word iļģi is corresponding to means ‘relation, connection’. The Latvian word

elki reminds us of the Turkish word el that means ‘hand’, af. ki means ‘that’. But it is morelikely that the word elki (with the open sound [е] in the first syllable) has been produced from

the stem morpheme of the verb almak ‘to take’ and affix – ki, alki, with the meaning ‘the one

who takes’, as according to the belief, spirits of ancestors take gifts brought by living people.

Compare it with the name of the Latvian river Alk upe (Engl. ‘the river of elki’, i.e. ‘the river of those who takes gifts’).

In the Lithuanian language the word alkas means ‘a hill or another place for sacrificing’.

The famous archeologist Gimbutas М. describing the pagan rituals of the Baltic tribes, writes,

that their sacred grottoes usually were situated on a hill called Alka (Гимбутас, 2004, 192).

In Poland not far from the Belorussian border there is a town with the name Elk .

The Latvian word urguči, naming spirits of ancestors, earns special attention, as beingused still at the end of the XIX century it has started to get forgotten.

It must be pointed out that words of substratum lexis are the most ancient words of theLatvian language that gradually disappear from it.

Name of one of the ancient Latvian god ūsiņš could spring from the Turkish word us

‘reason, intellect’. Compare it with the Russian phraseological unit ‘мотать на ус’ that means

‘understand and keep in one’s mind’ where the word ‘ус’ [us] must be of the same origin.

The most popular and beloved name of the Latvians is Jānis [ja:nis]. With its honouring

the greatest Latvians’ holiday is connected. It coincides with the day of summer solstice that is preceded by the night of bright fires burnt on lake shores, river banks and on the coast of the sea.

It is called ‘the Day of Jānis’. In the Turkish language the word yan [jan] means ‘burning’ and isoriginated from the verb yanmak [janmak] ‘to burn’.

The Latvian nameKriš jānis apparently arises from the Turkish karşı yan ‘the opposite

fire’. The etymology of the Russian name Ульян [Uljan] can be explained with the help of the

Turkish words ulu yan ‘great fire’.

There is a row of popular Latvian men and women names Guna, Gunta, Guntis, Gunārs,

having the same stem with the Turkish words gün [gyn]6 ‘day’, güneş [gyneΣ] ‘the sun’. In the

Latgalian language, a language related to Latvian, the word guņs means ‘fire’, in the Latvian

6In this work the Turkish vowel represented by ‘ü’ is transcribed as [y].



17

language ‘fire’ is uguns, in Russian ‘огонь/ogon’. In the English language we also find the

corresponding word gun.

The Latvian names Ainаrs, Aigars, Aivars may spring to the Turkish word ау [aj] ‘the moon’.

Compare them with the Turkish names Ayla ‘with the moon’, Nur ay ‘full moon’. As the Turkish

word var means ‘is’ the Latvian name Aivars can be read ‘in the moonlight’. In the dictionary of the Latvian human names we find an old female name Aila, that absolutely corresponds to the

Turkish female name Ayla (Siliņš, 1990).

The etymology of both the Latvian female name Sarma and the word sarma ‘hoar-frost’

may originate from the Turkish verb sarmak ‘to embrace, to cover’. The verb has also the

meaning ‘to interest, to captivate’, so the name Sarma can be connected with this meaning.

The Turkish verb oymak [ojmak] ‘to scoop out, to engrave, to carve’ and its participle

oyar [ojar] ‘carving, engraving, scooping out’ could give birth to the Latvian male name О jārs.The Latvian male name Egils can stem from the Turkish verb eğilmek ‘to get down to (a

job)’.

The etymology of the Latvian male name Varis can arise from the Turkish word varis

meaning ‘inheritor’ (Turk.varmak ‘to have’).

For both the Turks and Latvians symbolic depiction of things they worshipped was of

great importance. A great number of Latvian folklore symbols correspond to Turkicmythological symbols.

The Latvian word jumis [jumis] naming the symbol of family luck and fortilitycorresponds to the Turkish word yom [jom] ‘bringing luck, good news’.

The Turk Bulgarians depicted the symbol of dawn, home and family luck as a two-

headed bird ergi ‘an eagle’. The Latvian word erglis ‘eagle’ must be connected with the Turkic

word ergi (Turk. -li means ‘with’).

In Pre-historic times ornaments of amber were made on the territory of modern Latvia.

They were believed to have magic power. The Latvian word dzintars means ‘amber’. It can be

explained with the help of the Turkish words cin[dΖin] ‘evil spirit’ and ters ‘opposite, contrary’,

so the word named the thing ‘opposing or fighting evil spirits’. The etymology dictionary of the

Latvian language gives a variant of the word ‘dzintars’ with the second syllable – ters: dzinters

(Karulis, 2001, 255).

3.2. Man, Earth, Water

The Latvian word cilvēks ‘man’ and dz ī ve ‘life’ correspond to the Turkish words civelek

[dΖivelek] ‘lively, vivacious, communicative’ and civcivli [dΖivdΖivli] ‘lively, crowded, busy’

that makes us notice the initial connection between the Latvian words cilvēks and dz ī ve. It is

clear that both the Turkish and Latvian words have the same stem morpheme civ. It’s worth to point out that once the Latvian verb dz ī vot ‘to live’ was used with the word darbs ‘work’ and

dz ī vot darbu meant ‘to work’.



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The Russian historian and writer of the XIX century N.M.Karamzin speaking about the pagan

religion of Old Slavs mentions their Goddess of Life named Сива [Siva] or Жива [zhiva]

(Карамзин 1995, I, 89).

The Latvian word dz ī sla ‘vein’ (Turk. –la means ‘with’) corresponds to the Turkish word

cisim [dΖisim] ‘body’.

The Latvian words sen ‘long ago’ and sencis ‘ancestor’ relate to the Turkish sene ‘ayear’. The Latvian adjective sensens ‘very old, ancient, immemorial’ is made by doubling theroot morpheme. In the Turkish language this type of word-forming is used in making adjectives

expressing a high degree of a quality, for example, güzel güzel ‘very beautiful’, büyuk büyuk

‘very big’, etc.

The Latvian word zeme coinsides with the Turkish word zemin that has the samemeaning ‘earth, ground’. In Latvian there are words zem ‘under’, zems ‘low’ and the verb of the

same stem pazemot ‘to humble, to abase’. In the Turkish language the verb zemmetmek means‘to disparage, to speak ill of’and it is made of the words zem ‘disparagement’ and etmek ‘to do,

to make’.

The name of the sacred well Zemzem (Engl. Zamzam) of Kaaba at Mecca draws

attention in this connection as well.

We find the Turkish stem morpheme su ‘water’ in the Latvian word sula ‘juice’ wherethe Turkish affix -la means ‘having a quality of that is mentioned by the stem morpheme’ and

that corresponds to the Turkish word sulu meaning ‘juicy’. On the map of Latvia there are many

geographical names containing the Turkish stem morpheme su, for example, Sudarbe, where the

word darbe means ‘a blow, a stroke’, therefore the name Sudarbe can be read as ‘a blow of

water’. Perhaps, the Latvian word darbs ‘labour’ springs from the Turkish word darbe and it is

not occasional that in the Russian language there is a set expression ‘ударный труд’. In the

Bulgarian language the word darba means ‘labour’ as well.

The name of the town Subate could be derived from the verb batmak ‘to sink, to go below

the surface’. In Latvia there are streams with the names Sulka, Suda, Sumulda, Sumanka, etc.

containing the root morpheme su and the Turkish affixes –la/-l, -da, -ki/-ka, therefore they can

also be deciphered.

We can find the Turkish root morpheme su in lots of geographical names not only in Latvia. So

Near Polish –Belorussian border there is a town Suvalki, its name could arise from the Turkish

vali ‘a governor’, af. -ki ‘that’ and mean ‘the one who controls usage of water’. The name of the

tributary of the river Daugava Suražki could be compounded of the words su ‘water’, raşe

‘tremble, quiver, ripple’ and mean ‘ripple of water’.The Turkish word valide ‘mother’ corresponds to the Latvian verb vald ī t ‘to rule’.

The Latvian word sauss ‘dry, waterless’ must have its origin in the Turkish adjective

susuz that has the same meaning (the affix –suz in Turkish shows absence of quality).

The Latvian word ūdens ‘water’ with open sound [e] stands closest to the Turkish word

sudan ‘out of water, from water, with the help of water’. In the Russian language we find the

words удить [udit’] ‘to fish’, уда [uda] ‘fishing- rod’ and вода [voda] ‘water’.

The etymology of the Latvian word jūra ‘sea’ must be connected with the Turkish verb

üremek ‘to increase’, when the Latvian ezers ‘a lake’ arise from the Turkish ezer ‘melting’ thatis a present participle of the Turkish verb ezmek ‘to melt, to run over’.



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In the Turkish language there is a verb ak mak ‘to flow, to run (water)’. The Latvian word

aka ‘a well’ can be connected with this verb. The name of the Latvian town Akniste associates

with the Turkish word akın ‘a torrent, a stream’ (Turk. af. of the 3rd person –sı and af. of the

locative case -te7), and must mean ‘in the stream’.

The Latvian word ‘dibens’ has a corresponding word ‘dip/dibi’ in Turkish that has the samemeaning ‘bottom’.

In the Turkish language upuzun means ‘very long’; the word consists of up and uzun

‘long’. In Latvian the word upe means ‘river’. The morpheme up can be found in the Latvianwords lejup ‘down, downwards’, augšup ‘up, upwards’, malup ‘at/on/to the side’.

The Latvian word urga ‘stream’ could be derived from the Turkic root morpheme ur and

the Turkic affix – ga. The Turkish word ur means ‘outgrowth’, in the Tatar language ур [ur]

means ‘ditch, dyke’, ургыл [urgıl] ‘rapid, gush’, ургылу [urgılu] ‘seethe’. In Latvia there is a

river called Ura. We find the Turkish affix -ga in the Turkish words yonga ‘chip, shaving (of

wood)’, kavga ‘fight, quarrel’. The Turkish word kavga corresponds to the Latvian verb kauties ‘to fight’.

.

3.3. Home, Parents, Holidays

In the Turkish language there are two words maya, one of them means ‘female of a herd

animal’, another word means ‘origin, blood’. The Latvian word mā ja ‘home’ may originate from

one of them. In the Bulgarian language the word мaйкa [majka] means ‘mother’.

The word nams ‘a house’ apparently appeared later than the word mā ja ‘home, house’and it is probably connected with the Turkish word nam meaning ‘name, fame, reputation’, too.

The origin of the Latvian word ista ba ‘a room’ could arise from the Turkish verb ısıtmak ‘toheat, to warm’. This name could appear when people had learnt to build houses with a room

heated by a clay stove (Ķēniņš, 2003, 198).

The Russian word изба [izba] ‘a house, a hut’ must arise from the Latvian word ista ba: *

ısıtba > istaba > izba.

In the Latvian language there is a colloquial word ata ‘So long! See you!’ The etymology

of this word may arise from the Turkish word at ‘horse’ in the form of the dative case8 meaning

‘to horse!’ The Latvian verb jāt ‘to ride a horse’ must arise also from the Turkish word at, where

the sound [j] was added.

The Latvian words tēta‘father’ with the open sound [ē] (compare it with the Russian

тятя [t’at’a]9‘father’) and mamma ‘mother’ may originate from the Turkish words ata ‘father’

and meme ‘breast, udder’. Nowadays one can hear a Latvian calling a capricious child memmes

dēls “mother’s son”, i.e. ‘a suckling’.

In the Turkish language the word kem means ‘evil, malicious’. In the Latvian language

the word ķēms means ‘a fool, a visible ghost, fright’.

In the Latvian language masked people going all round the village with jokes and songs

(that was connected with the ritual of blessing and fertility) are called budēļi (sing. budēlis). In

7In Turkish it is -de hali, the case expressing location.

8In Turkish it is –e hali, indicating direction

9Here the soft variant of the Russian consonant represented by ‘т’ is transcribed as [t’]



20

the Turkish language there is also the word budala meaning ‘a fool, foolish, crazy (about)’, for

example, moda budalası ‘the one who is crazy about new fashions’. In Turkish there are some

more words of the same stem: budalaşmak ‘to become stupid/crazy’, budalalık ‘stupidity,

foolishness, craze’.

If the Latvian word egle ‘fir-tree’ (Russ. ель [jel’]) arise from the Turkish verb eğlemek ‘to

amuse’ the custom of decorating a New Year tree rises to the remote past. It becomes clear why

in the Russian language there is another word for a decorated fir-tree веселка, meaning‘amusement’ that is of the same stem with the word веселить ‘to amuse’. In the book of Latvian

folksongs we find a description of a Latvian burial rite, after burial giving a flogging to the dead

person’s family with a fir branch, saying “Don’t die! Don’t die!” (Jansons, 1942, 184).

3.4. Parts of Human’s Body, Things, Actions

In the Latvian language there are words that stem from the Turkish words and call partsof a human body.

