Ottoman Turkish

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 neologisms 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 specialist contexts; for example, the Persian-derived genitive construction تقدیر الهی (takdîr-i ilâhî) (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 (Ottoman Turkish: الفبا, romanized: elifbâ), a variant of the Perso-Arabic script. The Armenian, Greek and Rashi script of Hebrew 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 grammar of modern Turkish. 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

• Nominative and Indefinite accusative/objective: -∅, no suffix. گول göl 'the lake' 'a lake', چوربا çorba 'soup', گیجه gece 'night'; طاوشان گترمش ṭavşan getirmiş 'he/she brought a rabbit'.
• Genitive: suffix ڭ/نڭ –(n)ıñ, –(n)iñ, –(n)uñ, –(n)üñ. پاشانڭ paşanıñ 'of the pasha'; كتابڭ kitabıñ 'of the book'.
• Definite accusative: suffix ی –ı, -i: طاوشانی گترمش ṭavşanı getürmiş 'he/she brought the rabbit'. The variant suffix –u, –ü does not occur in Ottoman Turkish orthography (unlike in Modern Turkish), although it's pronounced with the vowel harmony. Thus, گولی göli 'the lake' vs. Modern Turkish gölü.
• Dative: suffix ه –e: اوه eve 'to the house'.
• Locative: suffix ده –de, –da: مكتبده mektebde 'at school', قفصده ḳafeṣde 'in (the/a) cage', باشده başda 'at a/the start', شهرده şehirde 'in town'. The variant suffix used in Modern Turkish (–te, –ta) does not occur.
• Ablative: suffix دن –den, -dan: ادمدن adamdan 'from the man'.
• Instrumental: suffix or postposition ایله ile. 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 (-a or -e) (back and front vowels), words that end in a ـت (-t) sound, and words that end in either ـق or ـك (-k). These words are to serve as references, to observe orthographic conventions:

• Which vowels are written using the 4 letters: elif ا, vav و, he ه, and ye ی, and which are not.
• When words or morphemes are connected to each other, and when they are separated with the use of Zero-width non-joiner.
• When a final letter is softened when followed by a vowel sound, and when not; both in Ottoman orthography and in modern Latin orthography.
• When harmony of vowel roundness exists in spoken pronunciation and modern Latin orthography, but not in Ottoman orthography.
• When the letters ڭ (ñ) and ن (n) are used.

Possessives

Table below shows the suffixes for creating possessed nouns. Each of these possessed nouns, in turn, take case suffixes as shown above.

For third person (singular and plural) possessed nouns, that end in a vowel, when it comes to taking case suffixes, a letter ـنـ (-n-) comes after the possessive suffix. For singular endings, the final vowel ـی (-ı or -i) is removed in all instances. For plural endings, if the letter succeeding the additional ـنـ (-n-) is a vowel, the final vowel ـی (-ı or -i) is kept; otherwise it is removed (note the respective examples for kitaplarını and kitaplarından).

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).

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).

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:

• راضی اولمق razı olmaq (to consent);
• قتل ایتمك katletmek (to slaughter); تشكر ایتمك teşekkür etmek (to thank);
• ایو اولنمق iyi olunmak (to get better).

Below table shows some sample conjugations of these two verbs. The conjugation of the verb etmek is not 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.

'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.

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.

• بن ایشجی دگلم / ben işçi değilim: 'I am not a worker'
• او چفتجی دگلدر / o çiftçi değildir: 'he is not a farmer'
• او چفتجی دگل / o çiftçi değil: 'he is not a farmer'
• 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.

• 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".

• 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.

• اوڭ واردی / evin vardı: 'you had a house'
• 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.

• او یوق / ev yok: 'there isn't a house'
• اوم یوق / evim yok: 'I don't have a house'
• اوڭ یوقدی / evin yoktu: 'you didn't have a house'
• 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 (tepmek, "to kick"), whose root (which is also 2nd person imperative) is تپ (tep). Each of the produced new verbs below can be made into an infinitive with the addition of ـمك (-mek) 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. 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.

The conservation of archaic phonological features of the Arabic borrowings furthermore suggests that Arabic-incorporated Persian was absorbed into pre-Ottoman Turkic 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, Bashkir, and Uyghur. From the early ages of the Ottoman Empire, borrowings from Arabic and Persian were so abundant that original Turkish words were hard to find. In Ottoman, one may find whole passages in Arabic and Persian incorporated into the text. It was however not only extensive loaning of words, but along with them much of the grammatical systems of Persian and Arabic.

In a social and pragmatic sense, there were (at least) three variants of Ottoman Turkish:

• Fasih Türkçe فصیح تركجه (Eloquent Turkish): the language of poetry and administration, Ottoman Turkish in its strict sense;
• Orta Türkçe اورتا تركجه (Middle Turkish): the language of higher classes and trade;
• Kaba Türkçe قبا تركجه (Rough Turkish): the language of lower classes.

A person would use each of the varieties above for different purposes, with the fasih variant being the most heavily suffused with Arabic and Persian words and kaba the least. For example, a scribe would use the Arabic asel (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. In transcription, the New Redhouse, Karl Steuerwald, and Ferit Devellioğlu dictionaries have become standard. Another transliteration system is the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (DMG), which provides a transliteration system for any Turkic language written in Arabic script. There are few differences between the İA and the DMG systems.