Eurasian Studies Balkans, Anatolia, Iran, Caucasus and Central Asia Studies Notebooks

Series | Eurasian Studies
Edited book | Riflessi e ombre nel Mar Bianco
Chapter | I mediatori dei ‘testi in trascrizione’ (Transkriptionstexte) turchi tra Levante ed Europa

I mediatori dei ‘testi in trascrizione’ (Transkriptionstexte) turchi tra Levante ed Europa

Abstract
The so‑called ‘Turkish transcriptional texts’, i.e. Ottoman texts in non‑Arabic scripts, are important sources for the knowledge of the historical grammar, especially phonology, of the Ottoman language. The term was created by Turkologists specifically for texts written between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries in the Latin alphabet. The texts were usually written by European travellers with no or little knowledge of Turkish, relying on information from native speakers. This essay focuses on how the authors of the texts obtained their linguistic material. A detailed linguistic analysis of selected passages will show that the mediators were often of Greek origin.


Open access

Submitted: June 26, 2023 | Accepted: Oct. 11, 2023 | Published Feb. 21, 2024 | Language: it

Keywords Ottoman GreeksHistory of Ottoman languageTurkish transcriptional textsCultural mediatorsEuropean grammars of Turkish


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