So, in the Turkish language the word açmak means ‘to open’, in Latvian the word acs/ačele

(dim. form) means ‘an eye’. In the Latvian etymological dictionary we find an old word ačka

that had two meanings: ‘one-eyed person’ and ‘clever, mysterious person’ (Karulis, 2001, 55).

The Latvian word elkonis ‘an elbow’ is connected with the Turkish el ‘hand’. The

Latvian word is created with the help of the Turkish affixes -ki and – n and its meaning is

‘related to a hand’. The Russian word локоть[lokot’] ‘elbow’ came to the Russian language

from Latvian having had some phonetical changes.

The Latvian word k ā ja[ka:ja] ‘a leg’ could relate to the Turkish ayak [ajak] ‘a leg’ where

rearrangement of syllables could take place. It could also correspond to the Turkish verb kaymak

‘to slip, to slide, to skid’, кayak ‘skies’. It’s remarkable that the most ancient dipictions of

skiers have been found on the cliffs of the east shore of Lake Onega and the west coast of the

White Sea. They date to the Neolithic (Арциховский, 1954, 56).

It seems evident that the Turkish word aya ‘palm (of the hand)’ gave birth to the Latvian

verb aijāt ‘to lull (to sleep)’.

The origin of the following words also seems to be connected with the Turkish stems: the

Latvian zarnas ‘intestines, gut’ with the Turkish zar ‘membrane, pellicle’, the Latvian galva ‘head’ with the Turkish kelli ‘head’, the Latvian dz ī sla ‘vein’ with the Turkish cisim ‘body’.

The Latvian word dūdas ‘bagpipe’ corresponds to the Turkish words dudu ‘hum, buzz,

drone’ and dudak ‘a lip’. Dūdiņa is Latvian affectionate addressing a child.

In the Latvian language there is a word pastalas ‘pastalas (piece of sole-leather formed as

simple foot-wear)’. In the Turkish language post means ‘skin’, postal -‘combat boot’.

The Turkish word уaka[jaka] means ‘collar’, the Latvian jaka [jaka]- ‘a jacket, a blazer’.

The Latvian word kapuce ‘hood’ could arise from the Turkish word кар ‘cover, top’. TheTurkish word карut means ‘military greatcoat’. The Latvian word kapliča ‘ family vault’

corresponds to the Turkish verb kaplamak ‘to cover’ and the adjective kaplı ‘covered’.



21

The Latvian verb durt ‘to stub, to prick’ corresponds to the Turkish dürtmek ‘to prod’.

The words dūre ‘fist' and piedurkne ‘sleeve’ of the Latvian language apparently have their

origins in the Turkish verb dürmek ‘to roll up’.

Dik mek means ‘sew’ in the Turkish language, the corresponding word diegs of the Latvian

language means ‘thread, cotton’.

In the Turkish language lüle lüle means ‘in curls, curly’, the Latvian words lelle ‘a doll’apparently arose from Turkish lüle ile ‘in curls, curly’. The Latvian verb lolot ‘to cherish, to pet’

can be connected with the word lüle, too. Compare it with the Russian word люлька [l’ul’ka]

‘cradle’. In the Russian folklore there is the personage of ‘Golden-haired Lel’ (Russ.

Златокудрый Лель).

In Latvia there is a town Lielvārde. The name reminds us of the Turkish words lüle vardı

‘there was a spring’, as the word lüle means also ‘a spring’. There are cases when residents of Latvia build a house on a spring. The spring continues its existance under the house, and only the

house owners can use it.

The Latvian word ķ ipars ‘a doll, a baby’ coincides with the Turkish kıpar ‘blinking one’s

eyes’, the form of the present participle of the Turkish verb kıpmak ‘to blink’.

The Turkish word içer [itΣer] ‘drinks’ (içmek ‘to drink’) reminds us of the Latvian dzer

‘drinks’ (dzert -‘to drink’). There is a river with the name Iča [itΣa] in Latvia, too.

The Latvian verb ēst ‘to eat’ must have its origins in the Turkish verb yemek ‘to eat’.

Compare the Russian dialectal form йист [jist] ‘eats’ with the Turkish. yiyor [jijor] ‘eats’.

In the Turkish language burtmak means ‘to make twist’, in the Latvian language the verb

burt means ‘to conjure, to practise magic’.

More words that refer to this group are shown in table 1.

Table 1

Turkish word Translation Latvian word Translation

tapa stopper tapa stopper

ile with, together with ī lens awl

verev diagonal virve rope

кеman bow kamanas sledge

dokumak weave deķ is blanket

ilk first ilkss shaft

kuka ball, tangle кūka/kuk ņa cake/kitchen

tur/turta round/pie, tart torte cake



22

The Enlish word ‘tart’ (an open pastry case containing jam, etc.) is connected with the Old

French ‘tarte’ and Latin medieval ‘tarta’ the origin of that is unknown.10 Both ‘tarte’ and ‘tarta’

remind us of the Turkish ‘turta’ originated from the root morpheme tur and the affix of the

locative case -ta.

3.5. Animals, Plants, Nature

Table 2


kedi cat kaķ e/kaķ is pussy-cat/tom-cat

böbür leopard bebris beaver

zil bell z ī le titmouse

sıla motherland s ī lis jay

sıla motherland sils pine forest11

аlınmak/alın to be taken/verbal noun elk лось

duymak to sense dū ja pigeon, dove

sunmak to submit suns dog

kurmak to set up, to form kurmis mole

asmak/asar to suspend, to skip, todisappear

asaris perch

lığ geol.alluvium l ī nis tench

asmak/astı to hang up, to suspend aste tail

ut/ut yeri shame/genitals uts louse

аt horse jāt to ride a horse

10Swannell, 1995, p.120.

11Remember the story about the Kayan people that believe that the life started in the sacred wood.



23

кarmak/karıp to mix/mixed karpa carp

ilk first, initial, primary ilknis tusk, fang

gübrelik/gübre dung/dunghill guba heap

uğur ki that is good luck gur ķ is cucumber

kırba waterskin ķ irbis pumpkin

kiraz cherry ķ irsis cherry

baldıran hemlock baldriāns valerian

özel special, particular ozols oak

koçan stem (of a vegetable) kacēns head of cabbage

burkmak to wrench burk āns carrot

eğlеmek to amuse egle fir-tree

arpa barley vārpa spike

çiçek flower zieds flower

çemen cumin ķ imene cumin

ezmek/ezer melt/melting ezers lake

ak mаn12 white, clear, unspotted,

old

akmens stone

kök root koks tree

yosun moss sūna moss

çalkanmak/çalkantı to be rough (sea)/wave

(sea)

šalkoņa roar (sea)

12‘Man/men’ is the Turkish root morpheme of compound wards indicating a person or a thing,



24

ağarmak/gün

ağarıyor

to dawn/it’s growing light agrs/agri early

zıp: zıp diye suddenly zibens lightening

ayna mirror ainava landscape, scenery

duman haze, smoke dūmaka/dūmi haze/smoke

gani abundant, rich gan ī bas pasture-ground

gani/ganisi olmak abundant, rich gan/ganа enough, that’s enough

narin delicate, slim nāra water-nymph,

mermaid

The history testifies that the ancient inhabitants of the East Baltic region worshipped oak

growths where they believed the God of justice Prove was dwelling (Карамзин , I, 1995, 85).

The Latvian name of oak is ozols that corresponds to the Turkish word özеl ‘special’. Some

special treatment of oaks (trees that are witnesses of the human history) on behalf of the Latvianswe can watch nowadays as well.

3.6. Abstract Things

The table contains Latvian words that correspond to Turkish root or stem morphemes. The words

meaning is also connected with the corresponding Turkish words.

Table 3


koşmak to run, to chase košs bright

sırma silver thread sirms grey (hair)

bayat/ bayatlamak not fresh, stale/to getstale

bojāt spoil

dumur atrophy dumjš stupid, silly



25

aklı wall-eyed akls blind

katra drop katrs/katra every

iç/içine interior, inner/inside iek šiene the inside

ya yes jā yes

ara distance, gap, space ār ā outside

üstüne varmak oppress varmāka/varmāc ī ba

oppressor/oppression

varmak to dare var ēt can, to dare

sur fortune sūrs severe

ki who, that kas who, that

onu him viņu him

sınmak/sındırmak to be defeated/todefeat

c īņa struggle, fight

kavga quarrel kauties to fight

bildirmek to inform bildināt,iebilda/piebilda

to propose,

objected/remarked, added

mihr ransom miers peace

manita swindle mān ī t to cheat, to deceive

yuk load, burden jūgs yoke

vermek/vergi give/gift, tax vergs slave

patak/patağı beating pātaga/pātagot whip, knout/to whip

dün yesterday diena day

devasа gigantic, giant-like dievs god

yeni new jauns new, young



26

acemi çaylak [tΣailak] beginner, an

inexperienced persončālis[tΣa:lis],

cālis[tsa:lis]

guy,

chicken

dul/dulluk widow/widowhood dulls/dullums crazy, mad, foolish

kunt stout, solid kunda a stable buyer

аlmak/algı take/wages alga wages

alçak low, mean alkas/alkat ī gs longing/greedy

saplamak to stick, thrust, pierce sā pеs pain, ache

çenebaz, küfür baz talkative (çene – jaw),foul-mouthed (küfür-

a curse)

bāzt to shove, to thrust, to poke

çangal support, prop čangals negl.nickname of a

Latgalian

sık dense, frequent s ī ks tiny, small

tek only, solely tikai only, solely

yıl/yıllamak/yılmak/yılğı year/to stay for a long

time/to bore/terror

ilgi for a long time

mayi/mayişmak liquid, fluid/to grow

soft

maigs soft

uzluk/uzman mastery/specialist uzman ī t to keep an eye on, to

watch

kakmak to push, to encrust kaka māksla swindle

daуаnmak to trust, to support, to

last

daina Latvian folk song

teke shrimp, he-goat tecēt to go/run at small step

resim picture, drawing rasēt to draw

beste/bestekar,

namus/namuskar, koçmak/koçkar

melody/composer,

honor/honest,

to embrace/fighting

k ārs having a weakness (for)



27

ram

az few maz few

Latvian folksongs and fairy-tales contain lots of substratum lexis. The more ancient the

word is the more possible is to find out its Turkic roots.

“Meži r ūca, meži šņāca,

Bites gā ja kumuriem.”

In two lines of this Latvian folksong we find an unusual for the modern Latvian language

word kumuriem.

Having consulted the Turkish dictionary we find a Turkish word küme ‘pile, heap,

mound’, küme küme means ‘in heaps/groups’. Knowing that Turkish words bir er ‘one apiece’,

ikişer ‘two at a time’, üçer ‘three apiece’, etc. are created with the help of the affix –er from thenumerals ‘bir’, ‘iki’, üç, etc. we can suppose that the word kumuriem was made with the help of the affix –er (-er > -ur) and the word meant ‘in a group’: kümе > kumuriem. The vowel in the

affix has changed according to the Turkic vowel harmony.13

The reseacher Irek Bikkinin in his scientific work speaks about the most ancient English lexis

borrowed from the Turkic language. In the English language the old Turkic word tapor , for

example, was superseded by the Germanic axe. It’s remarkable that this word was borrowed by

the Arabian, Persian and Russian languages and is used there nowadays as well. The word tapor

stems from the Turkic tapa ‘to cut’. In the Turkish language the word tapor was superseded by

the word balta. In the Tatar language the word remains in the form тапагыч [tapagytΣ] meaning‘chopper for vegetables’14

We can add that in the Turkish language there is the word tapa ‘stopper’ that can be

connected with Turkic tapa ‘to cut’, exactly the same word with the same meaning tapa ‘stopper’ we find in the Latvian language. In the Turkish language there is also the word çapa ‘a

hoe’, when in the Russian language there is the word тяпка [t’apka] that also may be connected

with the Turkic tapa ‘to cut’.

4. Turkic Grammatical Rudiment in the Latvian language

Grammatical rudiment of the Turkic language that we find in the Latvian language, regularity

of it, possibility to reveal the Turkic roots of grammatical categories of the Latvian language

makes us think of the relationship of these languages.

4.1. Phonetics

13Synharmony of vowels: vowel sounds of affixes depend on vowel sounds of the stem; it’s a kind of progressive

assimilation

14‘Тюркизмы в английском языке.’ www.karabakh – doc. (‘Татарская газета’ №13. 25.12.1998)// Tjurkizmy v

angliyskom yazyke’ www.karabakh – doc.(‘Tatarskaya gazeta’ №13. 25.12.1998)



28

The phonetic system of the Latvian language like the phonetic system of the Turkish

language is characterized by simple and clear articulation of sounds. As to the quality of the

sounds the phonetic system of the Latvian language doesn’t differ much from the Turkish sound

system.

As the Latvian and the Turkish languages belong to different geographical zones we canmark the following typical changes:

• In the Latvian language the first syllable is stressed, when for people of the South

is more natural to stress the last syllable like it is in the Turkish language where

mainly the last syllable is stressed apparently because of the fast manner of

speaking.

• In the Latvian language long vowels that are natural for the slow northern manner

of speaking have appeared.

It must be pointed out that the prolonged articulation of Latvian vowels helps to preserve

their clear sounding keeping them non-reduced.

