Languages and Comparison

 Language  

 

Language is a system that consists of vocabulary and grammar. TheItarget of language is to convey meaning, emotion, gesture and feelings in written, spoken ways or with the help of sign languages. People used many different languages with symbols, signs, writings, sounds, hieroglyph etc. to communicate with each other throughout the years. It is estimated that there are 5.000 to 7.000 languages in the world. 
 
Most of the languages developped a written system that allows people who use that language with the written system to record various signs or sounds. 
 
Human languages have various factors that effects it like historic or cultural varieties. Some languages are connected with each other because of their affected cultures. 

 

Turkish is a Turkic language. Many years ago Turks used Old Turkish language and wrote Orhun Inscriptions on a stone with their own alphabet. But through the years, Turkish language changed a lot due to many different cultural and religious conditions. With the Ottoman Empire, Turks started to use Arabic alphabet with Turkish language and during the reign of Ottoman Empire, Turkish language interacted with many other middle-eastern and european language eventually created the modern Turkish language which has similarities and varieties from Old Turkish. 
 
English language is a Germanic language. Although in the Modern English, Germanic traces are very little to recognize in daily speeches and conversations, when we take a look at the Old English, the similarities between German language and Old English can be seen broadly. But it is really unbelievable how these languages developped through the years and changed so much. 

 

Development of English Language  

 

Old English and Middle English  

• Old English was derived from dialects that essentially German tribes such as Angles, Saxons and Jutes spoke. After their arrival to the Britain island, these tribes became more powerful and dominated the locals and their language substitute the local languages.  

 

• Throughout the years, English language has faced many radical changes due to important events that happened like Norman Conquest which caused great cultural changes. 
    
  Old English which is also called as Anglo-Saxon English, is the oldest recorded known form of English. Old English was used in Middle Ages in the England and Scotland between 5th and mid-12th centuries. The vocabulary Old English was Germanic and it was highly inflected.  
   
  The French people came to England and Norman Conquest which occur in 1066 started to cause a major change in English. French started to mix with the English language in Britain and after less than a century, Germanic influence on the English started to disappear and major changes happened in English such as vocabulary, grammar and pronounce. 
   
  With the changes that French language caused with the Norman Conquest, the Old English eventually came to an end in the 12th century and a new era for English language started. 
   

• Middle English was spoken between 12th and 15th centuries. One of the most important changes in Old and Modern English is, the noun conjugations in Old English like other germanic languages disappeared and different systems was used instead.  
   
  The French language changed English language drastically and added a lot of French words to English, even today, there are more than 80.000 words in English that are based on French. The Old French influence could also be seen in higher social social segments of population due to French rulers after the Norman Conquest. For an example, what English commoners called eggplant, noble people used to call "aubergine".  
   
  Also at the 15th century, a great change happened in English which came into last times of Middle English. The Great Vowel Shift started in the 15th century and continued for many years. Great Vovel Shift changed the English language, it opened a way to carry words to the Modern English from Middle English. Great Vowel Shift caused a great change in pronunciation regarding to the Middle English's long vowels. According to Great Vowel Shift, high vowels should be diphthongized and the remaining other vowels should be raised. The Great Vowel Shift changed pronunciation of many words helped a lot to the development from Middle English to Modern English.  

 

Development of Turkish Language 

 

In these days, Turkish language is mentioned as Turkish of Turkiye. Turkish is the most spoken language between Turkic languages with approxiamately 100 million speakers. Turkish is the national spoken language of Turkiye and Northern Cyprus but there are also other little groups who speak Turkish all around Asia, Middle-East, Balkans and Europe.  

 

The oldest known written piece of Turkish language is the Old Turkic Inscriptions called Orhun Inscriptions consisting of 3 pieces of memorials. These memorials were found in late 19th century by Russian archaeologists.  

 

Turkish language has a very rich and old history going back to the dark ages. Throughout the years, Turkish language has experiences many and significant changes.  

