Editing Turkish language (section)

=== {{anchor|Turkish language reform}}Language reform and modern Turkish ===
{{Main|Turkish language reform}}
{{See also|Turkish alphabet reform|Replacement of loanwords in Turkish}}
{{Atatürk sidebar}}
After the foundation of the modern state of [[Turkey]] and the [[#Writing system|script reform]], the [[Turkish Language Association]] (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]], with the aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a [[language reform]] to replace [[loanword]]s of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents.{{efn|See Lewis (2002) for a thorough treatment of the Turkish language reform.<ref name=lewis2002>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Geoffrey|title=The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|isbn=0-19-925669-1}}</ref>}} By banning the usage of imported words in the press,{{clarify|reason=This blanket statement needs to be more specific. Were words like "haber" or "hürriyet" (obviously "imported", i.e. borrowed) ever banned?|date=June 2021}} the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries.<ref name="TDK History"/> In 1935, the TDK published a bilingual [[Ottoman Turkish|Ottoman-Turkish]]/Pure Turkish dictionary that documents the results of the language reform.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Szurek|first=Emmanuel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FLoBgAAQBAJ&q=ottoman+turkish+dictionary+1935&pg=PA94|title=Order and Compromise: Government Practices in Turkey from the Late Ottoman Empire to the Early 21st Century|date=2015-02-17|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|isbn=978-90-04-28985-7|editor-last=Aymes|editor-first=Marc|pages=94|language=en|access-date=2021-08-03|archive-date=2023-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115123307/https://books.google.com/books?id=0FLoBgAAQBAJ&q=ottoman+turkish+dictionary+1935&pg=PA94|url-status=live}}</ref>

Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in [[Nutuk|his lengthy speech]] to the new [[Grand National Assembly of Turkey|Parliament]] in 1927, used the formal style of Ottoman Turkish that had been common at the time amongst statesmen and the educated strata of society in the setting of formal speeches and documents. After the language reform, the Turkish education system discontinued the teaching of literary form of Ottoman Turkish and the speaking and writing ability of society atrophied to the point that, in later years, Turkish society would perceive the speech to be so alien to listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995.{{efn|See Lewis (2002), pages 2-3.<ref name=lewis2002/> For the first two translations. For the third, see Bedi Yazıcı.<ref>{{cite web |author=Bedi Yazıcı |url=http://www.nutuk.org/ |title=Nutuk: Özgün metin ve çeviri (Atatürk's Speech: original text and translation) |access-date=2007-09-28 |language=tr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928221336/http://www.nutuk.org/ |archive-date=2007-09-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

The past few decades have seen the continuing work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language, mostly from English. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance. However, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as ''{{lang|tr|bölem}}'' to replace ''{{lang|tr|fırka}}'', "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval (''{{lang|tr|fırka}}'' has been replaced by the French loanword ''{{lang|tr|parti}}''). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example ''{{lang|tr|betik}}'' (originally meaning "book") is now used to mean "[[scripting language|script]]" in [[computer science]].<ref name=cokbilgi>{{cite web|title=Öz Türkçeleştirme Çalışmaları|url=http://www.cokbilgi.com/yazi/oz-turkcelestirme-calismalari/|work=Çok Bilgi|access-date=29 May 2014|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714065848/https://www.cokbilgi.com/yazi/oz-turkcelestirme-calismalari/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! align=left | Ottoman Turkish
! align=left | Modern Turkish
! align=left | English translation
! align=left | Comments
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|مثلث}} ({{lang|tr|müselles}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|üçgen}}'' || triangle || Compound of the noun ''{{lang|tr|üç}}'' ("three") and the suffix ''{{lang|tr|-gen}}''
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|طیاره}} ({{lang|tr|tayyare}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|uçak}}'' || aeroplane || Derived from the verb ''{{lang|tr|uçmak}}'' ("to fly"). The word was first proposed to mean "airport".
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|نسبت}} ({{lang|tr|nispet}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|oran}}'' || ratio || The old word is still used in the language today together with the new one. The modern word is from the Old Turkic verb ''{{lang|otk|or-}}'' ("to cut").
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|شمال}} ({{lang|tr|şimal}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|kuzey}}'' || north || Derived from the Old Turkic noun ''{{lang|otk|kuz}}'' ("cold and dark place", "shadow"). The word is restored from [[Middle Turkic languages|Middle Turkic]] usage.<ref>{{cite book |author=Mütercim Asım |title=Burhân-ı Katı Tercemesi |location=İstanbul |year=1799 |language=tr }}</ref>
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|تشرینِ اول}} ({{lang|tr|teşrinievvel}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|ekim}}'' || October || The noun ''{{lang|tr|ekim}}'' means "sowing", referring to the planting of cereal seeds in autumn, which is widespread in Turkey
|}
{{main list|List of replaced loanwords in Turkish}}