The Sun-Language Theory and After

Sometime in 1935 Atatürk received a forty-seven-page typescript in French, enti­
tled 'La Psychologie de quelques éléments des langues turques', by a Dr Hermann
F. Kvergić of Vienna. The theme was that man first realized his own identity when
he conceived the idea of establishing what the external objects surrounding him
were. Language first consisted of gestures, to which some significant sounds were
then added. Kvergić saw evidence for his view in the Turkish pronouns. M indi­
cates oneself, as in men, the ancient form of ben 'I, ' and elim 'my hand' N indi­
cates what is near oneself, as in sen 'you' and elin 'your hand'. Z indicates a broader
area, as in biz 'we' and siz 'you' Further, Kvergić considered that Turkish was the
first human language to take shape. Nothing could have been more timely.

Two months before, a copy of the paper had been sent to Ahmet Cevat Emre,
the chairman of the grammar section of the Language Society, who after a cursory
examination dismissed it as unsubstantiated and worthless. Atatürk was more
impressed, partly because, having discussed it with Emre, he suspected that the
latter's rejection of it was due to his seeing in Kvergić a potential rival. 'To me, ' he
said, 'the psychological analyses look important.' He thought that primitive man
might well have given vent to exclamations such as 'Aa!' and 'Oo!' and that lan­
guage could have emerged from utterances of this kind. He passed the paper on
to Ibrahim Necmi Dilmen, the secretary-general of the Language Society, and said,
'It looks important; let it be examined carefully.' Dilmen talked it over with Hasan
Reşit Tankut, Naim Hâzim Onat, and Abdülkadir İnan, who saw merit in the psy­
chological analyses ( Emre 1960: 342-6).

The result of Atatürk's subsequent lucubrations, aided by these and others of
the staff of the Society, was Güneş-Dil Teorisi (the Sun-Language Theory), which
saw the beginning of language as the moment when primitive man looked up at
the sun and said 'Aa!'. As it was concerned only with the beginning and not the
development of language, it cannot be reproached for omitting to explain how
mankind progressed from that primeval 'Aa!' to the sublimity of 'Faith, hope and
charity, these three things', or Virgil's 'sunt lacrimae rerum' or even to so com­
monplace an utterance as 'Let's go for a walk in the park.'