Maad M.

Mijwel January 2018

The History of the Turkish Language from the

Ottoman Empire until today
Maad M. Mijwel
2018

During the Ottoman Empire (1453 ~ 1920), the Turks were one of the many linguistic
and ethnic groups living in Turkey. There were 3 languages used: Arabic that was used
as the primary language for religious matters; Persian, which was the language of art,
of refined literature and diplomacy; and on the official level, the Turkish Ottoman that
was only used for the administration of the empire. The members of the civil, military
and religious elites had spoken and conducted their business in the Turkish Ottoman,
which was a mixture of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. The vocabulary of the Ottoman
Turkish language incorporates palavras and entire expressions of Arabic and Persian
and also syntactic structures.

The Turkish is not Arabic, and in Turkey Arabic is not spoken, nor is the alphabet of
the latter used. The Turkish language, of very ancient origins, can be traced back to the
Ural-Altaic family, and with 71.5 million native speakers and 125 million total of
Turkish speakers it is widespread in several states and areas of the world. Spoken in
Turkey and by minorities from 35 other countries, it is used in states such as Azerbaijan,
Bulgaria, Greece, the northern part of Cyprus, Macedonia, Romania and
Uzbekistan. What gave the language spoken in Turkey the prestige and status of
reference standards for the Turkic communities was the creation of the new Republic
in 1923,

The Turk who speaks today is in fact the result of a significant intervention planned and
undertaken starting from the reforms that made Mustafa Kemal - the surname Atatürk
will be conferred by the Parliament in 1934 - from 1928 onwards. For the new and
purified, Turkish language (yeni türkçe) the suggestions of many linguists and
philologists of the time were taken into consideration, who collaborated together in

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Maad M. Mijwel January 2018

view of the common intent of the neophyte nation. In fact, Atatürk's reform policy had
two objectives: to break completely with the Ottoman past and to give a noble written
form to the Turkish dialect, the living legacy of the pre-Islamic languages of Central
Asia. The standard language was essentially transformed starting from the
Ottoman, written now with the Latin alphabet (and no longer the modified version of
the Arabic alphabet previously used), with the encouragement of numerous neologisms
and the exclusion of linguistic loans from Arabic and Persian. The results of the
linguistic reform were truly impressive: in 1932, 35% of the vocabulary in use was of
Turkish origin; by 1946 it became 46% and today it exceeds 80%. Linguistic reform
constituted part of the broader cultural reforms underway at the time, and it was
extremely important for the increase in the rate of popular literacy, at the time an
extremely small percentage. 35% of the vocabulary in use was of Turkish origin; by
1946 it became 46% and today it exceeds 80%. Linguistic reform constituted a part of
the broader cultural reforms under way at the time, and it was extremely important for
the increase in the rate of popular literacy, at the time an extremely small
percentage. 35% of the vocabulary in use was of Turkish origin; by 1946 it became 46%
and today it exceeds 80%. Linguistic reform constituted a part of the broader cultural
reforms under way at the time, and it was extremely important for the increase in the
rate of popular literacy, at the time an extremely small percentage.

The Turkish language, like Finnish and Hungarian, is an agglutinative language. It is

known that it has many suffixes, about 200, and few prefixes. Each of these suffixes
has a different grammatical function, from that of the plural (-ler; -lar) to that of the
various verbal forms. All suffixes are added according to a structured chaining rule
based on the harmony of the vowels: e, i, ö, ü on the one hand; a, ı, o, u of the other.
The letters are 29, compared to those in the English alphabet do not appear the q, the w
and the x; to be added instead: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü. The syntax of the sentence is Subject
Object Verb as in Japanese and Latin. Overall, Turkish is today regulated by the Turkish
Linguistic Organization.

As far as the literature is concerned, it is obviously necessary to distinguish between

the one before and after the foundation of the Republic. During the Ottoman period,
especially the poetry Diwan, it was strongly influenced by the influence of Persian
forms, through the adoption of the meters of Persian poetry and the contribution of a
large number of Persian terms. In the more than six hundred years of the Ottoman
Empire, the literary and official language was therefore a mixture of Turkish, Persian
and Arabic, which differed considerably from the spoken Turkish of the time and which
is now commonly called Ottoman Turkish. The new Turkish literature, however,
recognized both nationally and internationally, includes the famous poems of Nazım
Hikmet and the novels of Yaşar Kemal, which on the whole have given it considerable
prestige.

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Maad M. Mijwel January 2018

Famous Turkish words:

English Turkish
Good mooring Günaydın - günaydoen
Good evening Iyi akşamlar
Goodbye Allaha ısmarladık
See you later Görüşürüz
Yes Evet
No Hayır
Excuse me! Lütfen
Excuse me Pardon
Thanks Teşekkür ederim
Thanks a lot Çok teşekkürler!
Thank you for your help Yardımınız için teşekkürler
Don't mention it Bir şey değil
Ok Tamam
How much is it? Ne kadar?
Sorry! Üzgünüm
I don't understand Anlamıyorum
I get it Anlıyorum
I don't know Bilmiyorum
Forbidden Yasak
Excuse me, where are the toilets? afedersiniz tualetler nerede?
Happy New Year! Yeni yılınız kutlu olsun!
Happy birthday! Iyi ki doğdun!
Happy holiday! Iyi tatiller!
Congratulations! Tebrik ederim!

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