Semantic Analysis

Several Turkish terms in this Language Package carry a different semantic range than their English source word, and a number of them are shared directly with Islamic religious vocabulary, which affects how consistently they can be used across contexts.

Terms shared with Islamic vocabulary but semantically narrower in this curriculum

• İman (faith): in everyday Turkish Islamic usage, iman denotes assent to the six pillars of Islamic belief (Allah, angels, books, prophets, the last day, qadar). This curriculum uses İman more narrowly and specifically: personal trust in İsa Mesih. The object of faith must always be stated, since İman alone defaults to the broader Islamic sense for most readers.
• Peygamber (prophet): standard Islamic-Turkish vocabulary for a prophet, and precisely the category into which Islamic theology places Jesus exclusively. Used here for OT prophets pointing to Christ, but never applied to Jesus himself without immediately clarifying that this curriculum presents him as more than prophetic.
• Şükran (thanksgiving): shares a root with şükür, a central and frequent devotional term in everyday Turkish Islamic speech. This is a genuinely narrower usage than the broader Islamic devotional sense, but the overlap is a point of resonance rather than risk.

Terms narrower than their common Turkish usage

• Rab (Lord): in general Turkish usage rab/Rab can appear in reference to any deity, but this curriculum reserves it exclusively for the confession that İsa is Rab — the unique, exclusive Lordship claim of Romans 10:9, not a generic title of respect.
• Kutsal Ruh (Holy Spirit): broader Turkish/Islamic usage of “ruh al-qudus” is commonly explained as referring to the archangel Gabriel; this curriculum narrows and redefines the term specifically as God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, and this redefinition must be made explicit, not assumed.

Implication

Where a Turkish term’s common semantic range overlaps with, but does not match, its Islamic theological usage, the glossary’s notes field (see translation_memory.json) exists specifically to flag the mismatch for translators, so a term is never applied on the assumption that a reader’s existing associations will automatically narrow correctly.