A Vowel Marked Mi‘rajiyya and Its Commentaries on Orthography and Pronunciation of the Standard Ottoman Turkish

Abstract

In this study, the mi'rajiyya written by Hafız Ömer Yenişehr-i Fenârî in 1790's are evaluated. The mi'rajiyya has a prosaic preamble at the beginning which the author express his thoughts related to the written and spoken language of the Ottoman Turkish. In this study we focus on not the mi'rajiyya itself but its valuable explanatory prosaic text, a foreword called dîbâja. The dîbâja part is a kind of introduction to the mi'rajiyya. In this dîbâja, the poet reveals his theory and perception of language after giving a brief information about his work, distinguishes professional readers and writers from the ordinary literary masses, criticizes the reflection of dialectical features in the standard language, explains his orthographical method which provides a refined and elegant pronunciation. In the mi'râjiyya the poet follows the classical spelling of Ottoman Turkish but shows the pronunciation and the arûd with wovelmarks. This method has close ties with the Qur'anic writing system. In this study, a complete transcription of the text is made and short but striking views and practices of the author about pronunciation, dialect, spoken and written language etc. are evaluated. We also add to the study a facsimile of the prosaic foreword of the mi'rajiyya.