Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian language. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. Ottoman Turkish was largely unintelligible to rural Turks, who continued to use kaba Türkçe ("raw/vulgar Turkish"; compare Vulgar Latin and Demotic Greek), which used far fewer foreign and is the basis of the modern standard.
History
Historically, Ottoman Turkish was transformed in three eras:
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اسكی عثمانلی توركچهسی (Old Ottoman Turkish): the version of Ottoman Turkish used until the 16th century. It was almost identical with the Turkish used by Seljuks empire and Anatolian beyliks and was often regarded as part of اسكی آناطولی توركچهسی (Old Anatolian Turkish).
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اورتا عثمانلی توركچهسی (Middle Ottoman Turkish) or ( Ottoman Turkish): the language of poetry and administration from the 16th century until Tanzimat.
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یڭی عثمانلی توركچهسی (New Ottoman Turkish): the version shaped from the 1850s to the 20th century under the influence of journalism and Western-oriented literature.
Language reform
In 1928, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the establishment of the 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. One of the main supporters of the reform was the Turkish nationalist Ziya Gökalp.
It also saw the replacement of the
Perso-Arabic script with the
Turkish alphabet. The changes were meant to encourage the growth of a new variety of written Turkish that more closely reflected the spoken vernacular and to foster a new variety of spoken Turkish that reinforced Turkey's new
nation as being a post-Ottoman
sovereign state.
See the list of replaced loanwords in Turkish for more examples of Ottoman Turkish words and their modern Turkish counterparts. Two examples of Arabic and two of Persian language loanwords are found below.
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| zorunlu |
| güçlük |
| kent (also şehir) |
| il |
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| savaş |
Legacy
Historically speaking, Ottoman Turkish is the predecessor of modern Turkish. However, the standard Turkish of today is essentially Türkiye Türkçesi (Turkish of Turkey) as written in the Latin alphabet and with an abundance of
added, which means there are now far fewer loan words from other languages, and Ottoman Turkish was not instantly transformed into the Turkish of today. At first, it was only the script that was changed, and while some households continued to use the Arabic system in private, most of the Turkish population was illiterate at the time, making the switch to the Latin alphabet much easier. Then, loan words were taken out, and new words fitting the growing amount of technology were introduced. Until the 1960s, Ottoman Turkish was at least partially intelligible with the Turkish of that day. One major difference between Ottoman Turkish and modern Turkish is the latter'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
jargon; for example, the Persian-derived
genitive case تقدیر الهی () (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").
In 2014, Turkey's Education Council decided that Ottoman Turkish should be taught in Islamic high schools and as an elective in other schools, a decision backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who said the language should be taught in schools so younger generations do not lose touch with their cultural heritage.
Writing system
Most Ottoman Turkish was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet (), a variant of the Perso-Arabic script. The Armenian,
Greek alphabet and
Rashi script of
Hebrew alphabet were sometimes used by Armenians, Greeks and Jews. (See Karamanli Turkish, a dialect of Ottoman written in the Greek script; Armeno-Turkish alphabet)
Grammar
The actual grammar of Ottoman Turkish is not different from the
Turkish grammar. The focus of this section is on the Ottoman orthography; the conventions surrounding how the orthography interacted and dealt with grammatical morphemes related to conjugations, cases, pronouns, etc.
Cases
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Nominative case and Definiteness Accusative case: -null morpheme, no suffix. گول göl 'the lake' 'a lake', چوربا 'soup', گیجه 'night'; طاوشان گترمش 'he/she brought a rabbit'.
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Genitive case: suffix ڭ/نڭ . پاشانڭ 'of the pasha'; كتابڭ 'of the book'.
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Definiteness Accusative case: suffix ی : طاوشانی گترمش 'he/she brought the rabbit'. The variant suffix does not occur in Ottoman Turkish orthography (unlike in Modern Turkish), although it's pronounced with the vowel harmony. Thus, گولی 'the lake' vs. Modern Turkish gölü.
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Dative case: suffix ه : اوه 'to the house'.
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Locative case: suffix ده : مكتبده 'at school', قفسده 'in (the/a) cage', باشده 'at a/the start', شهرده 'in town'. The variant suffix used in Modern Turkish (–te, –ta) does not occur.
