The Interesting Vocabulary of the Work of Omer Seyfettin

WOS: 000311481900010Although it is commonly believed that Omer Seyfettin used pure Turkish in his works, the author's attitude towards language actually went through two phases. The first of these was the phase before the New Language Movement, and the second was the phase following this movement. Omer Seyfettin's work preceding the New Language Movement often includes lesser known Arabic and Farsi words. Even after the New Language Movement, however, he sometimes made use of rare words that were not even included in dictionaries. He used some of these words to express terminology. He also used vocabulary derived from Arabic roots and not included in the Turkish dictionaries of the time. Even when these words appeared as dictionary entries, Seyfettin attributed different meanings to them in his works. It seems that when he was at a loss coining new words within the limits set by pure Turkish, he derived them from Arabic and preferred to use these, even if they appeared archaic in Turkish. He also attempted to equip written language with vocabulary widely used in spoken language. These practices, however, are not mentioned in any way in his article titled "New Language", which is often considered the manifesto of the New Language Movement