Dilovası
Dilovası is a municipality and district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 125 km2, and its population is 53,416 (2022). The district Dilovası was created in 2008 from part of the district of Gebze, along with the districts Darıca and ...
- November 28, 2015,
Bodrum
Bodrum () is a town and district of Muğla Province, Turkey. About 200 thousand people live in the district, which covers 650 km2 and includes the town. It is a port town at the entrance to the Gulf of Gökova. Known in ancient times as Hal ...
) was a Turkish linguist,
Turkologist
Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and the Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative c ...
Tekin was born on July 16, 1927, to İsmail and Fatımatüzzehra Tekin in the district of
Gebze
Gebze (), formerly known as Libyssa, is a municipality and district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 418 km2, and its population is 407,019 (2022). It is situated 65 km (30 mi) southeast of Istanbul, on the Gulf of Izmit, ...
(now a district of
Dilovası
Dilovası is a municipality and district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 125 km2, and its population is 53,416 (2022). The district Dilovası was created in 2008 from part of the district of Gebze, along with the districts Darıca and ...
). He attended primary school at Tavşancıl Primary School, junior high at Üsküdar Paşakapısı Junior High School, and attended high school at Haydarpaşa High School, graduating in 1945. In 1946 entered
Istanbul University
Istanbul University, also known as University of Istanbul (), is a Public university, public research university located in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded by Mehmed II on May 30, 1453, a day after Fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Constantinop ...
and studied in the Department of Turkish Language and Literature, receiving his degree in 1951. Between 1951 and 1957, Tekin taught at various high schools and performed
military service
Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).
Few nations, such ...
in
Kırklareli
Kırklareli () is a city in the East Thrace, European part of Turkey. It is the seat of Kırklareli Province and Kırklareli District.
In 1961 Tekin was appointed as a research assistant in the Near Eastern Languages Department at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
, where he began his doctoral studies with Janós Eckmann. During this time he taught Turkish for two years at
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...
. He received his PhD in June, 1965 with this thesis ''A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic''. From 1965 to 1972 he worked as a professor of Turkish language and literature at
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
. In 1970 he defended a thesis at Istanbul University entitled ''Ana Türkçede Aslî Uzun Ünlüler (Primary long vowels in Proto-Turkic)'', and was appointed associate professor. He returned to Turkey in 1972 and joined the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at
Hacettepe University
Hacettepe University () is a public research university in Ankara, Turkey. It was established on 8 July 1967. It is ranked first among the Turkish universities by University Ranking by Academic Performance in 2021.
The university has two main c ...
in
Ankara
Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
. He was appointed a professor there after publishing his book ''Volga Bulgar kitabeleri ve Volga Bulgarcası (Volga Bolgar inscriptions and the Volga Bolgar language).''
In 1991, Tekin founded the journal ''Türk Dilleri Araştırmaları/Researches in Turkic Languages'' .
Tekin retired in 1994, but worked part time as a lecturer at
Bilkent University
Bilkent University () is a private non-profit research university located in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded by İhsan Doğramacı, the first president of the Council of Higher Education and the head of the prominent Doğramacı family, with th ...
, and in 1997 moved to
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
to serve as the head of the Department of Turkish language and Literature at
Yeditepe University
Yeditepe University () is a private non-profit university situated in Istanbul, Turkey. Established by the Istanbul Education and Culture Foundation ('', İSTEK Vakfı'') in 1996, Yeditepe University now claims to be the largest of the 74 priva ...
until his ultimate retirement in 2002. In 2004 he received a service award from the
Turkish Academy of Sciences
The Turkish Academy of Sciences ( – TÜBA) is an autonomous scholarly association aimed at promoting scientific activities in Turkey. Although it is attached to the office of the Presidency and is largely funded by the government, it maintains f ...
.
According to the obituary published by the
Turkish Language Association
The Turkish Language Association (, TDK) is the List of language regulators, regulatory body for the Turkish language, founded on 12 July 1932 by the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. The Institution acts as ...
, "he was the teacher of all Turkology students with his articles and books, and with ''A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic'', he was the best known and most widely read Turkish linguist outside Turkey."
Scholarship
Tekin published over 200 articles during his lifetime, and published at least 35 books. At least two Festschrifts were published in his honor, both of which contain bibliographies of his work. Many of his works were collected in a three volume set entitled ''Makaleler.''
Tekin had a broad range of interest within the field of Turkology. Many of his early works focused on the
philology
Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
of old Turkic languages, including the language of the
Orkhon inscriptions
The Orkhon inscriptions are bilingual texts in Middle Chinese and Old Turkic, the latter written in the Old Turkic alphabet, carved into two memorial steles erected in the early 8th century by the Göktürks in the Orkhon Valley in what is modern- ...
, the language and inscriptions of the
Bulgars
The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic peoples, Turkic Nomad, semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region between the 5th and 7th centu ...
, the language of the
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...
, and
Karakhanid
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; zh, t=喀喇汗國, p=Kālā Hánguó), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Karluk Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia from the 9th to the early 13th century. Th ...
poetry. He was interested in lexicology, publishing a Turkmen-Turkish dictionary and working on various dictionaries and glossaries of both living and dead Turkic languages. He was also interested in the reconstruction of
Proto-Turkic
Proto-Turkic is the linguistic reconstruction of the common ancestor of the Turkic languages that was spoken by the Proto-Turks before their divergence into the various Turkic peoples. Proto-Turkic separated into Oghur (western) and Common Tu ...
, and was influential in compiling evidence to reconstruct certain sound correspondences between Chuvash and the other Turkic languages, such as Chuvash /*r/-Turkic /*z/ and Chuvash /*l/-Turkic/*š/. Although there remains significant debate regarding the reconstruction of the /*r/~/*z/ correspondence, Tekin's (1975) solution to the /*l/~/*š/ correspondence is widely accepted.
Tekin was a major proponent of the Altaic theory, a theory which he interpreted to mean that the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, and
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean
**Korean dialects
**See also: North–South differences in t ...
language families are all related. Although he had a particular interest in the relationship of
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
to the Altaic languages, he did not necessarily believe it to be a member of the Altaic family.