Ottoman Turkish alphabet
Ottoman Turkish alphabet | ||
---|---|---|
Script type | ||
Time period | 1299–1928 | |
Direction | Unicode range |
The Ottoman Turkish alphabet (
Though Ottoman Turkish was primarily written in this script, non-Muslim Ottoman subjects sometimes wrote it in other scripts, including Armenian, Greek, Latin and Hebrew alphabets.
History
Origins
The various Turkic languages have been written in a number of different alphabets, including Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Latin and other writing systems.
The earliest known Turkic alphabet is the
The Ottoman Turkish alphabet is a form of the Perso-Arabic script that, despite not being able to differentiate O and U, was otherwise generally better suited to writing Turkic words rather than Perso-Arabic words. Turkic words had all of their vowels written in and had systematic spelling rules and seldom needed to be memorized.
The introduction of the telegraph and the printing press in the 19th century exposed further weaknesses in the Arabic script.[3]
Some Turkish reformers promoted the Latin script well before
The romanization issue was raised again in 1923 during the İzmir Economic Congress of the new Turkish Republic, sparking a public debate that was to continue for several years. A move away from the Arabic script was strongly opposed by conservative and religious elements. It was argued that romanization of the script would detach Turkey from the wider Islamic world, substituting a foreign (European) concept of national identity for the confessional community.
Others opposed romanization on practical grounds, as there was no suitable adaptation of the Latin script that could be used for Turkish phonemes. Some suggested that a better alternative might be to modify the Arabic script to introduce extra characters for better representing Turkish vowels.[5]
In 1926, the Turkic republics of the Soviet Union adopted the Latin script, giving a major boost to reformers in Turkey.[3]
Replacement
Ottoman Turkish script was replaced by the Latin-based new Turkish alphabet. Its use became compulsory in all public communications in 1929.[6][7] The change was formalized by the Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet,[8] passed on November 1, 1928, and effective on January 1, 1929.[9]
Alphabet
As with Arabic, Persian and Urdu, 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 so do not possess separate medial and initial forms. In medial position, the final form is used. In initial position, the isolated form is used.
Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial | Name | Modern Turkish | ALA-LC[10]
|
IPA[11] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ا | ـا | — | elif | a, e | —, ā, ' | æ, e, —, (ʔ) | |
ء | — | hemze | —, ' | —, ' | —, [ʔ] | ||
ب | ـب | ـبـ | بـ | be | b (p) | b | b (p) |
پ | ـپ | ـپـ | پـ | pe | p | p | p |
ت | ـت | ـتـ | تـ | te | t | t | t
|
ث | ـث | ـثـ | ثـ | se | s | s̠ | s |
ج | ـج | ـجـ | جـ | cim | c | c | d͡ʒ |
چ | ـچ | ـچـ | چـ | çim | ç | ç | t͡ʃ |
ح | ـح | ـحـ | حـ | ha | h | ḥ | h |
خ | ـخ | ـخـ | خـ | hı | h | ḫ | x |
د | ـد | — | dal | d | d | d
| |
ذ | ـذ | — | zel | z | z̠ | z | |
ر | ـر | — | re | r | r | ɾ | |
ز | ـز | — | ze | z | z | z | |
ژ | ـژ | — | je | j | j | ʒ | |
س | ـس | ـسـ | سـ | sin | s | s | s |
ش | ـش | ـشـ | شـ | şın | ş | ș | ʃ |
ص | ـص | ـصـ | صـ | sad | s | ṣ | s |
ض | ـض | ـضـ | ضـ | dad | d, z | ż | d )
|
ط | ـط | ـطـ | طـ | tı | t | ṭ | d
|
ظ | ـظ | ـظـ | ظـ | zı | z | ẓ | z |
ع | ـع | ـعـ | عـ | ayn | ', — | ‘ | —, ʔ |
غ | ـغ | ـغـ | غـ | gayn | g, ğ, (v) | ġ | [ɣ → g], ◌ː, (v), |
