Language Reform In Turkey Essay

Language reform in Turkey was a way to purify Turkish by removing the Arabic and Persian grammatical features inside of the language which was hard to understand by the people of the Ottoman Empire. By changing the language Mustafa Kemal Atatürk wanted to raise a new culture and a unity among the people in the New Turkish Republic. To understand language reform completely we need to know Ottoman Turkish and culture to compare and know what it was before and what it is now. Our culture has changed a lot but it is still influenced by Ottoman Empire. Even though some may try to bring those days back, the neo - ottomans, I don't think it is a good idea because Ottoman Empire's time has passed. It still lives on in our culture and language,

Since this reform suddenly cut through timeline between Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic only a few people are able to read old records. Officially the Script and Language reform started in 1928. Even though Language Reform happened later I think we shouldn't separate them because script reform made way to Language Reform.

Culture, language, and Society are inseparable. The Neo-Ottomans argue that by changing our language from Ottoman to Turkish severed our routs from Ottoman culture. There are some for and against arguments on language and alphabet reform. There are some examples;

For me, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu is a Neo-Ottomanist. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu was a congressman of CHP - MHP coalition. He wrote a lot of books about Ottomanism and Ottoman Empire. He thinks Turkish Language Reform severed us from Ottoman Culture. He argues that the Ottoman word was forgotten so in results Ottoman Empire was also forgotten. Ottoman Empire was the center of science and literature and by severing our roots by Ottoman Culture we lost its glory. His way of thinking is very prescriptive. He thinks the new Turkish words after the reform were an abomination. He tries to discredit Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK. It is a shame that there are still people like him arguing the reform that Atatürk