Ottoman Turkish alphabet

The Ottoman Turkish alphabet (Ottoman Turkish: الفبا elifbâ ) was the version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet that was used for the Ottoman Turkish language during the time of the Ottoman Empire and in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, until the adoption of the new Turkish alphabet, derived from the Latin script, on November 1, 1928.

As with Arabic and Persian, texts in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet are written right-to-left. The appearance of a letter changes depending on its position in a word: isolated (in a one-letter word); final (in which case it is joined on the right to the preceding letter); medial (joined on both sides); and initial (joined on the left to the following letter). Some letters cannot be joined to the left and do therefore not possess separate medial and initial forms; in medial position the final form is used, and in initial position the isolated form is used.

¹A correct Ottoman variant of gef will have the "mini-kaf" of ﻙ and the doubled upper stroke of گ. This feature is surely rare in current fonts.

Numerals

Ottoman Turkish used the Eastern Arabic numerals. The following is the list of basic cardinal numerals with their spelling in the modern Turkish alphabet.

References

• Omniglot, Simon Ager