Financed by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the Association of Journalists “Media for Democracy/Democracy for Media” programme hosted Sevgi Özel at its Press House, in Ankara. Özel talked about common mistakes made while using the Turkish language, and how it reflects on the press.

SULTAN YAVUZ- Financed by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the Association of Journalists “Media for Democracy/Democracy for Media” programme hosted Sevgi Özel, who is renowned for her research in language. Özel, whose talked was titled “Press Language” touched upon common mistakes in young journalists in the press make while using Turkish. 

M4D Assistant Director Seva Ülman Erten made the opening speech with these words:

“Today we are hosting Sevgi Özel, who has dedicated her life to the proper usage of the Turkish language and has conducted scientific research in this domain. After finishing her degree in literature at Ankara University Faculty of Language, History and Geography she began working for the Turkish Language Association where she researched the Turkish language of Turkey alongside orthography with other linguists. Following the closure of the Turkish Language Association which was founded by Atatürk, Özel started working as an editor for Ümit Publishing and Uğur Mumcu Investigative Journalism Foundation. Özel was one of the 34 people to have founded the Dil Derneği (The Language Association) following their departure from the Turkish Language Association. Özel has written many books some of which are “Afilli Mavallar”, “Dil Kiri, El Kiri” “Dilimde Tüy Bitti”, “Dilleri Uzun”, “İktidar Benim, Ne İstersem Söylerim” “Türkçenin Renkleri”, “Baba İnönü’den Erdal İnönü’ye Mektruplar…” 

Özel, “We are going through a period of a cluster of lies” 

Özel did not only talk about press language, she also remarked that writing used to be more important for journalists and television had remained in the background. Politicians are watched on the TV the most remarked Özel and added the following about the 9th President of the Republic Süleyman Demirel “One of the biggest strains my generation felt was because of Demirel. He used to love using words from Ottoman Turkish and whenever he did the press would call me. Rather than focusing on what Demirel was trying to convey, the press would focus on the meaning of that Ottoman Turkish word, thus they would stray away from the actual point.” 

We are going through a period of a cluster of lies remarked Özel who also said there are around 200 books waiting to be published and among these books are works of Cüneyt Arcayürek, Erbil Tuşalp and Tuncay Özkan who did not need any editing since they are very articulate and meticulous writers. Özel commented that young journalists make many language mistakes in their books:

“Many things changed with the alterations in the education system over the past 15 years. There are many idioms and proverbs about language and dialects but the youth never use them. There are so many words that have entered our language from translation and these reflect on the language the press uses. This is what hurts me the most…

The worst field of education is Turkish. Following generations will be talking in this “translated language”, many young people working in the press have already begun… We can see how bad the education of the Turkish language is by simply observing young MPs in parliament. This misuse of language has permeated into industry, politics and the press. 

I’ve walked through all the alleys of the Turkish language, I know its music so well… For older generations the main goal was to use the Turkish language correctly. Many of these people wrote about and politics.”

Many words are being misused 

According to Özel, following September 12th publishers mainly published science-fiction but nowadays most channels broadcast cooking shows. Özel said “Most housewives learn English and French terms for cooking, that’s how they talk about recipes.” 

Özel also remarked that journalist use the word “performance” a lot and commented on their mistakes using the Turkish language: 

“You see many people using the word performance in magazines, game shows and on the news. People mix up a lot of words as well, especially “Mahzur” (objection), “Mahsur” (confined, trapped) and “maruz” (subjected to). I see this a lot in the news. Of course, you can always use the Turkish word for “tahliye olmak” (to be released from jail). The youth use many Ottoman Turkish words without knowing their meanings… If people knew the meaning of the word it’s a personal preference, but if they don’t I think that’s something that needs to be criticized. 

There is no such usage as “Kayıp etmek”, its proper usage is “kaybetmek” (to lose); it’s wrong to use “devir etmek”, its proper usage is “devretmek” (hand over)… The other day I heard “There was an earthquake shake in Denizli” some people say “Flood waters”. These are all wrong. Another mistake we all make is “eşyalar” (furniture) and “aidatlar” (subscriptions) these are already plural. 

Turkish is not a language that is written the way it’s spoken, or spoken the way it’s written, it’s spoken “to a large extent” the way it is written. There is no such language in the world (that is spoken exactly the way it’s written) but this aspect is a distinction of the Turkish language. Another distinctive attribute is that Turkish has a musical quality to it.”

English words

Sevgi Özel also mentioned that pronouncing Turkish letters in English has become commonplace, especially on television. Özel also stated that people tell their clothing size in English:

“Saying body sizes in English spread to television through the press. Despite having hard feelings about it, TRT had standards when it came to language. TRT would invite specialists such as myself to supervise the language used in films dubbed into Turkish. Ottoman Turkish was used quite a lot, but at least words were pronounced properly. Now you’ve got sentences that start with “I’m afraid” especially in the news. My suggestion to young people is, you won’t be able to solve this problem with a grammar book but use a dictionary and focus on speaking correctly; read authors such as Yaşar Kemal, Sait Faik Abasıyanık and Füruzan.