Comment by ACAVJW4H | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ACAVJW4H | Hacker News Reader

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Sorry but it's naive to think that the only reason Turks cannot read their own Ottoman history is the change of script. Let me try to explain myself briefly:

1 - Unfortunately Anatolia historically had a very low literacy rate for centuries. This still has a profound effect on Turkish reading. Although there were great works of art, Turkish population is not deeply interested in literature or factual history.

2- One can find translations of any material abundantly. If someone is/were interested in any historical artifact I am sure there would be plenty of options or even better tens of thousands of unemployed young university graduates who could help your curiosity.

3- Even if someone were able to read the arabic script fluently. Literally no one could derive any meaning from it without proper education. In fact there are University Faculties dedicated to teaching "Ottomanees" as the language beares very little resemblance to today's Turkish. Literally >two thirds of our vocabulary were loan words.

4- The arabic script was phonetically incompatible with Turkish, vowels which are second thought in arabic script are very much important in Turkish. Hence the alphabet was already a modified one. This was also part of the reason behind poor literacy rates. Turkish written in arabic script was very hard to teach and master.

There are many more arguments behind the very much needed change. These are only a couple off the top of my head

No, I mean I am aware of all that and certainly the script change isn’t the only reason that Ottoman Turkish is inaccessible.

Even if there were good reasons for the change, it’s still unfortunate in my mind. It’s a bit like if American documents like the Declaration of Independence or Gettysburg Address were in language other than English. Sure, translations would be available and the actual speeches use words most contemporary Americans probably don’t know anyway. But something would indeed be lost, IMO, if the connection were severed.

With 3, as far as I understand it, that’s essentially just because of language reforms and educational choices designed to distance the new Turkish language from its Ottoman past. Certainly not an inevitable conclusion.

Regarding 4, the Latin alphabet isn’t particularly suited for writing English either, yet here we are.

Clarifying my third point there: while modern Turkish is based on historical "non-palace" speech, there was definitely an aspect of creation and coining of new words.

After the foundation of the modern state of Turkey and the script reform, the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, with the aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a language reform to replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents.[23] By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries.

Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used a style of Ottoman which sounded so alien to later listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_language

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