TURKISH LANGUAGE IN BRIEF

Turkish is the mother tongue of 90 percent of the population
of the country. Some 70 other languages and dialects are also
spoken, including various dialects of Caucasian and Kurdish
as well as Arabic, Greek, Ladino and Armenian. The Turkish language of Turkey represents the southwestern arm of the community of Turkic languages within the Ural-Altay linguistic
family that slowly evolved over time. Groups speaking these languages spread to the east and northeast out of Central Asia,
and particularly to the west.

Ever since the very earliest times, Turkish has influenced
various dialects of Middle Persian, and turned the Caucasus
and Anatolia away from the Indo-European group of languages.
With the acceptance of Islam, Arabic on the one hand and
Persian on the other had a clear influence on the Turkish
language. Since the end of the 19th century such modern
Turkic written languages as the Turkish of Turkey itself,
Azerbaijan and Kazakh Turkish, based on Turkish dialects,
have emerged. Of the 4,000 or so languages currently spoken
in the world, Turkish ranks seventh in terms of numbers of
speakers and area, being used by around 200 million people.

Ever since the 8th century, the Turks have employed a number
of alphabets, although mainly the Göktürk, Uyghur, Arabic and
Latin ones. After the foundation of the Republic and the establishment of national unity, and particularly between 1923
and 1928, people began to focus on the alphabet problem in
Turkey. The founder of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
believed that it was essential to make use of Western culture
in order for the country to reach the level of contemporary
civilisation, to which end, in 1928, he brought about the
acceptance of Latin letters, modified to reflect the sounds of
the Turkish language, to replace the Arabic alphabet.

The Language Revolution continued in 1932 with Ataturk's establishment of the Turkish Language Research Society in
order to simplify the language. After its foundation, that body
took the name of the Turkish Language Board. Its work
produced positive results, and important steps were taken in
order to simplify Turkish and rid it of its Arabic and Persian
words. The Turkish Language Board is still active today, with amended statutes, within the main body of the Language and
History Higher Board. Among the board's responsibilities are the simplification, enrichment and beautification of the Turkish
language. The most important result of the work carried out to
date is that while before 1932 Turkish words represented only
35-40 percent of the lexicon, that figure has today reached 75-80 percent. This fact is the greatest proof of the value to the
Turkish people of Ataturk's Language Revolution.

Reference: Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Repuclic of Turkey

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TURKIC LANGUAGES

The Turkic languages are spoken over a large geographical area
in Europe and Asia. It is spoken in the Azeri, the Türkmen, the Tartar, the Uzbek, the Baskurti, the Nogay, the Kyrgyz, the
Kazakh, the Yakuti, the Cuvas and other dialects. Turkish belongs
to the Altaic branch of the Ural-Altaic family of languages, and
thus is closely related to Mongolian, Manchu-Tungus, Korean,
and perhaps Japanese. Some scholars have maintained that
these resemblances are not fundamental, but rather the result
of borrowings, however comparative Altaistic studies in recent
years demonstrate that the languages we have listed all go back
to a common Ur-Altaic.

Turkish is a very ancient language going back 5500 to 8500 years.
It has a phonetic, morphological and syntactic structure, and at
the same time it possesses a rich vocabulary. The fundamental
features, which distinguish the Ural-Altaic languages from the
Indo-European, are as follows:

1. Vowel harmony, a feature of all Ural-Altaic tongues.

2. The absence of gender.

3. Agglutination

4. Adjectives precede nouns.

5. Verbs come at the end of the sentence.

Written Turkish

The oldest written records are found upon stone monuments in
Central Asia, in the Orhon, Yenisey and Talas regions within the
boundaries of present-day Mongolia. These were erected to Bilge
Kaghan (735), Kültigin (732), and the vizier Tonyukuk (724-726).
These monuments document the social and political life of the
Gokturk Dynasty.

After the waning of the Gokturk state, the Uighurs produced many
written texts that are among the most important source works for

the Turkish language. The Uighurs abandoned shamanism
(the original Turkish religion) in favor of Buddhism,
Manichaeanism and Brahmanism, and translated the pious
and philosophical works into Turkish. Examples are Altun Yaruk, Mautrisimit, Sekiz Yükmek, Huastunift. These are collected in Turkische Turfan-Texte. The Gokturk inscriptions, together
with Uighur writings, are in a language called by scholars Old Turkish. This term refers to the Turkish spoken, prior to the conversion to Islam, on the steppes of Mongolia and Tarim
basin.