Let us have a look at the phonetic changes that took place in the Latvian language due to

particularities of its phonetic system.

4.1.1. Changes in the System of Vowels

The phonetic system of both Turkish and Latvian languages doesn’t contain reduced

vowels. For this reason we do not find great changes in Latvian vowels, though one can see the

following rearrangements:

• The Turkish front sound [ü] has changed for the diphthong [ie], for the front vowel [е]:dün > diena or the back sound [u]: güneş – uguns, dürtmek > durt;

• The Turkish front rounded sound [ö] has been changed for the diphthong [uo]: kök >koks, özel > ozols and the middle row vowel [е]: böbür > bebris;

• The Turkish vowel [1] was changed for [а], [е] as the place of articulation of the sounds

is almost the same: rızkını < Rezekne, algı < alga and for the sound [i]: sırma > sirms,

kıpar > ķ ipars;

• The sound [i] has changed for [ie]: mihr > miers, içine > iek šiene;

• The sound [e] has been changed for [au]: yeni [jeni] > jauns[jauns], for [a]: keman >

kamanas, kedi > kaķ e, for [i]: tek > tikai and for [ie]: devasa > dievs;

• The back vowel [u] changed for the long back vowel [ū]: duman > dūmaka, dūmi; sur >

sūrs; kuka > k ūka, us >ūsiņš;

• The sound [а] has changed for the open vowel [9] that is close to the sound [a]: almak >

elki;

• The back vowel [o] has been changed for the back vowel [u]: yom > jumis.

In one syllable words short vowels of the Turkish language became long: sur – sūrs, ya – jā, zil – z ī le, sik – s ī ks, yuk – jūgs.

The formation of substratum lexis of the Latvian language was performed according tovowel harmony that is characteristic of the Turkic language:



29

• When vowels substitution takes place all vowels of the word change for thevowels of another row: Turk. dok umak ‘weave’ > Latv. deķ is ‘a blanket’;

• We can see cases of ideal following the law of vowel harmony where even thecorrection of the sound of the Turkish word is happening: Turk. k eman ‘a bow’ >

Latv. k amanas ‘sledge’.

There are words of substratum lexis where we can see the appearance of consonants at the

beginning of the words (see table 4).

Table 4


аt horse jāt to ride a horse

arpa barley vārpa spike

az few maz few

ata father, ancestor tēta father

onu him, her, it viņu him, her, it

üremek increase jūra sea

4.1.2. Changes in the System of Consonants

• The Turkish sound [d ] has changed in the Latvian language into the sound [dz]: Turk.

civcivli [dΖivdΖivli] – Latv. dz ī ve, Turk. cisim [dΖisim] – Latv. dz ī sla, into the sound

[zh]15: Turk. celal [dΖelal] > Latv. žēlot, Turk. cebretmek [dΖebretmek] > Latv.

žebērklis and into the sound [ts]: Turk. civelek [dΖivelek] > Latv. cilvēks [tsilvēks].

• Sometimes the Turkish sound [t ] changes into [ ]: Turk. içine > Latv. Iek šiene, into ‘z’

: Turk. çiçek > Latv. zieds or [ts]: Turk. çiçek > zieds[ziets], Turk. açmak > Latv. acs,though it does not change before front vowels: Turk.açmak >Latv. acs/ačele[atΣele].

• The voiceless consonant ‘k’ in the end position was substituted for the voiced ‘g’: Turk.

yuk – Latv.jūgs, Turk.dik – Latv. diegs. Sometimes such a change takes place at the beginning of the word as well: Turk. k elle > Latv. galva.

4.2. Word Formation

15In this work the Latvian voiced consonant represented by ‘ž’ is transcribed as[zh]. It has the corresponding

voiceless consonants š[Σ].



31

4.2.2. A great part of substratum lexis has been formed according to the structure-semantical

models that are functioning in the modern Turkish language. The meaning of the words depends

on the meaning of Turkic root or stem morphemes and word-forming affixes.

Turkish affixes that we find in substratum lexis are affixes (with their phonetic variants) that

are productive in the modern Turkish language: –ki(-kı, -ku, -kü, -gi, -gı,-gu,-gü) , -li(-l, -lı, -lu, -lü), -da (-ta, -de, -te), -n(-in, -ın, -un, -ün), -si, - i(-ı, -u, -ü), -e(-a, -ye, -ya), ect. Combinations of

these affixes were widely used in forming substratum lexis. The same phenomenon we can

observe in the modern Turkish language.

The inner form of the words of the subsratum lexis is easily determined thanks to the affixes

of the Turkish language that have fixed meaning. İn table 6 word-forming types of substratum

lexis of the Latvian language are shown.

Table 6

Turkish affix Meaning of Turkishaffix

Turkish motivatingword, its translation

Substratum lexis of the Latvian language

–ki I, –ki(-kı, -ku, -

kü, -gi, -gı,-gu,-gü)

‘which, that’ özini place rich in

water

dun low, lower

Oziņī ki place name

dunka strike on the

side with a fist

-li(-l, -lı, -lu, -lü, -la, -

le)

‘with, together with,

by means of, by’

meme breast, udder

sap a sheaf

cisim body

Mēmele river name

Sab ī le place name

dz ī sla vein

-n(-in, -ın, -un, -ün) affix of the genitive

case

ateş fire

rüya dream

Atašiene place name

R ū jena place name

-si, - i(-ı, -u, -ü) affix of the 3rd person tali secondary

subordinate

köken motherland

Talsi place name

Koknese place name

-dа/-tа/-de/-te ‘on, in’ dağ mountain Dagda place name

-li(-l, -lı, -lu, -lü, -la, -le)

+

-dа/-tа/-de/-te

‘with’ + ‘in’ kama strengthened place

kırım slaughter,

cutting (forest)

Kamalda place name

Krimulda place name

–ci [δΖi]/cı /cu /cü/çi af. used in formingwords for a man by

ayna mirror Ainaži place name



32

[ti]çı/çu/çü his occupation,

inclination,

connection

rop female’s cloak

without sleeves

sunta fiberboard

Ropaži place name

Suntaži place name

-ar/-er affix of present participle

oymak/oyar [ojar]scooping out,

engraving, carving

kıpmak/kıpar to

blink/blinking (one’seyes)

Ojārs male name

ķ ipars doll, clown, baby

Words of the Turkish language are motivating for the words of substratum lexis of the Latvian

language.

4.2.3. In the Turkish language verbal nouns are formed by cutting or partial cutting theaffix of the infinitive:

ölçmek to measure – ölçü measure örtmek to cover– örtü roof

donatmak to equip– donatı equipment dоlamak to twist, to wind – dolam one turn of

any coiled thing

In the Latvian language we find the same model of forming nouns:

dz ī vot to live - dz ī ve life dzirdēt to hear – dzirde ear, hearing

redzēt to see - redze sight, eyesight maksāt to pay– maksa pay, fee

Many nouns of substratum lexis were made according to this model that is shown in table 7.

Table 7

Turkish Latvian Turkish Latvian

sarmak ‘to embrace’ sarma ‘hoarfrost’ dürmek ‘to roll up’ dūre ‘fist’

çalkanmak ‘to be

rough (sea)’

šalkoņa ‘roar (sea)’ dikmek ‘to sew’ diegs ‘a thread’

varmak ‘to have’ Varis (male name) akmak ‘to flow’ aka ‘a well’

dokumak ‘to wieve’ deķ is ‘a blanket’ koşmak[koΣmak] ‘to

run’

košs[koΣs] ‘bright,

beautiful’



33

kurmak ‘to set up, to

form’

Kurma (name of a

lake)

sınаmak ‘to test, to try

out’

c īņa ‘a fight’

kurmak ‘to set up, to

form, to establish’

kurmis ‘a mole’ duymak ‘to feel, to

sense’

dū ja ‘dove,

pigeon’

dayanmak ‘to trust,to support, to last’

daina ‘Latvian folk song’

kapamak ‘to close’ kapi ‘graveyard’

eğilmek ‘to get down

to (a job)’

Egils (male name) yanmak ‘to burn’ Jānis (male name)

açmak ‘to open’ acs ‘an eye’ eğlemek ‘to amuse’ egle ‘fir-tree’

üremek ‘encrease’ jūra ‘sea’ alınmak/alın ‘to be

taken/the one that istaken’

alnis ‘an elk’

düşmek ‘to fall’ slikta dūša ‘to feel

sick’

sunmak ‘to submit’ suns ‘a dog’

burmak ‘to twist’ buras ‘a sail’ burkmak ‘to twist’ burka ‘a jar’

ağarmak ‘to dawn’ agrs ‘early’ kapamak ‘to close’ k ā pa ‘a dune’

4.2.4. Nouns of substratum lexis were also derived from participles and past forms of

Turkish verbs:

Turk. asmak/asar ‘to evade/evading’ – Latv. asaris Zool .‘perch’

Turk. asmak/astı ‘to hang/hung’ – Latv. aste ‘tail’

Turk. oymak/oyar ‘to scoop out, to carve/scooping out/carving’ –. Latv. Ojārs male

name

Turk. karmak/karıp ‘mix/have mixed’ – Latv. karpa Zool. ‘carp’

Turk. boymak/boyar ‘to paint/painting’ - Latv. bajārs ‘boyar(d)’

Turk. ezmek/ezer ‘melt/melting’ - Latv. ezers ‘lake’

Turk. кıpmak/kıpar ‘to blink/blinking (one’s eyes)’ - Latv. ķ ipars ‘doll, clown’, fig .

‘baby’.

4.2.5. Origin of some words of substratum lexis can be understood with the help of combinations of Turkish words:

Turk. üstüne varmak ‘to suppress’– Latv. varmac ī ba ‘violence’

Turk. küme küme ‘in groups’ – Latv. kumuriem ‘in groups’



34

Turk. lüle lüle ‘curly’ - Latv. lelle ‘doll’

Turk. gün ağarıyor “it’s dawning” – Latv. agri ‘early’

Turk. uğur ki ‘that is a good luck’ - Latv. gur ķ is ‘cucumber’

Turk. cin ‘evil spirit’, ters ‘opposite’ – Latv. dzintars ‘amber’

4.2.6. In some words of substratum lexis there are prefixes before Turkic roots. It prevents spotting the words of substratum lexis as there are no prefixes in the Turkish language:

Tur. dürmek ‘to roll up’ – Latv. piedurkne ‘sleeve’

Tur. zemmetmek ‘to speak ill’ - Latv. pazemot ‘to humble, to abase’

4.2.7. In the Turkish language we can find nouns that explain the origin of some Latvian

verbs:

Turk. teke ‘he-goat’ – Latv. tecēt ‘to trot’

Turk. resim ‘drawing’– Latv. rasēt ‘to draw’

Turk. vali/valide ‘governor/mother’ – Latv. vald ī t ‘to govern, to rule’

4.2.8. In the Latvian language we find names of plants that were created by translating

names of plants of the Turkish language:

Turk. unutmabeni ‘forget-me-not (don’t forget me!)'– Latv. neaizmirstul ī te ‘forget-me-

not’, Russ. – незабудка [nezabutka] ‘forget-me-not’;

Turk. horoz mantarı ‘chanterelle (cock’s mushroom)’ – Latv. gailen ī te (little cock)

‘chanterelle’ – Russ. лисичка ‘chanterelle (little fox)’;

Turk. itburnu ‘dog rose (dog’s nose)’ – Latv. suņu roze ‘dog-rose (dogs’ rose)’ – Russ.

шиповник ‘dog-rose’

4.3. Morphology

Both morphology and syntax of the Latvian language as well as its phonetics and word-forming contain rudiment of the Turkish grammar.

4.3.1. The forms of passive and reflexive verbs of the Turkish language are created with the

help of the affix -in/-n attached to the verb stems:

almak ‘to take’ - alınmak ‘to be taken’

yıkamak ‘ -yıkanmak ‘to wash oneself’

In the Latvian language the affix -in is used in creating transitive verbs of intransitive ones:

degt ‘to burn’ – dedzināt ‘to burn smth.’

augt ‘to grow’ – audzināt ‘to bring up’

drebēt ‘to tremble’ – drebināt ‘to shake’



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4.3.2. The Latvian demonstrative pronouns šī (fem.) ‘this ’, šis (masc.) ‘this’ correspond

to the Turkish demonstrative pronoun şu ‘that, this’.

4.3.3. The forms of the Latvian personal pronoun es ‘I’ – manis (gen.) ‘me’, man (dat.)

‘to me/me’, mani (acc.) ‘me’ concur with the forms of the Turkmen personal pronoun men ‘I’:

menin (gen.) ‘my/mine', mena (dat.) ‘me’, meni (acc.) ‘me’.

4. 3.4. The form of the accusative case of the Latvian personal pronoun viņš/viņa - viņu (third person singular) coinsides wit the Turkish form of the accusative case of the personal

prooun о – onu (third person singular). It’s remarkable that there is one and the same form of

feminine and masculine gender in both languages:

onu (Turk.) – viņu (Latv.)

Turk: Onu tanıyorum. I know him/her. - Latv.: Es viņu paz ī stu. I know him/her.

