ETYMOLOGY OF ÇINÇAVAT

Abstract

"Çinçavat" is a word used especially in the areas of Kars, Iğdır, Ardahanand Artvin in Turkey, which means several negative denotationssuch as "ill-tempered, stingy, selfish, quarrelsome, spoilsport, incompatible,impudent, filthy, gossiper". Not only in Turkey and in Turkish,this word is used with similar meanings especially in Armenian butalso in Azerbaijani and Georgian languages. It can be traced since the17th century that within the Çıldır-Iğdır territory, the nomad populationuses this pejorative term for the people who have a settled village lifebasically engaged in growing fruits and vegetables. We find this wordbeing used as village names in Iğdır-Çıldır region in Turkey and also inthe Vedi valley of Armenia.M. Fahrettin Kırzıoğlu, who's known for his pretentious worksabout this region and its history, claims that the Çinçavats are KipchakTurks who settled in the area even before 1071. He also divides theword into two part as "Çin+Çavat" by associating the first part "Çin"to China. Furthermore, by relating the second part to Cavak (Cavax)Kırzıoğlu claims that the t and k endings are suffixes that make theword plural. Finally, Kırzıoğlu explained this word as "Çin-Çav-s",which means the people coming from China. He connected "Çav" to"Çavuldur", or "Çavdar-Tatars", a tribe of Tatar Turks. This suggestionby Kırzıoğlu has been accepted by most historians and researchers andhas been taken as a proof of the Turkish presence in the region before1071. Yet, this suggestion of his is clearly a folk etymology.The word Çinçavat is borrowed from Armenian. In Armenian thisword - čʿnčʿahavat չնչահավատ- means "non-believer, faithless" andbesides having various forms of local pronunciation, there exists a direct-čʿinčʿavat չինչավատ- form. This Armenian word is composedof čʿnčʿ- and havat parts. čʿnčʿ- is a form of privative prefix, whilehavat հավատ means "faith, belief, creed; trust, confidence; fidelity,faithfulness, good faith, sincerity; proof, testimony, evidence". Thisword, which originally meant "faithless" adopted different meanings such as "stingy, selfish, impudent, filthy etc.", as commonly found inTurkish local dialect studies, because it is also used as an ethnonym.