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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6035 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes  5 sounds | Message 17 of 36 02 August 2008 at 12:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I find it most peculiar that Turkish uses the Roman script. Maybe this really makes the language more accessible and less intimidating but it seems very artificial to me. I wonder when did they adopt it... and why. Arabic script would seem to be a more fitting choice, especially having in mind the Islamic tradition of the country.
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| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5995 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 18 of 36 02 August 2008 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The website for the first newspaper (Cumhuriyet) isn't to my liking. I preferHürriyet, as it has an English version as well.
Just to be lazy I quoted from wikipedia: 'In 1928, as one of Atatürk's Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman script was replaced with a phonetic variant of the Latin alphabet. Concurrently, the newly-founded Turkish Language Association initiated a drive to reform the language by removing Persian and Arabic loanwords in favor of native variants and coinages from Turkic roots.' I am told by my turkish friend that Turkey is secular. Edited by ExtraLean on 02 August 2008 at 1:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6035 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 19 of 36 02 August 2008 at 1:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry for being lazy myself and not checking it with Wikipedia. As I suspected, the Roman script has been adopted in the modern history of the country. Edited by Sennin on 02 August 2008 at 1:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5995 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 20 of 36 02 August 2008 at 1:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yeah, though this makes me wonder what it would be like to read turkish in arabic script. I imagine that a lot of the significant stories, history etc is originally written in it. It must have been a bit of a mission to translate the entire literary history of the nation.
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| !LH@N Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6822 days ago 487 posts - 531 votes Speaks: German, Turkish*, English Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Spanish | Message 21 of 36 02 August 2008 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
Not at all. The latin script is a lot more fitting to the Turkish phonetic system than the Arabic script. You should take a further look at it, I'd prefer writing in Latin script than in Arabic. Great parts of the Turkish population were illiterate, partly because the Arabic script was hard to learn and not really not being able to capture the Turkish language.
Just because we're Muslim doesn't mean we pretend to be Arabs. We have our own culture and tradition, our own way of life and especially our own way of Islam. And of course, Turkey is very secular. The Latin script was a way to break up with the Ottoman Empire, to show that the Republic of Turkey wasn't some kind of successor state, or the Ottoman Empire with a different name, but something totally new. Regards, Ilhan 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| !LH@N Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6822 days ago 487 posts - 531 votes Speaks: German, Turkish*, English Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Spanish | Message 22 of 36 02 August 2008 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
Not really, since most of it was written in Ottoman Turkish. At the end of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish had adopted so many words from Arabic and Persian, that only the Ottoman elite had access to it and could use it. So great parts of the Turkish population didn't even understand Ottoman Turkish. Those text had to be "translated" anyways :) Regards, Ilhan 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5995 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 23 of 36 02 August 2008 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The history of Turkey, is one of the main reasons why I am studying your language. I know next to nothing about it. Aside from the ANZACs getting their arses handed to them during world war two( or was it one? I am leaning towards One), and now this. Learning little things about the history of Turkey is a good motivator.
Sincerely, Thom. Edited by ExtraLean on 02 August 2008 at 1:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| !LH@N Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6822 days ago 487 posts - 531 votes Speaks: German, Turkish*, English Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Spanish | Message 24 of 36 02 August 2008 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Wow, I'd love to help you out with this! I love talking about Turkish history :)
It was World War One. It was the greatest of all statesman and generals, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who accomplished this miracle against great odds. To the mothers of the ANZAC soldiers he said: "Heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well." He even predicted the Second World War, when he was talking to general MacArthur. David Lloyd George once said about him: "The genius of our century - centuries rarely produce a genius. Look at this bad luck of ours, that great genius of our era was granted to the Turkish nation." Truly, what a great man... Regards, Ilhan 1 person has voted this message useful |
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