The Russian dialect form of the personal pronoun in the accusative case ону [onu] (third

person, singular, both fem. and masc.) sounds precisely like the Turkish form.

4.3.5. The Latvian adverbs divatā ‘two together’, trijatā ‘three togrther’, četratā ‘four

together’ and so on have been created of the Latvian cardinal numerals ‘divi’, ‘tr ī s’, ‘četri’ withthe help of the Turkish affix -ta, the affix of the locative case.

4.3.6. The Turkish affix -gen is used in forming adjectives of quality from verbal stems:

e.g. çekinmek ‘to be timid’ – çekingen ‘timid’

In the Latvian language the affix – ī g performs the same function:

kautr ēties ‘to be timid’ - kautr ī gs ‘timid’

baid ī ties ‘to be afraid’ – bail ī gs ‘easily frightened’

smaid ī t ‘to smile’ – smaid ī gs ‘smiling’

4.3.7. The noun flections of the third person singular of the Latvian language -s, -is mayarise from the Turkish affix –si that expresses belonging of an object or subject to the 3rd person

singular:

Turk. annesi ‘his/her mother’, babası ‘his/her father’ – Latv. tētis ‘father’, br ālis ‘brother’

4.3.8. It is striking that verb forms incouraging action of both the Latvian and Turkish

languages have the same final sounds:

Turk. gidelim! – Latv. brauksim! – Let’s go!

Turk. sevişelim! - Latv. m ī lēsim!– Let’s love!

4.3.9. The form of the 3-rd person both singular and plural forms of the Latvian verb būt

‘to be’ ir may derive from the ancient Turkish verb er- that has been preserved in the Turkish

affix -dir:

Turk.. Iyidir. – Latv. Viņš ir labs. – He is nice.

Turk. Işimdir –Latv. Tas ir mans darbs. – This is my job.

4.3.10. Finel sounds of nouns of feminine gender -ija that we find in both Latvian andRussian languages may spring from the Turkic affix of the third person -i and the Turkic affix of



36

-e hali -e/-a/-ye/-ya. The Turkish –e hali indicates direction of an action: kara yel >*Karayeliya

- ‘to the black wind’.

4.3.11. The Latvian suffix -ul- used in forming nouns of adjective and verb stems

reminds us of the Turkish postposition ile/-le meaning ‘with’ and expressing presence of a

quality named by the root. This model of word forming is productive both in the modern Turkish

and in the modern Latvian languages:

skaists – skaistule ‘beautiful’ – ‘beauty’

smuks – smuk ule ‘pretty’ – ‘a pretty female person’

bailes - bailule ‘fear, fright’ – ‘a person that can be easily frightened’

p ī kstēt – p ī kstule ‘to squeak’ – ‘a squeaker, a whiner’

4.4. Syntax

4.4.1. Both in the Turkish and Latvian languages nouns are widely used in the attributive

function, preceding the noun described. For example:

Turk. çocukluk arkadaşı – Latv. bērn ī bas draugs – ‘the friend of one’s childhood’

If a word has several nouns in the attributive function it can be difficult for a foreinger to

understand the meaning of such a word combination. This phenomenon is typical for both the

Latvian and Turkish languages.

Latv. pavasara beigu posms – Turk. ilkbaharın sonun dönemi – ‘the last period of spring’

4.4.2. Like in the Turkish language in the Latvian language there are sentences where thesubject of a sentence is not the subject of the participle clause of the sentence. Compare:

Latv. Mazgā jot logu, uz paklā ja sabira gruži. ‘When I was cleaning the window some

rubbish fell on the carpet’.

Тurk. Ateş olmayan erden duman çıkmaz. İf there is no fire, there is no smoke either.

4.4.3. The place of the postposition of the Turkish language is after the word it refers to.

In the Latvian language there are prepositions that are placed after nouns like Turkish postpositions:

Turk. benim için - Latv. manis dēļ – ‘for my own sake’

Moreover, in the Latvian language there are so called adverbs which take place after nominal parts of speech and require their usage in a certain case that is characteristic of

prepositions. As a rule such an adverb can be replaced with a preposition placed before the noun.

Compare:

Turk. рarası peşine – Latv. naudai pakaļ (adv.) – pēc naudas (prep.) - for money (to get

money)

Turk. ormandan – Latv. mežam cauri (adv.) - caur mežu (prep.) – through the forest

Turk. dostlar arasında – Latv. draugu starpā (adv.) - starp draugiem (prep.) –

among/between friends

Prepositions of the Latvian language may arise from these adverbs.4.4.4. Striking is the coincidence of verbal governing in the Turkish and Latvian

languages:



37

The Latvian аkuzat ī vs (accusative) corresponds to the Turkish -i hali (accusative):

Turk. seni görmek – Latv. tevi redzēt – ‘to see you’

We can see even the same final vowel -i in the pronouns of both languages.

We find Turkish and Latvian nouns that also end in similar final vowels. For example:

Turk.. yarayı sarmak – Latv. pārsiet br ūci – ‘to bandage one’s wound’In the Turkish language a direct object is usually placed before the noun when in Latvian it cantake position after or before the verb it is governed by:

İn the Latvian language the dative case corresponds to the Turkish –e hali (Turkish dative

case). For example:

Turk. Bu habere inanmam. – Latv. šai ziņai neticēšu – I can’t believe in this news.

4.4.5. In the Turkish language there is a postposition of joint action or tool for producing

action ile (-la, -le), meaning ‘with’, ‘by’. In the Latvian language the preposition ar has the same

meaning:

Turk. arabayla – Latv. ar auto – ‘by car’

Turk. çakışıyla - Latv. ar nazi – ‘with a knife’

4.4.6. The Latvian words sen ‘long ago’, sencis ‘an ancestor’ are connected with theTurkish word sene ‘a year’. The Latvian adjective sensens ‘ancient’ is formed by doubling the

stem. In the Turkish language this word-forming model is used in creating adjectives of a high

degree of quality expressed by its stem: güzel güzel ‘very beautiful’, büyuk büyuk ‘very big’.

4.4.7. In the Latvian language after the verbs iet ‘go on foot’, braukt ‘go (by)’

expressing motion nouns indicating direction can be used in the lokative case. The phenomenon

must arise from the Turkish –e hali, i.е. Turkish dative case. Compare:

Turk. İstambula gidelim! Let’s go to Istanbul! – Latv. Brauksim R ī gā! Let’s go to Riga!

We have discussed a number of phenomena of the Latvian grammar testifying the initial

relationship of the Latvian and the Turkish languages, i.e. the formation of the Latvian language

on the basis of the Turkic language. More examples proving this hypothesis could be given.

5. Turkic Roots of the Russian Language

Speaking of Turkic substratum lexis in the Latvian language we couldn’t escape comparingit with the similar Russian lexis as both Latvian and Russian srarted to form approximately in the

same place and at the same time. In the next chapter we shall compare the substratum lexis of

these languages to understand better their relation to the Turkic language, the connection

between the Latvian and the Russian languages and their place in the formation of other East

European languages.

The author of the research didn’t aim to make a scrupulous exploring of the Russianlanguage grammar to show the Turkic basis of the Russian language. In this chapter we shall just



38

trace the Turkic origin of suffixes of the Russian language that can serve as the brightest

evidence of the Turkic roots of the Russian language.

The famous saying that there is fifty per cent of Turkic blood in Russian people could sound

strange, but the knowledge of the Turkish language makes it possible to discover a surprising

thing: a great number of words of the Russian language have Turkic roots. For example, the

word багульник [bagul’nik] (name of a herb) has a corresponding word in the Turkish

language, the verb boğulmak ‘to suffocate’ (and its derivatives), and the herb really has a specialsuffocative odour. The word уют [ujut] ‘comfort’ rises from the Turkish verb uyutmak ‘to put to

sleep, to soften’.

The knowledge of the Turkish grammar allows to spot a countless number of words of theRussian language having Turkic roots as we can clearly see the word-forming models of the

Turkish language that were used in forming vocabulary of the Russian language.

Turkic substratum lexis and Turkic grammar rudiment of the Russian language witness of a

long way of formation of the Russian language on the Turkic basis.

5.1. Turkic Word-Forming Models in the Russian Language

In the Turkish language word-forming affixes have distinct and permanent meaning. They

are widely used in Turkish word forming. For example, the affix –ki (and its phonetic variants) is

intensively used in forming nouns of verbal stems:

кеsmek ‘to cut’ - keski ‘coulter, chisel’

basmak ‘to press’ - baskı ‘a press’

saymak ‘to respect’ - saygı ‘a respect’

The meaning of the affix –ki is ‘that, the one that’, i.е. the one that is connected with the

action named by the verb stem. The Russian language takes Turkic verb stems and with the help

of the affix -ki forms its own lexis:

Turk. şaşmak ‘to lose (one’s way)’ – Russ. шашки [ΣaΣki] ‘draughts’

Turk. şişmek ‘to swell, to get swollen’ - Russ. шишка [ΣiΣka] ‘cone, bump’

Turk. koşmak ‘to chase’ - Russ. кошка [koΣka] ‘pussy-cat’

Turk. susmak ‘to keep scilent’ - Russ. суслик [suslik] ‘gopher, groundsquirrel’16

Turk. koymak ‘to put, to place’ - Russ. койка [kojka] ‘bed'

Turk. kısmak ‘to lessen, to reduce’ - Rus. кусок [kusak] ‘piece, bit’

Turk. kaymak ‘to slip, to slide’- Russ. colloq. каюк [kajuk] ‘ruin, death, the end’

Turk. kırmak ‘to break’ – Russ. кирка [kirka] ‘pick-(axe)’

As Turkish word –forming models are clear and simple we can find lots of Russian words

made on this model, when the affix –ki is attached to the Turkish word stem:

16Turkish affix –li ‘with’ has also been used in formation of this word.



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Table 8

Turkish Russian

çul ‘haircloth’ чулок [tΣulok] ‘a stocking’

lüle 'a curl’ люлька [l’ul’ka] ‘cradle’

yol ‘a road’ елка [jolka] ‘fir-tree’

soba17 ‘chimney, stove’ собака [sobaka] ‘a dog’

verev ‘diagonal’ веревка [ver’ovka] ‘rope’

рeş (peşine gitmek – to follow) the back, the

rear пешка [peΣka] ‘pawn’

The particle –ki/k а is widely used in the modern Russian colloquial speech, i.e. it stays popular nowadays as well. As we can see from the examples below, the affix –ki/-ka can be attached to

any part of speech:

Пить-ки хочешь? (The particle –ki is attached to the verb)

Тепере-ка схожу в огород. (The particle –ki is attached to the adverb)

In the modern Russian language we can observe the endless creation of new words with the

suffix –ki, for example:

• спасибки [spasibki] (inform. from спасибо ‘thanks’);

• роднулька [rodnul’ka] (compare with the Turkish word benimki ‘mine (about husband,children)’ from benim ‘my’ and –ki ‘that’).

Russian children can easily make words attaching the affix –ki/k а to verbal stems, e.g.

‘бояка’[bojaka] (from the verb бояться ‘to be afraid of’).

It should be noted that obviously the Russian affixes –k, -ok, as well as the Russian particle -

ki, have sprung from the Turkic affix –ki.

In the Russian language there are lots of words created from probably the most ancient andsimple Turkic affixes and Turkic stem morphemes. For example, the Old Ruaasian word mleko

‘milk’ was derived from the Turkish meme ‘breast’ and the affixes –le ‘with’ and –ki ‘that’ and

meant ‘that of the breast’: mleko < *memeleki. The word [sudak] ‘pike-perch’ may spring fromthe Turkish stem morpheme su ‘water’ and affixes -da ‘in’ and –ki ‘that’ and meant ‘that in the

water’.

Turkic Roots of Russian Suffixes

Turk. -in – Russ. -ин [-in]

In the Turkish language the affix -in is the affix of –in hali, i.e. the genitive case:

17Turkish ‘sobaki evdeki’ means ‘all the family (those on the stove ledge and in the house)’



40

sen ‘you’ – senin ‘your/yours’

annem ‘mother’ – annemin ‘my mother’s’

In the Russian language – ин is the suffix of the genitive case, too:

мама mother – мамин [mamin] ‘mother’s’

папа father - папин [papin] ‘father’s’

Turk. –ar(-ır[1r]/-ir/-r/-ur/-ür)[yr]/-r – Russ. – ар(-арь,-яр,-ярь)/-ыр(ырь)/-

ир(ирь)

[-ar/-ar’/-jar/-jar’/- r /- r’/-ir/-ir’]18

The affix of the Turkish language –ar serves for making participles of present-future

tense. Substantive participles have the meaning ‘that or the one that constantly performs the

action named by the stem’:

yazmak – yazar ‘to write – writer’

okumak – ok ur ‘to read – reader’

gelmek – gelir ‘to come – income’

In the Russian language the suffix – ар(-арь,-яр,-ярь)/-ыр(ырь)/-ир(ирь) is widly used in

forming verbal nouns that name a person performing or that can perform the action called by the

stem:

доить – дояр [doit’- dojar]‘to milk – milkman/milker’

пахать – пахарь [pahat’- pahar’] ‘to plough – ploughman’

пасти – пастырь [pasti - past1r’] ‘to graze/pasture cattle – shepherd/hurdsman’

водить – поводырь [vodit’- povod1r’] ‘to lead a blind man – guide’

The great number of phonetic variants of this Russian suffix gives away its Turkic origin.

