Arabic Sript vs. Latin Script

Al Jassas My main goal is not whether Arabic script is superious to latin or vise vesa or whether Turkey should return to Arabic script or Farsi and Arabic should ditch it. The main question is: Is it worth it?

Feanor Yes, they can Mr. Bulldog. How else Turks could become Muslim & Middle Eastern when they originated somewhere around Mongolia or Siberia?

Al_Jassas Since you claim that the Turkish language and identity did not suffer from the change then I will ask the next very simple question: Has all the  Arabic script turkish literature been translated into modern Turkish and is it available for the common Turkish person? If the answer is yes then the argument is completely invalid for Turkish but if no, then you must admit that an integral part of the Turkish heritage is lost.

Feanor No, it's not. You think that way because you are a religious person. Turkish elites decided to be like Arabs when they thought that it would serve their interests, and they decided to be like Europeans when the time was right.

Originally posted by Bulldog However, how can you justify Turkish words being replaced with French words? why arn't you outraged about this? today alot of Turkish people I talk to are disgusted with some segments of the media and their awfull use of Turkish, they feel ashamed that these so-called intellects try to stick foreign words into their language to appear more intellectual.

Originally posted by Bulldog This is why I feel its important to have knowledge of the script, it should be taught in�state education.�Even though most important materials are easily translated there is so much that is not significant on a large scale but important on a pesonal level that would be understood better, it also is enriching to have knowledge of different scripts.

Scripts and languages evolve over time. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Foreign words will always find their way into different languages. I used to be annoyed with it; nowadays I just accept it, and avoid using the most silly English terms that so often make their way into Swedish. What's the harm - it's not that you can talk with your ancestors anyway. Those ancestors in turn spoke a different language then their ancestors, and this iterates all the way back to the days of the language of grunting.

We used to use runes, now we also have adopted the Latin alphabeth since it's more efficient. If I want to read runes, I can just learn the runic alphabeth (which I have, by the way) - it's more beneficient to be able to read other languages of my contemporary world. Languages evolve, and be happy for that. Otherwise it would be *grunt* *grunt* everywhere.

Edited by Styrbiorn - 23-Nov-2007 at 01:18

religous names There is no such thing.

Christopher and Abudullah would be quite surprised to hear this. I think Christian and Islam would be rolling in laughter.


Edited by Omar al Hashim - 23-Nov-2007 at 05:09

Hello tou you all

then by which authority have you decided if this work is important or not

The same authority you seem to possess when you are criticizing a social reform which you probably know very little about. Al Jassas, you may, of course, say what you think, but if you want to have some credibility, you have to provide some evidence. Say, which Ottoman artist, whose works were really popular from his lifetime till the fall of the empire, lost his status after Republic of Turkey decided to switch its script to Latin and purified Turkish language from foreign influences?

Or will you claim that the common people could understand the value of some artists eventually, many years after their deaths maybe? Well, perhaps, or perhaps not. It's not right to make comments on baseless assumptions. But what happens to the artists who were born in the path which was set by Republic of Turkey? Let me guess... They were all wannabe Europeans, and unworthy of existence? You don't make any sense if you think that way.

Well, doesn't that prove the following statement false?

No, on the contrary it proves my previous statement. Abdullah, and Islam, are Arabic names, not Islamic ones as there is no Islamic names since there is no Islamic language.

The same thing goes for Christopher and Christian which were deriven from ancient Greek.

Feanor Written by a pan-Islamist... Wow, what a great example.

Hello to you all