Last week, Begum mentioned that she does not feel so bad when indigenous languages die out due to the rising influence of the Turkish language. Well, it appears that Turkish is indeed a strong language right now, “universal” even.
What indicators support the importance of the Turkish language? This year, 750 students from 120 nations will participate in the International Turkish Olympiads. The sheer numbers indicated that Turkish has become a “universal” and global language that unifies people. The slogan chosen for this year’s competition – “we speak the same language” – emphasizes the unifying nature of Turkish. In connection to other readings from this quarter, I noticed that countries have deep pride and honor attached to the spread of their language. Turkey certainly follows suit.
What has helped Turkish spread globally? The increase in Turkish schools worldwide, thus more widespread teaching of the language, is just one of the factors. Turkey has gained more attention over the last few years as the debate about its possible EU citizenship status has heated up. Furthermore, Turkey’s geographic and economic position has captured the interests of officials in national security.
I did not know much about the Turkish language, but my Russian teacher has really encouraged me to consider studying Turkish, so I did more research online about the language itself. There are approximately 70 million Turkish speakers worldwide. The language has roots in Central Asia (roots date back to 1,200 years). Turkish spread due to the influence of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkish is definitely a language whose spread I look forward to observing.
Article: Turkish now ‘universal’ language, TDK head Akalın says
Source: http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-210870-101-turkish-now-universal-language-tdk-head-akalin-says.html
Article: The Rise of the Turkish Language
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/the-rise-of-the-turkish-language-329329.html
I like this article! It is true that there are, as you said, many factors that helped to spread the Turkish language such as the growing Turkish population, Turkish immigrants in Germany and the debate over Turkey's accession into the European Union.
ReplyDeleteI think that Turkish is a very different language - when people ask me what other language it resembles, I cannot really come up with one. We use the Latin alphabet, but we have some letters such as ü, ö that English language does not have, for example. It is a very rich language and also challenging to learn, because its grammar structures are very different.
Interesting! I think this is a very compelling example of how various factors combined, such as the current events surrounding Turkey's EU bid, can lead to a country's language being more well-known and widely studied. There seems to be a clear "building on itself" trend (I'm forgetting the more eloquent phrase right now...oops haha), in which one event happens that leads to more awareness and more language education, which in turn triggers a whole new set of events and actions to occur that further the language in people's awareness and priorities. For example, I would bet that this conference will in turn lead to many more people who are interested in learning the language, and thus, even more prominence for Turkish as a whole.
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