A comparative study on writing reforms of Turkey and sinosphere countries

Writing was invented to record language. In ancient times, writing was a skill few people knew. "National writing" is incomprehensible to everyone in a community, only the educated elite could write it. It was not a trouble if the writing was not perfect. After the establishment of nation-states, writing problems gained importance in line with the national language policy and in the light of nation-building. There are internal and external factors that affect the process of implementing the writing reform in a country. Among these factors, the initiatives of intellectuals, the influence of leaders and the social environment, and the influence of other nations and colonialism play an important role. This study is based on the comparison of the writing reforms of Turkey and the Sinosphere countries. The Sinosphere consists of nations that have historically used Chinese characters as their writing system, such as Taiwan, the People's Republic of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. A comparison of the writing systems currently employed in the countries of the Sinosphere reveals that the People's Republic of China employs simplified Chinese characters while Taiwan continues to use traditional Chinese characters. The Japanese use both their native writing system, which consists of katakana and hiragana, and kanji, which are Chinese characters used in Japanese script. Although Hanja (Chinese characters used to write Korean) has not been fully abandoned in Korea, it is rarely utilized in everyday life. Vietnam is the only country among the sinosphere countries that has completely switched to the Latin alphabet, similar to Turkey. This study aims to reveal the similarities and differences of the writing revolution realized in Turkey and the Sinosphere countries. This thesis is divided into eight chapters. In the first part, the writing system and the relationship between writing and culture will be discussed. In the second part, the principles of the formation of Chinese characters, the nature of Chinese writing, the number and status of Chinese characters will be discussed. In the third and fourth chapters, the writings used by the Turks and the Sinosphere countries throughout history will be examined. In the fifth chapter, the Turkish Alphabet Reform from the last period of the Ottoman Empire to 1928 will be discussed. In the sixth chapter, the recent writing reforms of Japan, Korea and Vietnam, whose native language is not Chinese, and in the seventh chapter, China will be examined. A comprehensive comparison will also be made in the eighth chapter.