Turkish originates from the Ural-Altaic languages and is structured like Hungarian and Finnish; root syllables have another root syllable attached to them. At the same time as the other reforms in Turkey the Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin alphabet (1st Nov.1928). Since 1932 language reform has been in progress introducing Turkish words in lieu of their Arab, Persian and French synonyms. Turkish has been written in a phonetic, Latin alphabet of twenty-nine letters. With only few variations, the pronunciation is like English. However, each letter represents only one sound. The vowel sounds are the a of father; the e of edit; the i (without point), of the unaccented e of the; the i, the ee of feet; the o of so, the ö, of the German word schön; the u, the u of pool ; and the ü the Germangrün. Consonants that differ are the c pronounced as the j of Jack, the ç as ch, the g with a small line above it which is silent g and usually lengthens the previous vowel, the j as the g of gendarme and the s(with point) as sh. Syllables within a word are only lightly accented, if at all. All letters are pronounced. Thus Side (a port on the Mediterranean) has two syllable.
The Turkish language belongs to the Altay branch of the Uralo-Altay linguistic family. Through the span of history, Turks have spread over a wide geographical area, taking their language with them. Turkish speaking people have lived in a wide area stretching form today's Mongolia to the north coast of the Black Sea, the Balkans, East Europe, Anatolia, Iraq and a wide area of northern Africa. Various dialects and accents have emerged from these distances. The history of the language is divided into three main groups, old Turkish (from the 7th to the 13th centuries), mid-Turkish (from the 13th to the 20th), and new Turkish from the 20th century onwards. During the five centuries of the Ottoman Empire period, Arabic and Persian words as well as words from other languages were assimilated into the Turkish language. The natural development of the Turkish language was severely hampered during this time.
The "new language" movement began in 1928, five years after the proclamation of the Republic, and the Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin one. The new language movement also sought to rid the language of foreign words. The Turkish Language Institute was established in 1932 to carry out linguistic research and contribute to the natural development of the language. As a consequence of these efforts, modern Turkish is a literary and cultural language developing naturally and free of foreign influences.
The history of Turkish literature may be divided into three periods reflecting the history of Turkish civilization:
......Return to Turkish Culture......
