Old Anatolian Turkish

Old Anatolian Turkish (), also referred to as Old Anatolian Turkic, was the form of the Turkish language spoken in Anatolia from the 11th to 15th centuries. It developed into Early Ottoman Turkish and Middle Azerbaijani. It was written in the Perso-Arabic script. Unlike in later Ottoman Turkish, short-vowel diacritics were used.

It had no official status until 1277, when Mehmet I of Karaman declared a firman in an attempt to break the dominance of Persian:

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History

It has been erroneously assumed that the Old Anatolian Turkish literary language was created in Anatolia and that its authors transformed a primitive language into a literary medium by submitting themselves to Persian influence. In reality, the Oghuz Turks who came to Anatolia brought their own written language, literary traditions and models from Khwarezm and Transoxiana.

The Ajem-Turkic also known as Classical Azerbaijani language descended from Old Anatolian Turkish. Ajem-Turkic started to form its shape in the Aq Qoyunlu, Qara Qoyunlu eras, and, especially, the Safavid era. It is the old form of Modern Standard Azerbaijani

Examples

Following texts are excerpts of the Qabus-Nama, taken from Turan Fikret's work: "Old Anatolian Turkish: Syntactic Structure" (1996):

• bizüm delilümüz: "Our proofs."
• devletlü gişiler: "Fortunate ones."
• zinhār zinhār: "Never."
• pÄ«rlikde yigitlenmek rüsvāylıqdur: "It is a shame to act like a young man in old age."
• bulardan artanı beytü’l mālda qoyalar: "They should put in public treasury that which remained from them."
• birgün bu ilçiyile oturur iken Qısri Büzürcmihre sorar: "One day when he was sitting with this [foreign] ambassador, Chosroes asked Büzürcmihr."
• Kelām-ı mecÄ«d: "The word of the most glorious (God), the Qoran."
• dar'ül-harb: "Countries outside of the domain of Islam."
• Taŋrı aŋa raḥmet itmez: "God does not forgive him."
• aġırlaŋ aá¹­aŋuzı anaŋuzı egerçi kāfirse daqı: "Respect your parents even if they are unbelievers."
• Ne qul kim alam āzāz olsun: "Every slave that I would buy should be freed"
• ve cāhil gişileri gişi sanma ve hünersüzleri bilür sayma: "And do not consider the ignorant ones the [real] men, and [do not consider] the untalented ones the knowledgeable ones."
• zinhār işüŋi á¹­anışmaqdan ʿārlanma: "Beware, and never be ashamed of learning your job."
• sen yalan söyleyesi gişi degülsin: "You are not someone who would lie."
• artuq zaḥmet çeküp artuq á¹­amaÊ¿ eyleme: "Do not work hard to satisfy your greed."
• eger sen Taŋrıya muá¹­Ä«Ê¿ olmayup bunlardan muá¹­Ä«Ê¿lıq isteyüp bunlara zaḥmet virür iseŋ Taŋrılıq daÊ¿vÄ«sin itmiş olursın: "If you yourself do not obey God and ask these people for obedience [for you] and oppress them, then you are considered as someone pretending to be God."
• yaÊ¿nÄ« bir şaḫsuŋ bir sarayda naṣībi olsa andan ol naṣībi á¹£atsa ne qadardur bāyiÊ¿yā müşterÄ« bilmese EbÅ« ḤanÄ«feden üç rivāyetdür: "In other words, if someone has a share in a palace and then if he sells it without either seller or buyer knowing the exact value of it, then there are three traditions according to Abû Ḥanîfe."
• benüm dostlarum beni ġāyet sevdüklerinden baŋa Ê¿aybum dimezler idi ve düşmānlarum benüm Ê¿aybumı ḫalqa söylerler idi: "Because my friends liked me very much they did not say my shortcomings to me, [but] my enemies told the people my shortcomings."
• ben eyittim sübḥān Allāh qırq iki yaşında gişi neçün şöyle içekim nerdübāŋ ayaġın nice urasın bilmeye düşe ve dün buçuġında neçün şöyle yörüye kim şunuŋ gibi vāqıʿaya uÄ¡raya: "I said ‘O God why would a person of forty-two years of age drink so much that he can not judge how to put his feet on the steps of a ladder, so he falls, and also why would he walk like that in the middle of the night when feeling this way."

Orthography

Alphabet

See also

• Ottoman Turkish
• Turkish language
• Kesik Baş
• Karamanids

Notes

References