Turk. – а(-ya)/- е(-ye) [-a/-ja/-e/-je] – Russ. – а(-я) [-a/-ja]

The affix –a/-e serves for forming present participles from verb stems in the Turkish

language:

konuşmak– konuşa ‘to talk – talking’

şakalaşmak– şakalaşa ‘to joke – joking’

In the Russian language we find exactly the same phenomenon, i.e. the formation of

present participles with the help of the affix –a/-ja:

шептать – шепча [sheptat’- sheptΣa]‘to whisper – whispering’

кричать – крича [kritΣat’-kritΣa]‘to shout – shouting’

18In this work the soft variant of the Russian consonant ‘ р’ is transcribed as [r’].



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Turk.-an – Rus. – ан [-an]

The affix –an is used in forming present–future participles of verb stems in the Turkish

language. Substantive participles have the meaning ‘something or somebody that performs an

action named by the stem’:

kapmak – kapan ‘to seize – trap’

burmak – bur an ‘to twist – whirlwind’

In the Russian language the suffix – ан [-an] is used in forming nouns:

смута – смутьян [smuta – smut’jan] ‘trouble - trouble-maker’

интрига – интриган [intriga – inrigan] ‘intrigue – schemer’

Turk. –cak/-cık/-cik/-cek/-cuk/-çuk/-çük/çik [-d ak/- d yk/- d ik/- d ek/-d uk/-tΣuk/-

tΣ’uk/- tΣik] – Russ. – чок/-чек/-чик/-чек/-чук/-ок/-ик/-ек [t ok/-t ek/-t ik/-t uk/-ok/-ik/-

ek]

In the Russian language we find a number of diminutive suffixes that correspond to the

diminutive suffixes of the Turkish language. Compare the following Turkish and Russian

diminutive word forms:

kuzu – kuzucak ‘lamb – lamby’

köpek – köpek cik ‘dog – doggy’

göz – gözcek ‘eye – little eye’

kuş – kuşçuk ‘bird – birdy’

In the Russian language we find the following examples:

барабан – барабанчик ‘drum – drummy’

вокзал – вокзальчик ‘station – little station’

барин – барчук ‘landowner – landowner’s little son’

When a stem ends in –k the regressive assimilation of sounds takes place:

знак – значок ‘sign – badge’

крюк – крючок ‘hook – dim. form'

When a stem ends in – ч [tΣ] the confluence of sounds takes place:

ключ – ключик ‘key – little key’

мяч – мячик ‘ball – dim. form’

Both in the Turkish and Russian languages we find a great number of variants of this affix that

is explained by vowels harmony of the Turkish language.In the Russian language there are suffixes with the sound [tΣ] not with the sound [dΖ] which is

not typical for the Russian language.



42

Turk. –ci/-çi/-cu/-çu [-d i/-t i/-d u/-t u] – Russ. – чий, -ец/-лец [-t ij/-ets/-lets]19

In the Turkish language the affix –ci with its phonetical variants is used in forming a noun

naming a person that produces an action:

nahır - nahırcı ‘herd of cows - herdsman’

barut – barutçu ‘gunpowder – powdermaker’'

The Old Russian word зодчий [zotΣij] ‘an architect’ is the brightest example of creating

words according to this Turkish word-forming model:

зьдъ [zd] ‘clay’ > зьдчии [zdtΣii] ‘pot-maker’

The suffix of a person perfoming an action – чий is not a productive one in the modern

Russian language, though there is a number of old words containing this suffix: певчий

[p’evtΣij]‘a singer in a church choir’, кравчий ‘the one who helped the Russian tsar at the

dinner table’ , стряпчий ‘a person organizing performance of household duties at the tsar palace’(Откупщиков,1986, 9).

The Russian affixes -ец/-лец [-ets/lets] must have arisen from the Turkish affix –ci. The

Russian affixes -ец/-лец [-ets/lets] are used in forming nouns naming persons which perform

actions expressed by the word stems. These suffixes are added to the verb stems as well:

шить – швец [Σit’ - Σvets] ‘to sew – a tailor’

жить – жилец [zhit’ – zhilets] ‘to live – a lodger’

читать – чтец [tΣitat’ - tΣtets] ‘to read – a reader’

The Russian suffix – щик/-льщик that also indicates a person performing an action probably

appeared some time later. It looks like a combination of the Turkish affixes –ci/çi and – ki

‘that/which’ where the Turkish –ci/çi [dΖ]/[tΣ] was substituted by the Russian [ΣtΣ] that is

something in between the Turkish sounds [dΖ] и [tΣ]:

камень – каменьщик [kam’en’20 – kam’en’stΣik] ‘stone – bricklayer’

In the Russian language this suffix is used to produce nouns from verb stems as well, that

looks as if the Russian language uses the beloved Turkic suffixes as wide as it is possible:

наклеить – наклейщик [nakl’eit’- nakl’ejstΣik] ‘to stick – a person that sticks’

набить – набойщик [nabit’- nabojstΣik] ‘to heel a shoe – a person who heels shoes’

сеять – сеяльщик [s’ejat’- s’ejal’stΣik]21 ‘to sow – sower (a person )’

Turk. –aç [at ] – Russ. – ач [at ]

In the Turkish language the affix –aç is used for creating nouns naming instruments,

tools or means for performing actions by attaching it to verb stems:

saymak – sayaç ‘to count – meter, counter’

tıkmak – tık aç ‘to cram, to jam – stopper’

19In this work the Russian consonant represented by ‘ц’ is transcribed as [ts].

20[n’] and [m’] are soft vareants of the Russian sounds [n] and [m].

21[s’] is the soft variant of the Russian sound [s].



43

The suffix – ач [atΣ] of the Russian language is used for creating nouns of the same meaning as

it is in Turkish. It also forms nouns denoting a person that performs an action that is expressed

by the stem. This suffix is a productive one in the modern Russian language:

пугать – пугач [pugat’-pugatΣ]‘to frighten – a toy that looks like a pistol’

рвать – рвач [rvat’ - rvatΣ] ‘to tear – a greedy person that thinks only of personal profit’

ткать – ткач [tkat’ - tkatΣ] ‘to weave – a weaver’

In the Russian language the affix – ач forms nouns from adjectives as well:

богатый – богач [bogat1 j - bogatΣ] ‘rich – a rich person’

ловкий – ловкач [lovkij - lovkatΣ] ‘quick to take advantage – sharp fellow, a sharper’

сильный – силач [sil’n1 j -silatΣ] ‘strong – a strong person’

Turk.-ak – Russ. – ак/– аг/-яг [-ak/-ag/-jag]

In the Turkish language the affix – ак forms nouns (from verb stems) indicating the place of an action, the subject or object of an action:

sığınmak – sığınak ‘to take shelter – shelter’

uçmak - uçak ‘to fly – a plane’

korkmak - kork ak ‘to be afraid – coward’

The suffix -ак in the Russian language serves for forming nouns with the equivalent meaning:

лежать – лежак [l’ezhat’ – l’ezhak] ‘to lie – a plank bed’

черпать – черпак [tΣerpat’ - tΣerpak] ‘to scoop – a scoop’

The Russian suffix – аг/-яг must be the voiced variant of the affix – ак:

бродить – бродяга [brodit’ – brod’aga]22 ‘to wander – wanderer’

работать – работяга [rabotat’ – rabot’aga] ‘to work – hard working person’

In the Russian language nouns with the suffix – ак can be formed from adjectives as well:

бедный – бедняк [b’edn1 j – b’edn’ak] ‘poor – a poor person’

холостой – холостяк [holostoj – holost’ak] ‘single, bachelor – bachelor’

Turk. –ıt [ t] - Rus. – от[ot]

The Turkish affix –ıt is attached to a verb stem to form a noun:

yapmak – yapıt ‘to make – work (of art)’

kalmak - kalıt ‘to remain – inheritance’

22[d’] is the soft variant of the Russian sound [d].



44

Probably the Russian word калитка [kalitka] ‘a wicket-gate’ has been created of the Turkish

verb kalmak with the help of the Turkish affixes – ıt and –ki and means ‘that stays (in a necessary

position)’.

In the Russian language there is the affix – от [ot] that corresponds to the Turkish affix –ıt:

грохотать - грохот [grohotat’ – grohot] ‘to thunder – thunder’

хохотать – хохот [hohotat’ hohot] ‘to laugh – laughter’

Turk. –ç [t ] – Russ. – ч(а), – ищ(е) [-t /-i t ]

The affix –ç of the Turkish language is used for creating nouns (from the verb stems) that

name a thing or a phenomenon:

kazanmak – kazanç ‘to earn – earnings’

The Russian suffix – ч(а)[-tΣ(a)] has the same function and sounds alike:

подать – подача ‘to give, to serve – service’

добыть – добыча ‘to manage to get, to gain – prey’

The Russian suffix – ищ(е)[istΣ(e)] that sounds a little bit different though has the same

function and must have the same origin:

играть – игрище [igrat’ - igristΣe] ‘to play – folk amusement (games)’

позорить – позорище [pozorit’ - pozoristΣe] ‘to put to shame – shame’

Turk. –ık[ k] – Russ. – их(а), ух(а) [-ih/-uh]

The affix –ık of the Turkish language forms nouns indicating things or phenomena that

denote the result of an action named by a verb:

aksırmak – aksır ık ‘to sneeze – sneeze’

In the Russian language there are corresponding affixes -их(а), -ух(а):

шуметь – шумиха [Σum’et’ - Σumiha] ‘to make a noise – fuss’

голодать – голодуха [golodat’ – goloduha] ‘to starve – famine’

Turk. –ış(-iş/-uş/-üş) [- /-i /-u / -y ] – Russ. – ыш [- ]

The Turkish affix –ış (-iş/-uş/-üş) forms (nouns of verbal stems) expressing a manner or a

mode of performing an action:

bakmak – bakış ‘to look – look’

oturmak – oturuş ‘to sit – way of sitting’

The Russian suffix – ыш forms nouns naming a phenomenon or a thing that is the result

of an action expressed by a verb stem:



45

проиграть – проигрыш [proigrat’ - proigp1Σ] ‘to lose (a game) – loss’

вкладывать – вкладыш [vklad1vat’ - vklad1Σ]‘to put (into) – inset, supplement’

5.3. Phonetic Correspondences

In the conclusion of this chapter we shall look at some phonetic similarities of the Russian

and Turkish languages that vividly show the relationship between these languages.

Almost all sounds of the Russian language have corresponding sounds in the Turkish

language. Moreover, thanks to the Turkish language it becomes clear why there are pair vowelsin the Russian language:

Turk. Russ.

u– ü [u-y] у – ю [u-y]

ı – i [1-i] ы – и [1-i]

o – ö [o -2] о – е [o -2]

Both in the Turkish and Russian languages the specific sound ы [1] has sense distinguishingmeaning:

Turk. kır– kir ‘field – dirt’

Russ. лыко – лик ‘bast – countenance, face’

The Turkish sound c[dΖ] in substratum lexis of the Russian language has changed for the

sound ч[tΣ] or the sound ж [zh]23:

Turk. civelek[dзivelek] ‘lively, playful ’– Russ. человек [tΣelovek] ‘man, human’

Turk. civcivli [dзivdзivli] ‘lively, busy’– Russ. жизнь [zhizn’] ‘life’

The sound [h] in the old Russian words бог[boh] ‘god’, господи [hospodi] (addressing the

God) as well as the sound [h] in some Russian dialects and also in the Belorussian and Ukrainianlanguages corresponds to the Turkish sound [h].

The sound ц [ts] of the Russian language apparently arises from the Turkish sound ç[tΣ].Compare: çiçek – цветок – ‘flower’. Nowadays there are dialects of the Russian language where

the sound ч[tΣ ]of the modern Russian language is substituted with the sound [ts]: англичане англицане [anglit an’e – anglitsane] ‘English people’, псковичане – псковицане [pskovit an’e – pskovitsane]’the inhabitants of the city Pskov’.

The Russian sound щ [ΣtΣ] could arise both from the Turkish sound ç[tΣ] and the Turkish

sound [Σ] that is much softer than the Russian sound ш[Σ] and therefore reminds the Russian

sound щ [ΣtΣ].

So, we can make the conclusion that the great variety of the Russian suffixes is the

consequence of the fact that historically the Russian suffixes sprang from the numerous phonetic

variants of the Turkish affixes. The phenomenon of attaching a number of different affixes to the

word stem of the Turkish language gave birth to the Russian suffixes that appear to be

combinations of Turkish affixes. As we could see, not only simple affixes of the Turkish

23In this work the Russian consonant represented by ‘ж’ is transcribed as [zh]. It has corresponding voiceless

consonant ш[Σ].



