Ottoman Turkish alphabet

Atatürk introducing the new Turkish alphabet to the people of Kayseri, September 20, 1928

The Ottoman Turkish alphabet (Ottoman Turkish: الفبا, elifbâ) was the version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet that was used for the Ottoman Turkish language during the time of the Ottoman Empire and in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, until the adoption of the new Turkish alphabet, derived from the Latin script.^[1][2] The change was formalized by the Turkish Republic's law number 1353, the Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet,^[3] passed on November 1, 1928. The law went into effect on January 1, 1929, making the use of the new alphabet compulsory in all public communications.^[4]

Ottoman Turkish was primarily written in the Ottoman Turkish script. It was not, however, unknown for Ottoman Turkish to also be written using the Armenian script; for instance, the first novel to be written in the Ottoman Empire was 1851's Akabi, written in the Armenian script by Vartan Pasha. Similarly, when the Armenian Düzoğlu family managed the Ottoman mint during the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid I, they kept records in Ottoman Turkish, but used the Armenian script. Other scripts, too — such as the Greek alphabet and the Rashi script of Hebrew — were used by non-Muslim groups to write the language, since the Arabic alphabet was identified with Islam. On the other hand, for example, Greek-speaking Muslims would write Greek using the Ottoman Turkish script.

Alphabet

Calendar in Thessaloniki 1896, a cosmopolitan city with the first 3 lines in Ottoman Turkish language Arabic script

As with Arabic and Persian, texts in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet are written right-to-left. The appearance of a letter changes depending on its position in a word: isolated (in a one-letter word); final (in which case it is joined on the right to the preceding letter); medial (joined on both sides); and initial (joined on the left to the following letter). Some letters cannot be joined to the left and do therefore not possess separate medial and initial forms; in medial position the final form is used, and in initial position the isolated form is used.

Notes

1. A correct Ottoman variant of gef will have the "mini-kaf" of ﻙ and the doubled upper stroke of گ. This feature is surely rare in current fonts.
2. The Library of Congress recommends he in a word in the construct state be romanized t and when a word ending in he is used adverbially, it should be romanized tan.

Numerals

Ottoman Turkish used the Eastern Arabic numerals. The following is the list of basic cardinal numerals with their spelling in the modern Turkish alphabet.

References

External links

• Simon Ager, Turkish alphabet, Omniglot