PDF Dosyası - Ankara Üniversitesi Kitaplar Veritabanı

Women and men, young and old, rich and poor had the oppotunity to beeomeliterate. Alphabet reform vvas the foundation for mass education inthe Turkish language.Alphabet reform vvas also a popülist measure. The change to Latincharacters in a vvay nullifıed the literacy of ali those vvho vvere fluent inthe reading and vvriting of the Arabic script. Except for the fevv vvho vverealready familiar vvith the Latin script through their knovvledge of a Europeanlanguage such as French or English, change in the script vvas an instantleveling of literacy: the literate and thus privileged joined the ranksof the illiterate, and had to start from the begining. A similar egalitarianmeasure dependent on language usage vvas the abolition of honorific titlesand the adoption of tvvo simple gender designating forms, Bay (Mr.) andBayan (Ms. or Mrs.), comparable to Citizen and Citizeness of the FrenchRevolution. Demotion of the Ottoman language from its position as elitistidentifıer, the abolition of honorific social titles, the coming of age of Anatoliaand Anatolian regional language usage, vvere part of changes tovvardsa democratic society. Simplification of the language also aimed ateliminating the gap betvveen the urbane educated and the commoner fromthe countryside. The main characters in the traditional Turkish shadovvpuppettheater, Karagöz an Hajivat, the icons of the linguistic gap betvveeneveryday language and Ottoman, vvould be blovvn off the stage notjust by the advent of the movies, but the anachronistic nature of their dialogue.Alphabet reform reinforced the secularist program. The difficulty ofreading the Koran in Arabic, frequently vvithout understanding vvhat thetext said, vvas compounded by the severing of the familiarity vvith thescript. Turkish language refom emphasized the separation of the realm ofreligion from the common daily activities of the people. The experimentto render the ezan in Turkish, the vvords offîcially adopted in 1932, vvasabandoned in the fifties, a concession to public sentiment. The ezan, frequentlypart of setting the stage in a Moslem country in movies and nevvsreports, vvas too strong an icon to be altered: the domain of language vvasnot to cross över to alter religious tradition.The initiators of language reform, the first generation actively engagedin making the shift, had to make a deliberate effort to make thenevv prevail. Authors such as Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu (1889-1974)vvhose life span and experience covered a vast range, from the declineand shattering of the Ottoman Empire through the vvar of Liberation andthe establishment of the Republic, revised earlier vvorks to reflect thechanging usage, especially in vocabulary. Their exhilaration över assertionof Turkish independence carried över to their mission in establishingthe connection betvveen language and national identity. Themes vvent beyondthe confines of istanbul, into Anatolia, vvhere the language vvas neitherthat of the older, educated generation in istanbul nor the vocabularybeing revamped by the Language Association. Prominent authors vvho803