User:Moonieberry/Alphabet Reform

Head Teacher Gazi Mustafa Kemal teaches the new alphabet in Sivas, 1928

File:Harf Devrimi karikatürü, Ramiz Gökçe.jpg

Ramiz Gökçe's reformation era caricature that was published in the Akbaba journal on August 13, 1928.

With its context being, "Instead of the scrawly old Arabic characters, which prevented the public from reading and writing for centuries, the new, civilized Turkish characters are prevailing," the caricature has the Turkish characters telling ''Come on, you go in the wreck of sultanate!'' to the Arabic characters.

A group of children studying the poster hung on the tree in order for the public to learn the new characters, 1930

The Alphabet Reform is the general name given to the process of the new alphabet going into effect and the confirmation of Act No. 1353 on "The Law on the Adoption and Implementation of Turkish Alphabet" on 1 November 1928 in Turkey. The law went into effect on 3 November 1928 by being published in the Official Gazette. With the enactment of this act, officiality of the Ottoman alphabet based on Arabic characters, which were being used until that day, came to an end and the Latin Based Turkish alphabet was put into effect.

The content of the Turkish alphabet is not exactly the same with the other countries that use Latin letters in their writing systems, but includes characters corresponding with the sounds of the Turkish language (Ç, Ş, Ğ, I, İ, Ö, Ü). In addition to this, the pronunciation of the letters in the Turkish alphabet is different from the letters in Western languages. For example, while the pronunciation of the letter C is /dʒ/ in the Turkish alphabet, it is /ˈsiː/ in the English alphabet.

History

Turks, beginning from the 10th century with the Islam religion, had adopted the Arabic alphabet (which was considered to be the essential cultural element of Islam) while incorporating it into the Turkish phonology. Throughout the following 900 years, both Western (Ottoman) and Eastern dialects of Turkish were written in the form adapted from the Arabic alphabet.

Year	Percentage of literate person
1923	2,5%
19271	10,5%(1927 official census)
19352	20,4% (1935 census)

¹ Census taking place 1 year before the Alphabet Reform.

² After 7 educational terms with the new Turkish characters.

From the mid-19th century onwards, proposals for a alphabet reform in Turkey have begun being heard. The suggestions were split in two:

• Those who wanted Ottoman writing to be fixed,
• Those who wanted the adoption of Latin characters.

Reasons for the alphabet reform

One of the most important reasons for the alphabet revolution is the idea that Arabic characters are unfit for the Turkish language. The primary justification of those who want the Ottoman writing to be fixed was that this writing was falling behind in representing the vowel sounds in Turkish. Throughout history, opinions about Arabic characters being unfit to Turkish has been voiced by many people and that it was expressed that at least a revision of the alphabet should be made. One of the first to voice the inadequacy of the Arabic alphabet was Katip Çelebi. And during Tanzimat reform era, Ahmet Cevdet Pasha had remarked that a new way of spelling should be sought for the sounds that cannot be expressed with Arabic characters. In 1851, Münif Pasha stated that the alphabet should be corrected as it was hard to read and write with Arabic letters and hence the public could not be educated. Intellectuals such as Şinasi, Namık Kemal, Ali Suavi, Yenişehirli Avni, Ziya Gökalp, Şemsettin Sami, Ebüzziya Tevfik, Feraizcizade Mehmet Şakir, Ispartalı Hakkı Bey also voiced their opinions on the drawbacks of the alphabet. Attempts in relation to the alphabet from politicians like Enver Pasha (Enveriye) is proof that there was a problem and a solution was being sought after. Although there were different opinions about whether Latin or another alphabet should be introduced or to make a revision on the existing alphabet, many people had a common view on the non-compatibility of Arabic alphabet with Turkish and that it had its problems. These views had continued after the Republic era and were the foundation of the alphabet reform.

The spelling confusion arising from this problem grew more challenging the more printed media and textbooks became widespread. Efforts on creating a standard Turkish dictionary beginning from the 1870s also brought up the spelling issue.

Another justification was the thought that because of its issues, the alphabet was interrupting the public education and that the people were being kept ignorant. Indeed, Milaslı Ismail Hakkı Bey had remarked that our advancement for the period would not be possible unless our writing got reformed, and that if it gets reformed, we would make progress like the Japanese, although he was completely against the Latin alphabet. Still, Celal Nuri said, "The common person cannot easily learn these characters and the phrases written with them. And Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın said, "We cannot lower ümmilik (illiteracy). Because our letters are an obstacle to this."

