Ottoman Turkish language
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Ottoman Turkish language
| Ottoman Turkish | |
|---|---|
| لسان عثمانى lisân-ı Osmânî | |
| Spoken in |  Ottoman Empire PNGSC |
| Extinct | Reformed into Modern Turkish in 1928[citation needed] |
| Language family | |
| Writing system | Ottoman Turkish alphabet |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | ota |
| ISO 639-3 | ota |
The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language (لسان عثمانى Lisân-ı Osmânî) is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. Consequently, Ottoman Turkish was largely unintelligible to the less-educated lower-class and rural Turks, who continued to use kaba Türkçe ("vulgar Turkish"), which used far fewer foreign loanwords and which is the basis of the modern Turkish language.[1] The Tanzimât era saw the application of the term "Ottoman" when referring to the language (لسان عثمانی lisân-ı Osmânî or عثمانلوجه Osmanlıca) and the same distinction is made in Modern Turkish (Osmanlıca and Osmanlı Türkçesi).
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Grammar
Cases
- Nominative case: گول göl ("the lake", "a lake"), چوربه çorba ("Chorba"), گيجه gece ("night").
- Accusative case (indefinite): طاوشان گتورمش ṭavşan getirmiş ("he brought a rabbit").
- Genitive case: answers the question كمڭ kimiñ ("whose?"), formed with the suffix ڭ –ıñ, –iñ, –uñ, –üñ. Eg. پاشانڭ paşanıñ ("the pasha's") from پاشا paşa ("pasha").
- Accusative case (definite): answers the question كمى kimi ("who?") and نه يى neyi ("what?"), formed with the suffix ى –ı, -i. Eg. طاوشانى گتورمش ṭavşanı getürmiş ("he brought the rabbits"). The variant suffix –u, –ü does not occur in Ottoman Turkish as it does in Modern Turkish due to the lack of labial consonant harmony. Thus, گولى göli ("the lake".ACC) where Modern Turkish has gölü.
- Locative case: answers the question نره دن nerede ("where?"), formed with the suffix ده –de, –da. Eg. مكتبده mektebde ("at school"), قفصده ḳafeṣde ("in a cage"), باشده başda ("at the start"), شهرده şehirde ("in town"). As with the indefinite accusative case, the variant suffix –te, –ta does not occur as it does in Modern Turkish.
- Ablative case: answers the questions نره دن nereden ("from where?") and ندن neden ("why?").
- Instrumental case: answers the question نه ايله ne ile ("with what?").
Structure
As in most other Turkic languages of Islamic communities, initially the Arabic borrowings were not the result of a direct exposure of Ottoman Turkish to Arabic, a fact that is evidenced by the typically Persian phonological mutation of the words of Arabic origin.[2][3][4] The conservation of archaic phonological features of the Arabic borrowings furthermore suggests that Arabic-incorporated Persian was absorbed into pre-Ottoman Turkic at an early stage, when the speakers were still located to the northeast of Persia, prior to the westward migration of the Islamic Turkic tribes. An additional argument for this is that Ottoman Turkish shares the Persian character of its Arabic borrowings with other Turkic languages that had even less interaction with Arabic, such as Tatar and Uygur.
In a social and pragmatic sense, there were (at least) three variants of Ottoman Turkish:
- Fasih Türkçe (Eloquent Turkish): the language of poetry and administration, Ottoman Turkish in its strict sense;
- Orta Türkçe (Middle Turkish): the language of higher classes and trade;
- Kaba Türkçe (Rough Turkish): the language of lower classes.
A person would use each of the varieties above for different purposes. For example, a scribe would use the Arabic asel (عسل) to refer to honey when writing a document, but would use the native Turkish word bal when buying it.
History
Historically, Ottoman Turkish was transformed in three eras:
- Eski Osmanlı Türkçesi (Old Ottoman Turkish): The version of Ottoman Turkish used until 16th century. It was almost identical with the Turkish used by Seljuks and Anatolian beyliks, thus often regarded as part of Eski Anadolu Türkçesi (Ancient Anatolian Turkish).
- Orta Osmanlı Türkçesi (Middle Ottoman Turkish) or Klasik Osmanlıca (Classical Ottoman Turkish): Language of poetry and administration from 16th century until Tanzimat. This is the version of Ottoman Turkish that comes to most people's minds.
- Yeni Osmanlı Türkçesi (New Ottoman Turkish): Shaped from 1850s to 20th century under influence of journalism and Western-oriented literature.