A sample of Gokturk Inscriptions, commissioned by Gokturk Khans. One of
several in Mongolia, near river Orkhun, dated 732-735. Example statement
(from Bilge Khan): "He (Sky God or "Gok Tanri") is the one who sat me on
the throne so that the name of the Turkish Nation would live forever."

The Turkish that developed in Anatolia and Balkans in the times
of the Seljuk’s and Ottomans is documented in several literary
works prior to the 13th century. The men of letters of the time
were, notably, Sultan Veled, the son of Mevlana Celaleddin-i
Rumi, Ahmed Fakih, Seyyad Hamza, Yunus Emre, a prominent thinker of the time, and the famed poet, Gulsehri. This Turkish
has a dialect which falls into the southwestern dialects of the Western Turkish language family and also into the dialects of the Oguz Türkmen language group. When the Turkish spoken in
Turkey is considered in a historical context, it can be classified according to three distinct periods:

1. Old Anatolian Turkish (old Ottoman - between the 13th and
the 15th centuries)

2. Ottoman Turkish (from the 16th to the 19th century)

3. 20th century Turkish

The Turkish Language up to the 16th Century With the spread of Islam among the Turks from the 10th century onward, the Turkish language came under heavy influence of Arabic and Persian
cultures. The "Divanü-Lügati't-Türk" (1072), the dictionary edited
by Kasgarli Mahmut to assist Arabs to learn Turkish, was written
in Arabic. In the following century, Edip Ahmet Mahmut Yükneri wrote his book "Atabetü'l-Hakayik", in Eastern Turkish, but the
title was in Arabic. All these are indications of the strong influence
of the new religion and culture on the Turks and the Turkish language. In spite of the heavy influence of Islam, in texts written
in Anatolian Turkish the number of words of foreign origin is
minimal. The most important reason for this is that during the
period mentioned, effective measures were taken to minimize the influence of other cultures. For example, during the Karahanlilar period there was significant resistance of Turkish against the
Arabic and Persian languages. The first masterpiece of the
Muslim Turks, "Kutadgu Bilig" by Yusuf Has Hacib, was written
in Turkish in 1069. Ali Nevai of the ÿagatay Turks defended the superiority of Turkish from various points of view vis-à-vis Persian
in his book "Muhakemetül-Lugatein", written in 1498.

During the time of the Anatolian Seljuk’s and Karamanogullari,
efforts were made resulting in the acceptance of Turkish as the official language and in the publication of a Turkish dictionary,
"Divini Turki", by Sultan Veled (1277). Ahmet Fakih, Seyyat
Hamza and Yunus Emre adopted the same attitude in their use
of ancient Anatolian Turkish, which was in use till 1299.
Moreover, after the emergence of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan
Orhan promulgated the first official document of the State, the
"Mülkname", in Turkish. In the 14th century, Ahmedi and
Kaygusuz Abdal, in the 15th century Süleyman ÿelebi and Haci Bayram and in the 16th century Sultan Abdal and Köroglu were
the leading poets of their time, pioneering the literary use of
Turkish. In 1530, Kadri Efendi of Bergama published the first
study of Turkish grammar, "Müyessiretül-Ulum".

The outstanding characteristic in the evolution of the written
language during these periods was that terminology of foreign
origin was accompanied with the indigenous. Furthermore, during
the 14th and 15th centuries translations were made particularly
in the fields of medicine, botany, astronomy, mathematics and
Islamic studies, which promoted the introduction of a great
number of scientific terms of foreign origin into written Turkish,
either in their authentic form or with Turkish transcriptions.
Scientific treatises made use of both written and vernacular
Turkish, but the scientific terms were generally of foreign origin, particularly Arabic.

The Evolution of Turkish since the 16th Century

The mixing of Turkish with foreign words in poetry and science
did not last forever. Particularly after the 16th century foreign
terms dominated written texts, in fact, some Turkish words disappeared altogether from the written language. In the field of literature, a great passion for creating art work of high quality persuaded the ruling elite to attribute higher value to literary works containing a high proportion of Arabic and Persian vocabulary,
which resulted in the domination of foreign elements over Turkish. This development was at its extreme in the literary works
originating in the Ottoman court. This trend of royal literature eventually had its impact on folk literature, and folk poets also
used numerous foreign words and phrases. The extensive use
of Arabic and Persian in science and literature not only
influenced the spoken language in the palace and its
surroundings, but as time went by, it also persuaded the
Ottoman intelligentsia to adopt and utilize a form of palace
language heavily reliant on foreign elements. As a result, there
came into being two different types of language. One in which
foreign elements dominated, and the second was the spoken
Turkish used by the public.

