Turkish Language:

The Turkish language is an ancient language with roots dating back 5,500 to 8,500 years. It is characterized by a rich phonetic, morphological, and grammatical structure, and possesses an extensive vocabulary. Turkish belongs to the Altaic branch of the Ural-Altaic language family and is spoken by many people across a broad geographical area in both Europe and Asia.

Modern Turkish Language:

Since the 20th century, the Turkish language has undergone significant changes initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Five years after the establishment of the Turkish Republic, specifically in 1928, the Arabic alphabet that was previously used to write Turkish was replaced with the Latin alphabet. This change accelerated the removal of foreign words from the Turkish vocabulary. Up until the 15th century, Turkish was written using the Uighur alphabet. After the 15th century, it was written using the Arabic alphabet until the so-called reform era, which introduced the Latin alphabet for writing. Since then, the Turkish language has evolved significantly, particularly with the establishment of the Turkish Language Association in 1932.

Objective of the Turkish Language Association:

The Turkish Language Association aimed to conduct linguistic research to contribute to the development of the Turkish language, which has now become a literary and cultural language that evolves naturally, free from the foreign influences it previously suffered from. When viewed comprehensively, the Latin script is more suitable for the Turkish language than the Arabic script, as it better represents the Turkish vowel system. Consequently, words of Persian and Arabic origin, among others, were gradually replaced with Turkish equivalents. Some of these new words were created from scratch, while others were already present in colloquial Turkish but had not been used for centuries. The association also helped to alter the grammatical structures based on Arabic and Persian, making the language rely on Turkish linguistic constructs. These linguistic reforms, along with educational reforms, significantly improved literacy rates in Turkey, which today exceed 96%.

Sarah Kfafi, September 15, 2022
(Source: Mawdoo3)