What Alphabet Does Turkey Use? A Look at the Fascinating History of the Turkish Alphabet

On 1 November 1928, a new Turkish alphabet law was passed making making the use of Latin letters compulsory in all public communications and the education system

Turkey uses a modified version of the Latin alphabet called the Turkish alphabet (Türk alfabesi). This 29-letter alphabet was introduced in 1928 as part of Atatürk’s Reforms to replace the previous Arabic-based Ottoman Turkish alphabet.

A Brief History

For over 1000 years, the Ottoman Empire used a Turkish form of the Arabic script known as the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. However, the Arabic script proved inadequate for representing many Turkish vowels and consonants.

In the early 20th century, proposals were made to switch to a Latin-based alphabet by reformers associated with the Young Turks movement But conservative and religious elements opposed Romanization on grounds it would detach Turkey from the wider Islamic world

In 1926, the Turkic republics of the Soviet Union adopted the Latin script, giving a major boost to reformers in Turkey In 1928, under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey made the change to a modern Latin alphabet

A Language Commission was established to adapt the Latin script to the phonetic requirements of Turkish. The resulting alphabet was designed to accurately reflect the sounds of the spoken language. After a transition period of several months, use of the new Turkish alphabet became mandatory across Turkey starting in January 1929.

Distinctive Features of the Turkish Alphabet

The Turkish alphabet contains 29 letters, 8 of which are vowels (A, E, I, İ, O, Ö, U, Ü) and 21 are consonants.

It includes modified versions of some Latin letters to represent unique Turkish sounds:

Ç – /tʃ/ as in chair
Ğ – Usually silent indicating lengthening of vowel
I – /ɯ/ close back unrounded vowel
İ – /i/ as in feet
Ö – /œ/ open-mid front rounded vowel
Ş – /ʃ/ as in show
Ü – /y/ close front rounded vowel

In addition the Turkish alphabet uses

Two forms of I – dotted İ and dotless ı
Optional circumflex accents (â, î, û) to indicate palatalization

The letters Q, W, and X do not occur in native Turkish words.

Why Change From the Arabic Script?

Some key reasons driving the change to the Latin alphabet:

The Ottoman Turkish alphabet was not well-suited to the sounds of the Turkish language leading to difficulties reading and writing.
Latin script was seen as more phonetic and easier to learn, helping to increase literacy rates.
Reformers wanted to modernize Turkey and link it to Western Europe rather than the wider Islamic world.

what alphabet does turkey use

Editorial: the Turkish language

The machiavellian policy, initiated at the Tower of Babel, has always been distressingly successful in keeping the nations of the world apart. The problem of intercourse in different languages has been further complicated by a variety of scripts. Thus the decision of the more or less philosophic despotism reigning in Turkey to substitute Latin characters for Arabic ones is a step, even if a small one, towards the unity of nations. According to reports it is hoped that all education will be Latinised in its script in the course of seven years, while newspapers will be compelled to begin the transformation in some of their columns as soon as the law is finally passed. The Turkish government has a short way with conservative opinion, and one presumes that not many years hence it will be as dangerous to put up a notice in the traditional and highly decorative Arabic characters as it now is to wear a fez. Continue reading.

A new alphabet for Turkish: Latin characters in writing

11 July 1928 A new alphabet for Turkish has been unanimously selected by the Latin Characters Commission sitting at Angora. The invention of new letters has been avoided. Some letters can bear accents to denote the extra sounds needed. All Turkish words can be written with the new alphabet.

The Commission is beginning to draw up a dictionary giving an official Latin orthography to which all must conform. Grammatical rules are made uniform by eliminating the special formations of Persian and Arabic words that still encumber Turkish, and making them follow the rules of Turkish proper.

Why The Letter Q Has Only Been Legal In Turkey For 8 Years

FAQ

Does Turkey use English letters?

The Turkish alphabet is used for writing, speaking and reading in Turkish. This alphabet is modified from the Latin alphabet. There are 29 letters in the Turkish alphabet of Turkey. The English letters, “Q”, “W” and “X” are not in Turkish alphabet.

Why was the letter Q illegal in Turkey?

Kurds make up about 20% of Turkey’s population – around 15 to 20 million people. But until the early 1990s, it was illegal in Turkey to use Kurdish in public. Turkey went even further by banning several letters of the alphabet – X, W and Q – because they are associated with the Kurdish language.

Does Turkey use Arabic language?

The languages of Turkey, apart from the official language Turkish, include the widespread Kurdish (Kurmanji), Zazaki, and Arabic, and a number of less common minority languages.

Does Turkey use Cyrillic?

The Turkish Cyrillic alphabet was invented by Ethan Hunt. He invented it in class when he was pondering about Turkic languages. He wondered why Turkish wasn’t like the rest of the Turkic languages: it is not written in the Cyrillic script.