A study on the toponomy in Gaziantep city

All living and nonliving things on earth is identified by a name (noun) that makes it different from other things. Then it can be said that a person or a thing or a case that has no name has also no existence. With the importance that names carry grammatically, if it will be examined in sociological aspect, one can see the symbolic indicators that embody a common cultural memory in the background. Among these indicators that concretize identities of all kind of entities and objects the place names are of great importance. Place names are not simple geographical definitions, they are beyond it. They can be described as "title deed" of being a homeland for a nation settled in a certain piece of land. The Turks who have been settling down on every inch of Anatolia's soil for last nine centuries encoding their cultural and intellectual world gave meaningful names to mountains, hills, plains and highlands of it. The examination of the place names allows to concretize this culture on one hand and to reach a knowledge on historical development of Turkish language on the other. This dissertation focuses on the place names of Gaziantep province. The author examines about 8000 toponyms that include the names of sites as well as hydronyms, oronyms etc. within the province in terms of morphological structure, etymology and semantics. As a result the author gives some clues on the philosophy of name giving of Turks and demonstrates certain evidence of language development through local toponyms. Key Words: Gaziantep, onomastic, toponomy, oronomy, hidronomy