Abstract
Opinions Of Tatar Turkish People Living In Japan On Alphabet Reform In Turkey Accordıng To 15th Issue Of Journal Of Yanı Yapon Muhbiri
Turkish people have spread to large areas, established civilizations and cultural interaction with many communities in the historical process. The changes in religion and belief, which are the result of interaction, have led the Turkish people to use many different alphabets throughout history. Turkish people, who have a deep-rooted written culture, preferred Göktürk, Uighur, Arabic, Latin and Slavic (Cyrillic) alphabets more than others. Especially with the Arabic alphabet, many works have had been put forward for centuries. Among these, the number of works written in a heavy language as well as those created in simple language is quite high. The problem of simple language, which had been brought up in the earlier periods of the Ottoman Empire, was discussed more seriously, especially during the Tanzimat period, when many intellectual movements were on the agenda. It was suggested that only a certain group could understand the mixed language called Ottoman Turkish used in the works, various ideas were suggested about the improvement or changing of the alphabet. However, concrete results could not be obtained in both topics.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and those who have the same idea with him put an end point to the discussions on the alphabet that lasted for years. Ataturk who saw the only way of newly established Turkey's progress is being educated nation, thought that the literacy rate had to increase firstly, so it was needed easily learnt and more appropriate alphabet to Turkish language. As a result of the researches, it was decided that the most appropriate alphabet was Latin alphabet, the new Turkish alphabet of Latin origin was adopted on 1 November 1928 with the decision of the majority in parliament. A matter alphabet changing of Turkey Turkish people, is no exception to the attention of other countries as well. Many countries expressed their especially positive opinions about the topic through newspapers. There is an idea of the Turkey Turkish people’s alphabet reform in the 15th issue of journal of Yanı Yapon Muhbiri which was published in 1934 by Tatar Turkish people in Japan, too. In this study, it is analyzed article including Tatars opinions and criticisms about the case of the Turkish alphabet reform in this journal.
Keywords
Turkish alphabet reform, Arabic alphabet, Latin alphabet, Tatar Turkish people, Yanı Yapon Muhbiri