Prizren Türk Ağzında Eski Anadolu Türkçesi Yansıması; ‘hem/em’ Bağlacı Örneği

Conjunctions, a fundamental category of Turkish grammar, do not independently function but serve to connect words, phrases, and sentences. This study investigates the singular use of the conjunction hem in the Prizren Turkish dialect, which is considered to be a continuation of Old Anatolian Turkish. Originating from Persian and classified as a “coordinating conjunction” the hem was widely used during the Old Anatolian period. In present-day Turkish, however, hem is no longer employed as an independent element; instead, it occurs within the constructions hem … hem and hem de, functioning either as a connector or an intensifying particle. In contrast, the Prizren dialect preserves both patterns: the hem … hem structure and the independent use of hem, thereby continuing the earlier syntactic and semantic function. This continuity should be considered in phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexicological research on the dialect. In this study, the term hem is treated solely as a conjunction. Its usage in Prizren Turkish is analyzed through texts compiled from four previous studies, all of which were systematically examined to provide reliable findings and to serve as a resource for future research.