Alphabets Used by Turks Throughout History, in Order

A lot of the cultural and historical information we have obtained about societies today We owe it to the article.. Writing changed over the centuries and finally turned into alphabets. And today, new research areas have emerged thanks to alphabets.

In the light of these researches, we can access a lot of information about Turkish history. us too Alphabets used by Turks throughout history, in order: We compiled and examined it. Let’s see what information we found.

How was writing discovered before alphabets?

We know that with the invention of writing, communication between people began to improve and history became more indelible and transferable. We learned most of the information we have about history and cultures today with the invention of writing. So who invented this writing?

The invention of writing dates back to B.C. It dates back to 3500 years ago. Around this time, the Sumerians cuneiform is being invented. Of course, writing was not invented suddenly. When societies began to form cities, the productivity of agricultural products increased, and the most important development was the increase in trade, writing was needed. First of all, symbols were used to record the numbers of receivables and receivables in trade. Over time, the number of these symbols increased and improved. While initially each symbol meant a word, over time the symbols turned into signs.

Thus, the writing was transferred to the civilizations in the Anatolian and Iranian regions, which are close geographies to the cuneiform script, which started with the Sumerians.

At this point, let’s also point out that the first writing in history was not cuneiform.

B.C. When we look at the year 3200, we can see a society other than the Sumerians that used symbols as writing: the Egyptians. The most well-known writing system of ancient Egyptian society Egyptian hieroglyphic writing You may have heard of it. Hieroglyphic writing consists of pictures and each picture defines a word. This writing system was discovered on the walls of architectural structures such as temples, tombs and palaces in Ancient Egypt.

These symbols are then simplified and transformed into letters, and after this development, alphabets begin to form.

Symbols turned into letters and letters formed the alphabet.

In cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, each symbol had a corresponding object. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that there are many symbols in both texts. For example, in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, approximately There were 700 symbols. Over time, writing symbols corresponding to sounds were developed. Symbols describing objects and text symbols describing sounds began to be combined and used together. Thus, the foundations of alphabets were laid.

‘Well, in history? inventor of the first alphabet If you ask “which society was it?”, this society was the Phoenicians. B.C. In the 11th century, the Phoenicians created the alphabet by simplifying the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. Since they only used symbols corresponding to sounds, the number of letters also decreased. The number of letters has decreased so much that there are only 22 letters in the Phoenician alphabet.

Decreasing the number of letters, making them easier to understand and simplifying have become a common phenomenon in societies. increased the number of literate people. At the same time, with the invention of the alphabet, it became much faster and easier for other societies to become acquainted with writing. One of these societies is the Turks.. Now we can examine the first alphabets used by the Turks, one by one.

What are the first alphabets used by Turks?

• Gokturk alphabet
• Uyghur alphabet
• arabic alphabet
• Kiril alphabet
• the Latin alphabet

Every development throughout history has also affected societies in nearby geographies. Turkish societies were also greatly affected by the invention of writing and then the alphabet. Turks have used 5 alphabets in history and the alphabets they use are as above. Let’s examine these alphabets used by the Turks, one by one.

The most used alphabet of the Turks throughout history: Göktürk alphabet

Göktürk alphabet was used by the Turks oldest alphabet It is known to be. Göktürks used this alphabet from the 7th century to the 10th century. Each administration made different additions to this alphabet used by the Hun and Turkish tribes. Features of the Gokturk alphabet in that:

• It consists of 38 letters. 4 of these letters are vowels and the remaining 34 are consonants.
• 4 vowels correspond to 8 different sounds in the text.
• It is written from right to left.
• There are no lowercase or uppercase letters in the alphabet.
• Thanks to the Turkish tribes, the alphabet was also carried to Europe.

Alphabet adapted to Turkish: Uyghur alphabet

Uyghur alphabet It is an alphabet of Sogdian origin. This alphabet was created with new alphabets according to the beliefs that emerged during the Uyghur period. It is frequently encountered especially in the religious texts of Buddhism and Manichaeism. The Uyghur alphabet was adapted into Turkish by adding or combining some sounds in the Kurzive, the Sogdian handwriting. Features of the Uyghur alphabet in that:

• It consists of 18 letters.
• It is written from right to left.
• All letters are adjacent. Only the letter “Z” is written separately.
• His first written works in Turkish literature, Atabetü’l Hakayık and Kutadgu Bilig, were written in the Uyghur alphabet.

The alphabet used by Turks for about 1000 years: Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet is among the alphabets used by Turks. This alphabet spread in the Middle East through the Umayyads and Abbasids in the 7th century. It was used more widely, especially in lands where Islam was adopted. The Turks, starting with their acceptance of Islam, 10th to 20th century They used this alphabet. Some features of the Arabic alphabet Like this:

• The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters, but in order to be adapted to Turkish, it was created from 36 letters.
• The letters “p, ç, j” were added to the alphabet by the Turks.
• No uppercase or lowercase letters.
• There are no annotation marks.
• The work Divanü Lügati’t Türk was written in this alphabet.

The alphabet that Turks had to use under pressure: Cyrillic alphabet

Cyrillic alphabet usually Slavic languages It was an alphabet used in writing. This alphabet was created by taking the Greek alphabet as an example. If you ask, “So how did the Turks get acquainted with the Cyrillic alphabet?”, we should divide this situation into two time periods. The first is the imposition of the Cyrillic alphabet as a written language on non-Muslim Turks by Russian Orthodox Church missionaries during the Tsarist period. The second is that Turks, who became Muslims due to the oppression during the communist period, used this alphabet as their written language. Features of the Cyrillic alphabet in that:

• The Cyrillic alphabet consists of 38 letters and 11 vowels.
• It is written from left to right.
• Today, some Turkish communities still use this alphabet.

The alphabet that Turks started using thanks to Ataturk: ​​Latin alphabet

The last alphabet used by Turks is the Latin alphabet. occurred on November 1, 1928 Turkish Letter RevolutionIt started to be used in our country after . Thanks to this alphabet, as the literacy rate increased, the way was opened for developments with European status in every field. The first Turkish communities to use the Latin alphabet were Azerbaijan and Yakut Turks. Features of the Latin alphabet in that:

• The Latin alphabet consists of 29 letters.
• There are 21 consonants and 8 vowels.
• It is written from left to right.
• The letters “q, x, w” are not included in the Latin alphabet used by Turks because they are not compatible with the Turkish language structure.

In today’s content, we compiled the alphabets used by Turks and examined their features. We have listed for you the alphabets used by the Turks, starting from the invention of writing. What do you think would happen if we continued to use one of the alphabets other than the Latin alphabet? We are waiting your comments.

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