§ 2. The letters of the Ottoman-Turkish Alphabet are 32 in number, and consist of 28 Arabic letters, together with some which the Persians have added ). The Turks, as most other Oriental nations, read and write from right to left, instead of from left

(پچ

ژگ)

yé

to right as we do; and a book consequently begins where it would end in English. Capital letters are unknown, and the punctuation marks have been adopted recently. They are the same as in English.

§ 3. There are four kinds of writing:

I. Riqá, which is the ordinary current handwriting used in letters and in all kinds of civil and official documents.

II. Nésikh, is the common print of books, newspapers etc.

III. Divanee, is a style of large handwriting used in the Imperial Chancery for engrossing letters-patent.

IV. Taliq, is the Persian model of Arabic characters, it is used by Persians, and also in documents of the Ottoman Canonical court. Examples of these and other forms of rarer occurence are given at the end of this work.

§ 4. There is always more or less difficulty in representing the sounds of one language by those of another. This is true also in the case of the OttomanTurkish language. It belongs to a family or group of tongues different from the English, possessing sounds entirely foreign to English ears. To express these sounds, we have made some modifications of some of the English vowels and consonants. It is necessary to master these sounds before going on. They must be pronounced fully; all having only one regular sound. For instance: a has only one sound, and not five or more as in English: e has only one, as in pet, though the name itself will cause some blunder. i, o, u also have only one sound each.

There are eight vowel sounds in Turkish.

§ 5. The vast population of Turkey, especially the Christians, do not all use the Ottoman characters in their writing. The Armenians and the Greeks have adapted them to their characters. There are books and papers in Turkish, in Armenian and Greek characters, published in Constantinople. Most of the Englishmen and Americans, resident in Turkey, find it easier to begin Turkish with English or Armenian characters, and after mastering the pronunciation and the elements of the language, they turn to begin it with the Arabic

characters, which they find very easy then. The method adapted by us in this work, will remove all these difficulties.

Single and Double Vowels.

§ 6. In reading the names in the above Table and in pronouncing the proper sounds, written in the English characters, the learner must always remember:

1. Not to pronounce a, as in fate, mortal or all; but as in far, art or father.

2. é is always as e in met or send. Take care not to pronounce it as in mere, verb or cane.

3. i is always i, as in pin or ship; never as I, as in tire.c

or

4. I must be pronounced as o in seldom and ein heaven. 5. must not be pronounced long as in oat, prose; but very short as in no.

6. ou pronounce always as in youth, bouquet, foot; and not as in pour, couple, about.

7. û is not as that of pure, turn, rule; it has no equivalent in English, but is the French tu, sur.

8. o has no equivalent in English, it is in French feu, coeur; or German ö in Zöllner, völlig.

Compound Consonants.

§ 7. Turkish orthography does not employ combinations of two or three consonants and vowels to represent a single sound; we are under the necessity, however, of making use in this work of some combinations to represent Turkish sounds, for which there is no equivalent in English. These combinations are made by the addition of some vowels and consonants to h or y. kh has the sound of ch, as in the Scotch loch. gh, as the Greek 7, Armenian z.

zh must be pronounced as z in azure.

§ 8. The combinations tch and dj, so often to be seen in the transliteration of Turkish words, are but French notations of the English ch and j in church and joy.

§ 9. y must always be considered a consonant, and never allowed to degrade the sound of any vowel that may precede it; particular care must be taken by

Englishmen in this matter. It is always as in yell, yoke, buy.

§ 10. y is combined with other vowels to form a diphthong as will be seen in the next Table.

ay Ex.: qaymaq; as in lime, high, I.

éy >>

iy

déymék; chiy;

>> fate, prey, hey.

here, clear.

§ 11. In the transliteration of Ottoman words, h must be emphasized at the beginning, middle and end of words; at the end of the syllables it is generally accented; as: Allah', qah'vé, hékim. This is a most particular rule and requires a good deal of attention and practice in Englishmen; as a pernicious mode of orthography prevails among Englishmen, of introducing mute very frequently at the beginning or end of words; as in honest, Jehovah etc. (§ 49 V.)

R is used as in English; except that it must never be allowed to be uttered obscurely; it must be pronounced fully and strongly; it is generally accented at the end of syllables. (§ 17.) Take care not to vitiate the pure sound of any vowel that may precede it. G is always hard; as in give, got, get.

Numerals and Numeration by Letters.

§ 12. The numerical figures, ten in number, have been adapted by the Ottomans from the Arabs. They are the same that we make use of, calling them Arabic, because we took them from the Arabs. Their forms, however, differ considerably from thoses, which our digits have assumed, as the following table shows:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9; 10, 20, 30; 100 They are compounded in exactly the same way as our numerals. ۱۹۰۲ = 1902.

§ 13. The apparent strangeness of the fact that those numbers seem to be written and read not from

right to left, but from left to right is due to the circumstance that, in Arabic, the smaller numbers are read as well as written first. Thus an Arab would read 1. two and nine hundred and a thousand'. however, a Turk does not do. (§ 691.)

This,

§ 14. If the Arabic alphabet is arranged according to numerical values, there appeares the ancient order, which is still used for notation and numeration. In this order, that of the old Phoenician, Hebrew, Syriac, Greek and Latin alphabets: the first nine letters represent the units; the second nine the tens; the third nine the hundreds and the last one one thousand; compare

پغ

ابجد ؛ هوز ؛ حطى ؛ كلمن ؛ سعفص ؛ the Table of the Alphabet

¿bo¦¦±ŵp Ebjéd, hév véz, houť ti, kélémén, safés, qaréshét, sakhéz, dazighi. Therefore the numeration by letters, is called Ebjéd hisabî.

خرا

§ 15. The method of numeration by the letters of the alphabet was a great task; it is fast going, if not entirely gone, out of practice, as puerile; but formerly great significance was attached to any combination of letters that expresses in one or more words an event or date. Thus kharab is 600+ 200+ 1+2 = 803, the Hejira date when Timurleng laid Damascus in 'ruins'; and a béldéyi tayyibé is 2 +30 + 4 + 400 + 9102 + 400 = 857, date of the year when the 'Beautiful City, Constantinople, was taken by the Ottomans.

Exercise a.

Write and give the names of the following letters; they are arranged according to their numeral value:

ه وزژ؛ ح ط ی ؛ ك گ ل م ن ؛ د؛ھ ا ب پ ج چ د

؛ ق ر ش ت ؛ ث خ ذ ؛ ض ظ غ . س ع ف ص

Division of the Letters.

§ 16. The Ottoman alphabet is divided into four classes: vowels; hard, soft, and neuter letters.