-çI SUFFIX IN THE HISTORICAL WRITTEN TURKISH LANGUAGES

This paper focuses on -çi suffix which is not much emphasized in the grammatical studies on the historical turkish languages but it appears in the texts and gives the verb, to which it attaches, participle function. this aforementioned suffix first appeared with the example of oúıçı (< oúı- ‘davet et-’ edpt :79a) (invitor) in the couplet, oúıçı ol erdi bayattın sanga sen ötrü köni yolúa kirding tonga (kb 36) which means “o valiant, he was the prophet and the invitor (sent) by god. that’s why you took the right path.” during the reading of kutadgu bilig in graduate level karahan turkish course. the same suffix is found in the examples of kütçi “shepherd” and küdezçi “protector, watchman”. appending of –çi suffix in these examples to the verb base made us think. during the research on –çi suffix, we saw that this suffix was examined in the dialects of turkish language by ali akar. thereupon, we will analyze the existence of –çi suffix in historical turkish languages and how it is used in the texts.