TAM Keyword Nese C. Tosun

Temaşa: (Turkish, from Arab origin according to Nisanyan Dictionary[i] and from Persian origin according to TDK Dictionary[ii])

(Definition according to Turkish Language Institution Online Dictionary, TDK –Translated to English by Nese C. Tosun)

1) To contemplate, to watch.

2) The thing to be watched, that is worth seeing.

3) Travel, “Seyir” (course, movement, motion, progress, contemplation)

4) Game, representation, play, theatre.

This word is also an equivalent of Greek word Theoria according to Turkish philosopher Nami Baser. The idea of ‘contemplation’ is central to both concepts. Furthermore, according to the definition of Wikipedia[iii], “Theoria is used to express the experience of life as ‘one who watches a play or activity’, the state of ‘being’ is defined as spectator.”

Yet, the meanings of game and representation implied by the word distances itself from the word Theoria. In Turkish, to express an event in the past that you have not witnessed personally, you would conjugate the verb in such a tense that would resonate the meaning “as if” (-miş gibi). It would also be used to define a present situation, to denote that it is, but not quite: When kids play, they would say “as if I were a doctor” while performing the doctor’s profession in a game.

Trying to come up with a Turkish equivalent of “Performance” has been a long journey for me. I would look for words, expressions that would have a history in the locality I live in as words like “performans, tiyatro, piyes” were turquified foreign words with no etymological memory but with meanings added throughout a recent history. I was searching for a sound that was more ‘local’ I guess. Problematic though, as I was refusing a recent past, in the search of a more genuine and local Turkish terminology to denote performance.

While preparing for this exercise, I have discovered the word temaşa that answered some of my concerns. It had multiple meanings, in a range that would both enable me to think in the sense of ‘performance’ as in perfournir>parfournir but also in a way that would signal to a contemplation that would be both practice and research. However that word is not in use in Turkish language except in historical documents and/or theatre encyclopedias. It does not exist in current online theatre and performance dictionaries. In the official Turkish Language Dictionary of TDK, there is a note that it is an old usage.

I believe that the absence of this word from current theater and performance vocabulary can be seen as a consequence of the secular republican elites’ idea of ‘purifying’ Turkish language by ‘cleaning’ it of its Arabic and Persian words to arrive at the Central Asian roots of the language. Of course, over the years most of the originally Central Asian but extremely old words would not satisfy the elite and instead words from Western/European languages would be borrowed. Hence the journey of our words such as tiyatro(theatre), piyes(pièce), performans(performance).

Unfortunately my history with this word is marked by its absence. I dont have a memory of it, only its discovery in a past that is not yet that distant. Its absence and my unaccomplished rediscovery of it –as I cant even find the language of origin- shows my attempt of ‘as if’. My own attempt to Theoria that was hoping to direct to my locality is marked by a Temasa in relation to my history.

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[i] http://www.nisanyansozluk.com/search.asp?w=tema%FEa&x=0&y=0

[ii] www.tdk.gov.tr

[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoria