Chapter 10. Altaic tradition

This report offers a brief historical and cultural lexicon of the Turkish terms/concepts for translation by means of available primary and archival materials and proposes a small-scale genealogy of Altaic tradition in two main parts. In the first part, a special focus is on Uighur Turkish in Central Asia (Old Turkic period, 9th century), followed by Anatolian Turkish developed in Asia Minor since the 11th century (West Turkic). Due to insufficient historical research and data on translation within the paradigm of Translation Studies, the report will not scan translational terms/concepts in Qarakhanid, Qharezm and Chagatai Turkish, which are members of East Turkic tradition. In the second part, the report reviews translation as concept and practice, focusing especially on the Turkish literary discourse of the late 19th century since this era is a period of the Turks’ encounter with Europe, hence, a period of shifting civilization from the East to the West, which led to a change in translation conception (see Paker 2006; Demircioğlu 2005).