ف | ـف | ـفـ | فـ | fe | f | f | f |
ق | ـق | ـقـ | قـ | qaf | k | q | q ]
|
ك | ـك | ـكـ | كـ | kef | k | k | k |
گ | ـگ | ـگـ | گـ | gef (1), kāf-ı fārsī | g, ğ, (v) | g | [g → ɟ], j, (v) |
ڭ | ـڭ | ـڭـ | ڭـ | nef, ñef, sağır kef (1), kāf-ı nūnī | n | ñ | n, [ŋ] |
ل | ـل | ـلـ | لـ | lam | l | l | l
|
م | ـم | ـمـ | مـ | mim | m | m | m |
ن | ـن | ـنـ | نـ | nun | n | n | n
|
و | ـو | — | vav | v, o, ö, u, ü | v, ū, aw, avv, ūv | v, o, œ, u, y | |
ه | ـه | ـهـ | هـ | he (3) | h, e, a | h (2) | t )
|
ی | ـی | ـیـ | یـ | ye | y, ı, i | y, ī, ay, á, īy | j, ɯ, i |
Notes
- In most texts, kef, gef, and sağır kef are written the same way[11] although one Ottoman variant of gef has a "mini-kaf" of ﻙ as well as the doubled upper stroke of گ. In general, /g/ and /ŋ/ sounds are represented by kef ك.[12] The letter ڭ (kef with three dots above) also appears to be denoting the sound /g/ in Early Ottoman Turkish manuscripts, also known as kef-i Farisi ("Persian kef").
- The Library of Congress recommends for he (هـ) in a word in the construct state to be romanised t and when a word ending in he is used adverbially, it should be romanised tan.
- Persian and Ottoman use the order vāv, he, ye, though in Arabic, they are he, vāv, ye.[12]
- One further sign, which is not considered an actual letter, is the so-called te merbūṭa ('connected t'), which can indicate the Arabic feminine singular ending and which is often also written in Ottoman texts. Te merbūṭa is always at the end
Sound–letter correspondence
The orthography of Ottoman Turkish is complex, as many Turkish sounds can be written with several different letters. For example, the phoneme /s/ can be written as ⟨ث⟩, ⟨س⟩, or ⟨ص⟩. Conversely, some letters have more than one value: ⟨ك⟩ k may be /k/, /ɡ/, /n/, /j/, or /ː/ (lengthening the preceding vowel; modern
The Persian consonant (ژ) is not native to Turkish but is still pronounced distinctively with the letter J in the modern Turkish Latin Alphabet. Turkish has 8 total vowels which are evenly split between front and back vowels. One of the shortcomings of the Ottoman Turkish alphabet is that it could not differentiate between the front and back vowels with the exception of A and E. This situation required readers to infer the frontness or backness of vowels based on consonants and the vowels A and E. Another shortcoming was that it could not differentiate between O/Ö and U/Ü in the first syllable (O/Ö do not exist in the second syllable in Turkic, Arabic, or Persian words with the exception of one suffix -iyor/ıyor). Although this issue only existed in the first syllable, the O/Ö sounds were generally more common than U/Ü in the first syllable.
Arabic and Persian borrowings are written in their original orthography: for example, and if using
Consonant letters are classified in three series, based on vowel harmony: soft, hard, and neutral. The soft consonant letters, ت س ك گ ه, are found in front vowel (e, i, ö, ü) contexts; the hard, ح خ ص ض ط ظ ع غ ق, in back vowel (a, ı, o, u) contexts; and the neutral, ب پ ث ج چ د ذ ر ز ژ ش ف ل م ن, in either. In Perso-Arabic borrowings, the vowel used in Turkish depends on the softness of the consonant. Thus, ⟨كلب⟩ klb 'dog' (Arabic /kalb/) is /kelb/, while ⟨قلب⟩ ḳlb 'heart' (Arabic /qalb/) is /kalb/. Conversely, in Turkish words, the choice of consonant reflects the native vowel.[11]
Phoneme | /t/ | /d/ | /s/ | /z/ | /k/ | /ɡ/ | /∅/ | /h/ |
Soft (front) | ت | س | ك | گ | ء | ه | ||
Neutral | د | ث | ذ ز | |||||
Hard (back) | ط | ط ض | ص | ض ظ | ق | غ | ع | ح خ |
(All other sounds are only written with neutral consonant letters.)