46

language were used in word forming of the Russian language. Different combinations of Turkish

affixes that have sense in the Turkish language were transformed into suffixes of the Russian

language where they lost their original sense. Now they continue their existence as postfixes of

the Russian language.

The links of these languages that we have observed make us think of the organic relation of

the Russian language to the Turkish language, of the possible way of its development on the

basis of the Turkic language.

6. Comparison of Substratum Lexis of the Latvian and the Russian Languages

There is a great number of substratum lexis of both the Latvian and Russian languages

arising from the Turkic language that makes it possible to compare this lexis.

Having been arranged in chronological order the lexis has split up in approximately six

groups: 1) earliest substratum lexis of the Latvian language, 2) early substratum lexis of the

Russian language, 3) similar substratum lexis of the Latvian and Russian languages, 4)substratum lexis of the same meaning that sprang from different Turkic stems in the Latvian and

Russian languages, 5) substratum lexis of the Latvian language of the period of fixing the

territorial boundaries, 6) substratum lexis of the Russian language of the late period. Comparing

this lexis step by step gives us the opportunity of revealing connections between the Latvian and

the Russian languages and tracing the stages of their development on the Turkic basis.

6.1. Early Substratum Lexis of the Latvian language

The first group of the substratum lexis includes the earliest lexis of people who settled in theEast Baltics about eight thousand years ago. They are words naming ancestors, gods, symbols,

people names, objects and phenomena of the nature. There are words naming things connected

with human activities, such as harpoon, hoe, sledge, and the name of the animal, elk, that was the

main object of hunting in this region. There is also the word mā ja naming human dwelling. In

the Turkish language there are two words that could give birth to this Latvian word.

Table 9

Тurk. Latv. Тurk. Latv.

veli ‘saint, protector’ veļi ‘spirits of dead

ancestors’

gün ‘day’,

güneş ‘the sun’

Guna (female name),

Gunārs(male name),Gunta(female name),uguns огонь guņs(Latg.) огонь

uruk/urğu ‘tribe,

clan’urguči [urgutΣi]

‘spirits of dead

ancestors’

ay ‘the moon’ Ainārs(male name),

Aila (female name),

Aivars(male name),

Aigars(male name)

ilgi ‘relation,

connection’

iļģi ‘spirits of dead

ancestors’

yanmak/yan [ϕαν] ‘to

burn/burning’

Jānis [ja:nis] (male

name)



47

el/almak ‘hand/to

take’

elki ‘spirits of dead

ancestors’

sarmak/sarma ‘1)to

embrace, 2)to captivate’

Sarma(female name),

sarma hoarfrost

sene ‘year’ sen/sens/sensens/

sencis ‘longago/ancient/ very

old/ancestor’

eğilmek/eğil ‘to get

down(to a job)/gettingdown (to a job)’

Egils(male name)

us ‘rison’ Ūsiņš (pagan god’s

name)oymak/oyar [Οϕαr] ‘to

scoop out, to engrave, to

carve/scooping out,

engraving, carving’

Ojārs(male name)

yom [jom] ‘good

luck’

jumis [jumis] ‘the

symbol of fortility,

family luck’

varmak /varis ‘to

have/inheritor’

Varis(male name)

maya [maϕa] 1)

‘origin, essence’, 2)‘female of a herd

animal’

mā ja ‘home’ özel ‘special’ ozols ‘oak’

aya [aϕa] ‘palm of ahand’

aijāt [aijat] ‘to lull’ cebretmek/cebren ‘to

force/by force’

žebērklis ‘fish-spear,

harpoon’

kapamak ‘to cover’ kaplis ‘a hoe’ kök ‘root’ кoks ‘tree’

dun ‘low’ duncis ‘dagger’ ilk ‘first’ ilkss ‘shaft, shill’

If we compare this table with the table of Russian substratum lexis (see table 10) we won’tfind there many words corresponding to the first substratum lexis of the Latvian language.

In the table of the earliest substratum lexis of the Latvian language we can find Latvian words

naming spirits of ancestors: elki, veļi, urguči, iļģi, senči. We do not find these words among the

Russian early subsratum lexis. The only word of the Russian language (and also the Lithuanianlanguage) is the word Alka that corresponds to the Latvian word elk ‘ancestor’. Places for

sacrificing, usually high hills, Slavic and Lithuanian people called ‘Alkas’.Latvian substratum lexis contains a great number of words arising from the Turkish words

calling the sun, the moon, nature phenomena, man’s activities. In the Latvian language they

often serve for creating people’s names. This tradition that roots in the ancient past continue to

exist in the modern Latvian culture, too. The same tradition to name people after the sun, themoon and other objects of nature stay alive in the Turkish culture as well.

In the Russian substratum lexis there are names Ivan and Uljan. The first name has arisen

from the Latvian name Jānis, the second name probably was created later from the Turkish

stems ulu ‘great’ and yan ‘fire’.

The Russian pagan God Ivan was honored by Slavic people as much as the God Jan by pagan

ancestors of the Latvians, though the name Ivan appeared from the Latvian Jan, when the

Latvian Jan apparently is the verbal noun yan ‘burning’ of the Turkish verb yanmak ‘to burn’.



48

In the group of early substratum lexis of the Russian language we do not find the name of the

early Latvian pagan God Ūsiņš that probably stems from the Turkish word us ‘reason’,

nevertheless, in the Russian language we find a phraseological unit мотать на ус ‘to understand

and remember’ that could arise from the same Turkish stem much later.

The above-mentioned observations give us reasons to believe that this early substratum lexis of

the Latvian language refers to the period of the Stone Age when descendants of the first groups

of Mesolithic people, who settled on the territory of modern Latvia, had to give names to new phenomena, things, objects, etc. they faced living on that new territory which was isolated from

the Turkic language which was developed in the southern regions where their ancestors had

come from.

The earliest lexis of the Latvian language based on the Turkic stems and naming ancestors,

gods, human names shows, beyond doubt, high spiritual culture of the tribes where theforthcoming Latvian language started to be developed.

6.2. Early Substratum Lexis of the Russian Language

This group of substratum lexis contains words of the Latvian and Russian languages thatcall nature phenomena, the world of animals, parts of human body, man actions and fruits of his

labour, abstract things, etc.

Here we can see substratum lexis of the Latvian language given in a comparison with

substratum lexis of the Russian language. See table 10.

Table 10

Turkish Translation Latvian Russian

meme breast, udder mamma ‘mother’ мама [mama] ‘mother’

ata father tēta [t{:ta] ‘father’ тятя [t’at’a] ‘father’

ak, men white/grey, thing akmens ‘stone’ камень[kamen’] ‘stone’

ezmek/ezer melt/melting ezers ‘lake’ озеро [ozero] ‘lake’

üremek to encrease jūra ‘sea’ море[mor’e] ‘sea’

sudan from water, by water ūdens ‘water’ вода [voda] ‘water’

cin, ters evil spirit, opposite dzintars ‘amber’ янтарь [jantar’] ‘amber’

kıyıya to the coast kaija ‘sea-gull’ чайка [tΣajka] ‘sea-gull’

ilk first ilknis ‘fang, tusk,

canine (tooth)’клык [klyk] ‘fang, tusk,

canine (tooth)’

eğlemek to amuse egle ‘fir-tree’ ель [jel’] ‘fir-tree’



49

açmak to open acs/ačele [ats/atΣele]

‘eye/little eye’

oко/очи [oko/otΣi]

‘eye/eyes’

asmak/asar to suspend, to skip, to

disappear

asaris ‘perch’

окунь[okun’] perch

kurmak

to set up, to form kurmis ‘mole’ крот [krot] ‘mole’

kedi cat kaķ is/kaķ e ‘cat’ кот [kot] ‘cat’

asmak/astı to hang aste ‘tail’ хвост [hvost] ‘tail’

darbe a hit darbs ‘labour’ труд [trud] ‘labour’

susuz dry sauss ‘dry’ cухой [suhoy] ‘dry’

el hand elkonis ‘elbow’ локоть [lokot’] ‘elbow’

ısıtmak/ısıt to heat/heating istaba ‘a room’ изба [izba] ‘a house,a

hut’

kumbara piggi bank kambaris ‘larder,

pantry’

амбар [ambar] barn,

granary, storehouse

valide/vali mother/governor vald ī t ‘to rule’ владеть [vlad’et’] ‘ to

have in one’s property’

yıl/yıllamak/yılm

ak

a year/to stay for a long

time/to get bored

ilgi ‘for a long time’ долго [dolgo] ‘for a long

time’

The Latvian substratum lexis is motivated by Turkish stem morphemes and word-forming

affixes. The Latvian words sound very similar to the Turkish stems they have sprung from. The

words of the Russian substratum lexis of this group have the same meaning that the Latvian

words have, though they sound different. We can watch replacement of syllables, changes of

vowels and consonants. That must testify that the substratum lexis of the Latvian language gave birth to some part of the substratum lexis of the Russian language. This fact makes us think that

probably the forthcoming Russian language started its developing a little bit later than the

forthcoming Latvian language. It can also testify of the leading role of the tribes where the

forthcoming Latvian language was developed in comparison with the tribes that settled nearby.

6.3. Similar Substratum Lexis of the Latvian and the Russian Languages

Lexis of this group contains words that refer to a later time period when apparently contacts between tribes became more regular. The pronunciation of these Latvian and Russian words is

very similar, and they name mostly the same things or close notions. See table 11.



50

Table 11

Turkish Latvian Russian

acılı [adΖili] ‘sad’ žēlot ‘to pity, to be sorry (for)’ жалеть[zhalet’] ‘to pity, to be

sorry (for)’

dün ‘yesterday’ diena ‘day’ день [den’] ‘day’

çiçek [tΣitΣek] ‘flower’ zieds ‘flower’ цветок [tsvetok] ‘flower’

şavk [Σavk] colloq. ‘ light,

fire’

saule ‘the sun’ щавель Bot . [ΣtΣavel’]

‘sorrel’

lığ Geol .alluvium l ī nis ‘tench’, Liginišķ i (place

name)

линь Zool. [lin’] ‘tench’

çalkanmak/çalkantı[tΣalkantı]‘to wave/waving (sea)’ šalkoņa[Σalkon’a] ‘murmur of the waves, rustle’ шелест [Σelest] ‘rustle’

duman ‘mist, smoke’ dūmaka ‘haze’, dūmi ‘smoke’ туман [tuman] ‘mist’, дым

[dym] ‘smoke’

postal ‘combat boot’ pastala ‘simple foot-wear’ постол [postol] ‘simple foot-

wear’

verev ‘diagonal’ virve ‘rope’ веревка [ver’ovka] ‘rope’

tırpan ‘csythe’ cirpt [tsirpt] ‘to cut’ серп [serp] ‘sickle’

gitmek ‘to go, to leave’ iet ‘to go’ идти [itti] ‘to go’

yemek/ye!

‘to eat/eat!’

ēd ‘eat!’ ешь [jeΣ] ‘eat!’

tur/turta spin, circle/in a circle torte ‘ a cake’ торт [tort] ‘a cake’

dürtmek to prod durt

‘to stab, to prick’

продырявить [prodyr’avit’]‘to make a hole’

düşmek ‘1) to fall 2) to lose

one’s health 3)to rush, to dash’dūša 1) slikta dūša[duΣa] ‘ to

feel sick’ 2)‘courage, bravery’душа [duΣa] ‘sole’

almak/alçak [altΣak] ‘to

take/low, mean’

alkat ī gs ‘greedy’ алчный [altΣnyj] ‘greedy’

koşmak[koΣmak] ‘to run’ košs[koΣs] ‘bright’ роскошный [roskoΣnyj]

‘very beautiful’



51

burtmak ‘to make twist,

whirl’

burt ‘to practice magic’ бортник[bortnik] ‘the one

who collects wild bees’

honey’

man‘thing/person’ manta ‘thing’ манатки [manatki] colloq.’things’

lüle lüle ‘curly’ lelle ‘a doll’,

lolot ‘to cherish’

Златокудрый Лель [lel’]‘curly male folklore

character’, лелеять [leleit’] ‘tocherish’

sur ‘fate, lot’ sūrs ‘bitter, harsh’ суровый [surovyj] ‘bitter,

harsh’

patak/patağı ‘beating’ pātaga/pātagot ‘whip/to whip’ батог [batok] ‘a whip’

civelek[dзivelek] ‘lively’ cilvēks [tsilve:ks] ‘a man’ человек [tΣelovek] ‘a man’

civciv [dΖivdΖiv]/civcivli

[dзivdзivli] ‘chick/lively,

busy’

dz ī ve ‘life’ жизнь [zhizn’] ‘life’

cisim ‘ body’ dz ī sla ‘vein’ жила [zhila] ‘vein’

mihr ‘random, redemption’ miers ‘peace’ мир [mir] ‘peace’

yuk[juk] ‘load’ jugs ‘yoke’ иго [igo] yoke

кapamak ‘to cover, to hide,

bury’

kaps/kapi ‘grave/graveyard’ капище [kapiΣtΣe]‘graveyard’

6.4. Parallel Development of the Latvian and the Russian Languages on the Turkic

Basis

Lexis of this group witnesses that in the process of the development the Latvian andRussian languages formed their lexis that named the same things using different Turkic roots and

stems. Such a phenomenon could take place on the territory where the Turkic language waswidely spread. Archaeologists have found lots of Neolithic settlements on the territory of modern

Latvia and nearby. Apparently newcomers from the East and South spoke not any other, but theTurkic language.

