
A Bibliometric Approach to Old Turkic Topic
Chapter from the book:
Kaplan,
H.
(ed.)
2025.
Turcology Studies.
Synopsis
Old Turkish stands out as one of the most fundamental subfields of Turkic studies in terms of its subject area. For nearly one hundred and fifty years, this field has always attracted the attention of many local and foreign researchers from disciplines such as archaeology, linguistics, history, folklore, literature, art history, religion and history of religions, law, political science, paleography, sociology. Old Turkish constitutes the oldest phase of the Turkish written language, which developed in Central Asia between the 7th and 13th centuries. This period is divided into three sub-periods as Old Turkic Inscriptions, Old Uighur and Karakhanid Turkish respectively. In this study, Web of Science (WoS) publications in the relevant subject area on the keywords “Old Turkic”, “Old Turkic Inscriptions”, “Old Uyghur Turkish” and “Karakhanid Turkish” were analyzed by bibliometric method using VOSviewer program. Bibliometrics is an analysis method that makes it possible to evaluate the course of studies through parameters such as author, year, citation, keywords. In this way, it is aimed to reveal the general trends and future expectations of Old Turkic studies and also to contribute to the history of Turkic studies. As a result of the study, it has been observed that there has been an increase in the number of publications and citations related to Old Turkic after 2007-2008, and the publications are mainly concentrated in the sub-topic areas of Old Turkic Inscriptions and Old Uyghur Turkish. In addition, it has been observed that Turkish publications and researchers are also very effective in the related subject area.