Building a Nation: the Significance of Turkish Language Re- Forms Of
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Building a Nation: The Significance of Turkish Language Re- forms of Early Republican Turkey in the Cre- ation of the Modern Turkish Nation-State Shayan Salehi Language is a central and often tion over a land was a fundamental right inseparable part of national identity, and of the nation (defined largely through its use as a vehicle of national and ethnic language and religion) that had occupied consolidation has helped shape the socio- and developed sociocultural links to it, political landscape of the modern world. and thus a state could derive legitimacy It is thus unsurprising that the impact of through presenting itself as the patron of language on identity formation has been a national entity.2 The rise of this national the subject of extensive analysis by his- self-determination became a particularly torians and psychologists alike, and lan- important topic in the Middle East espe- guage-based nationalism remains a potent cially after the First World War with the tool through which many modern nations imminent collapse of non-national dynas- seek to legitimize their existence. The use tic empires of the Ottomans and the Qa- of language as a symbol of unity amongst jars. These multi-national and multi-lin- a social group is not a modern phenom- guistic empires claimed not to be patrons 55 enon, but linguistic nationalism assumed of specific nations; they rather sought le- the forefront of sociopolitical discourse gitimacy through the God-given right of with the rise of the concept of the na- the kings to rule over a conquered piece of tion-state.1 Nationalists of the 19th and 20th land. In the case of the Ottoman empire, centuries argued that territorial jurisdic- the territories over which the Sultan ruled comprised of Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Greeks, 1 Bernard Spolsky, “Language in its Social Context,” Journal of Baltic Studies 36, 2 Spolsky, “Language in its Social no. 3 (2005): 254-272. Context,” 256. XII | ISSUE Copyright © 2020 Shayan Salehi Armenians, and a multitude of other na- variable standards of Turkish coexisted. tions, each of which began to push for More importantly, Ottoman Turkish in self-determination after the war.3 the eyes of the modernist Republicans was the embodiment of centuries of foreign After the Turkish War of Inde- influence over Turks and their language, pendence and the signing of the Treaty and thus was a relic of Turkey’s Ottoman of Lausanne, the newly formed Anato- past that needed to be replaced.7 In order lian state under the leadership of Musta- to serve as the heart of the Turkish nation, fa Kemal began to establish its legitimacy the Turkish language therefore needed to through presenting itself as the protector be modified and purified from its archaic of the Turkish nation. The goal of this Perso-Arabic features and replaced with a new state thus was to clearly define what language to serve the new generation of it meant to be a Turk, and unsurprisingly modern Republican Turks.8 The so-called at the forefront of this debate was the issue Turkish Language Reforms consequently of language. Turkish peasants in Anatolia became an important component of Mus- had spoken a common Turkic language tafa Kemal’s vast reform programs, aimed since the arrival of Turkic nomads near- at engineering a modern Turkish state ly a millennium prior, yet the language and society with an outlook away from of the Ottoman state was vastly differ- its ‘backward’ Islamic and Middle Eastern ent and largely incomprehensible to the past and towards its secular, modern, and 4 average Turk. This ‘Ottoman’ language European future. (Osmanlıca) was a synthetic amalgama- tion of centuries of Arabic and Persian The issue of the disconnect be- influence, with a grammar and vocabulary tween Ottoman Turkish and vernacular largely comprising of loaned words and Turkish was not solely a feature of Repub- structures.5 Moreover, its use of the high- lican Turkey and has its roots in the late ly unsuitable Arabic abjad made it a dif- Ottoman period. During this time, as in ficult language to master, and thus its use Europe, language began to be seen as a was limited largely to the Ottoman elite6. binding force for the people of the same When the Republican statesmen inherit- community.9 More importantly, language ed the Turkish-speaking Ottoman lands, was perceived as a vehicle for the modern- they were thus presented with a language ization of the empire, and thus was seen in a state of diglossia, where two highly as needing to be simplified and brought 3 Willian L. Cleveland and Martin closer to the vernacular of the ordinary 10 Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East, people. These ideas became even more (Boulder: Westview Press, 2012), 149-171. 56 4 Uriel Heyd, Language Reform in 7 Yilmaz Çolak, “Language Policy Modern Turkey, (Jerusalem: The Israel Orien- and Official Ideology in Early Republican Tur- tal Society, 1954), 9-15. ke y,” Middle Eastern Studies 40, no. 6 (2004): 5 Ibid., 9; Charles F. Gallagher, 67-70. “Language Reform and Social Modernization 8 Ibid., 68. in Turkey,” in Can Language be Planned? 