Standardized register of Turkish in the Ottoman Empire

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottoman Turkish</span>

Ottoman Turkish

<p><b>Ottoman Turkish</b> (<a href="/en/Ottoman_Turkish_language" title="Ottoman Turkish language" class="mw-redirect wl">Ottoman Turkish</a><span>: </span><span dir="rtl">لِسانِ عُثمانى</span><span>, </span><small about="#mwt31">romanized:<span>&nbsp;</span></small><span><i lang="ota-Latn">Lisân-ı Osmânî</i></span>, <small about="#mwt32" typeof="mw:Transclusion" data-mw="{&quot;parts&quot;:[{&quot;template&quot;:{&quot;target&quot;:{&quot;wt&quot;:&quot;IPA-tr&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;./Template:IPA-tr&quot;},&quot;params&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:{&quot;wt&quot;:&quot;li'saːnɯ os'maːniː&quot;}},&quot;i&quot;:0}}]}">Turkish pronunciation:<span>&nbsp;</span></small><span class="IPA"><a href="/en/Help:IPA/Turkish" title="Help:IPA/Turkish" class="wl">[li'saːnɯ os'maːniː</a>]</span>; <a href="/en/Turkish_language" title="Turkish language" class="wl">Turkish</a><span>: </span><i lang="tr">Osmanlı Türkçesi</i>) was the standardized <a href="/en/Register_(sociolinguistics)" title="Register (sociolinguistics)" class="wl">register</a> of the <a href="/en/Turkish_language" title="Turkish language" class="wl">Turkish language</a> used by the citizens of the <a href="/en/Ottoman_Empire" title="Ottoman Empire" class="wl">Ottoman Empire</a> (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from <a href="/en/Arabic" title="Arabic" class="wl">Arabic</a> and <a href="/en/Persian_language" title="Persian language" class="wl">Persian</a>, and its speakers used the <a href="/en/Ottoman_Turkish_alphabet" title="Ottoman Turkish alphabet" class="wl">Ottoman Turkish alphabet</a> for written communication. During the peak of Ottoman power (<abbr about="#mwt34" typeof="mw:Transclusion" data-mw="{&quot;parts&quot;:[{&quot;template&quot;:{&quot;target&quot;:{&quot;wt&quot;:&quot;circa&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;./Template:Circa&quot;},&quot;params&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:{&quot;wt&quot;:&quot;16th century CE&quot;}},&quot;i&quot;:0}}]}">c.</abbr><span style="white-space:nowrap;"><span> </span>16th century CE</span>), words of foreign origin in <a href="/en/Turkish_literature" title="Turkish literature" class="wl">Turkish literature</a> in the Ottoman Empire heavily outnumbered native Turkish words,<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-4"><a href="#cite_note-4" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[3]</span></a></span> with Arabic and Persian vocabulary accounting for up to 88% of the Ottoman vocabulary in some texts.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-Bertold_Spuler_p_69_5-0"><a href="#cite_note-Bertold_Spuler_p_69-5" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 4;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[4]</span></a></span></p>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Standardized register of Turkish in the Ottoman Empire</div>
