Birsel Karakoç

2016 Professor of Turkic Languages, Uppsala University, Sweden.

2011 Associate Professor (Docent) of Turkic Languages, Uppsala University, Sweden.

2001 PhD in Turcology, Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.

1989 BA in Turkish Language and Literature, Faculty of Education, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.

Main research interests:

Typology of Turkic languages; Morphosyntax, syntax and semantics of Turkic languages (especially Noghay, Turkish, Karakhanid Turkic, Old Anatolian Turkish, Turkish as spoken in Germany, Turkic varieties spoken in Iran); Documentation and description of Noghay; Comparative Turkic linguistics; Contact linguistics

Aktuellt forskningsprojekt: The Middle Azeri of Isfahan in the 17th century as documented in a transcription text

This project studies a unique pre-modern Turkic language situation in the multilingual Isfahan of the 17th century. In Persia at this time, a levelled Turkic variety, the so-called lingua turcica agemica, was used as a lingua franca in communication between speakers of different languages and also spoken at the Safavid court. This language has been investigated in previous studies mostly on the basis of texts written in Arabic script.

The text under study, a translation of two New Testament chapters, namely those of Matthew and John, is, however, written by the famous Father Raphaël du Mans (1613–1696), the head of the Capuchin monastery, in French orthography. This Latin script provides valuable information not encoded in the sources written in Arabic script. The translator attempted to create a written code suited to address speakers of different Azeri varieties. Our aim is to investigate the features of lingua turcica agemica as reflected in this text. The expected findings will shed new light on the development of West Oghuz varieties in Persia, in particular of Middle Azeri, and contribute to our understanding of the forming of the modern Azeri language.

The text with vocabulary is currently being published. The present project involves an edition of the Azeri grammar included in the manuscript and a linguistic analysis of the entire manuscript from historical and contact-linguistic perspectives.

The project is related to two other fields of research in Uppsala Turcology. The participants of this project have been engaged in highlighting Swedish research traditions in the field of Turcology. The project is a follow-up of the Gunnar Jarring Memorial Program at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (Csató, Johanson, Róna-Tas & Utas 2016). The manuscript under investigation is provided in the collection of the Uppsala University Library and the project is thus also a continuation of previous research on the history of Turkic studies at Uppsala University (Csató, Johanson, Gren-Eklund & Karakoç 2021).

Main investigator: Birsel Karakoç

Participants: Lars Johanson, Éva Á. Csató