Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish mainly differs from modern Turkish in the degree of Arabic and Persian loanwords and grammatical concepts (e.g. ezafe compounds). Depending on the era and the speaker, up to nearly 90% of Ottoman Turkish words used weren’t actually Turkish but rather loanwords. The big question that emerges here is why? Why was so much of “Turkish" not actually Turkish. There’s not one singular answer and the influence of religious and political dimensions are complex, but one reason I would like to put forward here is diglossia. Diglossia, literally meaning two tongues/languages in Greek, is a state where there are two (or more) different forms of a language that exist in a region. Usually there’s a “low” form of the language used by people in informal contexts and a “high” form used in formal contexts. This is incredibly pronounced in modern day Arabic with Modern Standard Arabic being grammatically and lexically very distinct form the colloquial forms of the language; however, historically this existed in Turkish as well. Turkish was divided into three flavors:
Kaba Türkçe, Orta Türkçe, and Fasih Türkçe; meaning vulgar, middle, and eloquent Turkish respectively. Fasih is a word of Arabic origin that means eloquent, well-spoken, or beautiful (a cognate fusha meaning “most eloquent” is used to describe Quranic Arabic); conversely, kaba is a native Turkish word meaning rough, crude, or rude. "Fasih Türkçe” was the most eloquent in large part because of prestige. In addition to deep literary and philosophical traditions in Persian and Arabic that predate the founding of the Ottoman Empire, Arabic, especially classical Arabic, is integral to Islam and Islamic identity. Using more Arabic-influenced speech identified oneself more closely with religious authority and was a way to establish legitimacy and prestige in Ottoman society. Similarly, one could associate oneself with Persian’s literary and cultural heritage by using Persian words, phrases, and influences. Using both indicates a high degree of education as well. However, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Turkish Republic, the decision to associate oneself more with Arabic and Persian culture and language went away and was replaced with completely different priorities, but that’s a topic for a different cultural post.
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