Some Notes on the Spelling of Early XIV Century Works Written in Mamluk Turkish

Abstract

It is seen that different alphabets have been used for the writing of Turkish in the one thousand and four hundred years that have passed from the first written examples that emerged in the VI century to the present day. Among these alphabets in which Turkish is written, the one that has been used and spread for many years is the Arabic alphabet. The fact that Arabic script was used for the writing of Turkish in a wide geography in a long period, including Middle Turkish, and that a permanent orthographic tradition was not created is the subject of discussion in this study. Due to this situation, it has become almost impossible to determine the cultural environment in which the work was written, based on the orthographic features. However, Turkish writing with Arabic letters, which was created in the Mamluk area, also offers materials that can create a different perspective on this situation. The features that emerged in the Mamluk field at the beginning of the XIV century are structures that belong to Arabic orthography and phonology and do not contain any phonological distinctions for Turkish in terms of some features. However, the use of Arabic spelling tenvin, vav+elif and elif-i maksure in Turkish works in the Mamluk field gives very valuable place/field information. In the study, it has been revealed how the Arabic orthographic features, which are not found in other fields, are used in the writing of the works called Behcetü’l-Hadâik fî Mev’izeti’l-Halâik, Kor’an Translation: Süleymaniye 3966, Bed’ü’l-Amâlî and El-Muhtasar, which are accepted as belonging to the field.

Ethical committee approval is not required for this research.

The author declares no conflicts of interest in this study.

This research received no external funding.