If I had a research grant to conduct a linguistic study on Turkish, I would study how the Turkish language reform from the early 1900's has impacted the evolution and usage of the Turkish language. The reform was established to replace Arabic and Persian loan words with Turkish words, either derived from Old Turkish or newly created using Turkish roots. In class we talked a lot about the processes by which languages change (both organically and forced), language trees, and how foreign learners learn languages, all of which would be touched upon by this study. To measure how quickly reformed Turkish words were taken up by Turkish speakers, it might be worth performing some sort of word frequency analyses on various Turkish texts (newspapers, novels, verbal communication, etc.) with words before and after the reform. Using this technique, one could compare different types of communication to see if verbal or written forms change the quickest, as well as which reformed words were more easily accepted. I think it would also be interesting to see how quickly this shift in vocabulary has been assimilated into different demographics of the Turkish community. Would age make a difference in adherence to language (ex: might young people more easily change their vocabulary, especially if their language use were reinforced in school)? Another aspect that is important to consider is how the reform has impacted foreign language learners. Quite a few words that I've learned have been Arabic or Persian in origin, so it would be a shame if, as words change because of the reform, I had to relearn the new Turkish word. Would it take longer to introduce the reformed words in Turkish classrooms for foreign learners? The rate at which the language has been reformed over time would also be interesting to look into (also quantified by doing frequency analyses).
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