Linguistic Interference of Arabic Words in the Turkish Language: A Contrastive Study"

Abstract

This research paper investigates the phenomenon of linguistic and cultural contact between Arabic and Turkish, driven by the prominent religious and civilizational status of Arabic as the language of the Holy Quran and Islamic sciences from the Seljuk era through the Ottoman period. The study addresses a research gap concerning the need for a modern, systematic contrastive analysis of Arabic loanwords in Turkish, exploring the phonetic, morphological, and semantic changes they underwent, while contextualizing this linguistic interference within its broader cultural and historical framework.

To achieve its objectives, the author employed a descriptive-analytical methodology to monitor and analyze words, a historical methodology to trace the stages of their integration, and a contrastive methodology to compare structures and semantics between the two languages.

Key Findings:

• Lexical Dominance: Modern statistical data from the Turkish Language Association (TDK) dictionary indicate that Arabic words rank first among foreign loanwords in the Turkish lexicon, with over 6,400 entries accounting for approximately 40% of classical Ottoman vocabulary.


• Regular Phonetic Shifts: Due to the distinct language families (Arabic belongs to the Semitic family, whereas Turkish is an agglutinative Turanian language) and the absence of certain Arabic phonemes in the Turkish vocal apparatus, borrowed words underwent systematic phonetic adaptations (e.g., mapping Ayn to A, Ha and Kha to H, Dhal, Dha, and Dad to Z, Ta to T, Qaf to K, and Tha to S).

Depth and Resilience: Despite the radical reforms accompanying the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the 1928 shift to the Latin alphabet, and ongoing language purification policies, the deep historical roots of Arabic elements have ensured their enduring status as a fundamental pillar of Turkish linguistic and cultural heritage.