Reasons for incorporating the Latin characters

1. Request to facilitate and improve relationships with Europe.
2. During the reformation of the Arabic alphabet, attempting the hurûf-ı munfasıla, or the method of writing while separating the characters. The idea that it would be more suitable to the Turkish language if the characters are written separately.
3. The idea that Latin alphabet paves the way for education.
4. In the 1st Turcology Congress that took place in Baku, the decision to accept Latin characters instead of Arabic ones for all Turks. Knowing that Atatürk followed this congress closely.
5. That there was no better alternative to the Latin alphabet. That it made no sense to accept, for instance, Cyrillic or Chinese alphabet, other than the most common alphabet in the world, Latin alphabet.
6. Since 1850-60s, the whole Turkish intellectual class spoke French to the point of using it in their correspondences. With the spread of telegraph, a form of Turkish written with the Latin alphabet and spelling became part of everyday life. In cosmopolitan climates such as Beyoğlu, Selânik, İzmir, this writing was being used in shop signs and commercial advertisements most of the time.
7. In the last quarter of the 9th century, books and newspapers with Greek and Armenian letters started to hold a great number in Istanbul and Anatolia. The popularity of these publications helped forming the idea that Turkish can be written with something other than Arabic writing. The recognition of Latin based Albanian alphabet in 1908-1911 and Azerbaijan's acceptance of the Latin alphabet in 1922 gave rise to a massive stir in Turkey.
8. Turkic states in the Soviet Union were using the Latin alphabet. Turkey switched to the Latin alphabet in order to get close and use a common alphabet with the Turkic world. However, later during the Stalin period, USSR made the Turkic states switch to Cyrillic alphabet in order to break their bond with Turkey. On 1991, upon the collapse of the USSR, 5 independent Turkic countries including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan were established. Among these, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan switched to Latin alphabet once again whereas Kyrgyzstan and Turkic Republics belonging to Russia such as Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, Tatarstan, and Tuva continued using the Cyrillic alphabet. In short, the alphabet reform implemented in Turkey aimed to further relationships with other Turkic Republics, use a common alphabet by creating a writing system befitting the Turkic languages.
9. Arabic alphabet's incapability of expressing Turkish accurately. In Arabic alphabet, the character Vav (و) can correspond with V, O, Ö, U, Ü sounds; Ye (ﻱ) with Y, I, İ sounds; and Kef (كـ) with K, G, N sounds and rarely with the Y sound. This situation was creating confusion.
10. During the Second Constitutional Era, struggles to declare the Turkish national identity independent from Islamism gained importance especially among the intellectuals close to İttihat ve Terakki (Committee of Union and Progress). Because Arabic writing was counted as an integral part of Islamic culture by some, abandoning this writing would mean the secularization of the Turkish national identity and the uncovering of its sense of self.

First reform suggestions

The view on the adaptation of Latin alphabet to Turkish was proposed for the first time during the 1860s by Feth Ali Ahundzade from Azerbaijan. Ahundzade also prepared a Cyrillic based alphabet.

During the 1908-1911 period, the incorporation of the Latin based new Albanian alphabet caused intense debate amongst Turkish intellectuals as well. In 1911, Hüseyin Cahit, who entered a harsh polemic with the hodjas in Elbasan about their fatwas on the incongruity of Latin characters to the sharia, not only defended the Latin based Albanian alphabet, but also recommended the Turks to do the same. The Albanian branch of the İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Committee of Union and Progress) accepted the Latin based alphabet in 1911.

In 1914, five anonymous articles featured in the Hürriyet-i Fikriye journal published by Kılıçzade Hakkı recommended that Latin letters should be used gradually and asserted that this change was inevitable. However, the journal was banned by the İttihat ve Terakki (Committee of Union and Progress) rule because of these articles.

The first Turkish gazette printed with Latin characters was published in Manastır-Bitola in 1911. The gazette, published by Zekeriya Sami Efendi, was named Eças, pronounced as "esas" in the French spelling, was being published on Saturdays, however, only a few issues of this gazette survived.

Atatürk and the Alphabet Reform

A book for teaching the Ottoman alphabet and a book for teaching the Turkish alphabet during the 1930s, Republic Museum

Mustafa Kemal as well started looking into this issue between 1905-1907 when he was in Syria. In 1922, Atatürk had talked about this subject with Halide Edib Adıvar again and stated that a change like this required drastic measures.

In a meeting attended by the Istanbul press members on September 1922, Hüseyin Cahit had asked the question "Why don't we recognize Latin characters?" to which Atatürk replied "It's not the right time yet." The same suggestion was put forward at İzmir Economic Congress in 1923, however, it was rejected by the Congress President Kâzım Karabekir on the grounds that it would "harm the integrity of Islam." Nonetheless, the dispute had received wide coverage in the press.

