Notes on the naming of some constellations in Northern and Central Eurasia

Abstract

This paper studies the naming of the Constellations Great Bear (Ursa Major), Little Bear (Ursa Minor), and Orion in ancient and modern Turkic languages and the alternationsof these names across these languages. The aim here is to ascertain the cultural and sociolog-ical interactions of Turkic-speaking peoples based on the forms these astronomical terms take in neighboringlanguages including Mongolic, Tungusic, and Chinese, and their vari-ations in Turkic languages. The terminologies of all Turkic and someneighboringlan-guages were included in the study. In an attempt to highlight the invested by Turkic peoplesand their neighbors in the naming ofcelestial objects, international astronomicalterms which can easily transfer between languages in the modernage were excluded from the study. The collected data wasclassified based on the variations and interactions of words across languages, and explanations are provided for those forms thatappear contradictory within a language group.