Tecirlioglu

Siir Tecirlioglu

Ms. Standley

English A2

2 February 2011

Turkish Language Reform Essay

Turkish is one of the most ancient languages in the world. It belongs to the Ural-Altaic

family of languages.1 The Ural-Altaic family comes from Central Asia. This suggests that

Turkish has its roots in that area. The first written records of Turkish come from 1,200 years ago.

2 Turkish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world—21st widely spoken language

according to ethnologue.com.3 4There are more than 70 million native speakers of Turkish. It is

popular over a large geographical are in Europe and Asia. 1 According to onlineturkish.com, it is

spoken in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Mongolia, Iran and Iraq. The rise of

the Ottoman Empire has influenced the language of the Balkans. Over a million speakers of

Turkish are found in Bulgaria, Greece, and Macedonia. There are about 3 million speakers in

Germany as well as half a million in other European countries. 1 The question is, “What were the

main events that affected the Turkish language in the past few centuries?” There are three main

topics to investigate in order to answer this question; these are related to the Ottoman Empire,

the Republic of Turkey, and the events in the recent history.

1onlineturkish.com 2thelanguagechronicle.com/ 3 Encarta Dictionary.4 ethnologue.com

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The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest empires in history. It reached the Balkans

and Arabic countries. Therefore, there are many influences on the Ottoman Turkish from other

countries (it influenced other countries’ languages as well). Ottoman Turkish was a mixture of

Arabic, Persian and Turkish. Arabic was the language of religion and religious law which played

an important role in the Ottoman Empire. Persian was the language of art, literature and

diplomacy. Turkish was the language of the society in daily life.5 The problem with the mixture

was that it caused difficulties in spelling and writing. They were from three different language

families. Turkish is from Ural-Altaic; Persian is from Indo-European and Arabic is from Semitic.

5 The difference between these language families was that their pronunciation, and grammar

were very far from each other. 5 Even in the modern day Turkish, called Istanbul Turkish, there

are words from the Ottoman Era. For example, the Turkish word “dert” is derived from the

Persian word “dard.” Although their exact meaning slightly differs, both can be used to explain

the same feeling—they both mean “problem, trouble pain”. There are also words that have been

changed from Ottoman Turkish to a more pure Turkish by the TDK (Turk Dil Kurumu—Turkish

Language Association) which is an organization in the Turkish Republic that is responsible for

purifying the Turkish language. In Ottoman Turkish, the word “müselles” means triangle, but in

modern day Turkish, it is called “üçgen”. Another example is “tayyare” which means plane, but

most people do not use (do not even know) that word. Instead they use the word, “uçak”. 6 7The

word “nispet” means ratio in Ottoman Turkish. But it has been changed to “oran” to fit the

modern Turkish language rules. The final example is the word “şimal” in Ottoman Turkish

whıch ıs replaced as “kuzey” ın modern Turkısh—the words mean “north”.8

5 countrystudies.us6 onlineturkish.com7thelanguagechronicle.com 8 en.wikipedia.org

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With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923

by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Language revolution began in 1928 with the Arabic numbers being

replaced by Western equivalents.9 In 1932, Ataturk formed the Turkish Language Association

(TDK) in order to replace loanwords of Arabic, and Persian origins with Turkish equivalents.9

The aim was to create an easier language to read and write.10 There were two steps to achieve

this aim. The first one was to create a new alphabet and the second one was to purify the

vocabulary.10 As soon as these were created, Ataturk travelled throughout the country in order to

teach the new language in schools, villages and other public places.9 The new Latin alphabet had

Turkish vowels and consonants more clearly than the Arabic alphabet had done. This was an

advantage for those who were learning the new language. Why did Ataturk take the language

reformation so seriously? According to dildernegi.org, he believed that a rich language (in terms

of vocabulary and word definitions) would make it easier to communicate and share thoughts.

The language reform was a sudden change in Turkish language. It was better in the sense of the

difficulty of learning and using the language. The literacy level in Turkey rose to 48.4% among

males and 20.7 among females. 11

How is Turkish doing in the recent history? During the late 19th century, the language

reform became a political issue. Turkish nationalists thought the reform was dividing the

people.12 This is true between the old generations and the newer ones who communicated in

9 Turkish Language Association. "Türk Dil Kurumu - Tarihçe (History of the Turkish Language Association)". Archived from the original on March 16, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-18.(Turkish)10 countrystudies.us11 dildernegi.org.tr

12 See Lewis (2002): 2–3 for the first two translations. For the third see Bedi Yazıcı. "Nutuk: Özgün metin ve çeviri (Atatürk's Speech: original text and translation)". Retrieved 2007-09-28.(Turkish)

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different versions of Turkish—Istanbul Turkish created by Ataturk versus the Ottoman Turkish.12

In 1950s, some of the Arabic words began to reappear in newspapers and some government

publications.12 However, the opposition to the language reform was soon over and Istanbul

Turkish continued to grow. Another point to consider from these results is the long-term effects

of the language reform. The outcome is mixed. On one hand, it divided the older and younger

generations. On the other hand, it unified the different classes remaining from the Ottoman

society. It also made the country gain more confidence as a result of having its own language to

reflect its own thoughts and feelings.12

The TDK is still continuing its work in creating new Turkish words. This is the result of

the development of information technology and terms related to this area. For example, a pure

equivalent for the word “online” doesn’t exist in Turkish. We use the word “cevrimici” for

“online,” but this word doesn’t fit the Turkish language rules. This is one of the areas of concern

for the TDK. They have been criticized for adding artificial and contrived words into Turkish.13

Although the opposition to the language reform was over in the beginning of 2000s, it eventually

revived. In conclusion, the language reform is still creating political issues in Turkey.

13http://en.wikipedia.org

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Work Cited

"Turkish Language." en.wikipedia.org. N.p., 31 Jan. 2011. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_language>.

"Language Reform: From Ottoman to Turkish ." countrystudies.us. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.

<http://countrystudies.us/turkey/25.htm>.

"TÜRKÇE VE DİL DEVRİMİ." dildernegi.org.tr. N.p., 13 Mar. 2007. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.

<http://www.dildernegi.org.tr/TR/

BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF01E9BE68C047FEF5>.

"History Of Turkish Language ." onlineturkish.com. N.p., 2002. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.

<http://www.onlineturkish.com/history.asp>.

"List of languages by number of native speakers ." en.wikipedia.org. N.p., 2 Feb. 2011. Web. 2

Feb. 2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers>.

"History of the Turkish Language." thelanguagechronicle.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.

<http://thelanguagechronicle.com/history-of-the-turkish-language/>.

Turkish Language Association. "Türk Dil Kurumu - Tarihçe (History of the Turkish Language

Association)". Archived from the original on March 16, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-18.

(Turkish)

See Lewis (2002): 2–3 for the first two translations. For the third see Bedi Yazıcı. "Nutuk:

Özgün metin ve çeviri (Atatürk's Speech: original text and translation)". Retrieved 2007-

09-28.(Turkish)

"Turkish language". Encarta Dictionary. Retrieved 11 February 2010.

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