Projects
The Dictionnaire des phonemes Türk by Herman F. Kvergić in the Context of the Turkish Language Research
Supervised by: Dr. Astrid Menz
Main collaborator: Prof. Dr. Jens Peter Laut (Universität Göttingen, Turkology)
The library was able to procure second-hand a typescript entitled Dictionnaire des phonemes Türk. The undated three-volume work is probably from the 1930s. The first two volumes contain etymological studies on Turkic arranged according to phonemes; the third volume contains Turkic-Indo-European word tables.
The author, Hermann Feodor Kvergić, is an Orientalist from Vienna. In the 1930s, within the context of the Sun Language Theory, he wrote the “famous” text La psychologie de quelques éléments des langues Turques. The typescript has been digitized and made available online on MENAdoc, the Digital Collections of the DFG Specialised Information Service for Middle East, North African and Islamic Studies at Halle University Library. This will be expanded to include a broader digital collection on Kvergić, his work, and its influence on linguistic research in Turkey.
The Dīvān-ı Muḥibbī: The Hamburg Manuscript by Sultan Süleyman the Lawgiver (1554). A Commented Critical Edition with Facsimile
This project explores the Hamburg manuscript, a poem collection by Sultan Süleyman from 1554. This powerful ruler used poetry abundantly to sing about his mystical love for God, to express his mundane love for a woman or a man, and to praise the Prophet Muhammed. His poems also include martial calls, giving voice to the intra-Islamic conflict between the Ottomans and the Safavids. The Sultan, moreover, heralded the cultural tradition in which he saw himself, depicting an image of himself that legitimized the dark sides of his rulership.
This project explores the distinctiveness of the Hamburg manuscript in comparison to other poem collections by Sultan Süleyman and considers for the first time the political dimension of this poetry.
Selected Publications
Bartholomä, Ruth. “A Paper Tiger? Linguistic Rights and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML)”. Bülent Bilmez (Ed.). Türkiye’de Dil Hakları ve Dilsel Çoğulluk = Language Rights and Linguistic Pluralism in Turkey. İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi 2021. 155–170.
—.“Neo-Ottomanism, Purism or What? Current Suggestions for the Replacement of ‘Foreign Words’ in Turkish”. Ruth Bartholomä; Jens Peter Laut (eds.). The Turkish Language Reform and Beyond: A Never-Ending Story? Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2021 (Turcologica, 126), 77–114.
— (with Jens Peter Laut): “Introduction: Aspects of Language Policy and Planning in the Republic of Turkey”. Ruth Bartholomä; Jens Peter Laut (eds.). The Turkish Language Reform and Beyond: A Never-Ending Story? Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2021 (Turcologica, 126), 13–27.
Czygan, Christiane. “The Ottoman Ruler Poet Sultan Suleyman I, his Third Divan and its Reception beyond the Palace Walls”. In Rulers as Authors in the Islamic World. Knowledge, Authority and Legitimacy.(eds.) Maribel Fierro, Sonja Brentjes, Tilman Seidensticker. Leiden: Brill, 2024. 547-560.
— .“Poetry and Politics. The Alevites in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Literary Sources”. In In the Steps of the Sultan (eds.) Tylor Brand, Bilal Orfali. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2024. 63-76.
— . “Masters of the Pen: The Diwans of Selīmī and Muḥibbī.” In 1516: The Year That Changed the Middle East and the World. AUB December 7-9, 2016. (Ed.) Abdulrahim Abuhusayn. Beirut: AUB Univ. Press, 2021. 111-133.
— . “Depicting Imperial Love: Love Songs and Letters between Sultan Süleyman (Muhibbī) and Hürrem.” In Suleyman the Lawgiver and His
Reign. New Sources, New Approaches. (eds.) M. Fatih Çalışır, Suraiya Faroqhi, M. Şakir Yılmaz. İstanbul: İbn Haldun University Press, 2020.
247-265.
— . “Songs of Power and Love: Context and Content of the Third Divan of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent.” In Poetry: Interpretations and Influence on the World. (ed.) Vivian Norton. New York: Nova Publ., 2019. 47- 68.
— ; Stephan Conermann (eds.), An Iridescent Device: Pre-modern Ottoman poetry. Göttingen: Bonn University Press, 2018. 268 pp.
— . “Power and Poetry. Kanuni Sultan Suleyman’s Third Divan.” In Turkey at a Glance II. Turkey Transformed? Power, History, Culture. (eds.)
Meltem Ersoy, Esra Ozyurek. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2017. 101 – 112.
— . “The Young Ottomans and their Journal Hürriyyet (1868-1870) Revisited.” In A hundred-petalled tulip – Bir sadbarg lāla. Festgabe für Claus Schönig. (eds.) Ingeborg Hauenschild, Matthias Kappler, Barbara Kellner-Heinkele. (Studies on the language, history and culture of the
Turkic peoples; 22) Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Publ, 2016. 48-60.
Menz, Astrid. „The Gagauz Female Marker -(y)ka“. Turkic Languages 19 (2016). 53–62.
—; Csató, Éva Ágnes; Turan, Fikret (Eds.). Spoken Ottoman in Mediator Texts. Wiesbaden 2016.
—. „Idioms and Dialogues in Holdermann’s Grammaire Turque (1730)“. Spoken Ottoman in Mediator Texts. Hrsg. Éva Ágnes Csató, Astrid Menz, Fikret Turan. Wiesbaden 2016. 147-160.
—. „Expressions for Prospective and Avertive in Turkish and Gagauz“. Ankara Papers in Turkish and Turkic Linguistics. Hrsg. Ufuk Ataş, Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek, Jochen Rehbein, Deniz Zeyrek. Wiesbaden 2015. 647–657.
—. „188. Gagauz“. Wordformation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe. Hrsg. Peter O. Müller, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, Susan Olsen, Franz Rainer. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter 2015. 3433–3442.
—. „Gagauz (People)“. Encyclopaedia of Islam. Third Edition. Bd. 3. Hrsg. Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, & Everett Rowson. Leiden 2015. 122–123.
—; Schroeder, Christoph. „Schrifterwerb in der Türkei (und türkischer Schriftspracherwerb in Deutschland)“. Schriftsprach- und Orthographieerwerb: Erstlesen, Erstschreiben. Hrsg. Helena Olfert, Christina Röber. Baltmannsweiler 2015. 55–68.
—; Demir, Nurettin; Karakoç, Birsel (Eds.). Turcology and Linguistics. Éva Ágnes Csató Festschrift. Ankara 2014.
—. „Gagauz (Language and Literature)“. Encyclopaedia of Islam: Third Edition. Bd.3. Hrsg. Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas and Everett Rowson. Leiden 2013. 95–96.
—; Kıral, Filiz. „Doğu Grubu Ağızlarında –miş ve imiş“. Türk Dilleri Araştırmaları 20 (2010/2012). 167–174.
—. „Erzurum Ağızlarında Ermenice Ödünç Sözcükler“. Türk Dilleri Araştırmaları 19 (2009/2012). 89–106.
—; Erdal, Marcel; Nevskaja, Irina (Hrsg.). Historical, Areal and Typological Aspects of South Siberian Turkic. (Turcologica 94). Wiesbaden 2012.
—. „The conditional in South Siberian Turkic.“ Historical, Areal and Typological Aspects of South Siberian Turkic. Hrsg. Marcel Erdal, Astrid Menz, Irina Nevskaya.Wiesbaden 2012. 59–74.
