تونج ایلی

Ottoman Turkish

Tunceli province

Etymology

From تونج (tunc), variant of توج (tuc, “bronze”), + ایل (il, el, “country; tribe, nation”). Before 1935 the province was known as درسم (dersim), while the city was called قلان (kalan), but since both names were deemed non-Turkish the government changed them to the current one.

Proper noun

تونج ایلی • (tunc eli)

1. Tunceli (a city and province in Central East Anatolia, Turkey)

   Synonyms: درسم (dersim), قلان (kalan) (obsolete)

Descendants

• Turkish: Tunceli

Further reading

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2010–) “Tunceli”, in Nişanyan Yeradları: Türkiye ve Çevre Ülkeler Yerleşim Birimleri Envanteri [Index Anatolicus: An inventory of place names of Turkey and surrounding countries] (in Turkish)
• Sezen, Tahir (2017) “Tunceli”, in Osmanlı Yer Adları [Ottoman Place Names]‎^[1], 2nd edition, Ankara: T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, page 764