 

The Old Turkish is also called Gokturk Turkish was used by Gokturks, a Turkic nomad confederation in the early Middle Ages. The earliest known and written monuments of Turks like Orhun Inscriptions date back to these times. The earlier times than Gokturks are called Dark Ages. 

 

The modern Turkish which is used by Turks in Turkiye, descended from Ottoman Turkish and its ancestors like Seljuqs.  

 

Old Turkish 

 

• The Old Turkish, which is also called Gokturk Turkish or Kokturk Turkish is the earliest known form of the Turkish language. The Kokturk language was spoken by Kokturk or Gokturk people between 5th and 7th centuries. Gokturks were a nomadic war society. The name Gokturk means Blue Turk, Celestial Turk or Sky Turk as the word "Gok" means "Sky" in English and sky is considered sacred for Turkic tribes.  

 

Anatolian (Seljuq) Turkish 

 

• The Old Anatolian Turkish introduced to Anatolia with the arrival of Seljuq Turks. Seljuq Turks came to Anatolia in last half of 11th century. Anatolian Turkish absorbed many grammatic forms and many words from Persian language and Arabic language with cultural interaction. People used Arabic Alphabet with Turkish language.  

 

Ottoman Turkish  

 

• Ottoman Turkish is the general name of Turkish that is used during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. People used Arabic alphabet for writing and speak Turkish language. Ottoman Turkish was used between 14th and 20th centuries. Ottoman Turkish was influenced by Arabic and Persian languages due to high cultural interaction and it contains many words from both Persian and Arabic languages. People who worked for government were literate people and they had access to a proficient education and they could manage their works with Arabic alphabet but the divergence between Turkish language and Arabic alphabet was causing a huge problem for common people, due to this problem, literacy rate in the Ottoman Empire was really low, according to some questionable sources, literacy rate in the Ottoman Empire was less than %10 due to inequality of opportunity and hardships in the learning process. 

 

Modern Turkish 

 

• The Modern Turkish appears after the founding of the Republic of Turkiye in 1923.The aim of the Modern Turkish is simplifying the Turkish language to make a more literate population. The most important factor about Modern Turkish is abandoning the Arabic alphabet due to its inconsistency with the Turkish language. With Atatürk's alphabet reform in 1928, Arabic alphabet was abandoned and instead of Arabic alphabet, Turk alphabet which is based on Latin alphabet became the alphabet of Modern Turkish.  

 

Comparing the Development of Turkish and English Language  

 

Both languages have been through a lot of grammatical and vocabulary changes in their old and middle periods until they ended up in their final, modern form.  

 

Turkish language is a Turkic language and its origin goes back to the Central Asia. The earliest known examples of Old Turkish are Orhun Monuments which dates back to 8th century. Over the years, Turkish language undergo many significant changes due to its contact with Arabic and Persian languages and many others.  
 
Meanwhile, the earliest written example of Old English is Beowulf which is estimately written between 7th and 11th centuries due to its content. English has been through several interventions by different languages in Britain Island for centuries.  

 

Both Turkish and English languages acquired lots of words from other languages that they interacted with, languages like Arabic, Persian and Chinese for Turkish and French, Latin, Norse and Roman for English. Also the Old Turkish had a strong agglutinative scheme and English had an inflectional scheme. With the passing time in new eras and new periods for these languages, both languages gradually and grammatically became simpler.  

 

References 

Mitchell, Bruce, and Fred C. Robinson, (2016). A Guide to Old English. 7th ed., Blackwell Publishing. 

Hogg, Richard M., (1992). The Cambridge History of the English Language: Volume 1, The Beginnings to 1066. Cambridge University Press. 

Lambdin, Laura Cooner, and Robert Thomas Lambdin, (2002). A Companion to Middle English Literature. Wiley-Blackwell. 

Tekin, Talat. (1968). Introduction to Old Turkic Inscriptions. Handbuch Der Orientalistik, Abt. 1: Der Nahe Und Mittlere Osten, vol. 1, pt. 1, edited by Bertold Spuler, 166-200. Brill. 

Karpat, Kemal H., (1973). Ottoman Turkish Language and Literature. University of Washington Press.