Yetimname of Shams al-Asi: a Yasawi poet

Abstract

In this article, initially, critical edition text, translation from Eastern Turkish to Modern Turkish, index and grammatical glossary of the poetry named Yetimname of Shams al-Asi have been prepared by making use of the Ankara and Leningrad copies written in Arabic letters, and at the end of the study facsimiles consisting of full-text of copy A and single folios from copies B and C are annexed. Especially "Index- Glossary" section is prepared and morphologically examined in a way encompassing all the words taking place in this poetry, and with the aim of depicting the historical course of development of Turkish lexicons in terms of phonetics, examples to these words from Old Turkish and Middle Turkish are given. Besides, in the "Introduction" section of the study, variations in phonetics, morphology and vocabulary among copies reflecting language properties of Eastern Turkish (commonly known as Chagatai Turkish) are given in a list. By using these data, some deductions are made on the archaicity of the copies. Following the assessments, it is concluded that copy B is showing archaic features; copy A is showing contemporary features and copy C stands closer to copy A between two copies.