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Ablative case: suffix دن : ادمدن 'from the man'.
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Instrumental: suffix or postposition ایله . Generally not counted as a grammatical case in modern grammars.
The table below lists nouns with a variety of phonological features that come into play when taking case suffixes; it includes a typical singular and plural noun, containing back and front vowels, words that end with the letter ـه ( or ) (back and front vowels), words that end in a ـت () sound, and words that end in either ـق or ـك (). These words are to serve as references, to observe orthographic conventions:
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Which vowels are written using the 4 letters: Aleph]] ا, vav و, he ه, and Yodh]] ی, and which are not.
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When words or morphemes are connected to each other, and when they are separated with the use of Zero-width non-joiner.
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When a final letter is softened when followed by a vowel sound, and when not; both in Ottoman orthography and in modern Latin orthography.
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When Vowel harmony exists in spoken pronunciation and modern Latin orthography, but not in Ottoman orthography.
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When the letters ڭ () and ن () are used.
+Declension of nouns for case | Case
! rowspan=2 | Morpheme
! colspan=2 | اُوق
! colspan=2 | اُوقلَر
! colspan=2 | اَو
! colspan=2 | اَولَر
! colspan=2 | قورت
! colspan=2 | چارطاق
! colspan=2 | ایپك
! colspan=2 | پاره
! colspan=2 | پیده
! colspan=2 | كوپری |
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| -ı -i -u -ü |
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| -a -e |
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| -da -de -ta -te |
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| -dan -den -tan -ten |
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| -ın -in -un -ün |
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| -la -le -lu -lü |
Possessives
Table below shows the suffixes for creating possessed nouns. Each of these possessed nouns, in turn, take case suffixes as shown above.
+ Declension of nouns for possession | Person
! rowspan=2 | Morpheme
! colspan=2 | اُوق
! colspan=2 | اُوقلَر
! colspan=2 | اَو
! colspan=2 | اَولَر
! colspan=2 | قورت
! colspan=2 | چارطاق
! colspan=2 | ایپك
! colspan=2 | پاره
! colspan=2 | پیده
! colspan=2 | كوپری |
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| -m -ım -im -um -üm |
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| -n -ın -in -un -ün |
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| -(s)ı -(s)i -(s)u -(s)ü |
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| -(ı)mız -(i)miz -(u)muz -(ü)müz |
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| -(ı)nız -(i)niz -(u)nuz -(ü)nüz |
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| -ları -leri |
For third person (singular and plural) possessed nouns, that end in a vowel, when it comes to taking case suffixes, a letter ـنـ () comes after the possessive suffix. For singular endings, the final vowel ـی ( or ) is removed in all instances. For plural endings, if the letter succeeding the additional ـنـ () is a vowel, the final vowel ـی ( or ) is kept; otherwise it is removed (note the respective examples for kitaplarını and kitaplarından).
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| his/her book | كتابی | كتاب نی | كتاب نه | كتاب نده | كتاب ندن | كتاب نڭ |
| kitabının |
| his/her books | كتابلری | كتاب لرینی | كتاب لرینه | كتاب لرنده | كتاب لرندن | كتاب لرینڭ |
| kitaplarının |
| his/her maternal aunt | تیزهسی | تیزه سنی | تیزه سنه | تیزه سنده | تیزه سندن | تیزه سنڭ |
| teyzesinin |
| his/her maternal aunts | تیزهلری | تیزه لرینی | تیزه لرینه | تیزه لرنده | تیزه لرندن | تیزه لرینڭ |
| teyzelerinin |
Verbs
Below table shows the positive conjugation for two sample verbs آچمق
açmak (to open) and سولمك
sevilmek (to be loved). The first verb is the active verb, and the other has been modified to form a passive verb. The first contains back vowels, the second front vowels; both containing non-rounded vowels (which also impacts pronunciation and modern Latin orthography).
[ Online copies from Google Books: [1] (PDF can be accessed at: )]
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| آچمشدر | açmışdır | سولمشدر | sevilmişdir |
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| آچهلم | açalım | سولهلم | sevilelim |
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| آچڭ | açın | سولڭ | sevilin |
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Negation and complex verbs
Below table shows the conjugation of a negative verb, and a positive complex verb expressing ability. In Turkish, complex verbs can be constructed by adding a variety of suffixes to the base root of a verb. The two verbs are یازممق
yazmamaq (not to write) and سوهبلمك
sevebilmek (to be able to love).
