Journal of Mother Tongue Education

Abstract

Folk songs are one of the most
important elements of oral culture that includes cultural features of a region.
The symbols, themes, emotions used in folk songs provide important clues
regarding the traditions, sociological characteristics, and culture of the
region. In order to identify how local cultural elements are embedded in folk
songs, 147 folk songs and ballads belonging to the Elazığ-Harput region which
have survived until the present and are included in the 1966 book “Harput
Ahengi” by Memişoğlu, the 2000 book “Harput/Elazığ Türküleri” by Abacı, and the
1997 thesis “Elazığ-Harput Türküleri” by Yücesu, were examined. In this study
the oral culture elements found in folk songs such as the names used, names of
the elements of nature, crop and food names, names of colors, names of the
jewellery items and accessories worn were analyzed using descriptive statistics
and tabulated graphically and the influence of the traditional culture of the
Elazığ-Harput region on folk songs were attempted to be identified. It was
found that in the folk songs examined the most frequent color name was “black”,
the most frequent animal name was “nightingale”, the most frequent cosmetic
product name was “henna”, but the words “pestil, pekmez, gakko” which are
native to the region were rarely seen. In addition, “mountain motif”, “snow
motif”, and “in front of their houses motif” which are oral culture products
found all across Anatolia were also seen in these works. As a result, it was
concluded that the folk songs belonging to the Elazığ-Harput region carry
traces of both local and traditional cultures.