CLIOH Peker

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMALİ UZAY PEKER: 

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM ALİ UZAY PEKER

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORYTURKISH IN THE WORLD: 

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORY TURKISH IN THE WORLD One of the most widely spoken tongues in the world from the fringes of China and Altai Mountains to Western Europe; Turkish is the 7th most spoken and widespread language among the average of 4,000 languages in the world; More than 200 million people speak Turkish.

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORYLANGUAGE GROUP: 

Turkish belongs to the Altaic branch of the Uralo-Altaic family of languages, also related to Korean and Japanese; In Turkey proper the dialect falls into Oguz Türkmen language group; The oldest records of Turkish are found in Central Asia on so-called Orkhun monuments in Mongolia, belong to the middle of the 8th c. A.D. TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORY LANGUAGE GROUP

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORYPERIODS: 

Separate periods of Turkish: Old Turkish (Gokturk and Uighur writings in Mongolia and Tarim Basin) Old Anatolian (11th -15th centuries) Ottoman (16th – 19th centuries) Modern Turkish (20th century) TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORY PERIODS

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORYENCOUNTERS: 

Many forms of writing were employed for the Turkish depending on the region. For example Nestorian, Sogd, Uighur, Pali, Manichean, Brahman, Syrian, Armenian, Georgian and ancient Greek alphabets; But, the Göktürk, Uigur, Arabic and Latin alphabets were mostly used; Spread of Islam from the 10th century brought influence of Arabic and Persian cultures, hence invasion of words from Arabic and Persian. TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORY ENCOUNTERS

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORYRESISTANCE: 

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORY RESISTANCE Resistance of Turkish against the Arabic and Persian languages in Karahanlı period; the first example of literature in Turkish language, “Kutadgu Bilig” (Wisdom of Royal Glory) by Yusuf Has Hacib written in 1069 in Central Asia; In Anatolia while Seljuks promoted Persian as the official and Arabic as the scholarly languages, Karamanoğulları accepted Turkish as the official language and published a Turkish language dictionary; Until the end of the 15th c., terminology of foreign origin was accompanied with the indigenous in written language; Scientific treatises made use of both written and vernacular Turkish with Arabic terms employed.

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORYOTTOMAN TURKISH: 

After the sixteenth century, cosmopolitan nature of the Ottoman Empire strenghtened and some Turkish words disappeared altogether from the written language; In royal literature Arabic and Persian vocabulary and syntactic structures dominated, also influenced folk literature; A palace language emerged, as a result two different types of languages came into being: language of the elites and spoken Turkish used by the public; Upper-crust Ottoman Turkish was a combination of mainly Arabic, Persian, after the 18th century loan words from French and German were also used. TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORY OTTOMAN TURKISH

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORYOTTOMAN TURKISH: 

According to Geoffrey Lewis “Ottoman Turkish became the only language that ever came close to English in the vastness of its vocabulary”; Ottoman Turkish employed Arab alphabet to write a language with Ural-Altaic, Indo European and Semitic backgrounds; Spelling and writing difficulties existed because of different phonological, grammatical and etymological principals among these constituent parts. TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORY OTTOMAN TURKISH

TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORYNINETEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS: 

In the mid-nineteenth century cultural environment of the West began to influence the Turkish community; Ottoman Reformation (Tanzimat) promoted Western type nationalistic ideas, which were foreign in a Eastern culture before; The number of newspapers, magazines and periodicals increased and the need to purify the language became apparent. TURKISH LANGUAGE AND ITS HISTORY NINETEENTH CENTURY DEVELOPMENTS

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMBEFORE REPUBLICAN PERIOD: 

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM BEFORE REPUBLICAN PERIOD Namık Kemal, Ali Suavi, Ziya Paşa, Ahmet Mithat Efendi and Şemseddin Sami tackled the problem of simplificaton; Ziya Gökalp introduced Turkish nationalism as the force uniting all those who were Turks by language and ethnic background; He aimed at “Turkification” of the language at the beginning of the 20th c.; Hence, language reform became a political issue; A purified language was being used in the periodical “Genç Kalemler” (Young Writers) during second constitutional period; But more drastic changes appeared in Atatürk’s regime.

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMEARLY REPUBLICAN ERA: 

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM EARLY REPUBLICAN ERA Under Atatürk’s leadership modern world’s swiftest and most extensive language reform began; In 1928, Atatürk decided that the Arabic script should be replaced with the Latin alphabet (29 letters -8 vowels and 21 consonants);

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMEARLY REPUBLICAN ERA WHY LATIN ALPHABET?: 

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM EARLY REPUBLICAN ERA WHY LATIN ALPHABET? In the year 2001, in Azerbaijan, the Cyrillic alphabet, which had been in use since 1940, was similarly abandoned and Latin alphabet replaced it. Cyrillic alphabet in Azerbaijan, like Arabic alphabet in Turkey, was regarded as symbolic of the dominion of a distinct cultural sphere; Latin alphabet is now regarded more modern and glitterig as once were Persian, Arabic and Cyrillic.

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMEARLY REPUBLICAN ERA: 

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM EARLY REPUBLICAN ERA Atatürk started a campaign to eliminate ‘foreign’ words as part of a nationalist program; He asked the experts “How long would it take?” Reply: “At least five years” Atatürk said “We shall do it within five months”. In 1932 Turkish Language Society was created to search for authentic Turkish words.

