On Semantic Shifts in the Word ‘Qatun’ in Modern Turkic Languages: Yakut, Bashkir, Tatarandothers

Abstract

Purpose. The article examines semasiological processes in the vocabulary of such modern Turkic languages as Yakut, Bashkir, Tatar, Uzbek, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz, based on words etymologically traced back to the Old Turkic term “qatun”.
Results. It has been established that in the lexicon of all the languages under consideration, there are polysemous lexemes associated with the semantics of this word. They have undergone regular phonetic transformations while largely preserving their original meaning. The “vitality” and viability of the Old Turkic word “qatun” are based on the universality of the integral seme ‘woman’ and the differential seme ‘wife’. More than 60% of the lexico-semantic variants of modern words containing these semes have retained their meaning unchanged for many centuries. Semantic shifts involved the expansion of meaning through the addition of new differential semes, for example, ‘husband’s mother’ in Yakut and ‘elderly woman’ in Kyrgyz. Some semes (‘noblewoman,’ ‘lady,’ and others) were lost due to extralinguistic factors, or the lexico-semantic variants containing them shifted into the category of passive vocabulary, i.e., became archaized. In Kazakh and Kyrgyz, semantic shifts such as a change in the sign of evaluative semes – negative shift – have been identified. The transformation also affected the stylistic characteristics of some modern words compared to the Old Turkic variant.
Conclusion. It is noted that words genetically related to the lexeme “qatun” still form part of the core vocabulary of modern Turkic languages.