Yer adları, bir bölgenin yaşayan en önemli varlıklarıdır. Bu adlar sayesinde bir bölgenin geçmişi hakkında birçok bilgi elde edebiliriz. Bunların günümüze kadar ulaşması toplum tarafından genel bir kabul gördüğünün de göstergesidir. Adı olmayan bir yer boşluktan ibarettir. Biz Türkler bir yere ad verme konusunda oldukça kabiliyetli olmuşsuzdur. Beyşehir’deki yer adlarının zaman zaman neredeyse 50-60 metre ile ölçülebilecek kadar kısa mesafelerde değişmesi bunun en güzel kanıtıdır. Yer adları, yöre insanının hayata bakış açısını gösterir. İnsanların çevrelerine bakarken ne hissettiklerini ve bu bakışta nelere öncelik verdiğini en güzel bu adlar anlatır. Yer adları sayesinde yöre insanının duygusal dünyası da ortaya çıkar. Yer adlarının toplum tarafından genel bir kabul görmesi de o yörede yaşayan insanların dünyaya bakış açılarını genel çerçeve içine alabilmemizi sağlamaktadır. Çalışmanın yapıldığı Beyşehir de yer adlarının zenginliği ile ön plana çıkmaktadır. Bu makalede bölgeden derlenen 2769 adet yer adı genel özellikleri itibari ile sınıflandırılmış ve yöre insanının yer adı vermede hangi kriterlere önem verdiği ortaya çıkarılmaya çalışılmıştır.

Place names are the most important elements of a culture. We can reveal the back ground of a region by place names. Survived place names are the indicators of their acceptance by the inhabitants. A place with no name is a space. Turks are vey good at naming places. Because place names can be differ within a very short distance such as 50-60 meters. Place names show how inhabitants perceive the environment. Because people prefer their favorite elements in naming places. Since place names are accepted by all members of the local population we can make general comments about the thoughts of people. Beysehir is very rich in place names. In this paper 2769 place names were compiled from the region and grouped according to their general properties. Beysehir has been inhabited since Neolithic ages and since Turkish is the only language of the area for 900 years, nearly all the place names are in this language. This study consists of place names compiled in 2003 and 2004. While compiling them village headmen and mayors were asked for support. Informants of the study were generally old inhabitants, farmers and shepherds. We also tried to interview uneducated people because it was seen that educated informants had a tendency of changing the pronunciation of the words. For example; Pınar is called for springs, but it is pronounced as “muhar, munar, bınar” in different regions. We observed that educated people tried to pronounce it as pınar and cultural diversity can not be determined by standard pronunciation. After collecting the place names we classified them as the following: 1- Place Names Related with Geographical Features 811 2- Water Related Place Names 533 3- Plants in Place Names 415 4- Personal Names in Place Names 263 5- Colors in Place Names 185 6- Place Names with Undefined Words 131 7- Place Names Indicating Historical Places 114 8- Animals in Place Names 100 9- Directions in Place Names 91 10- Memorial Place Names 28 11- Others 98 Total: 2769 Place Names These place names are generally composed of one and two words. There are 802 place names with one word, 1773 place names with two words, 168 place names with three words, 4 place names with four words and 1 place name with five words. The longest place name in the area is “Alaineğicanavarınyidiğiyer” or “theplacewherethewolfatethespottedcow ” in English. The shortest one is “Çal” or “bush”-“bushy” in English. Since Beysehir is very mountainous geographical structures used frequently in place names. Place names include mountain, hill, highland, valley and straight kinds of words. Lake Beysehir is the biggest natural fresh water lake in Turkey and it is a closed basin. All the springs and streams flow into the lake. The name of these water sources have big amount of ratio in place names. We can see springs, streams, water wells and cisterns in this group. Water wells are generally named by its owner in the area. Plants used in place names also indicates the flora and climate of Beysehir. Willow and poplar trees grow around water sources and are used in place names. Willow is mentioned 21 times and poplar is mentioned 18 times in place names. Western and southern parts of Beysehir is more mountainous and these parts have juniper and pine trees. 46 places have names with juniper and pine. Normally fig does not grow in Beysehir due to altitude and cold weather. But there are 2 place names with fig. This shows that in some parts of Beysehir this plant can grow but they do not produce any fruits. There are 263 place names made with personal names. 231 of them are male names and 32 of them are female names. Majority of male names show patriarchal family type is very common in Beysehir as in Turkey. But 32 female names show that there have been strong female figures in the country. Beysehir people used some colors while describing a place. These colors are black, white, grey, yellow and blue. There are 131 unidentified place names in Beysehir. The meanings of the words can be found in dictionaries but local people do not know them. This shows that our own vocabulary is forgotten day by day. It was seen that people could describe the place in accordance with the meaning but they could not say the meaning of the word. There are a lot of historical sites around Beysehir. These are generally from pre-Turkish period. Some place names indicate presence of Christian settlements and buildings. And there are some Islamic elements in place names. These place names are made with monastery, church, mosque etc. Names of some animals are used in some place names too. Boar is the most common wild animal in the area and there are 11 place names related with boar. Camel is the second important animal in place names. It is not raised in Beysehir but it has nearly the same ratio with the most common animal of Beysehir. This amount of camel can be explained by old trade routes. Because Beysehir is on a very important trade road, this road is known in Turkish as “Caravan Road” and it was “Via Sebaste” in Roman Period. Camel was the only transportation animal of the road. These place names usually shows the stops on the route. West, East, South and North are not used in place names as directions. People preferred upper, lower, middle and rear to describe a place. Memorial events are also took place in place names. The events showing a death is the most common. Death of a person is remembered by place names. Less amount of death events can show that local life has been in peace for a very long time. There are 98 place names which we could not put into any group. These can be studied in detail and provide further information about Beysehir and its culture.