YENGICE (KIRKUK) TOPONYMS

Abstract

The place names, which is a kind of carrier of crucial information on history, culture, geography, ethnicity of a region and the language of the nation which gives the names, are important resources for disciplines such as linguistic, history, geography, anthropology, etc. In this regard detecting and registering place names in a region and examining them from various aspects is vitally important. Especially in the regions where Turkish presence has been going on but the place names were also changed rapidly, like Balkans, Caucasus and Northern Iraq, it becomes more important. For these purposes, the town of Yengice in Tuzhurmatu in Northern Iraq was chosen as the study area and the place names which compiled from this town was examined in terms of onomasiology. In the introduction part the information about the location, history and geography of the town of Yengice was given. In the review part, the place names compiled from the town of Yengice are classified according to their types and structures; the layers of these place names and elements effective in naming have been identified. As a result of the review it has been concluded that the place names of the Yengice town, a Turkmen settlement of Kirkuk, are not different from those of any settlement in Anatolia in terms of their types, structures and elements that are effective in naming do not go beyond Turkish naming culture.