On May 28 1928, TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) passed a law regarding the usage of international numbers by government agencies and establishments starting from June 1. There was not a notable reaction to the law. A commission was established at roughly the same time for the alphabet reform.

One of the topics the commission had been discussing was the suggestion that the letters kaf and kef in the old writing should be substituted by the letters q and k in the new Turkish alphabet. But this suggestion was rejected by Atatürk and the letter q was removed from the alphabet. According to Falih Rıfkı Atay, who was in the commission foreseeing the 5 or 15 year transition processes of the implementation of the new alphabet, Atatürk did not want time to be wasted by stating "This will happen in three months or never." After the alphabet was completed, on August 9 1923, Atatürk introduced the characters to those who attended the gala in Gülhane, organized by Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican People's Party). The alphabet was introduced to the presidency workers and members of the parliament in August 11 and in August 15 to academicians and people in literature. Atatürk, also in August and September, introduced it to the public in different provinces. At the end of this process, with the proposal of the commission, changes were made in regard to the removal of the hyphen, which is used for joining some suffixes to the main word, and the inclusion of the circumflex.

Between September 8-25, all officials had to go through a test on the usage of the new characters.

Criticism

In 2019, the 12th President of the Republic of Turkey and the chairman of Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party), Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, claimed in his speech at the commemoration program for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk that the literacy rate in the Ottoman period was higher than half of the populace at the time, that this rate surpassed the ones in other countries such as Russia and Italy, that Alphabet Reform caused a decrease in literacy, and that "everything got reset with the Alphabet Reform." All these statements were criticized by various academicians and media outlets for the reason that they were inaccurate. The phrase "We have been left ignorant overnight!" has become a statement for the critics of the Alphabet Reform.

See also

• Hurûf-ı munfasıla

Reading

• Cengiz Dönmez (2009). Tarihî Gerekçeleriyle Harf İnkılâbı ve Kazanımları. Ankara: Gazi Kitabevi.
• Mehmet Ali Ağakay (der., 1962). Dil Devriminin 30 Yılı. Ankara: TDK.
• Agop Dilaçar (1962). Devlet Dili Olarak Türkçe. Ankara: AÜ.
• İsmail Doğan (der.) (1999). Atatürk’ün Harf Devrimi ve Türk Dünyasına Yansımaları Sempozyumu, 27 Ekim 1998: Bildiriler. Trabzon: KTÜ.
• M. German (der., 1938). 1928, 9 Ağustos Harf İnkılabı. İstanbul: Beşiktaş Halkevi.
• İsmet Giritli (1989). Harf İnkılâbı ve Atatürk. Ankara.
• Nurettin Gülmez (2006). Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Harfler Üzerine Tartışmalar. Bursa: Aktüel Yayınları.
• Harf Devrimi'nin 50. Yılı Sempozyumu (1981). Ankara: TTK.
• Agâh Sırrı Levend (1949). Türk Dilinde Gelişme ve Sadeleşme Safhaları. Ankara: TDK.
• Sevan Nişanyan (2009), Yanlış Cumhuriyet: Atatürk ve Kemalizm Üzerine 51 Soru, Kırmızı Yayınları.
• İsa Öztürk (1998). Harf Devrimi ve Sonuçları. Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı.
• İhsan Sungu (1941). Harf İnkılabı ve Millî Şef İsmet İnönü. Ankara: Maarif.
• Mehmet Tekin (1988). Harf İnkılabı: Türk Ocaklarının Çalışmaları ve Hatay’da Yeni Yazı. Antakya.
• Neriman Tongul (1990). Türk Harf İnkılabı. HÜ Yayımlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi.
• Mehmet Şakir Ülkütaşır (2000). Atatürk ve Harf Devrimi. Ankara: TDK.
• Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın (1943). Hatıralar: Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti'nin Kuruluşundan İlk Kurultaya Kadar. Ankara: Recep Ulusoğlu Basımevi.
• Türkiye'de Latin Harfleri Meselesi (1908-1928) Archived 2019-10-16 at the Wayback Machine makalesi, Arş. Gör. Selami Kılıç, Ankara Üniversitesi Türk İnkılap Tarihi Enstitüsü, Atatürk Yolu dergisi, 1991, Cilt: 2, Sayı: 7, ISSN:1303-5290 (Kâzım Karabekir Paşa ve Prof. Avram Galanti’nin görüşlerini de içermektedir.)
• Bilal N. Şimşir (2008). Türk Yazı Devrimi. Türk Tarih Kurumu.

References

[[Category:1928 in Turkey]] [[Category:Atatürk's reforms]]