Language reform
For more details on this topic, see Turkish language.
In 1928, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the establishment of Republic of Turkey, widespread language reforms (a part in the greater framework of Atatürk's Reforms) instituted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk saw the replacement of many Persian and Arabic origin loanwords in the language with their Turkish equivalents. It also saw the replacement of the Perso-Arabic script with the extended Latin alphabet. The changes were meant to encourage the growth of a new variety of written Turkish that more closely reflected the spoken vernacular, as well as to foster a new variety of spoken Turkish that more explicitly reflected Turkey's new national identity as being a post-Ottoman state.
Please see the list of replaced loanwords in Turkish for more examples on Ottoman Turkish words and their modern Turkish counterparts. Two examples of Arabic and two of Persian loanwords are found below.
| English | Ottoman | Modern Turkish |
|---|---|---|
| obligatory | واجب vâcib | zorunlu |
| hardship | مشكل müşkül | güçlük, zorluk |
| city | شهر şehir | kent/şehir |
| war | جنك cenk | savaş |
Legacy
Historically speaking, Ottoman Turkish is not the predecessor of modern Turkish, but rather the standard Turkish of today is essentially Türkiye Türkçesi as written in the Latin alphabet and with an abundance of neologisms added. One major difference between modern Turkish and Ottoman Turkish is the former's abandonment of compound word formation according to Arabic and Persian grammar rules. The usage of such phrases still exists in modern Turkish, but only to a very limited extent and usually in specialist contexts; for example, the Persian genitive construction takdîr-i ilâhî (which reads literally as "the preordaining of the divine", and translates as "divine dispensation" or "destiny") is used, as opposed to the normative modern Turkish construction, ilâhî takdîr (literally, "divine preordaining").
Orthography
Main article: Ottoman Turkish alphabet
Ottoman Turkish was primarily written in the Ottoman Turkish script (elifbâ الفبا), a variant of the Perso-Arabic 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, 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.
| Isolated | Final | Middle | Initial | Name | ALA-LC Transliteration | Modern Turkish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ا | ـا | — | elif | a, â | a, e | |
| ء | — | hemze | ʼ | ', a, e, i, u, ü | ||
| ب | ـب | ـبـ | بـ | be | b, p | b |
| پ | ـپ | ـپـ | پـ | pe | p | p |
| ت | ـت | ـتـ | تـ | te | t | t |
| ث | ـث | ـثـ | ثـ | se | s | s |
| ج | ـج | ـجـ | جـ | cim | c, ç | c |
| چ | ـچ | ـچـ | چـ | çim | ç | ç |
| ح | ـح | ـحـ | حـ | ha | ḥ | h |
| خ | ـخ | ـخـ | خـ | hı | ẖ | h |
| د | ـد | — | dal | d | d | |
| ذ | ـذ | — | zel | z | z | |
| ر | ـر | — | re | r | r | |
| ز | ـز | — | ze | z | z | |
| ژ | ـژ | — | je | j | j | |
| س | ـس | ـسـ | سـ | sin | s | s |
| ش | ـش | ـشـ | شـ | şın | ş | ş |
| ص | ـص | ـصـ | صـ | sad | ṣ | s |
| ض | ـض | ـضـ | ضـ | dad | ż, ḍ | d, z |
| ط | ـط | ـطـ | طـ | tı | ṭ | t |
| ظ | ـظ | ـظـ | ظـ | zı | ẓ | z |
| ع | ـع | ـعـ | عـ | ayın | ʿ | ', h |
| غ | ـغ | ـغـ | غـ | gayın | ġ | g, ğ |
| ف | ـف | ـفـ | فـ | fe | f | f |
| ق | ـق | ـقـ | قـ | kaf | ḳ | k |
| ك | ـك | ـكـ | كـ | kef | k, g, ñ | k, g, ğ, n |
| گ | ـگ | ـگـ | گـ | gef¹ | g | g, ğ |
| ڭ | ـڭ | ـڭـ | ڭـ | nef, sağır (deaf) kef | ñ | n |
| ل | ـل | ـلـ | لـ | lam | l | l |
| م | ـم | ـمـ | مـ | mim | m | m |
| ن | ـن | ـنـ | نـ | nun | n | n |
| و | ـو | — | vav | v, o, ô, ö, u, û, ü | v, o, ö, u, ü | |
| ه | ـه | ـهـ | هـ | he | h, e, a | h, e, a |
| لا | ـلا | — | lamelif | lâ | la | |
| ی | ـی | ـیـ | یـ | ye | y, ı, i, î | y, ı, i |
1A 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.
