Ottoman Empire Language

The official Ottoman Empire language was the Ottoman Turkish language. This language was quite obviously a variant of Turkish language which was used in the administrative and literary purposes of the Ottoman Empire. This stemmed from both Arabic and Persian and was basically written as a variant of Arabic.

How It Came About

The heavy borrowing from Arabic, was not due to any direct exposure of Ottoman Turkish to Arabic. It was basically a mutation, or rather a distortion of the Arabic words along with the Persian. The Ottoman Empire language conserved very archaic pronunciations. This is indicative of the fact that a combination of Persian- Arabic existed even in the pre Ottoman times. This happened when the speakers of the language were still based in the North eastern region of Persia.

After this there was the migration of the Turks towards the west. Another thing which reinstates this fact is that the Ottoman Empire language has many features in common with other Turkish languages like Uygur and Tatar which had an even more feeble connection with Arabic.

This language had about three different variations:

1. Eloquent Turkish: This was in use till the sixteenth century and was considered a part of what is known as Ancient Anatolian Turkish. It was commonly used by Seljouks and Anatolian Beyliks.

2. Middle Ottoman Turkish: This was the language in which the famed Ottoman Poetry flourished. It was also used for administrative purposes. This is the first thing that comes to mind when people speak of Ottoman Empire language.

3. New Ottoman Turkish: This language came into being during the 1850s and was worked upon till the twentieth century and was heavily influenced by Western culture and journalism.

Calligraphy

This art flourished in the Ottoman Empire. It all began when Seyh Hamdullah began to perfect the calligraphy style of Yakut. Later on, he developed his own style of work and this came to be known as the "Seyh manner" of Calligraphy.

The Seyh Hamdullah manner of writing prevailed for a long time. Then finally, in the latter half of the seventh century, a new master called Hafiz Osman prevailed. He developed a manner of calligraphy all of his own which was basically characterized by a high degree of purity. This was the style of calligraphy which prevailed. The Ottoman Empire language evolved and is still regarded as one of the most beautiful ancient languages.