In Turkish words, vowels are sometimes written using the vowel letters as the second letter of a syllable: elif ⟨ا⟩ for /a/; ye ⟨ی⟩ for /i/, /ɯ/; vav ⟨و⟩ for /o/, /œ/, /u/, /y/; he ⟨ه⟩ for /a/, /e/. The corresponding harakat are there: üstün ⟨َ○⟩ (Arabic fatḥah) for /a/, /e/; esre ⟨ِ○⟩ (Arabic kasrah) for /ɯ/, /i/; ötre ⟨ُ○⟩ (Arabic ḍammah) for /o/, /œ/, /u/, /y/. The names of the harakat are also used for the corresponding vowels.[11]
Name | Arabic name | Point | Letter | Front reading | Back reading |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
üstün | fatḥah | َ○ | ا elif ه he |
/e/ | /a/ |
esre | kasrah | ِ○ | ی ye | /i/ | /ɯ/ |
ötre | ḍammah | ُ○ | و vav | /œ/, /y/ | /o/, /u/ |
Other scripts
Other scripts were sometimes used by non-Muslims to write Ottoman Turkish since the Arabic alphabet was identified with Islam.
The first
The Greek alphabet and the Rashi script of Hebrew were used by Greeks, Orthodox Turks and Jews for Ottoman. Greek-speaking Muslims would write Greek using the Ottoman Turkish script. Karamanlides (Orthodox Turks in Central Anatolia around Karaman region) used Greek letters for Ottoman Turkish.
Numerals
Ottoman Turkish used
Arabic form | Number | Ottoman Turkish[15] | Modern Turkish |
---|---|---|---|
٠ | 0 | صفر | sıfır |
١ | 1 | بر | bir |
٢ | 2 | ایكی | iki |
٣ | 3 | اوچ | üç |
٤ | 4 | دورت | dört |
٥ | 5 | بش | beş |
٦ | 6 | آلتی | altı |
٧ | 7 | یدی | yedi |
٨ | 8 | سكیز | sekiz |
٩ | 9 | طوقوز | dokuz |
١٠ | 10 | اون | on |
References
- ISBN 9783110634983, in Studies in Manuscript Cultures 16:131ff (2019)
- OCLC 1028995484.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ ISBN 978-1-85043-399-6
- ISBN 975-8304-18-6(s. 251-272) içinde. s.253.
- ISBN 978-90-420-2329-1.
- ^ Dil Derneği, Yazım Kılavuzu, 2002 (the writing guide of the Turkish language)
- ^ Nationalist Notes, Time, July 23, 1928
- ^ "Tūrk Harflerinin Kabul ve Tatbiki Hakkında Kanun" [Acceptance and Application of Turkish Letters LAW] (in Turkish). Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ISBN 978-1-85043-399-6
- ^ "Ottoman script" (PDF). Library of Congress. (166 KB), Library of Congress. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f V. H. Hagopian, Ottoman-Turkish Conversation-Grammar, London and Heidelberg, 1907, p. 1-25 full text
- ^ OCLC 281098978.
- ^ Diran Kélékian, Dictionnaire Turc-Français, Constantinople/استانبول, 1911
- ISBN 978-1848546479.
- ^ "Ottoman-Turkish conversation-grammar; a practical method of learning the Ottoman-Turkish language". Heidelberg, J. Groos; New York, Brentano's [etc., etc.] 1907.
External links
- Simon Ager, Turkish alphabet, Omniglot