Adoption of the Latin
Alphabet
A new measure of undeniable importance, which
was intended to get rid of the obstacles which hindered the communication of
the Turks with the civilised countries, was that concerned with numerals.
Turkey was using the Arabic numerals which had been used in Arabia before
being introduced Europe in the tenth century. Europe adopted the system in
place of the rather awkward Roman characters; however, the numbers suffered
changes that made them unrecognisable at first sight, to such an extent that
it was necessary to make a special study to be able to identify the Arabic
numerals now in international use, with the old style, still used in Turkey.
The new figures adopted by the Republic began to be used officially from June
1928.
During the whole of the autumn and winter of
1927, the Gazi concentrated his constructive powers on the preparation of the
reform of writing, to which he gave a basic and essential place in the
people's efforts to rebuild and progress intellectually; this was Kemal's
passion as an administrator.
The Turks had adopted Arabic alphabet at the
same time as their conversion to Islam, about a thousand years before. Under
Moslem influence, they abandoned their old form of writing, in which a number
of inscriptions have been found in Northern Mongolia, on the banks of the
river Selenga, tributary of lake Baikal, and which are known as the Orhon
inscriptions. The Arabic Alphabet is not convenient or adaptable to the sounds
of the Turkish language, which is rich in vowels. Apart from this, there arose
another great difficulty; to learn the Arabic script, which was excessively
complicated and uncertain, one needed long years of study, which naturally
favoured illiteracy, and made knowledge the privilege of the rich classes.
Kemal's philosophy could in no way admit this, since he belived that education
must be accessible to the whole people. He therefore accused the monarchical
regime of having left its people illiterate and ignorant, during centuries of
great universal progress.
The Arabic writing was strangling Turkey's
desire for international cooperation in intellectual affairs, and hindered her
cultural progress. The Gazi had taken upon himself the task of getting rid of
the alphabet then in use, and replacing it by one which would not only be easy
to teach, but which would also be very similar to the Latin alphabet, used
internationally. He therefore got down to work; he called in linguists,
historians, grammarians, and intellectuals generally, and after explaining his
plans for reforming the alphabet in general lines, he asked their opinion and
discussed with them the system which would be most advantageous to introduce.
He gave careful study to the various adoptions of the Latin alphabet which
were in use for different languages, and the phonetic values given to its
signs; then he began to adapt them to Turkish, after a conscientious analysis
of the grammar, phonetics and peculiarities of the Turkish language.
The studies presented by the specialists were
discussed at special meetings, until the road of reform was gradually marked
out. As the work proceeded, Kemal returned again to Istanbul and took up
residence in Dolmabahçe Palace, which was transformed into a real academy.
The sessions presided over by the reformer were dutifully attended by
professors and linguists, Ministers and Members of Parliament.
As one can well imagine, there were some who
were doubtful about the proposed reform. Would it not make it necessary to
reprint all the books in the Turkish bibliography, dictionaries, and school
and university texts ? This task, which would certainly take years, together
with the learning of the new alphabet which would not take less than that,
would mean a serious hold up in the development of public education. People
who had already finished school could not return there to learn to write all
over again.
The final version of the alphabet was ready
in August 1928. The greater part of the success achieved was due to the
reformer itself, since it was he who found by tenacity and logic the letters
which most exactly represented the sounds of the Turkish language. This latin-based
alphabet, which is called the Turkish alphabet, as opposed to the Arabic, is
not only the most modern known, but is essentially phonetic; there is no
letter or sign which is unnecessary, nor are there double letters or any of
the hindrances which other languages, such as French and English especially,
have preserved through tradition, and which make it difficult to learn them
and make confusion easy. The new Turkish alphabet is easy to learn; a
foreigner who learns the phonetic value of its letters can read Turkish
perfectly in a very few days.
On the night of the 9th of August,
a great crowd had gathered in the park at Sarayburnu, formerly the playground
of the Sultan, and where the first statue of the Gazi had been erected. The
people had been invited to go there by the People's Party, to listen to the
speech which the Gazi was going to make, and in which he was going to reveal
another of his national secrets. At the announced time the speaker mounted the
platform, and explained the necessity of freeing themselves from the Arabic
alphabet, which they had never been able to understand properly, and which had
for ages been a kind of prison for the Turkish spirit. He assured them that
the new alphabet could be learnt in a short time, and even those who had never
learnt to read would be able to do this. He issued a call for general
mobilisation against illiteracy, which reached the figure of about 90 % of the
population.
