Friday, July 13, 2012

Transliterating Ottoman Turkish: Latin Alphabets from before the Language Reform

Chris Gratien, Georgetown University


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Language reform in Turkey, implemented during the early republican era of the 1920s, replaced the Arabic script utilized by the Ottomans with a modified Latin script. Yet, even before that, there were attempts at transliterated Turkish with a Latin alphabet for practical reasons such as the use of telegraphs. 

Here we have a telegram from 1876 (50 years before language reform) in Turkish with a French alphabet and spelling accompanied by the Ottoman document containing the same text. We have provided a transliteration in the modern Turkish alphabet as well. 

The transliteration shows some possible difference in the way Turkish was pronounced, as least by the authors of the telegram, in comparison with modern pronunciation and spelling. The document is a complaint from merchants of the Trade Council in Adana regarding their recent dismissal by the governor Nusret Paşa.

"Efkâra hizmet etmediğimizden azası (azaları) bulunduğumuz Adana ticaret meclisini hiyetiyle nızamsız olarak valimiz Nusret Paşa azletti. Meclis-i İdare-i vilayetin teşkilatı zamanı olduğundan azaları şu halı bilerek her nasılsa sükut ediyorlar. İşbu nızamsız azlımızı zinhar kabul etmeyeceğimizi ve Der Saadetçe muhakemesine hazır bulunduğumuzu arz ederiz."

Source: BOA HR-TO 553/26 (June, 6 1876)



transliteration
Adana

2 comments:

  1. I remembered this book from 1672, which also transliterates Turkish (via www.jimithekewl.com)

    http://books.google.com.tr/books?id=OewOAAAAQAAJ

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  2. " Vezire itimad buyurman ; ilerü çektüği , ya kendü müteallikatudur , ya rüşvetin almış Elbet de bir garaz fâsidi vardur ! "

    ReplyDelete