Summary
Highlights
Kadir Gümüş welcomes students to the AYT Turkish Language and Literature series, aiming for a perfect score. The topic is Folk Literature, which will be divided into three main sections: Anonymous Folk Literature (3 videos), Ashik Style Folk Literature (2 videos), and Tekke Tasavvuf Folk Literature (2 videos), totaling 7 videos. He emphasizes the importance of using course notes and question banks, noting that Folk Literature appears annually in the ÖSYM exams.
Folk literature addresses common themes like love, nature, heroism, and longing. It uses mazmuns (fixed expressions or metaphors) like 'servi' for height, 'ok' for eyelashes, and 'yay' for eyebrows. Rhetorical figures are simple and understandable, often involving similes (e.g., 'zeytin gözlü' - olive-eyed). It's improvisational (doğaşlama), orally transmitted, and created by ordinary people. Works are preserved in 'cönk' notebooks, which are vertically bound collections of writings. These notebooks, also known as 'dana dili' (calf's tongue) or 'sığır dili' (ox's tongue), often contain spelling errors and are written in Arabic script. The primary rhyme scheme uses mostly half-rhymes and vivid metaphors, and music (saz/ bağlama) is an integral part. The main verse form is quatrains (dörtlük), although couplets (beyit) appeared after the 17th century due to influence from Divan literature (e.g., Karacaoğlan, Aşık Ömer, Gevheri). The meter is predominantly syllabic (hece ölçüsü), but aruz meter also emerged during the same period. Poetry (nazım) is more prevalent than prose (nesir).
This section covers folk literature where the author is unknown. It is primarily oral, a collective product of the people, and later compiled into 'cönk' notebooks. The poetic forms (nazım türleri) include mani, türkü, ağıt, ninni, and tekerleme. Prose forms (nesir türleri) include legends, tales, and anecdotes. Some forms, like folk stories (halk hikâyesi), combine both poetry and prose. Traditional theatrical forms such as shadow play (karagöz), folk play (orta oyunu), storyteller (meddah), and puppet shows (kukla) are also part of this category.
Mani is the shortest folk poem, consisting of a single quatrain, typically in 7-syllable meter. The rhyme scheme is usually A AXA. The first two lines often serve as filler (doldurma), expressing an unrelated idea, while the main message is conveyed in the last two lines. Examples are provided to illustrate this structure. Manis are commonly referred to as 'mani yakmak,' 'mani atmak,' or 'mani düzmek.' They cover various themes, including love, family (e.g., gelin-kaynana – bride-mother-in-law), fortune-telling, circumcisions, weddings, Ramadan, and soldiers.
There are four structural types of mani: classic (düz) mani, cut (kesik) or 'cinaslı' mani, extended (artık) or 'yedekli' mani, and reciprocal (değiş-karşılıklı) mani. Classic mani follows the standard 7-syllable, A AXA structure. Cut mani has its first line shorter (3-5 syllables) and uses 'cinas' (wordplay where words with the same spelling have different meanings) in its rhymes. Extended mani adds two or more lines to a classic mani, typically maintaining the A AXA pattern within the added lines. Reciprocal mani involves two people exchanging verses, often in a question-and-answer format. An ÖSYM question from 2021 is analyzed to demonstrate how these features help identify and reconstruct a mani.
Türkü is an anonymous folk song form, sung with melodies. It can use various syllabic meters (7, 8, 11, 12). Its structure typically consists of 'bent' (stanzas) and 'kavuştak' (refrain) or 'nakarat' (chorus), which are repeated sections. The 'bent' parts vary, while the 'kavuştak' remains constant, providing the distinguishing feature of a türkü. The number of lines in 'bent' and 'kavuştak' can vary. Türkü are categorized by their melodies (usullü or usulsüz, e.g., long melodies like Bozlak) and themes (love, heroism, work, ceremonies). An example from a previous exam is used to illustrate these structural elements.
An ağıt (lament) is a poem recited for the deceased or in response to sorrowful events (e.g., a daughter leaving home to marry). Historically, it was called 'sagu' in pre-Islamic Turkish literature, and 'sıkıtçı' (mourners) performed them. Anonymous ağıtlar are considered more authentic, though some aşık (minstrel) poems also function as ağıtlar. Ağıtlar can also contain 'alkış' (blessings) and 'kargış' (curses). A ninni (lullaby) is a poem mothers sing to soothe and put their children to sleep. In Divan-i Lugat-it Türk, Kaşgarlı Mahmut referred to ninni as 'balu balu'.