The mobilisation for the new alphabet had the
desired success. The conscript teachers were set before their blackboards; in
towns and villages, in the countryside, and in all places one could see those
already initiated into the Turkish alphabet surrounded by those who wanted to
learn it. The Members of Parliament went back to their respective
constituencies to direct the intensive teaching of reading and writing, but no
one equalled the Gazi in his educational activity.
 He
appeared every day in different places, carrying a portable blackboard in his
car, and there he carefully explained the value of the orthographic signs;
then like a schoolmaster in class he brought forward one of his pupils,
examined him, and made him write some word, such as his name, for example. He
checked the level of advance in the improvised schools. People called him the
"Teacher in Chief", and he was never seen as happy and satisfied as
on that campaign.
He began a journey along the shore of the
Black Sea and through Central Anatolia, in order to teach and activate the
teaching of the new alphabet, which he believed was a decisive step towards
progress. In Tekirdağ, he expressed his pleasure to the people for the
enthusiasm in which they had set about learning the new characters, and the
speed at which they had familiarized themselves with them.
"When I shut my eyes" he added,
"and see how lofty and brilliant will be the degree of strength and
universal esteem which Turkey's intellectual development will reach thanks to
the new alphabet, the sight fill me with ecstasy."
When he was proposing to the Assembly that
the Law of the New Alphabet should be accepted, he said : "I am filled
with emotion with this success, such an emotion that no happiness brought by
any victory can ever be compared with it. I am filled with the moral
satisfaction given by the simple duty of a teacher who will free our fellow
citizens from ignorance. Dear comrades, thanks to this immortal measure we
have taken, the Turkish nation will enter into a new world of light."
The campaign for education became more
organised, and evening classes were opened for workers and people of both
sexes who had passed school age. Improvised classes were found in a great many
places, and attended by children and elderly people. The new writing was being
taught in the mosques and even in the cafes, and it was as if the whole nation
had gone back to school. The reforming President went on teaching the humble
people with his blackboard.
On the basis of various precedents and
opinions, it had been said that it would take about 20 years before this
reform could be completely adopted. They talked about the capacity of the
people to learn, the evolution which must take place, and other reasons, but
none of this convinced the Gazi. There was no reason whatever, that something
which an uneducated person could learn in four or six months should take 20
years to be learnt by a people which was after all composed of men. What was
necessary was an intensive campaign for public education, so as to bring the
benefits to the largest possible number of citizens.
To print anything in the old Arabic alphabet,
the press needed no less than 612 different characters, which made it very
difficult to edit a work; this was the reason for the small advance made by
printing in Turkey. The Turkish alphabet, based on the Latin, needed only 70,
including the numbers, capitals and signs. It was thus possible to give a
great encouragement to the book industry and all kinds of publications, which
resulted in a noticeable rise in the country's culture.
The success Kemal achieved in his happiest
campaign of all was that completed in the field of public education. If we
look for a figure worth quoting especially, and which gives eloquent testimony
to that first and most important attempt, we can point to 1 1/2 million
illiterates who ceased to be so within a few years.
After the barrier of the Arabic alphabet had
been overcome, a new barrier was encountered : this was the excessive number
of Arabic and Persian words which had entered the language during the course
of eight centuries under the literary influence of those languages; this had
given birth to two Turkish languages; the palace language, full of Arabic and
Persian words, which was spoken by the upper classes, and the popular
language, or the more pure Turkish, which was despised by the erudite. At the
Gazi's instructions, the Republican Government decided to take measures to
bring back its ancient beauty and originality to the mutilated national
language. As a first measure, from September 1929, the teaching of Arabic and
Persian was forbidden in the Lises, which were the last places in which these
lessons had remained.
Source : "Atatürk", by
Jorge Blanco Villalta, translated from Spanish by William Campbell,
Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, Ankara, 1991
|