The lexis of this group was created according to the word-forming models that we can see

in the Turkish language nowadays.

The words formed from the Turkish verbs ka şımak ‘to scratch’ and burmak ‘twist, whirl’

show the variety of words that derive from Turkic stems and affixes in both the Latvian and the

Russian language independently from one another.

Table 12



52

Turkish Latvian Turkish Russian

keman ‘a bow’ kamanas ‘sledge’ sanğı ‘dazed,confused’

санки [sanki] ‘sledge’

kaba ‘large, but light’ kabata ‘pocket’ karmak/karma‘to mix/mixed’

карман [karman]'pocket’

sarmak ‘to embrace’ sarma ‘hoarfrost’ inmek ‘to come

down’

иней [inej] ‘hoarfrost’

su/sulu ‘water/juicy’ sula ‘juice’ sıkmak ‘to squeeze,

to press’

сок [sok] ‘juice’

kapamak ‘cover, hide, bury’

kaplis ‘a hoe’ çapa ‘a hoe’ тяпка[t’apka] ‘a hoe’

sunmak ‘submit’ suns ‘a dog’ soba ‘chimney,

stove’собака [sobaka] ‘a

dog’

zar ‘membrane,

pellicle’

zarnas ‘intestines,

guts’

kiş ‘a man’ кишки [kishki]

‘intestines, guts’

кapamak ‘cover, hide, bury’ k ā pa ‘duna’ dun 'low’ дюна [d’una] ‘duna’

açmak ‘open’ acs ‘eye’ göz ‘eye’ глаз [glaz] eye

kaşımak ‘sctratch’ kašķ is ‘itch,

scabies’

kastanis ‘chestnut’

каша[kaΣa]

‘porridge’, кашель

[kaΣel’] ‘cough’,

каштан [kaΣtan]

‘chestnut’ 24

burmak ‘twist, whirl’ buras ‘sail’, burz ī t'crumple, crinkle’reg. бурак [burak]

beet, hist.бурлак

[burlak]25 , бурки

[burki] felt boots, буря

[bur’a] ‘storm’,

бурить [burit’] ‘drill,

bore’

ki ‘who’ kas ‘who' кто [kto] ‘who’

24The Turkic affix –tan makes us think that the word could have the meaning ‘remedy against cough’ that is really

so.25

Workers who twisted themselves in tow-ropes to carry ships against the current



53

onu ‘her/him’ viņu ‘her/him’ dial. ону[onu]/вину

[vinu]/вану[vonu]

her/him

6.5. Substratum Lexis of the Latvian Language of the Period of Demarcation

Late substratum lexis of both the Latvian and Russian languages testifies that the development

of these languages on the Turkic basis continued for a long of time, apparently several thousand

years. It could be possible if the Turkic language speakers didn’t stop to arrive in this region

bringing new lexis of the Turkic language. The Turkic language had to be widely spread in this

region to make a rich basis for the developing Latvian and Russian languages.

The words of this group name abstract things and humans’ actions that are connected with the

later period of formation of the Latvian language.We can see the words witnessing that these lexis belongs to people of a class society: slave,

violence, whip, battle, wage, etc.

We do not find corresponding lexis in the Russian language. It makes us think that this lexis

belongs to the period of fixing territorial boundaries of originating states.

Table 13

Turk. Latv. Turk. Latv.

resim ‘drawing’ rasēt ‘to draw’ üstüne varmak ‘to

supress’

varmac ī ba

‘violence’

dikmek ‘to sew’ diegs thread, cotton yaka ‘collar’ jaka ‘blazer’

k ар ‘upper part of

smth.’, карut ‘military

greatcoat’

kapuce ‘hood’ dürmek ‘to roll up’ piedurkne ‘sleeve’

кaplamak/kaplı to

cover/

covered

kapliča ‘family

vault’

küme ‘group’, küme

küme ‘in groups’

kumuriem ‘in

groups’

at ‘horse’ Ata! ‘See you!’, jāt‘ride a horse’

gani ‘enough’ gan,gana ‘enough’,

gan ī bas ‘pasturage’

dun ‘low’ dunka ‘nudge, poke’ narin ‘slim, slender,

delicate’

nāra ‘water-

nymph’

sırma ‘silver thread’ sirms ‘grey, grizzled’ çenebaz ‘talkative’,

küfür baz

‘foulmouthed’

bāzt ‘to shove, to

thrust, to poke’

ayna ‘mirror’ ainava ‘landscape,sea-scape’

uzman ‘expert,specialist’

uzman ī ba‘attention’



54

bayat/ bayatlamak

stale/to get stale

bojāt ‘spoil’ dun ‘low’ duna ‘low sound’ ,

dunēt ‘to drone, to

boom’

dumur ‘аtrophy’ dumjš ‘silly’ ağarmak/gün ağarı ‘todawn/at the break of

day’

agrs/agriadj’.early’/

adv’.early’

iç/içine [itΣine] n./adv.‘ inside’

iek šiene [iek Σiene]

n.

‘inside’

yosun ‘moss’ sūna ‘moss’

ya [ja] ‘yes’ jā ‘yes’ burk mak ‘to twist, to

wrench, to sprain’

burk āns ‘carrot’,

burka ‘jar’

ara ‘distance, interval’ ār ā ‘outside’ saplamak to thrust, to pierce

sā pеs ‘pain’

kem ‘evil, malicious’ ķēms ‘fright, ghost’ aklı ‘person with a

wall-eye’

akls ‘blind’

bildirmek ‘to inform’ bildināt/iebilda/

piebilda to propose/

objected/remarked

sık ‘dense, frequent’ s ī ks ‘tiny, small,fine’

varmak ‘to dare’ var ēt ‘to dare’ tek ‘one, single, only’ tikai ‘only, solely’

sınаmak ‘to test, to tryout’

c īņa ‘struggle, fight’ tapa ‘stopper’ tapa ‘stopper’

şüphe ‘doubt’ šū poties ‘to swing, tosway’

ilk ‘first, initial’ ilkss ‘shaft, thill’

manita ‘swindle’ mān ī t ‘to deceive, to

cheat’

mayi/mayışmak

‘liquid, fluid/ sl.to get

drowsy

maigs soft, mild,

gentle

vergi tax, gift vērgs ‘slave’ dul/dulluk ‘widow,

widower/widowhood’

dulls/dullums

‘crazy,foolish/foolishness’

dayanmak ‘to be based, to trust’

daina ‘Latvian folk-song’

kunt ‘stout, solid' kunda ‘regular customer’

yeni [ϕeni] ‘new’ jauns ‘new, young’ algı ‘wages’ alga ‘wages’

acemi çaylak [tΣailak]‘chick’ čālis[tΣalis] sl.

‘fellow, boyfriend’almak ‘to take’ alkas/alkat ī gs‘thirst,

longing/greedy’



55

kavga ‘fight, quarrel’ kauties ‘to fight’

6.6. Substratum Lexis of the Russian Language of the Later Period

This group of words consists of Russian lexis originated from Turkic stems. The words do not

have parallel lexis in the Latvian language.

Here we find synonyms of earlier lexis (око – глаз ‘an eye’, тятя – батя ‘father’) that alsospring from Turkish stem morphemes. This phenomenon serves an evidence of a great duration

of the period of the Russian language formation on the Turkic basis.

Table 14

Тurk. Russ. Тurk. Russ.

kandil ‘oil-lamp’ кадило [kadilo]

‘censer, thurible’

uyutmak [ujutmak] ‘to

lull to sleep, to calm’уют [ujut]

‘comfort’

macun [madΖun]

‘paste, putty’

мазь [maz’] ‘ointment’ iskemle ‘chair, stool’ скамья [skamja]

bench’

bulanmak ‘to be

dimmed, to bestirred’

буланый [bulan1 j]

‘Isabel, dun (horse)’

pıhtı ‘clot, coagulate’ пахтать [pahtat’]

‘to churn’

kapırdamak ‘potter about’

копошиться [kapaΣitsa] ‘potter

about’

кaba ‘rude, vulgar,common’

кабак [kabak]‘pub’

tık mak ‘to thrust, to

stick’тыкать [t1kat’] ‘to

thrust, to stick’

кel ‘bald, bare’ келья [k’elja]

‘cell’

konmak/konur ‘to

stay for the

night/staying for the

night’

конура [konura]

‘kennel, dog-house’

кelli colloq.

‘since, seeing that’

коли [koli]

‘since, seeing

that’

havlamak ‘to bark’ гавкать [havkat’] ‘to

bark’

rasgele yerde

‘haphazardly’

разгильдяй

[razgil’d’aj]

colloq. slack,

careless person

hapsetmek/hapis ‘to

imprison, to lock up/

prison’

хапать [hapat’] colloq.

‘to grasp’

durmak/durak

‘to stop/stop’

дурак [durak]

‘fool’

kıvırmak ‘to curl, to

twist’заковыристый

[zakov1rist1 j] colloq.

‘twisted, intricate’

kazanç ‘gain, profit,

earnings’казна [kazna]

‘money, property’



57

‘wind/fidgety/

hussy’

fidget’ ‘great’

çamur[tΣamur]

‘mud, mire’

чамурла [tΣamurla]

colloq. ‘alcoholic

drinks’

dolu/dolgun ‘full’ недолугий26

[nedolugij] colloq. ‘foolish’

kırmak ‘to break’ кирка [kirka] ‘pick – (axe)’

ayakkabı ‘footwear’ каблук[kabluk]‘heel (of a shoe)’

koymak ‘to put, to place’

койка [kojka] ‘a bed, ahammock’

patlamak ‘to explode’ патлы [patl1]

colloq.

‘uncombed hair’

soba ‘stove’ собака [sobaka] ‘a

dog’çürük [tΣuruk] ‘rotten,spoilt’

чирей [tΣirej] ‘a boil’

dermek ‘to gather, tocompile’, derme

çatma ‘smth. madein a hurry, badly

made thing’

дерьмо [der’mo] colloq. ‘smth. bad, of a

bad quality, faeces’

maraz 1) ‘disease’,2)’bad-tempered’

маразм [marazm]

‘debility,

marasmus’

bozmak/bozdın ‘to

be crazy

(about)/became

crazy’

бздын [bzd1n] colloq.

‘craziness’

kavata ‘large wooden

bowl’корыто [kar 1ta]

‘large wooden

bowl’

loda ‘pile’ колода [koloda] ‘pack’ ürümek ‘to bark’ урчать [urtΣat’]

‘rumble’

çapa [tΣapa] ‘a hoe’ тяпка [t’apka] ‘a hoe’ рeşi peşine[peΣi peΣine]

‘one after another’

пешка [peΣka]

‘pawn’, пешком

[peΣkom] ‘on

foot’

duhul ‘entrance’ дуло [dulo] ‘barrel,

muzzle’

kül 'lazy, inert’ куль [kul’]

colloq. lazy/inert

person

çağ [tΣaa] ‘epoch,

age’чага [tΣaga] Bot.

‘fungus of a birch,

chaga’ 27

yemek ‘to eat’ еда [jeda] ‘meal,

food’

çardak[tΣardak]

‘arbour, pergola,

hut’

чердак [tΣerdak] ‘attic’

26‘не-’ is the negative prefix of Russian adjectives.

27Chaga is regarded to be a remedy for living a long life.



58

6.7. The Conclusions Based on the Comparative Analysis

The comparative analysis of the substratum lexis of the Latvian and Russian languages makes it

possible to formulate the following conclusions and suppositions:

1. Both the Latvian and Russian languages arise and start developing on the basis of the

Turkic language of Mesolithic on the territory of the modern Baltics.

2. Substratum lexis of the Latvian language naming ancestors, pagan gods, human’s names

testifies to a rich spiritual life of the groups of people (and later tribes) on the territory

where the Latvian language started to develop.

3. Probably owing to the law of uneven development of tribes, in the earliest period of its

formation the Latvian language was the leader, as in the earliest substratum lexis of theRussian language we find the words that the developing Russian language borrowed

from the Latvian language.

4. The earliest substratum lexis of both the Latvian and Russian languages including suchwords as ‘water’, ‘sea’, ‘lake’, ‘sea-gull’, ‘mole’, ‘mist’, ‘fir-tree’, etc. testifies to thefact that both of the languages were developing in the same geographical zone.

5. Words of the Latvian and Russian languages that were formed from different Turkic

root/stem morphemes, though they name the same things, show that the process of the

development of the Latvian and Russian languages on the Turkic basis was long and

independent.

6. The words ‘peace’, ‘yoke’, ‘beautiful’, ‘harsh’, ‘greedy’, ‘sickle’, etc. speak about a

continuous contact of the Latvian and Russian languages.

7.

Probably, other Baltic and Slavic languages appeared and developed not only on the base of the Turkic language, but in a great degree, on the base of the Latvian and

Russian languages that started their forming earlier than other Baltic and Slavic

languages.

