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Not guilty for language's death



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MHA Beg is wrong to suggest that Ataturk "destroyed the Turkish language by changing its script" ('Several ways to kill a language', Letters, May 4).
Ataturk revived, even saved, Turkish by the introduction of a modified Latin alphabet. This alphabet, or 'script', is well suited to the Turkish language, its grammar and syntax. In the Ottoman era, the script (alphabet) used was not suited to the language, being in fact the Arabic alphabet and script. Of course, modern Turks (in general) cannot read it.

Mhairi Macmillan, Hawick





The full article contains 92 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 17 May 2008 8:42 PM
  • Source: Scotland On Sunday
  • Location: Scotland
 
1

EWB,

UK 18/05/2008 05:30:58
Ataturk modernised a Turkey that had lost its empire in the aftermath of World War 1. One manifestation of this modernisation was to adopt the Latin alphabet in place of the Arabic one, which Turks as a Muslim people had first used and which derived from the Koran.

After the Conference of Versailles, new countries emerged in Europe and the Middle East from the shattered Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires.

Ataturk also awakened a somewhat virulent nationalism in Turks. One consequence was the expulsion of Armenians and Greeks from Turkey. In some cases, e.g. Smyrna now Izmir, this amounted to ethnic cleansing.

 

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