9 Gallagher, “Language Reform and Sociolinguistic Theory for Developing Nations, Social Modernization in Turkey,” 154-156. ed. Joan Rubin and Björn H. Jernudd (Hawaii, 10 Frank Tachau, “Language and Poli- University of Hawai’i Press, 1971), 153. tics, Turkish Language Reform,” The Review of NMC JOURNAL | JOURNAL NMC 6 Ibid., 154-155. Politics 26, no. 2 (1964): 193. pronounced during the CUP era, when Turkish language.13 The TDK, alongside ‘Turkist’ activists such as Ömer Seyfeddin other decrees such as the Surnames Law and Ziya Gökalp pushed for the creation of 1934 banning all non-Turkish sounding of a Yeni Lisan (New Language) based on surnames, further aimed to create a ho- the dialect of the ordinary people. The Ar- mogenous Turkish national entity devoid abic script of Ottoman Turkish too was a of all of its Middle Eastern and Ottoman subject of heated debates, and the need heritage and instead geared towards the for reforming the script to better express modern ideals of the European nations.14 the phonetics of the Turkish language was The programs of the Turkish Language expressed.11 These debates became widely Reforms thus became consequential in discussed after the collapse of the Otto- the creation, consolidation, and propa- man empire amongst Republican intellec- gation of Turkish nationalism, and lan- tual and political circles, and ultimately guage policies of the Early Republican culminated in the 1928 alphabet change period remain one of the most successful from Arabic to Latin. The alphabet shift reform programs of Mustafa Kemal’s re- was largely gime. advertised as The TDK, alongside other decrees a measure to ... further aimed to create a Apart increase lit- from helping eracy among homogenous Turkish national drastically the vastly illit- entity devoid of all of its Middle improve the erate Turkish Eastern and Ottoman heritage literacy of the population and instead geared towards the Turkish mass, of the time.12 the language However, im- modern ideals of the European reforms, es- itation of the nations. pecially the writing sys- Latinization tem of ‘civilized’ European nations was of orthogra- phy, provided also thought to help Turkey claim its ‘right- an opportunity for the Republican elite to ful place’ among western civilization and enforce a new Eurocentric image of the help it distance itself from its ‘backwards’ Republic of Turkey, thereby engineering Ottoman past. Language reform further a new national identity based away from continued into the 1930’s with the estab- Turkey’s Perso-Arabic and Islamic her- lishment of the Türk Dil Kurumu (Turk- itage and toward its European outlook. ish Language Association, TDK) in 1932, The conversion of Turkish writing began in May of 1928, initially with the shift tasked with purifying Turkish from its for- 57 eign influences to create an ‘uncorrupted’ from Eastern Arabic to Western Arabic (European) numerals, and in August of 11 Yilmaz Çolak, “Language Policy the same year the new alphabet was intro- and Official Ideology in Early Republican duced to the Turkish mass. In November, Turkey,” 69. 12 Hale Yilmaz, Becoming Turkish: Na- 13 Çolak, “Language Policy and tionalist Reforms and Cultural Negotiations in Official Ideology in Early Republican Turkey,” Early Republican Turkey. (Syracuse, New York: 70-75. Syracuse University Press, 2013), 139-145. 14 Ibid., 82. XII | ISSUE the government passed a law for the script was thought of as being a symbol of unity change, and the new alphabet began being amongst Turkey and its Muslim brethren, taught to Turkish children in the Millet and only the revision and not complete Mektepleri (Nation Schools) the semes- replacement of the script was needed. On ter following the government decree. At the other hand, and in line with the ulti- the centre of the Early Republican reform mate view of the Republican elite, writers agendas was the Kemalist understanding such as Hussein Cahit and Kılıçzade Hak- of the archaism/civilization dichotomy, kı saw Latinisation as necessary in order and the Turkish language was presented as for Turkey to free itself from the burdens being at the centre of this debate.15 To the of its Ottoman past.19 Therefore, the Latin modernist Republican elite and especially characters was not only meant to provide to Mustafa Kemal, the Arabic characters a medium through which state could in- were a ‘destructive influence on Turkish crease literacy; rather, Arabic orthography from the time of its adoption’ during the was seen as inherently incompatible with Early Ottoman period.16 The Arabic char- modernity.20 This early Republican be- acters were thus presented as being a relic lief is presented in the words of Mustafa from Turkey’s archaic and backwards past, Kemal himself following the adoption of and like other symbols of Ottoman culture the Latin alphabet, who stated: “So long such as Ottoman clothing, the serpuş, me- as Turkish was written from right to left, dresses, and the Caliphate, it too needed it could never properly express the ideals to be removed and replaced with symbols of European civilization.