Aspects of Richness and Degeneration in Languages and the Panaroma of Turkish

Abstract

Edward Sapir has asserted that something existed as substance and concept in a society is reflected likewise in its language. Cultural and historical heritage is only transferred by language to further generations. Language is something like the encyclopaedia, or treasure, or dictionary of cultural contents. In order to understand the richness of a language, as it depends on that of culture to a great extent, it is necessary to study it carefully. Turkey, for instance, has carried the vestiges of East-Asian culture historically and linguistically. The three Turkish linguists and scientists, Prof. Dr. Sayılı, Prof. Dr. Aksan and Süer Erdem, agree mostly
on some of the criteria to prove the richness of language. The criteria are respectively:

 

1. The richness in vocabulary,
2. The richness in concepts,
3. having the most ancient written works
4. having been spoken in large geographical area.

Changes in language and culture can be considered natural. Nevertheless, the borrowed rules from other languages spoil the structure of the language in which it is applied in terms of reading, writing, pronunciation, morphology, phonetics and semantics. Such a fact brings the degeneration into a language. The recent borrowed words from European countries and mostly from English and rules seen in Turkish mar Turkish and causes degeneration.