SOME ORTOGRAPHIC ISSUES OF MODERN TURKISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

This paper deals with the development of the orthography of the Turkish language after the founding of the Republic of Turkey and the beginnings of the establishment of a national language, more precisely the Turkish of Turkey. With the introduction of phonological orthographic principles after the language reform in Turkey in 1928, a sound foundation for the development and work on the improvement of the Turkish language and orthographic system was created. The Turkish Language Association, founded in 1932 in Ankara after conducting the reform of the alphabet, is an institution that had been assigned with the task of working on the implementation of the language reform, including also the compilation of the Orthographic System. During that multi-decade period there had been published a large number of systems of orthographic rules, however, they would very quickly become obsolete due to constant changes that had been occurring within the Turkish language and those changes were made in accordance with the language policies of the Association. Due to differing approaches to these issues, and despite the numerous attempts of the Turkish Language Association and also of individuals and other associations, work is still being undertaken in order to standardize the language and its linguistic means. Quite obvious is the enormous effort and commitment that was put into achieving a unified and stabilized orthographic system, however it may be concluded that problems related to writing and pronunciation, as well as lexical doubts (issues of language usage), have, over time, come to overburden the modern Turkish language. This paper explores and reviews the history of Turkish Orthography by means of insight into orthographic rules that differ from the rules in the Serbian language as well as insight into rules that had been changed most frequently, and which have, as thus, stirred up considerable polemics in expert, scientific and cultural circles in Turkey.