8. With the end of the warm Atlantic period archaeologists trace people moving from theterritories of East Europe to South Europe that apparently promoted the participation of

Baltic and Slavic languages in the formation of languages in other parts of Europe and

Asia. This could explain the connection of Baltic and Slavic languages with Sanskrit.

9. Apparently, the first language that arose on the base of the Turkish language in the EastBaltic region was the Latvian language. The Russian language followed it. On the basis

of the Turkish, Latvian and Russian languages sprang and developed other EastEuropean languages, like Lithuanian, Latgalian, Belorussian, Polish, Ukrainian, etc.

7. Polyethnonyms ‘Aesty’, ‘Slavy’, ‘Rusy’28 and Other Ethnonyms.

First historical descriptions of peoples show that tribes residing on the same territory, speaking

different languages and having different cultures and traditions got a common name, i.e.

polyethnonym. Tacitus in his work ‘Germania’ names the people who settled on the east coast of

28Engl. ‘Aesti’, ‘Slav’, ‘Rus’.



59

the Baltic Sea ‘Aesty’. As we know the ancient Turkic word ‘ais’ is connected with the name of

the God Tangri. The polyethnonym ‘Aesty’ may originate from the name of this Turkic God.

Tacitus compares cultures and traditions of the tribes called the Bastarny and Venedy29 with

cultural traditions of the Sarmatians. The Sarmatians were Turkic tribes of the East Baltic region.

Apparently, being first or just more organized settlers of that terretoty they were paid homage by

incomers. The name ‘Bastarny’ may arise from the Turkish verb bastırmak ‘to suppress, to

surpass, to go unannounces’.

The later names of East Baltic tribes ‘Estony’, ‘Lettony’ contain the Turkic word ‘ön’

indicating space before something. So, the word ‘Estony’ could mean ‘Esty and the lands around

them’, ‘Lettony’ – ‘Letty and the surrounding lands’. Later the words ‘Estonya’ and ‘Lettonya’appeared. The ending of the names [ja] reminds us of the affix –e(-ye)/-a(-ya) of the Turkish -е hali expressing direction of action. So the words ‘Estonya’ , ‘Lettonya’ could mean ‘to go toEsty or Letty’.

It may be that the name ‘Slav’ appeared from the Turkish verb islemek ‘to smoke’ than islev

could mean ‘the one who smokes fish or meat for winter time’ and could refer to lots of tribes

living in the zone of cold.

There is a supposition that the word ‘Rusy’ was used initially for naming representatives of

polyethnic trade expeditions, the participiants of which were northern people going to the East.

(Буша, 2006). Then the name of the Belorussians could mean ‘Swamp Rus’ (in the Lithuanian

language bala means ‘puddle, pool’). The name of the ethnos ‘Prusy30’ could mean‘Experienced Rus’ as in Turkish pir means ‘aged experienced person, master, expert’.

The origin of the word бояре [bojare] ‘boyar(d)’ could be connected with the Turkish verb

boyamak/boyar ‘to paint, to dye, to colour/painting, dyeing, clouring’. Works of historians say

that advanced ancient peoples had a tradition to paint their bodies and hair. Those people who

were less wealthy had less paint on their bodies, so painting was the symbol of wealth

(Стасюлевич, 1999, 156).

The name of the ethnos ‘Galindy’31 could arise from the Turkish word gali ‘a kind of flat-

bottomed vessel’. The name of the еthnos ‘Sudy’32 can arise from the Turkish word form suda ,

that means ‘in the water’.

Conclusion

The human history testifies that human culture was born in Asia.

The latest discoveries of scientists prove that in IV-III millenniums BC Turkic tribes bearing

different names were residents of Asia Minor.

Man’s arrival on the coast of the Baltic Sea became possible after withdrawal of the last glacier.

At the end of IX millennium BC fishers and hunters left their imprints on the territory of modernLatvia.

Mesolithic settlements and a burial-ground found on the territory of modern Latvia are dated

to VI millennium BC. In the Neolithic the number of settlements increases. Archaeological

investigations testify the continuity both in methods of making tools and in burial culture. The

29 Engl. ‘Bastarnae’, 'Veneti’.30

Engl. ‘Prussians’.31

Engl. ‘Galindians’.32

Engl. ‘Sudovians’.



60

unbroken succession witnesses that those people apparently had to speak one and the same

language.

In the chapter ‘The Hypothesis of the Origin of East European Substratum’ we made a

suggestion that the language of first, Mesolithic, inhabitants on the territory of modern Latvia

was the language of people of high Neolithic culture of Asia Minor. If we imagine that the world

population spoke one and the same language that time, the language of people of Neolithic Asia

Minor having appered in the East Baltic region had to stand out for its rich vocabulary thatcontained words naming new conceptions, phenomena and things. Having found itself on that

new, unpopulated territory and having lost its links with the places where it came from the

language gradually started to change. The new geographical environment required phonetic

changes as well. New words appeared and it was asked by the life. In new words formation

already familiar Turkic roots and word-forming affixes were used. New grammatical categories

and phenomena also arose on the basis of those that the Turkic language had.

In the chapter ‘The Discovery of Turkic Substratum in the Latvian Language’ we showed

that the language that was developing on the territory of modern Latvia had Oghuz Turkic stem

morphemes and affixes. The phonetic and grammar structure of the modern Latvian language

preserves the rudiment of the basic language, i.e. the language on the basis of which the Latvianlanguage was developing till finally transformed into a new language that hasn’t lost its

connection with the basis it was growing on. People developing the Latvian language were in no

way conspicious for their cult of knowledge inherited with the language, the knowledge of Astronomy and Astrology, nature and man, crafts and farming and so on and so forth. They

preserved the cult of pagan traditions, spiritualizing all that surrounded man. It helped the peopleto stay alive and that is more they could better learn the things they had interest for and respect

to.

In the chapter ‘Comparison of Substratum Lexis of the Latvian and Russian Languages’ we

showed the substratum lexis of the Latvian language that became lexis of the Russian language,

i.e. how it was adopted by people who came to the territory of the East Baltic region by their own way and who apparently didn’t have that knowledge and the vocabulary (though speaking

the same language) that first inhabitants of the territory of the modern Latvia had.

If we continue this research we will be able to trace how the Latvian and Russian languages,in their turn, influenced forming of the neighbouring languages: Lithuanian, Polish, Belorussian.

It would be interesting to find out how and where Finno-Ugric languages that differ to a greatdegree from one another arose and developed on the Turkic basis, to trace through the prism of

Turkic the development of German and Celtic languages and many other things.

The permanent presence of the Turkic language beside the developing languages of Europe is

testified by the later substratum lexis of the Latvian and Russian languages. We can suppose that

the Turkic language in its turn could borrow from the developing on its basis languages some of their lexis. Perhaps, the Turkish verb irk ilmek ‘to be startled, to start’ and ayırmak/ayr ılmak ‘to

to leave, to depart’ (-il –affix of the Passive voice) have derived from the Latvian verb irt ‘to

row’. For the Turkish word tırpan ‘scythe’ we find the Latvian corresponding verb cirpt [tsirpt]

‘to shear, to clip’. The Latvian words nags ‘nail (of a horse)’, nagla ‘nail (a metal spike)’

(Turkish -la means ‘with’) and matching them Turkish word nal ‘horseshoe’ also attract our

attention. Turkish words namuskar ‘honest’, bestekar ‘composer’, koçkar ‘a fighting ram’

associate with the Latvian word k ārs ‘having a weakness for’.

But it could also happen that the Turkish language just has lost the initial root words of the

mentioned words when the Latvian language managed to preserve them.

Both the Latvian and Russian languages appeared on the basis of the Turkic language, and in

the first stage the development of the Latvian language overtook the development of the Russian



61

language. Thanks to the earliest substratum lexis of the Russian language we can watch how the

Russian language forms some of its early lexis on the base of Latvian.

With fortified settlements and then principalities the isolation of languages takes place, the

substratum lexis of the Latvian and Russian languages of later period testifies it. Both languages

continue to enrich their vocabulary and develop their grammar on the basis of Turkic, but they

do it separately, i.e. each one makes it in its own way.

As soon as Latvian is the brightest representative of Baltic languages and Russian, in its turn,

is the brigh representative of Slavic languages, the revealed Turkic substratum of these

languages makes it possible to speak about revealing of Turkic substratum of Baltic-Slavic

languages.

In ancient lexis of European languages researchers find lexical layers that are connected with

the Turkic language. In this work we mentioned an extract of an Internet article speaking about

Turkic lexis in the English language.

The connection of European languages with Turkic can be seen even when examining any of

them for the first time. For example, in the Dutch language we find the word taale ‘language’

which is close to the Turkish word dil ‘language’. In the Finnish language the word keel ‘language’ corresponds to the Turkish word kelime ‘word’.

Turkic grammatical rudiment in European languages witnesses of their initial relationship with

Turkic languages. For example, English verbal nouns ending in -er (worker, writer) remind us of

Turkish Present-Futur participles: eder ‘doing, making’, alır ‘taking’, yazar ‘writing’, etc.

Probably, in English such participles substantivised so that the suffix -er became the suffix of

nouns naming persons, animals or things producing an action expressed by the motivating stem.

The English adverbial suffix -ly [li] used in creating adverbs from adjectives apparently

springs from the Turkic affix -li meaning ‘with’ that is used in Turkic word formation nowadays

as well. For example, from the Turkish word içki ‘drink’ the word içkili ‘intoxicated’, ‘licensed

to sell (serve) alcoholic drinks’ has been formed, from the word ev ‘house’ - evli ‘married’,‘having a house’. English adverbs ending in –ly that have been formed from adjectives also

express presence of a certain characteristic or quality: bright – brightly ‘with brightness’, nice –

nicely ‘with beauty’.

The final Lithuanian – ai that we find in geographical names (e.g.Trak ai, Druskinink ai,

Šalčinink ai, etc.) could originate from the Turkic affix –ay used in forming nouns of space (yan

‘side’ > yanay ‘transverse section/cross-section’). We find a great a number of Lithuanian

geographical names with another popular ending -išk iai [iΣk] (e.g. Akmenišk iai, Apek išk iai,

Dubinišk iai, etc.) that reminds us of the Turkish affix – işk [iΣk].

Apparently the Belorussian name of the feast of crops ‘Kirmash’ springs from the Turkish

word kır ‘a field’ (the vocal sound [1] of the Turkish affix ‘mış’ has transformed into the sound[а]. It’s remarcable that in the 1950-ies the word ‘kirmash’ naming an agricultural market was

used by Russian peasants of Latgalia.

At the end of XX – the beginning of XXI centuries the Latvian linguist A. Breidaks proved that

the Latgalian language is not a dialect of the Latvian language, but is a language that has had its

own way of development (Breidaks, 2002). It’s notable that in Latgalian language we find the

word guņs ‘fire' that stands closer than the Latvian word ‘uguns’ to the Turkish gün ‘a day'.

Some scientists guess that Finno-Ugric languages appeared on the coast of the Baltic Sea not

earlier than the Late Neolithic. Finno-Ugric linguists approve the hypothesis that the ancestors of the Sami people spoke non - Finno-Ugric languages (Моора , II, 1959,152 - 153). Comparingsubstratum lexis of Latvian with the lexis of the modern Estonian language we find Estonian



62

words jumal ‘God’, maja ‘house’, sula ‘a thaw’, vara ‘wealth’. They’ve been obviously

originated of the same Turkic stem morphemes as the Latvian words ‘Jumis’, ‘mā ja’, ‘sula’,

‘Varis’, and they sound very alike, though apparently they originated later than the

corresponding Latvian words.

Constructing Pro-Indo-European languages scientist came apon the problem of substratum

lexis. Having analysed the substratum lexis of the Latvian and the Russian languages we make a

conclusion that the Baltic substratum is nothing else, but the Turkic language which the Latvianand the Russian languages originated from and were developing on. As the Latvian and the

Russian languages represent the group of Baltic-Slavic languages we can affirm that other

Baltic-Slavic languages sprang from the Turkic language, too, and have made their particular

way in developing into the particular languages we are having today.

Language researchers’ work can’t be useless. Even the smallest discovery is a great input in

the way leading to the main purpose – finding out the basic language, i.e. the mother tongue of

the most ancient languages of the humanity. Scientific research work is approaching the

humanity to the discovery of its first language that obviously was the only language of thehumanity for an extended period of time.

Abbreviations

acc. - accusative

adj. - adjectiveadv. –adveb

af. - affix

Bot. – Botany

colloq. - colloquial

dat. - dative

dial. - dialect

dim - diminutive

Engl. - English

fem. – feminine

fig. – figurative(ly)

gen. – genitive

Geol. - Geology

Gk. - Greek

Hist. – History

hist. – with historical referencemasc. – masculine

N. - North



63

n. – noun

prep. - preposition

reg. - regional

Russ. - Russian

sing. - singular sl.- slang

smb. - somebody

smth. - something

Turk. – Turkish

v.n. – verbal noun

Zool. – Zoology

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Latvians, Were They Turks?

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