An etymologıcal evaluatıon on the +gil suffıx

Abstract

The "+gil" suffix, which comes to names in Turkish and derives the names of kinship, family and relationship from them, is one of the controversial suffixes due to its origin. Although there is a general consensus on the use and function of the suffix, there is no agreement on the origin of it. Various researches have put forward ideas about the origin of the +gil suffix. Some of them have supposed that the suffix is a compound of two suffixes and the others have been on the opinion that the suffix originates from a single word or a particle. While these studies generally do not give determinations about the word or particle on which the suffix is based; only the relationship situation of the suffix and the word "kil", which means house in Chuvash Turkic, has been discussed in detail. In this study, by defending the opinion that the +gil suffix originates from an independent structure in ancient times, which has been also voiced by many researchers, it also will be defended that the +gil suffix was originated from the same root with the +lAr suffix which has similar functions with the +gil and thought to derive from the a-lar / an-lar (personal pronoun + plural suffix) structure. It will be tried to prove that a structure originating from *+l plural suffix and a pronoun-based word in both Turkic and Altaic languages are in the structure of +gil suffix.

Keywords

• turkish
• +gil
• +lar
• "o" demonstrative/personal pronoun
• l plural suffix