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<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1066479718" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}</style><div class='mobile-collapse'><header class="mobile-collapse-header mobile-collapse-btn"><b>Quick facts: Ottoman Turkish, Region, Ethnicity, Era, Lang...</b> <span class='arrow'>▼</span></header> <table class="infobox vevent mobile-collapse-element"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above above notheme" style="font-size:125%; color: black; background-color: yellowgreen;">Ottoman Turkish</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-subheader notheme" style="font-size:110%; color: black; background-color: yellowgreen;"><span><span dir="rtl">لسان عثمانى</span></span><br><span><i lang="ota-Latn">Lisân-ı Osmânî</i></span></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><span><a href="/en/File:Ottoman_Turkish_in_Nastaliq.png" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Ottoman_Turkish_in_Nastaliq.png"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Ottoman_Turkish_in_Nastaliq.png/200px-Ottoman_Turkish_in_Nastaliq.png" decoding="async" data-file-width="500" data-file-height="200" data-file-type="bitmap" height="80" width="200" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Ottoman_Turkish_in_Nastaliq.png/300px-Ottoman_Turkish_in_Nastaliq.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Ottoman_Turkish_in_Nastaliq.png/400px-Ottoman_Turkish_in_Nastaliq.png 2x" alt="Ottoman_Turkish_in_Nastaliq.png"></a></span><div class="infobox-caption" style="padding:0.35em 0.35em 0.25em;line-height:1.25em;">Ottoman Turkish written in <a href="/en/Nastaliq" title="Nastaliq" class="wl">Nastaliq</a> style<br><span><span dir="rtl">(لسان عثمانى)</span></span></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;">Region</th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><a href="/en/Ottoman_Empire" title="Ottoman Empire" class="wl">Ottoman Empire</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;">Ethnicity</th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><a href="/en/Ottoman_Turks" title="Ottoman Turks" class="wl">Ottoman Turks</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;">Era</th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><abbr>c.</abbr><span style="white-space:nowrap;"><span> </span>15th century</span>; developed into <a href="/en/Turkish_language" title="Turkish language" class="wl">Modern Turkish</a> in 1928<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="#cite_note-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;"><span class="wrap"><a href="/en/Language_family" title="Language family" class="wl">Language family</a></span></div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><div style="text-align:left;"><a href="/en/Turkic_languages" title="Turkic languages" class="wl">Turkic</a>
<ul style="line-height:100%; margin-left:1.35em;padding-left:0"><li>
<a href="/en/Common_Turkic_languages" title="Common Turkic languages" class="wl">Common Turkic</a><ul style="line-height:100%;margin-left:0.45em;padding-left:0;"><li><a href="/en/Oghuz_languages" title="Oghuz languages" class="wl">Oghuz</a><ul style="line-height:100%;margin-left:0.45em;padding-left:0;"><li>Western Oghuz<ul style="line-height:100%;margin-left:0.45em;padding-left:0;"><li><b>Ottoman Turkish</b></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Early form</div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><div style="text-align:left;"><a href="/en/Old_Anatolian_Turkish" title="Old Anatolian Turkish" class="wl">Old Anatolian Turkish</a>

