Uluslararası İdil - Ural ve Türkistan Araştırmaları Dergisi

Yazarlar: Rysbek ALİMOV

Konular:Dil ve Dil Bilim

Anahtar Kelimeler:Ankle bone game,Turkic,Mongolian,Alčï,Tava,Bök

Özet: The games using the anklebones (astragalus) of domestic animals date back to the Neolithic era. Such games are also known as one of the traditional games among the Turkic and Mongolian peoples. The anklebone used for games has four sides. Although it carries many different names in Turkic and Mongolian languages, alčï, tava, bök and čik stand out as archetypes. The author examines the origin and meaning of these words. Based on the etymological and semantic analysis of them, the author concludes that the two vertical sides of the bone had the meaning of “horse/donkey”, “ox/calf", and the horizontal sides of  "sheep” and "goat" respectively. The author also claims that these names, which matches the names for the anklebone's sides in Mongolic languages, should have been the very ancient words used in Turkic for astragalus used in the ankle bone flicking game.

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