- Hardcover: 200 pages
- Publisher: OUP Oxford (18 Nov 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0198238568
- ISBN-13: 978-0198238560
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.4 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,343,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
The Turkish Language Reform
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Review
This is a study written with understanding and sympathy, avoiding such pitfalls as the opportunity to ridicule failures in the reform ... one cannot but admire the author for his expert analysis and convincing presentation ... a truly excellent book, which will remain the definitive scholarly work on the subject for a long time. (Language Policy )
A very important contribution ... While others have told the history of the language reform as well, it is Lewis's great merit that more than a third of his study is devoted to analyzing the "ingredients" and "concoctions" of this reform, as he calls them. This he does both expertly and wittily, enlivening his scholarly discussion of how intellectuals and others employed various suffixes to coin new words while frequently bending the rules of linguistics. (Language Policy )
This book will be compulsory reading for foreign students of Turkish. Geoffrey Lewis's account of one of the most thorough campaigns to purge a language of foreign elements will also attract the more general reader. There are substantial quotations from Turkish writers, and most will be thankful for the translations. (Bengisu Rona, Times Higher Education Supplement )
The Turkish Language Reform is a dramatic story, entertainingly written, and not overly long. What is more, it provides a great insight into the practicalities of language planning. (Journal of Sociolinguistics )
From the moment you read 'A catastrophic success' in the subtitle you know that Lewis's intention is to provide interesting, entertaining reading. The story is a great one ... and well worth the read. (Journal of Sociolinguistics )
Professor Lewis has written a fascinating book and he deserves the gratitude and appreciation of both colleagues and non-specialists alike. Lewis has succeeded in making a demanding task seem particularly easy and even graceful. As a stylist, Lewis is incisive, sometime brutally candid, and almost always witty. The book is sure to remain the last word on the language reform for a long time to come. (Journal of Middle Eastern Studies )
This book can and must be recommended to anyone interested in the modern Turkish language. (Anthropological Linguistics )
A very important contribution ... While others have told the history of the language reform as well, it is Lewis's great merit that more than a third of his study is devoted to analyzing the "ingredients" and "concoctions" of this reform, as he calls them. This he does both expertly and wittily, enlivening his scholarly discussion of how intellectuals and others employed various suffixes to coin new words while frequently bending the rules of linguistics. (Language Policy )
This book will be compulsory reading for foreign students of Turkish. Geoffrey Lewis's account of one of the most thorough campaigns to purge a language of foreign elements will also attract the more general reader. There are substantial quotations from Turkish writers, and most will be thankful for the translations. (Bengisu Rona, Times Higher Education Supplement )
The Turkish Language Reform is a dramatic story, entertainingly written, and not overly long. What is more, it provides a great insight into the practicalities of language planning. (Journal of Sociolinguistics )
From the moment you read 'A catastrophic success' in the subtitle you know that Lewis's intention is to provide interesting, entertaining reading. The story is a great one ... and well worth the read. (Journal of Sociolinguistics )
Professor Lewis has written a fascinating book and he deserves the gratitude and appreciation of both colleagues and non-specialists alike. Lewis has succeeded in making a demanding task seem particularly easy and even graceful. As a stylist, Lewis is incisive, sometime brutally candid, and almost always witty. The book is sure to remain the last word on the language reform for a long time to come. (Journal of Middle Eastern Studies )
This book can and must be recommended to anyone interested in the modern Turkish language. (Anthropological Linguistics )
Anthropological Linguistics
"This book can and must be recommended to anyone interested in the modern Turkish language."
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This book has two purposes. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
This book has two purposes. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
While not neglecting theories of language development, which can be hard going for readers more interested in the socio-political aspects of 20th century Turkey, Lewis has produced an elegant, authoritative work on one of Ataturk's most significant reforms.
After the first world war the Ottoman Empire crumbled and Mustafa Kemal, probably the only Ottoman military commander to emerge with any credibility from the defeat, led the War of Independance that established the modern Turkish Republic. Over the following 15 years, often in the face of resistance, puzzlement and apathy, he set about creating a western-looking, democratic state capable of modernisation and future development. He was a visionary man blessed both with incredible drive and a practical approach to implementing his plans. He sought to base the new state on a common Turkish identity, an approach that, fifty years after his death, now sits ill with Kurdish people and others whose cultural and linguistic heritages are stifled.
The language reform, replacing arabic script with a phonetic version of the the latin alphabet and ridding the language of words of arabic, persian or european origin, was conducted alongside other political, religious and social reforms that continue to influence modern Turkey.
Lewis mourns the loss of some of the richness and nuance of Ottoman language while also celebrating the reinvigoration of the langauge of ordinary Turks. There is much humour, the mayors, addressed for the first time as "Sayin" (the new word meaning "esteemed") and mistaking it for the the formal command "number off" and calling out in order "one, two three....".
For anyone learning Turkish the book points to the origins of those anomalies remaining in the language and to the thinking (not always consistent, or even present) behind the Ozturkce words that pepper the language today.
I finished the book regretting it was not twice the length and have already read it a second time.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
excellent although more interesting if you know some Turkish
13 Aug 2001
Format:Hardcover
The changes in the Turkish language over the past century are fascinating, and this book does a great job of explaining some of the political and social background. The author is an expert and extremely knowledgeable on this topic. To me the most telling summary was seeing a paragraph of one of Ataturk's most famous speeches presented in the original, then in a retranslation done later, then a re-retranslation done yet later! The first retranslation was necessary because the original could hardly be understood any more, with all the Arabic-derived words etc. The second retranslation was necessary because even the first retranslation could hardly be understood today! This book will be mostly interesting to those who know at least some Turkish already (and the more the better) or to those interested in linguistic change and social engineering. As the other reviews mention, the changes in Turkish are the result of deliberate re-engineering of the language, not of the more usual processes of linguistic evolution. Imagine taking English and trying to get rid of all the words derived from Latin or French and use only Anglo-Saxon words or words newly derived from other Germanic languages, and you will get a partial picture of what happened with Turkish. The author's views are probably summed up by the subtitle: a catastrophic success. The language reform was effective and some of it was valuable but it may have gone too far in destroying some useful distinctions and making Turkish a somewhat less effective and graceful means of expression.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
a superb review of Turkish language
12 Mar 2000
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Prof. Lewis' book gives the full account of the reengeneering of today's Turkish which was essentially for political reasons. The author, atrue erudite and scholar, in about 200 pages pens the process of the death of the ottoman Turkish and the birth of modern Turkish with sometimes bizarre and tragi-comic results. The book must certainly appeal to all Turkish intellectuals irrespective of their ideological position. But it is equally appealing to linguists and orientalists. I cannot praise this book high enough and recommend it strongly.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
A scholarly approach to a highly politicized issue
28 Dec 2001
Format:Hardcover
Turkish Language Reform, from its beginnings in the thirties to this day, has been a highly politicized issue in Turkey. Professor Lewis, a lover of "Beautiful Turkish", gives an excellent account of the historical development of this language engineering while successfully keeping his views out of the realm of language politics of Turkey. Any criticisms he has to make about the Turkish Language Association (Turk Dil Kurumu) come subtly and delicately through the carefully selected quotations from others.
This book is a must for lovers of Turkish language, linguists, historians of language (and surely for the Turkish Language Association), and it can be a fun to read for a non-Turkish taxpayer whose tax money could not be reached to finance the whole project.
For a better grasp of the book, some knowledge of Turkish language helps; the more the better to really get the beautiful "taste" of this excellent book.
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