</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;"><span class="wrap"><a href="/en/Writing_system" title="Writing system" class="wl">Writing system</a></span></div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><a href="/en/Ottoman_Turkish_alphabet" title="Ottoman Turkish alphabet" class="wl">Ottoman Turkish alphabet</a></td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header notheme" style="color: black; background-color: yellowgreen;">Official status</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Official language<span>&nbsp;</span>in</div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1126788409" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles">.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0}</style><div class="plainlist"><ul><li><a href="/en/Beylik_of_Tunis" title="Beylik of Tunis" class="wl">Beylik of Tunis</a></li><li><a href="/en/Cretan_State" title="Cretan State" class="wl">Cretan State</a></li><li><a href="/en/Emirate_of_Jabal_Shammar" title="Emirate of Jabal Shammar" class="wl">Emirate of Jabal Shammar</a></li><li><a href="/en/Khedivate_of_Egypt" title="Khedivate of Egypt" class="wl">Khedivate of Egypt</a></li><li><a href="/en/Ottoman_Empire" title="Ottoman Empire" class="wl">Ottoman Empire</a></li><li><a href="/en/Provisional_National_Government_of_the_Southwestern_Caucasus" title="Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus" class="wl">Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus</a></li><li><a href="/en/Provisional_Government_of_Western_Thrace" title="Provisional Government of Western Thrace" class="wl">Provisional Government of Western Thrace</a></li><li><a href="/en/Turkish_Provisional_Government" title="Turkish Provisional Government" class="mw-redirect wl">Turkish Provisional Government</a></li><li><a href="/en/Turkey" title="Turkey" class="wl">Turkey</a> (<a href="/en/Turkish_language#Language_reform_and_modern_Turkish" title="Turkish language" class="wl">until 1928</a>)<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="#cite_note-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;" data-mw-group="lower-alpha"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[lower-alpha 1]</span></a></span></li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-header notheme" style="color: black; background-color: yellowgreen;">Language codes</th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><span class="nowrap"><a href="/en/ISO_639-2" title="ISO 639-2" class="wl">ISO 639-2</a></span></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><code><span class="plainlinks"><a rel="mw:ExtLink nofollow" href="https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/langcodes_name.php?code_ID=346" class="external text" target="_blank">ota</a></span></code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><span class="nowrap"><a href="/en/ISO_639-3" title="ISO 639-3" class="wl">ISO 639-3</a></span></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><code><a href="https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/ota" title="iso639-3:ota" class="extiw" target="_blank">ota</a></code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;"><a href="/en/Linguist_List" title="Linguist List" class="wl">Linguist List</a></div></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><code><a rel="mw:ExtLink nofollow" href="http://multitree.org/codes/ota" class="external text" target="_blank">ota</a></code></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label" style="white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.65em;"><i><a href="/en/Glottolog" title="Glottolog" class="wl">Glottolog</a></i></th><td class="infobox-data" style="line-height:1.3em;"><code><a rel="mw:ExtLink nofollow" href="http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/otto1234" class="external text" target="_blank">otto1234</a></code></td></tr></tbody></table> <footer class='mobile-collapse-footer mobile-collapse-btn'><b>Close</b> <span class='arrow'>▲</span></footer></div>
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<div class="side-box-text plainlist"><b>This article contains <a href="/en/Ottoman_Turkish_alphabet" title="Ottoman Turkish alphabet" class="wl">Ottoman Turkish text</a>, written from right to left with some <a href="/en/Arabic_alphabet" title="Arabic alphabet" class="wl">Arabic</a> letters and additional symbols joined.</b> Without proper <a href="/en/Help:Arabic" title="Help:Arabic" class="wl">rendering support</a>, you may see unjoined letters or other symbols.</div></div>
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<p>Consequently, Ottoman Turkish was largely unintelligible to the less-educated lower-class and to rural Turks, who continued to use <span><i lang="ota-Latn">kaba Türkçe</i></span> ("raw/vulgar Turkish"; compare <a href="/en/Vulgar_Latin" title="Vulgar Latin" class="wl">Vulgar Latin</a> and <a href="/en/Demotic_Greek" title="Demotic Greek" class="wl">Demotic Greek</a>), which used far fewer foreign <a href="/en/Loanword" title="Loanword" class="wl">loanwords</a> and is the basis of the modern standard.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-6"><a href="#cite_note-6" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 5;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[5]</span></a></span> The <a href="/en/Tanzimat" title="Tanzimat" class="wl">Tanzimât</a> era (1839–1876) saw the application of the term "Ottoman" when referring to the language<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-7"><a href="#cite_note-7" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 6;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[6]</span></a></span> (<span><span dir="rtl">لسان عثمانی</span></span> <span><i lang="ota-Latn">lisân-ı Osmânî</i></span> or <span><span dir="rtl">عثمانليجه</span></span> <span><i lang="ota-Latn">Osmanlıca</i></span>); Modern Turkish uses the same terms when referring to the language of that era (<span><i lang="tr">Osmanlıca</i></span> and <span><i lang="tr">Osmanlı Türkçesi</i></span>). More generically, the Turkish language was called <span><span dir="rtl">تركچه</span></span> <span><i lang="ota-Latn">Türkçe</i></span> or <span><span dir="rtl">تركی</span></span> <span><i lang="ota-Latn">Türkî</i></span> "Turkish".</p>



Ottoman Turkish was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire . It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian, and its speakers used the Ottoman Turkish alphabet for written communication. During the peak of Ottoman power , words of foreign origin in Turkish literature in the Ottoman Empire heavily outnumbered native Turkish words, Consequently, Ottoman Turkish was largely unintelligible to the less-educated lower-class and to rural Turks, who continued to use kaba Türkçe , which used far fewer foreign loanwords and is the basis of the modern standard. ; Modern Turkish uses the same terms when referring to the language of that era . More generically, the Turkish language was called تركچه Türkçe or تركی Türkî "Turkish". 