Editing Ottoman Empire (section)

=== Language ===
{{Main|Languages of the Ottoman Empire}}
[[File:1911 Ottoman Calendar.jpg|thumb|upright|1911 Ottoman calendar shown in several different languages such as: Ottoman Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Hebrew, Bulgarian and French]]

[[Ottoman Turkish]] was the official language of the Empire.<ref>{{Cite constitution|article=18|polity=the Ottoman Empire|date=1876}}</ref> It was an [[Oghuz languages|Oghuz]] [[Turkic languages|Turkic language]] highly influenced by [[Persian language|Persian]] and [[Arabic]], though lower registries spoken by the common people had fewer influences from other languages compared to higher varieties used by upper classes and governmental authorities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davison |first=Roderic H. |date=31 December 1964 |title=Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856–1876 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400878765 |doi=10.1515/9781400878765 |isbn=978-1-4008-7876-5 |quote=There was the ruling Ottoman group, now largely concentrated in the bureaucracy centered on the Sublime Porte, and the mass of the people, mostly peasants. The efendi looked down on "the Turk," which was a term of opprobrium indicating boorishness, and preferred to think of himself as an Osmanli. His country was not Turkey, but the Ottoman State. His language was also "Ottoman"; though he might also call it "Turkish," in such a case he distinguished it from ''kaba türkçe'', or coarse Turkish, the common speech. His writing included a minimum of Turkish words, except for particles and auxiliary verbs. |access-date=22 July 2021 |archive-date=14 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114151544/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400878765/html |url-status=live }}</ref> Turkish, in its Ottoman variation, was a language of military and administration since the nascent days of the Ottomans. The Ottoman constitution of 1876 did officially cement the official imperial status of Turkish.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1908 |title=The Ottoman Constitution, promulgated the seventh Zilbridge, 1293 (11/23 December 1876) |journal=The American Journal of International Law |volume=2 |issue=4 |page=376 |doi=10.2307/2212668 |jstor=2212668|s2cid=246006581 }}</ref>

The Ottomans had several influential languages: Turkish, spoken by the majority of the people in Anatolia and by the majority of Muslims of the Balkans except some regions such as [[History of Albania|Albania]], [[History of Bosnia|Bosnia]]<ref name="Bertold Spuler page 69">{{Cite book |last=Bertold Spuler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rD1vvympVtsC&pg=PA69 |title=Persian Historiography And Geography |publisher=Pustaka Nasional Pte Ltd |date=2003 |isbn=978-9971-77-488-2 |page=69 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=14 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114151701/https://books.google.com/books?id=rD1vvympVtsC&pg=PA69 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[Megleno-Romanians|Megleno-Romanian]]-inhabited [[Nânti]];<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kahl |first=Thede |author-link=Thede Kahl |date=2006 |title=The Islamisation of the Meglen Vlachs (Megleno-Romanians): The Village of Nânti (Nótia) and the "Nântinets" in Present-Day Turkey |volume=34 |pages=71–90 |journal=[[Nationalities Papers]] |issue=1 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/abs/islamisation-of-the-meglen-vlachs-meglenoromanians-the-village-of-nanti-notia-and-the-nantinets-in-presentday-turkey/5F6519A83C83DD0B9728A22F58100384 |doi=10.1080/00905990500504871 |s2cid=161615853 |access-date=19 May 2021 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415153900/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/abs/islamisation-of-the-meglen-vlachs-meglenoromanians-the-village-of-nanti-notia-and-the-nantinets-in-presentday-turkey/5F6519A83C83DD0B9728A22F58100384 |url-status=live }}</ref> Persian, only spoken by the educated;<ref name="Bertold Spuler page 69"/> Arabic, spoken mainly in Egypt, the [[Levant]], [[History of Arabia|Arabia]], Iraq, North Africa, [[History of Kuwait|Kuwait]] and parts of the [[Horn of Africa]] and [[Berber language|Berber]] in North Africa. In the last two centuries, usage of these became limited, though, and specific: Persian served mainly as a literary language for the educated,<ref name="Bertold Spuler page 69"/> while [[Arabic]] was used for Islamic prayers. In the post-[[Tanzimat]] period French became the common Western language among the educated.<ref name="Strauss-2010"/>

Because of a low literacy rate among the public (about 2–3% until the early 19th century and just about 15% at the end of the 19th century), ordinary people had to hire [[scribe]]s as "special request-writers" (''arzuhâlci''s) to be able to communicate with the government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kemal H. Karpat |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=082osLxyBDgC&pg=PA266 |title=Studies on Ottoman Social and Political History: Selected Articles and Essays |publisher=Brill |date=2002 |isbn=978-90-04-12101-0 |page=266 |access-date=20 June 2015 |archive-date=14 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114151701/https://books.google.com/books?id=082osLxyBDgC&pg=PA266 |url-status=live }}</ref> Some ethnic groups continued to speak within their families and neighborhoods ([[mahalle]]s) with their own languages, though many non-Muslim minorities such as Greeks and Armenians only spoke Turkish.{{Sfn|Davison|1964|p=62|ps=It was true also that there was a partial linguistic amalgam of the peoples in the empire. Many Greeks and Armenians did not know their national languages and spoke Turkish alone, though they wrote it in Greek and Armenian characters.}} In villages where two or more populations lived together, the inhabitants often spoke each other's language. In cosmopolitan cities, people often spoke their family languages; many of those who were not ethnic [[Turkish people|Turks]] spoke Turkish as a second language.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}