Turkish

Abstract

The article is a short overview of word-formation in Modern Turkish. As derivation is the most important method employed in the creation of new lexical items, the article focuses mainly on derivational suffixes. The lexicon of Turkish has been substantially reshaped since the early 1930s by state language planning, the aim of which was to sort out Arabic and Persian loans and to replace them by Turkish equivalents. Because inherited words - mainly from the dialects or from old written sources - were not always at hand, new words and terms had to be formed from inherited base words by suffixation. Sometimes obsolete suffixes were revived or even pseudo-suffixes were created.