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMEARLY REPUBLICAN ERA: 

Words from earlier centuries were revived, provincial expressions, folk vocabulary and folk phrases introduced in place of foreign words; Provincial collecting committees recorded 35,000 words from local dialects, and scholars derived 65,000 words from old texts, which had never been in use in Turkey, totally 90,000 words; In 1934, the results of these two activities published in a book called Tarama Dergisi (Combing Compendium); Journalists wrote their articles in Ottoman, then passed them to a substitutor in the office of the newspaper, who opened his copy of Tarama Dergisi and substituted Turkish equivalents for the Ottoman words. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM EARLY REPUBLICAN ERA

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMEARLY REPUBLICAN ERA: 

More than 80% Arabic, Persian and French words of the Ottoman Turkish in 1920’s, declined to a mere 10% by the early 1980’s; New words coined from Turkish stems and roots; But oddities also appeared: new words for geometric forms like ‘altıgen’ (hexagon) was a combination of Turkish three (üç) and suffix gon. Similarly general turned into ‘genel’, term into ‘terim’ and durée to ‘süre’; By the end of 1936 Atatürk realized that the reform had entered a dead end and that the sensible course was to retain in the language all the foreign words that were in general use and for which no Turkish synonym could be found. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM EARLY REPUBLICAN ERA

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMOPPOSITION: 

By the late 1940s opposition to the reform emerged; Intellectuals began to complain about the instability and arbitrariness of the officially sanctioned vocabularly; Conservative governments such as those of the 1980s deemphasized the language reform; Reform accused of being a ‘linguistic cleansing’. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM OPPOSITION

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMOPPOSITION: 

Since 1983 The Language Society has ceased to propose replacements for Ottoman words; Religious publications have continued to use an idiom that is heavily Arabic or Persian in vocabulary and Persian in syntax; Religious-oriented political movement in the 1990s reintroduced many Islamic terms into spoken Turkish. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM OPPOSITION

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMGAINS: 

The goal was to produce a language that was more Turkish and less Arabic, Persian, and Islamic; one that was more ‘modern’, practical and precise, and less difficult to learn; New Latin alphabet represented the Turkish vowels and consonants more clearly than had the Arabic alphabet; One symbol from Latin alphabet is used for each sound of standard Turkish, which was not possible with the letters of the Arabic alphabet. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM GAINS

Slide20: 

The phonetically designed alphabet based on the Latin script facilitated the quick acquisition of literacy and study of Western languages with greater effectiveness; New uniform mass language acquired its own literature; after 1950s writers and poets created powerful works in modern Turkish; Newly invented scientific technical terms facilitated comprehesion and communication. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM GAINS

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMDRAWBACKS: 

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM DRAWBACKS The alphabet reform drastically cut the new generation from Turkey’s Ottoman past, value system and religion; Introduced permanent estrangement from the literary and linguistic heritage of the Ottomans; The vocabulary and syntax of the Ottoman laguage are barely understandable to a speaker of modern Turkish.

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMDRAWBACKS: 

Authors like Geoffrey L. Lewis regard it as a form of ‘ethnic cleansing: getting rid of the non-Turkish elements in the language, and a catastrophic success”; Contemporary Turkish novelist Elif Şafak harshly criticising the language reform once asked to the writer of the Chicago Tribune: “Can you imagine not being able to read Mark Twain?”. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM DRAWBACKS

Slide23: 

The language impoverished in some repects by the elimination of a great many Arabic and Persian words for which there were no Turkish equivalents; Reformers were free to pick and choose, but they deliberatley elected to throw away their heritage; It was a political stance: Identification of a culture with the past regime; Periodical changes in the political atmosphere effected language at large: Language reform and modern usages have pushed forward during periods of liberal governments and been undermined by conservative governments such as those of the 1980s. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM DRAWBACKS

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMDRAWBACKS: 

Educated Turks hesitate to use the exact words because it is too old-fashioned and has not been replaced by a neologism. So they use a French or English word instead; The reform did not eliminate the gap between the language of the intellectuals and the language of the people; The new language is full of so-called pure neologisms, fery few of which entered the language of the people; The reform has hardly changed the speech-habits of non-intellectuals. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM DRAWBACKS

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORMDRAWBACKS: 

Language reform put a distance between modern Turkish and the languages spoken in the Turkic countries of Central Asia and Azerbaijan; Former President of Azerbaijan Hayder Aliev: “the reform brought more differences between our languages, Turks understands us better than we understand them, because of the new words and expressions they use”. TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM DRAWBACKS

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM CURRENT SCENE: 

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM CURRENT SCENE The enemy has changed today; It is English sneakig across the border: Türkilizce (Turkish and ‘İngilizce’ (English) counterpart of franglais); Commander of the Turkish armed forces recenlty warned about an invasion of foreign expressions into the Turkish language; Writer Elif Şafak responded “Foreign words are a threat, but not to the Turkish language, but instead a thread to the purist, monolingual...nationalist language ideology of the state.”

TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM CURRENT SCENE: 

In Turkey, today, ‘akreditasyon’ and ‘akredite’ are used for accrediation and accreditated and regarded Turkish words as Arabic words could be in the sixteenth century. A return to cosmopolitanism? TURKISH LANGUAGE REFORM CURRENT SCENE

Slide28: 

Journalist: Aysel! What was the English of ‘Portakal orda kal’? (‘Portakal orda kal’ is a meaningless idiom from slang) A caricature appeared in daily newspaper Milliyet mocking unnecessary use of English in news.

Slide29: 

SOURCES Betty Blair, “Envisioning the Nation, Interview: Azerbaijan’s President, Heydar Aliyev”, Azerbaijan International, Autumn 2001 (9.3). Catherine Collins, “A Turkish General’s Warning...,” Chicago Tribune May 1, 2005. Cathleen Boivin, “The Making of U.S. Foreign Policy on Turkey: The New Language”, Speech made at the Youth Day celebration on May 19th at the Turkish Embassy, Washington D.C. Geoffrey L. Lewis, “The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success,” The Jarring Lecture 11 Feb., 2002.