Numbers
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See also
References
- ^ Glenny, Misha. The Balkans - Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-1999, Penguin, New York 2001. p. 99.
- ^ Percy Ellen Frederick William Smythe Strangford, Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe Strangford, Emily Anne Beaufort Smythe Strangford, “Original Letters and Papers”, Published by Trübner, 1878. pg 46: “The Arabic words in Turkish have all decidedly come through a Persian channel. I can hardly think of an exception, except in quite late days, when Arabic words have been used in Turkish in a different sense from that borne by them in Persian.”
- ^ M. Sukru Hanioglu, “A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire”, Published by Princeton University Press, 2008. pg 34: “It employed a predominant Turkish syntax, but was heavily influenced by Persian and (initially through Persian) Arabic.
- ^ Pierre A. MacKay, "The Fountain at Hadji Mustapha," Hesperia, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1967), pp. 193-195. excerpt: "The immense Arabic contribution to the lexicon of Ottoman Turkish came rather through Persian than directly, and the sound of Arabic words in Persian syntax would be far more familiar to a Turkish ear than correct Arabic".
Further reading
- V. H. Hagopian (1907). Ottoman-Turkish conversation-grammar: a practical method of learning the Ottoman-Turkish language, Volume 1. D. Nutt. Online copies: [1], [2], [3]
- Charles Wells (1880). A practical grammar of the Turkish language (as spoken and written). B. Quaritch. Online copies from Google books: [4],[5], [6]
- V. H. Hagopian (1908). Key to the Ottoman-Turkish conversation-grammar,. Nutt. http://books.google.com/books?id=wrsIAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Sir James William Redhouse (1884). A simplified grammar of the Ottoman-Turkish language. Trübner. http://books.google.com/books?id=aTpkAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Frank Lawrence Hopkins (1877). Elementary grammar of the Turkish language: with a few easy exercises. Trübner. http://books.google.com/books?id=S0wiAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Sir James William Redhouse (1856). An English and Turkish dictionary: in two parts, English and Turkish, and Turkish and English. B. Quarich. http://books.google.com/books?id=CydMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Sir James William Redhouse (1877). A lexicon, English and Turkish: shewing in Turkish, the literal, incidental, figurative, colloquial, and technical significations of the English terms, indicating their pronunciation in a new and systematic manner; and preceded by a sketch of English etymology, to facilitate to Turkish students ... (2nd ed.). Printed for the mission by A.H. Boyajian. http://books.google.com/books?id=9lFJAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Charles Boyd, Charles Boyd (Major.) (1842). The Turkish interpreter: or, A new grammar of the Turkish language. Printed for the author. http://books.google.com/books?id=LpdHAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- William Burckhardt Barker (1854). A practical grammar of the Turkish language: With dialogues and vocabulary. B. Quaritch. http://books.google.com/books?id=_gAGAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- William Burckhardt Barker, Nasr-al-Din (khwajah.) (1854). A reading book of the Turkish language: with a grammar and vocabulary ; containing a selection of original tales, literally translated, and accompanied by grammatical references : the pronunciation of each word given as now used in Constantinople. J. Madden. http://books.google.com/books?id=ND1bAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- James William Redhouse (sir.) (1855). The Turkish campaigner's vade-mecum of Ottoman colloquial language. http://books.google.com/books?id=jD1bAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Lewis, Geoffrey. The Jarring Lecture 2002. "The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success".
- Mehmet Hakkı Suçin. Qawâ'id al-Lugha al-Turkiyya li Ghair al-Natiqeen Biha (Turkish Grammar for Arabs; adapted from Mehmet Hengirmen's Yabancılara Türkçe Dilbilgisi), Engin Yayınevi, 2003).
- Mehmet Hakkı Suçin. Atatürk'ün Okuduğu Kitaplar: Endülüs Tarihi (Books That Atatürk Read: History of Andalucia; purification from the Ottoman Turkish, published by Anıtkabir Vakfı, 2001).
External links
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Ottoman Turkish language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
- Turkish dictionaries at the Open Directory Project
- Turkish language at the Open Directory Project
- Ottoman Text Archive Project
- Ottoman Turkish Language: Resources - University of Michigan
- Ottoman Turkish Language Texts
- Ottoman Romanization Table
- Ottoman Font Rika
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