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| یازمیهلم | yazmayalım | سوهبلهلم | sevibilelim |
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| یازمیڭ | yazmayın | سوبلڭ | sevibilin |
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Compound verbs
Another common category of verbs in Turkish (more common in Ottoman Turkish than in modern Turkish), is compound verbs. This consists of adding a Persian or Arabic active or passive participle to a neuter verb,
to do (ایتمك
etmek) or
to become (اولمق
olmaq). For example, note the following two verbs:
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راضی اولمق razı olmaq (to consent);
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قتل ایتمك katletmek (to slaughter); تشكر ایتمك teşekkür etmek (to thank);
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ایو اولنمق iyi olunmak (to get better).
Below table shows some sample conjugations of these two verbs. The conjugation of the verb "etmek" isn't straightforward, because the root of the verb ends in a t. This sound transforms into a d when followed by a vowel sound. This is reflected in conventions of Ottoman orthography as well.
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| اولهلم | olalım | ایدهلم | edelim |
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| اولڭ | olun | ایدڭ | edin |
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'to be' and 'not to be' Verbs
In Turkish, there is a verb representing
to be, but it is a defective verb. It does not have an infinitive or several other tenses. It is usually a suffix.
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| ـیم | -yım, -yim, -yum, -yüm | ـیز | -yız, -yiz, -yuz, -yüz |
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| ـیدیم | -ydım, -ydim, -ydum, -ydüm | ـیدك | -ydık, -ydik, -yduk, -ydük |
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| ـیدڭ | -ydın, -ydin, -ydun, -ydün | ـیدڭز | -ydınız, -ydiniz, -ydunuz, -ydünüz |
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| ـیدی | -ydı, -ydi, -ydu, -ydü | ـیدیلر | -ydılar, -ydiler, -ydular, -ydüler |
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| ـیسم | -ysam, -ysem | ـیسك | -ysak, -ysek |
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| ـیسڭ | -ysan, -ysen | ـیسڭز | -ysanız, -yseniz, -ysanuz, -ysenüz |
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| ـیسه | -ysa, -yse | ـیسهلر | -ysalar, -yseler |
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| ـیسیدم | -ysaydım, -yseydim, -ysaydum, -yseydüm | ـیسیدك | -ysaydık, -yseydik, -ysayduk, -yseydük |
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| ـیسیدڭ | -ysaydın, -yseydin, -ysaydun, -yseydün | ـیسیدڭز | -ysaydınız, -yseydiniz, -ysaydunuz, -yseydünüz |
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| ـیسیدی | -ysaydı, -yseydi, -ysaydu, -yseydü | ـیسیدیلر | -ysaydılar, -yseydiler, -ysaydular, -yseydüler |
Negative verb to be is created with the use of the word دگل değil, followed by the appropriate conjugation of the to be verb; or optionally used as a standalone for 3rd person.
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بن ایشجی دگلم / ben işçi değilim: 'I am not a worker'
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او چفتجی دگلدر / o çiftçi değildir: 'he is not a farmer'
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او چفتجی دگل / o çiftçi değil: 'he is not a farmer'
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اگر كندم ایچون حاضر دگلسیدم / eğer kendim için hazır değilseydim.: 'if I'm not ready for myself'
'to exist/have' and 'not to exist/have' Verbs
Generally, the verbs 'to exist' and 'to have' are expressed using what's called an existential copula, the word وار
var.
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او وار / ev var: 'there is a house'
The verb 'to have' is expressed in the same way, except that the object noun will take a possessive pronoun, producing sentences that will literally mean "there exists house of mine".
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اوم وار / evim var: 'I have a house'
The verbs 'to exist' and 'to have' conjugated for other tenses, are expressed in the same way, with a possessive pronoun if needed, and copula وار var, followed by the 3rd person singular form of the verb 'to do: ایتمك etmek attached as a suffix (or separate as a stanadalone verb); as conjugated in the above section.
