137. Today in 1920s Turkey: 25 January 1923 (Turkifying Proper Names and Months)
Türkçe
Küçük Haberler: İsimlere, Aylara Dair
Anadolu’da bazı maarif müdürlerinin mekteplerdeki çocukların isimlerine birer Türk adı ilavesine karar verdiklerini okuduk. Bunu pek ziyade takdir eden Tunalı Hilmi Bey, yeni Turk isimlerini bulmak için düşünmeye lüzum olmayıp Türkçe’ye tercüme ve [تحوبلی] kabul olan Arapça isimlerin Türkleştirilmesi hakkında bir layiha hazırlamıştır. Muhterem mebus nemune olarak bazı isimleri şu suretle tercüme buyurmuşlardır.
Sadık: Sözü Bütün. Muştak: İsteği Çok. Ziya: Işık. Refik: Yoldaş. Abdi: Uşak. Halim: Yumuşak. Seyfi: Keskin. Sahir: Uyanık. Faik: Üstün. Sırri: Gizli. Cahit: Çalışkan. Enis: Alışkan. Saim: Oruçlu. Ahmet: İbiş. Muhammed: Memiş.
Aynı zamanda muhterem mebus ayların da şu suretle Türkçeleştirilmesine karar vermiştir:
Mart: Dönek ay. Nisan: Islak ay. Mayıs: Tezek ayı. Haziran: Yemiş ayı. Temmuz: Isıcak ay. Ağustos: Böcek ayı. Eylül: Soluk ay. Teşrini evvel: Sisli ay. Teşrini sani: Pisli ay. Kanunu evvel: Karlı ay. Kanunu sani: Buzlu ay. Şubat: Topal ay.
English
News in Brief: About Names and Months
We read that some educational administrators in Anatolia have decided to add Turkish names to each of the children’s names. Tunalı Hilmi Bey, who praised this quite a bit, has prepared a proposal about the accepted Turkification of Arabic names so that there is no need to think about the Turkish translation and [تحوبلی] of them. The honorable representative has offered a preliminary translation of some names as such:
Sadık: True-Worded. Muştak: Much Desire. Ziya: Light. Refik: Fellow Traveler. Abdi: Servant. Halim: Soft. Seyfi: Sharp. Sahir: Awake. Faik: Superior. Sırri: Hidden/Secretive. Cahit: Hard-Working. Enis: Habitual. Saim: One Who Fasts. Ahmet: Fool. Muhammed: “Memiş.”
At the same time the honorable representative has decided on the Turkification of the months in the following way:
March: Turncoat month. April: Wet month. May: Dung month. June: Fruit month. July: Hot month. August: Bug month. September: Breathing month. October: Foggy month. November: Mucky month. December: Snowy month. January: Icy month. February: Lame month.
Comments:
Change is the name of the game in 1920s-revolutionary Turkey as the new state endeavored to transition from a heterogeneous Ottoman identity to a homogeneous, constructed “Turkish” identity in the aftermath of the War of Independence (1919–1922). Key reforms such as hat reform (1925) and alphabet reform (1928) are some of the best known examples of mandatory wholesale “modernization” efforts pushed by the revolutionary government from the top-down that produced results that had a visible/superficial impact.
Such reforms were largely supported by the press, especially after the landmark Law on Maintenance of Order (Takrir-i Sükun Kanunu) of 1925 which compelled many papers to either voice approval of the reforms, remain silent, or face being closed down. But today’s column predates this law and even predates the establishment of the Republic by nine months. Thus, in 1923 uncertainties still remained concerning the form and profile that the new state and its people would be adopting moving forward-after all, just 3 months prior, in November 1922 the centuries-old sultanate had been abolished and the fate of the state was yet unwritten.
Within this context, it is possible to read this column, published in a satirical gazette, as both informational but also critical of one of the many (many) plans proposed by zealous reformers eager to help this new “Turkification” cause hovering on the horizon. The representative in question is Tunalı Hilmi Bey (1871–1828) who was a proponent of Turkifying the language which at the time possessed heavy Arabic and Persian vocabulary and grammatical components. Apparently Tunalı Hilmi Bey was also interested in Turkifying proper names since the names of many Turks were actually Arabic or Persian in origin.
I read satire in the column because the proposed Turkish alternatives to common Arabo-Persian names are so absurd (to say nothing of their lack of eloquence) they could not have been seriously proposed. Rather, it is likely that the author either chose the silliest translations or concocted his own for the sake of satirizing the proposal. Admittedly, I would have to see the original proposal to know for sure. Either way, most of the “translations” provided in the column are absolutely unusable… although a few are actual names that are used today. For instance, Turkish names like “Oruçlu” and “İsteği Çok” are unheard of. Moreover, names like İbiş and Memiş are outright unacceptable alternatives to Ahmet and Muhammed. Indeed, Muhammed already had a Turkified alternative, Mehmet… but it was no translation, and neither are İbiş and Memiş. Whereas names like “Işık” can actually be encountered today, still alongside, of course, “Ziya” the name it was meant to replace.
The new month names are also quite comedic. While not constituting “translations” of their previous appellations, the new Turkish months stand as more descriptive alternatives to the old ones. In the end, however, none of these Turkish month names were ever adopted but several of the months have changed between then and now. A Turkish reader from today would be largely unfamiliar with Teşrini evvel (October), Teşrini sani (November), Kanunu evvel (December), and Kanunu sani (January) which were replaced with Ekim, Kasım, Aralık, and Ocak, respectively in 1945.
Originally published at https://steemit.com on January 25, 2018.
