Draft:Bernt brendemoen

Life
Bernt Brendemoen, an internationally recognized Norwegian Turkologist, was born in Oslo on 10 January 1949 and died on 9 March 2024. He studied classical philology and Turkish studies at the University of Oslo from 1967 to 1974. From 1974 to 1976 he lived in Istanbul, where he studied Turkology at the University of Istanbul and conducted research in the archives of the Topkapı Sarayı. In 1977 he was awarded the Norwegian master's degree (PhD) based on his dissertation Tyrkiske transkripsjonstekster i Topkapı Sarayı i Istanbul (Turkish transcription texts in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul). He then held a research fellowship at the Norwegian Research Council and at the University of Oslo. In 1982 he became an amanuensis ( research assistant ) in Turkic studies at the University of Oslo and in 1989 his professorial competence was established. In 1991 he held the Chair of Turkic Studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main for a semester, and from 2001 to 2002 he held the Chair of Turkic Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz for a year. In August 2001 he was awarded the highest Norwegian academic degree of doctor philosophiae (dr. philos). In 2002 he was appointed University Professor of Turkic Studies at the University of Oslo. In 2018 he retired, but continued his scientific work and his activities in the international research community. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, one of the editors of the journal Turkic Languages ​​(Harrassowitz) and the Encyclopedia of Turkic Languages ​​and Linguistics (Brill).

Research
Brendemoen's areas of work include linguistic Turkology, Anatolian dialects, Turkish language reform , Karamanlidica , modern Turkish literature , Chaghatai and Azerbaijani. He translated several novels by the writer Orhan Pamuk into Norwegian. In addition to Norwegian, Brendemoen also spoke English, Turkish , German and French.

Brendemoen has been described as a köprücü "bridge builder" who approaches Turkish with the ambition of building bridges between Turkish and Indo-European languages, particularly Norwegian. His bridges are linguistic constructions based on the belief that approaches to understanding Turkey and Turkish culture must be based on linguistic competence.

Brendemoen's studies of “transcription texts,” i.e. texts written in the Latin script during the Ottoman period, are important contributions to the history of Turkish. He dedicated his doctoral thesis (1977) [fn: Tyrkiske transkripsjonstekster i Topkapı Sarayı i Istanbul [‘Turkish transcription texts in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul’]. PhD dissertation. University of Oslo.] and later studies to this area of ​​research. In 2016 he published his most recent study of a transcription text, an interesting mix of Turkish and German.

The central research area in Brendemoen's oeuvre is Turkish dialectology. His interest in Greco-Turkish language contacts focused his attention on the dialects of the eastern Black Sea coast, Turkish variants spoken in the province of Trabzon.

Starting in 1978, he conducted intensive field research in Trabzon Province and published several articles on morphological, syntactic and lexical features of the dialects. In 2002, he published his groundbreaking two-volume work The Turkish dialects of Trabzon. Their phonology and historical development. It includes a synthesis of his linguistic, folkloristic and historical research on the language varieties spoken in the province of Trabzon and partly also in Rize. Brendemoen shows that the Turkish dialects in question have retained the most archaic features and have the most innovations due to the influence of foreign languages, especially Greek. The influence of non-Turkish languages ​​is often neglected in Turkish dialectology. His linguistic data shed light on the medieval Turkization process in the region, about which very little has been written.

The investigation of various manifestations of Greek-Turkish language contact plays a central role in Brendemoen's research. He is a recognized expert on the so-called Karamanli literature, written by Orthodox Christians in Turkish using Greek characters (2016).

Brendemoen's research covers many other linguistic topics. He has dedicated several essays to Turkish language policy.

The essay “The Turkish language reform and language policy in Turkey” (2022) is a competent overview of the development of the language reform movement in Turkey and discusses cultural aspects of the reform, arguments for and against it, and word formation methods. Brendemoen acts as an intermediary and creates direct access to Turkish language and literature for Norwegians