𐰅𐰠
el
Meaning:
realm
Alternative spellings:
𐰃𐰠
𐽰𐽶𐾁
Examples
Translations
German:
Reich, Land, Staat; Leute, Bevölkerung, Volk
Russian:
страна
Turkish (Azerbaijan):
el
Turkish (Türkiye):
il
Turkmen:
il
Uzbek:
el
Bibliography 2
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Dr. Jens Wilkens (2021) Handwörterbuch des Altuigurischen | Eski Uygurcanın El Sözlüğü253253el
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Gerard Clauson (1972) An etimological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish121121
1 é:l the basic, original meaning was ‘a political unit organized and ruled by an independent ruler’; the most convenient short term in English is ‘realm’. In the early texts it usually occurs in association with other political terms, xağan the ruler of such a realm, bodun its people, törö: the unwritten customary law under which it was administered by the ruler, uluş the geographical area which is occupied and öge: the chief administrative officer of the ruler. From Xak. onwards, but not apparently earlier, it developed some extended meanings. In particular it often seems to mean ‘the community, the people of the realm’, displacing bodun in this sense. As the Turks became involved in international politics it also began to have an international application and came to mean ‘organized international relations’ from which the transition to ‘peace’, one of its modern meanings, was an easy one. It is an open question whether ‘courtyard’, one of the meanings’ given by Kaş., belongs to this word, but it is prob. merely a metaph. use meaning literally ‘the realm of the owner of the house’. The phr. usually spelt é:l kün in two words, which is first noted in KB and seems to mean ‘people’, has given some trouble. The theory in İd. that kün here is 1 kün ‘sun’ is not at all plausible. The most reasonable explanation is that the second syllable is the Collective Suff. -gün and that the spelling should be é:lgün in one word. S.i.a.m.l.g. as él/el/il meaning ‘country, province; people, community (esp. one’s own people as opposed to foreigners)’ and, less often, ‘peace’. See Doerfer II 653. Türkü viii él tutsık yer ötüken yış ermiş ‘the Ötüken mountain forest was the place from which to control the realm’ I S 4, II N 3; (if you stay there) beggü: él tuta: olurtaçı: sen ‘you will sit (on the throne) holding the realm for ever’ I S 8, II N 6; (because of fratricidal strife and internal disorder) Türkü bodun élledük éli:n ıçğınu: ıdmış xağanladuk xağanı:n yitürü: ıdmış ‘the Türkü people let the realm which they had organized collapse, and lost the xağan whom they had made xağan’ I E 6-7, II E 7; Tavğaç xağanka: élim törö:si:n alı: bermiş ‘they consented to accept his realm (i.e. rule) and customary law from the Chinese emperor’ I E 8, II E 8; (the Türkü people said) éllig bodun ertim élim amtı: kanı: kimke: élig kazğanu:rmen ‘we were a people with a realm (of our own), where is our realm now ? For whom are we striving to obtain a realm?’ I E 9, II E 8; (the xağan) élig tutup törö:g etmiş ‘controlled the realm and put the customary law in order’ I E 3, II E 4; él yeme: él boltı: bodun yeme: bodun boltı: ‘the realm became an (independent) realm, and the people became an (independent) people’ T 56; and many o.o.: viii ff. (a xan ascended the throne and fixed his capital) éli: turmış ‘his realm was stable’ IrkB 28; éli:g etmi:ş men ‘I have organized the realm’ do. 48: Man. siziŋ éliŋiz TT II 6, 17, and 19: Yen. él (spelt il) is fairly common, éliŋiz Mal. 26, 4; élim 29, 7 and 8; a.o.o.; 26, 1 (öge:) a.o.o.: Uyğ. viii él etmiş is one component in the title of the Xağan commemorated in Şu. (N 1) and most of his successors: viii ff. Man.-A élte xanta ‘in the realm and with the xan’ M III 10, 2 (i) (damaged); o.o. do. 34, 7; 43, 9 (öge:): Man. koptın sıŋar él uluşlarığ keztiniz ‘you have travelled through realms and countries in every direction’ TT III 60-1; élig bodu[nuğ] M II 5, 16: Chr. meniŋ élim içinde ‘in my (Herod’s) realm’ U I 10, 1: Bud. Sanskrit aṭavisaṃkṣobha ‘revolt of the forest dwellers’ él (so spelt) u:lu:ş burı:ğa:nma:kı TT VIII A.31; janapadā ‘the (common) people’ él u:luş do. A.42; rājyābhiṣekam iva ‘like the inauguration of a kingdom’ él ornılığ a:bhişikig teg do. D.17; balıkdın balıkka uluşdın uluşka éltin élke ‘from town to town, from country to country, from realm to realm’ TT IV 10, 20-1; élig törög bulğadımız erser ‘if we have disturbed the realm and the customary laws’ do. 10, 17; Pfahl. 10, 15, etc. (öge:); and many o.o.: Civ. él xan ‘the realm and its ruler’ TT I (common), VII 30, 13; and many o.o.: xiv Chin.-Uyğ. Diet. jen min ‘mankind’ (Giles 5,624; 7,908) élgün R I 803; Ligeti 156: O. Kır. ix ff. él (so spelt) is common, e.g. in Proper Names El Toğan Tutuk Mal. 1, 2; élimke élçisi: ertim ‘I was the envoy for my realm’ do. 1, 2; teŋri: élimke: evükmedim ‘I could not remain in my sacred realm’ do. 2, 2: Xak. xi é:l al-wilāya ‘realm, province’, and the like; hence one says beg é:li: wilāyatu’l-amīr—é:l al-finā’ ‘court-yard’ hence one says kapuğ é:li: (not translated)—é:l ism yaqa‘ ‘ala’l-xayl ‘a word used with reference to horses, because horses are the Turks’ wings (canāḥ), hence a groom (al-sā’is) is called é:l başı: meaning (literally) ‘the head of a province’ (al-wilāya) but used for sā’isu’l-xayl—é:l al-ṣulḥ bayna’l-malikayn ‘peace between two kings’ one says i:ki: beg birle: é:l boldı: ṣālaḥa’l-amīrān ma‘a(n) ‘the two begs made peace with one another’ Kaş. I 48-9; él törü: yetilsün baṣlaḥa’l-wilāya ‘let the realm be set in order’ I 106, 9; a.o. II 25, 8 (kal-); and many o.o. of é:l al-wilāya—kü:ç é:lidin kirse: törü: tüŋlüktin çıkar ‘if violence enters (the house) from the courtyard (al-finā’) customary law goes out of the smoke-hole’ (or window, al-kuwwa) III 120, 23: KB él ‘realm’ is common by itself 123, etc., and in association with törü 286, 822, etc.—(three signs of the zodiac are fire, three water, three air, and three earth) ajun boldı él ‘the world becomes peaceful’ 143—sınamış kişi bildi élgün işi ‘the experienced man knows the business of the people’ 245—biligsizke törde orun bolsa kör bu tör élke sandı élig buldı tör ‘if an ignorant man has a seat in the place of honour, this place of honour is reckoned to be the courtyard, and the (real) place of honour finds the courtyard (as its site)’ (and if a wise man is given a seat in the courtyard, that courtyard is much superior to the seat of honour) 262-3; kopup çıktı élke ‘he rose and went out into the courtyard’ 6213; a.o. 2553 (liv): xii(?) KBVP bu maşrıq élinde ‘in this eastern kingdom’ 19, 29: xiii(?) KBPP maşrıq wilāyatında kamuğ Türkistan ellerinde 13-4; Tef. él ‘country; people; town(?)’ 74: xiv Rbğ. él aşasun yüz yaşasun ‘may his realm flourish and may he live a hundred years’ R I 803 (cf. KB 123): Muh.(?) al-nāḥiya wa’l-‘amal ‘district, province’ él Rif. 179 (only): Çağ. xv ff. él xalq ‘people’ Vel. 72 (quotn.); él ahl wa xalq wa gurūh ‘people, community’ San. 112v. 5 (quotn.); (under gün, so spelt) and él wa gün (sic, but ?read élgün) is also used as a Hend. (ba-ṭarīq-i muzāwaca) in the meaning of ‘allies and auxiliaries’ (a‘wān wa anṣār); él can be used by itself, but gün cannot be used by itself in this meaning San. 310r. 6 (P. de C. 133 quotes several passages fr. Bābur in which élgün means ‘people, retinue, subjects (of a ruler)’): Xwar. xiii(?) élgün (spelt yilgün?) occurs 14 times in Oğ., e.g. (the monster) yılkılarnı élgünlerni yer erdi ‘used to eat cattle and people’ 23: xiv él (1) ‘kingdom, province’; (2) ‘people’ Qutb 49; (1) only MN 14: Kom. xiv él ‘province’ CCI; ‘people’ CCG; Gr.: Kip. xiii (after ‘hand’ é:l) wa huwa’l-iqlīm wa huwa’l-silm ḍiddu’l-ḥarb also ‘province’, and ‘peace’, as opposed to war Hou. 20, 17; (among the Proper Names) élbegi: amīru’l-iqlīm; élaldı: axada’l-balad ‘he captured the country’ do. 29, 8-9: xiv él (mufaxxam, here ‘with e-, not i-’) al-balad wa’l-ṣulḥ İd. 20; élgün al-dawla ‘government, realm’, compound of él al-balad and kün al-šams ‘sun’, used as an expression (‘ibāra) for al-dawla do. 22; al-salām ‘peace’ él Bul. 6, 9: xv xalq wa ‘ālam ‘people, world’ élgün Tuh. 14a. 3; ṣulḥ él do. 22a. 9; ‘ālam élgün also without (bi-isqāṭ) gün do. 24b. 3; al-xalq wa’l-‘ālam élgün, él uluş do. 85b. 9: Osm. xiv ff. él (spelt both el and il) (1) ‘country, state, province’; (2) ‘people’, esp. ‘other people’; (3) ‘peace, at peace, friendly’ (as opposed to yağı ‘hostile’); c.i.a.p.; élgün occurs in several xiv and xv texts TTS I 370-5; II 521-8; III 360-6; IV 413-19.
