AN UNKNOWN ENTERPRISE: COMPILING STUDIES OF TURKISH WORDS IN THE FOLK LANGUAGE IN THE LAST PERIOD OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

It is known that in the Ottoman Empire, no official attempt was made to compile Turkish words used among the people. However, archival documents show otherwise, there were two unknown official attempts, one in the time of Abdulhamid and the other at the Second Constitutional Period. The subject of compiling Turkish words used among the people first started in 1894 with the proposal of an unknown person named Ethem, who introduced himself as a Bosnian immigrant. As a result of the personal initiative of Grand Vizier Cevad Pasha, a circular was sent to the provincial education administrations that the Turkish words used among the people were compiled and sent to the center by recording them in the tables. However, this first attempt was inconclusive due to the skepticism of Sultan Abdulhamid and the indifference of the Ministry of Education. The issue of compiling the words that lived in the folk language but were not included in the dictionaries was brought up again because of the initiatives of Celal Sahir, the director of Bilgi Magazine, during the Second Constitutional Period. In 1914, a new circular was sent to the provinces regarding the compilation of Turkish words. Compilation charts began to arrive from the provinces to the Ministry of Education. However, while the cover letters about the compilation charts from the provinces remained in the Ministry of Education, the charts were sent to Celal Sahir. The compilation charts were requested from Celal Sahir by the Ministry of Education later; but there is no record in the file about what Celal Sahir replied or whether he answered. Celal Sahir did not make any statement on this issue in the following period.