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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Turkish - alphabet before Latin one?
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References: <33ca6a4d.17137478@nntp.ix.netcom.com> <EDAEr6.48E@midway.uchicago.edu> <33cc9d75.758843@nntp.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 14:27:08 GMT
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In article <33cc9d75.758843@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,
Polar <s.meric@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>On Mon, 14 Jul 1997 02:25:54 GMT, deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von
>Brighoff) wrote:
>
>>In article <33ca6a4d.17137478@nntp.ix.netcom.com>,
>>Polar <s.meric@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>	What characters did Turkish use before (I guess it was
>>>Ataturk?) swept them into the Latin alphabet?
>>
>>Arabic script.
>>
>>>	Also,  were these characters common to all of what is loosely
>>>called the Turkic peoples?  Which does take in a lot of Central Asia.
>>
>>Not at the time that Arabic script was adopted by the Ottomans.  Some
>>(like Chagatai) used a form of the Mongolian script, but this was
>>abandoned with conversion to Islam.  By the time Atat"urk mandated the use
>>of a modified Latin alphabet in Turkey, most of the Turkic languages of
>>the former USSR had Cyrillic-based orthographies (some of which replaced
>>earlier Latin orthographies).
>
>Now that is truly fascinating!  Could you give a rough time line,
>particularly re: the conversion to Islam w/concomitant "abandonment"
>of the Mongolian script?  

It varies widely, as does the date of conversion of the various peoples.
(The Kazakhs, for instance, aren't converted until the 19th century.)  I
think the process starts in 11th century.

Turkic has been written in more scripts than any other language group I
can think enough.  In addition to those mentioned (Latin, Arabic,
Cyrillic, Mongolian--actually a modified version of Sogdian script 
called 'Uyghur script', which provided the basis for Mongolian script),
Estrangelo, Hebrew, Greek, Brahmi, and even Armenian scripts have been
used at one time or another.  Even now, the situation is still in flux,
with some Turkic languages keeping their Cyrillic script (e.g. Tatar),
some abandoning it for Latin (e.g. Azeri), some for Arabic (Uzbek?).

>Also, where and *when* did they get the
>"earlier Latin orthographies" which you say were replaced by
>Cyrillic-based ones.  That is a most unusual transition in the history
>of written language, is it not?  Was it politically imposed or...?

The orthographies weren't *that* much earlier, having been introduced by
the Soviets in the 20's.  It's clear that they wanted to break from the
older script, with its religious and historical associations, but why they
spent a decade phasing in Latin script and then phasing it out instead of
going straight to Cyrillic, I really don't understand.

>Thanks in advance for more enlightenment.
>
>(and let's hear it for the Maroon,  from a U of C alum)

Demosthenes, Thucydides
Peloponnesian War
X-squared, y-squared
H2OH4
Who for?  What for?
Who the hell we cheerin' for?
Gooooooo MAROONS!

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