From the 16th to the middle of the 19th century, the Turkish used
in science and literature was supplemented and enriched by the inclusion of foreign items under the influence of foreign cultures. However, since there was no systematic effort to limit the
inclusion of foreign words in the language, too many began to appear. In the mid-19th century, Ottoman Reformation (Tanzimat) enabled a new understanding and approach to linguistic issues to emerge, as in many other matters of social nature. The Turkish community, which had been under the influence of Eastern
culture, was exposed to the cultural environment of the West.
As a result, ideological developments such as the outcome of reformation and nationalism in the West, began to influence the Turkish community, and thus important changes came into
being in the cultural and ideological life of the country.

The most significant characteristic with respect to the Turkish language was the tendency to eliminate foreign vocabulary from Turkish. In the years of the reformation, the number of newspaper, magazines and periodicals increased and accordingly the need to purify the language became apparent. The writing of Namik Kemal, Ali Suavi, Ziya Pasa, Ahmet Mithat Efendi and Semsettin Sami, which appeared in various newspapers, tackled the problem of simplification. Efforts aimed at "Turkification" of the language by scholars like Ziya Gökalp became even more intensive at the beginning of the 20th century. Furthermore, during the reform
period of 1839, emphasis was on theoretical linguistics whereas during the second constitutional period it was on the
implementation and use of the new trend. Consequently new linguists published successful examples of the purified language
in the periodical "Genç Kalemler" (Young Writers).

The Republican Era and Language Reform

 With the proclamation of the Republic in 1923 and after the
process of national integration in the 1923-1928 period, the subject
of adopting a new alphabet became an issue of utmost importance. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had the Latin alphabet adapted to the
Turkish vowel system, believing that to reach the level of contemporary civilization, it was essential to benefit from western culture. The creation of the Turkish Language Society in 1932
was another milestone in the effort to reform the language. The studies of the society, later renamed the Turkish Linguistic Association, concentrated on making use again of authentic
Turkish words discovered in linguistic surveys and research and
bore fruitful results.

At present, in conformity with the relevant provision of the 1982 Constitution, the Turkish Language Association continues to
function within the organizational framework of the Atatürk High Institution of Culture, Language and History. The essential
outcome of the developments of the last 50-60 years is that
whereas before 1932 the use of authentic Turkish words in written texts was 35-40 percent, this figure has risen to 75-80 percent in recent years. This is concrete proof that Atatürk's language
revolution gained the full support of public.

Reference: Ministry of Foreign Affairs/The Republic of Turkey
 

Vocabulary

Nouns

Are words employed to
describe objects, or with the
intention of distinguishing
between one and another.

Words can be divided into
two classes:

1. Nouns
2. Verbs

Noun-origin words: Nouns,
pronouns, adjectives, adverbs,
particles, conjunctions,
exclamations.

Noun-content words refer to
things, sensations, feelings
and facts. They can be
concrete or abstract. Book,
water, happiness, beautiful etc.

Dictionary

A work in which all the words
in a language, or which have
been used at a particular time,
are set out alphabetically,
defined and their equivalents
in other labguages given.

Slang

The metaphorical use of a word
by restricted social groups. For
instance, ‘rubbing out’ can be
used in the sense of ‘killing.’

Onomatopeia

Words created from sounds in
nature.

A. Words produced from
sounds made by objects: Bang,
splash ...
B. Animal sounds: Miao, woof ...
C. Human sounds: Sshhh, ouch ...

Names of days, weeks and
months

Although everyone knows the
days of the week by their
‘official’ names, days also have
particular names in different
regions and towns. For
instance, in the Çal district of
Denizli Perşembe (Thursday)
is known as Cuma akşamı
(Friday evening), Pazar
(Sunday) as Gireği, and
Çarşamba (Wednesday) as
Işıklı. The different names for
the days in that district come
from the places where markets,
important commercial centres,
were set up.

Another example of days of
the week from Dişkaya Village
in Uşak;

Pazar (Sunday): Girey
Pazartesi (Monday): Gula
Bazarı (Gula Market)
Salı (Tuesday): Gula Bazar
Ertesi (The Day after Gula
Market)
Çarşamba (Wednesday): Eşme
Bazarı
Perşembe (Thursday):
Cumaşamı
Cuma (Friday): Cuma
Cumartesi (Saturday): Cumartesi