The Sun Language Theory () was a Turkish pseudolinguistic, pseudoscientific hypothesis developed in Turkey in the 1930s that proposed that all human languages are descendants of one proto-Turkic primal language. The theory's counterfactual promotion of Turks as a progenitor race led to it finding favour among Turkish ultranationalists, who used to justify their radical nationalist ideologies. The theory goes that primal language had close phonemic resemblances to Turkish, and because of this, all other languages can be traced back to Turkic roots. The origin was Central Asian worshippers who created language as a means to salute the omnipotence of the sun and its life-giving qualities, hence the name. Origins Influences on the theory included: the ideas of the French historian Hilaire de Barenton, expressed in "L'Origine des Langues, des Religions et des Peuples" ("The Origin of Languages, Religions and Peoples"), that all languages originated from hieroglyphs and cuneiform used by Sumerians. Turkish linguists claimed a Turkish origin for the Sumerians, and therefore the origin of language was Turkish. a paper of the Austrian linguist Hermann F. Kvergić of Vienna entitled "La psychologie de quelques éléments des langues Turques" ("The Psychology of Some Elements of the Turkic Languages"). He also conducted some research on the theory with support of the Turkish Embassy in Vienna. During ten months in late 1935 and early 1936 Turkish linguists from the Turkish Language Society developed the Sun Language Theory which was presented as the source of all languages in the Third Turkish Language Congress. History The theory counted on the approval of the first president of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who not only gave the theory official backing and material support but was also an important contributor to its development. It received the formal support of the Turkish Government during the Third Turkish Language Congress in 1936. During the same congress the vast majority of the international non-Turkish scholars including opposed the theory. One of the few non-Turkish linguists who supported the theory was Kvergić. Influence in Turkey Since the theory claimed that all words had originated from Turkish, it was not deemed necessary anymore to replace all foreign loanwords in the language, a process that had been initiated before. Initially the theory was taught only in the Turkology departments of the Turkish Universities, but on the order of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, it was to be taught in all departments as a