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اوڭ واردی / evin vardı: 'you had a house'
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بناء وارملییدی / bina varmalıydı: 'there had to be a building'
The verbs 'not to exist' and 'not to have' are created in the exact same manner and conjugation, except that the copula یوق yok is used.
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او یوق / ev yok: 'there isn't a house'
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اوم یوق / evim yok: 'I don't have a house'
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اوڭ یوقدی / evin yoktu: 'you didn't have a house'
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بناء یوقملییدی / bina yokmalıydı: 'there must not have been a building'
Verb Construction
Turkish being an agglutinative language as opposed to an analytical one (generally), means that from a single root verb, with the addition of a variety of morphemes and suffixes, multiple new and different verbs meanings can be expressed in single but larger words.
Below table is a sample from the verb تپمك (, "to kick"), whose root (which is also 2nd person imperative) is تپ (). Each of the produced new verbs below can be made into an infinitive with the addition of ـمك () at the end.
Structure
Ottoman Turkish was highly influenced by Arabic and Persian. Arabic and Persian words in the language accounted for up to 88% of its vocabulary.
[. Persian Historiography & Geography Pustaka Nasional Pte Ltd p 69] As in most other Turkic and foreign languages of Islamic communities, the Arabic borrowings were borrowed through Persian, not through direct exposure of Ottoman Turkish to Arabic, a fact that is evidenced by the typically Persian
phonological mutation of the words of Arabic origin.
[Percy Ellen Algernon Frederick William Smythe Strangford, Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe Strangford, Lady Strangford, " Original Letters and Papers of the late Viscount Strangford upon Philological and Kindred Subjects", 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. p. 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: "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".]
The conservation of archaic phonological features of the Arabic borrowings furthermore suggests that Arabic-incorporated Persian was absorbed into pre-Ottoman Turkic languages at an early stage, when the speakers were still located to the north-east 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 language, Bashkir language, and Uyghur language. From the early ages of the Ottoman Empire, borrowings from Arabic and Persian were so abundant that original Turkish words were hard to find.[Korkut Bugday. An Introduction to Literary Ottoman Routledge, 5 dec. 2014 p XV.] In Ottoman, one may find whole passages in Arabic and Persian incorporated into the text.
In a social and pragmatic sense, there were (at least) three variants of Ottoman Turkish:
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فصیح توركچه (Eloquent Turkish): the language of poetry and administration, Ottoman Turkish in its strict sense;
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اورتا توركچه (Middle Turkish): the language of higher classes and trade;
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قبا توركچه (Rough Turkish): the language of lower classes.
A person would use each of the varieties above for different purposes, with the variant being the most heavily suffused with Arabic and Persian words and the least. For example, a scribe would use the Arabic (عسل) to refer to honey when writing a document but would use the native Turkish word bal (بال) when buying it.
Numbers
Transliterations
The transliteration system of the İslâm Ansiklopedisi has become a
de facto standard in
Oriental studies for the transliteration of Ottoman Turkish texts.
[Korkut Buğday Osmanisch, p. 2] In transcription, the New Redhouse, Karl Steuerwald, and Ferit Devellioğlu dictionaries have become standard.
[Korkut Buğday Osmanisch, p. 13] Another transliteration system is the italic=no (DMG), which provides a transliteration system for any Turkic language written in Arabic script.
[ Transkriptionskommission der DMG Die Transliteration der arabischen Schrift in ihrer Anwendung auf die Hauptliteratursprachen der islamischen Welt, p. 9 ] There are few differences between the İA and the DMG systems.
+ İA-Transliteration[Korkut Buğday Osmanisch, p. 2f.] |
| ا | ب | پ | ت | ث | ج | چ | ح | خ | د | ذ | ر | ز | ژ | س | ش | ص | ض | ط | ظ | ع | غ | ف | ق | ك | گ | ڭ | ل | م | ن | و | ه | ی |
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See also
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Old Anatolian Turkish language
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Culture of the Ottoman Empire
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List of Persian loanwords in Turkish
Notes
Further reading
- English
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Online copies: [7], [8], [9]
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Online copies from Google Books: [10], [11], [12]
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Lewis, Geoffrey. The Jarring Lecture 2002. "
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success".
- Other languages
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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).
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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
