Turkish
Modern Turkish print, documents and signs turned into text
Turkey’s 1928 alphabet law replaced Ottoman Arabic script with a Latin one almost overnight, and the letters that new alphabet added still trip up software built for other Latin-script languages: a dotted İ and a dotless I are different letters with different lower-case forms, and ğ, ş and ç are letters in their own right rather than accented versions of g, s and c. Evidano reads modern Turkish print, official documents and signage, and sets the transcription beside the image so every one of those letters can be checked. Material written before the reform, in Ottoman Arabic script, has its own page.
Sample pages
Real pages from public collections, shown beside their transcriptions. Pages whose transcription is still being checked are marked.
İ.B.B. Atatürk Kitaplığı Sayısal Arşiv ve e-Kaynaklar, 2 January 1929 · Source · Public domain
Transcription being verified
No published transcription of this clipping has been located; it is reproduced from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Atatürk Library digital archive.
What the model is told to watch for: Produce a diplomatic transcription in Turkish.
İstanbul Üniversitesi Kütüphane ve Dokümantasyon Daire Başkanlığı, 7 February 1929 · Source · Public domain
Transcription being verified
No line-by-line transcription of this issue has been published; Istanbul University Library holds the run in its digitised newspaper collection.
What the model is told to watch for: Produce a diplomatic transcription in Turkish.
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Cumhurbaşkanlığı, 7 September 2013 · Source · Public domain
Transcription being verified
The Presidency’s mevzuat.gov.tr database publishes the regulation’s current text, but the wording has changed with later amendments since this 2013 version, so it has not been used as a verified match for this exact page.
What the model is told to watch for: Produce a diplomatic transcription in Turkish.
Transcription being verified
A single street sign; no separate published transcription exists for it.
What the model is told to watch for: Produce a diplomatic transcription in Turkish.
Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, 1938 · Source · Public domain
Transcription
The whole of the printed page (numbered 22 in the book, the 33rd image in the scanned file), as proofread to validated quality on Turkish Wikisource. Three readings have been restored against the page image: two words the transcription page flags only implicitly as OCR noise, “fcragati” and “Nisarı”, become “feragati” and “Nisan”, and the date in item D, which the transcription gives as 4/T.Şani/339, is printed 14/T.Şani/339; the source’s own apostrophes, circumflexes and period spelling are otherwise kept as transcribed.
alınırken yukarıda işaret edilen vasıflarla mücehhez bulunmaları hakkile takdir ve tetkik olunduktan sonra istikballeri noktasından da bu mesklete feyiz göreceklerine emin olmaları ve terfi ve takdirlerinin de bu yüksek mülâhazalara dayanan esaslara göre tanzim edilmiş bulunması lâzımdır. Teşkilâtı esasiye kanunumuzda mahkemelerimizin istiklâlini kayıt ve tesbit eden 56 ncı maddede hâkimlerin evsafı, hukuk ve vezaifi, maaş ve muhassasatları ile nasıp ve azillerinin mahsus kanunla tayin olunacağı açık olarak gösterilmiş olduğundan 766 sayılı kanunun tatbikinde görülen tecrübeler bu kanunun değiştirilmesi zaruret ve mecburiyetini gösterdiğinden dolayı mahzurlu ve hatalı olmak değil umulduğu kadar fayda vermiyen her şeyi ilmin, usulün ve ihtiyacın icaplarına göre tadil ve ıslâh etmek şiarında olan inkılâbımıza lâyık ve hakkın sahibine verilmesinde itimada şayan hâkimler yetiştirmek ve gençlerimize bu mesleğin istikballerinden kat’i ümitler verici olduğunu anlatmak için 1/K.Evvel/934 tarihinde mer’iyet mevkiine giren 2556 sayılı hâkimler kanunu Büyük Millet Meclisince kabul edilmiştir. Hükmünün yürümeğe başladığı üç buçuk senedenberi tatbikatından görülen ameli faydalar; hâkimlerin terfii için, kendi sayügayretlerinden ve çıkardıkları iş miktarından ve verdikleri kararlardan temyizce tetkik olunanları tasdik ve bozma nisbetlerinin lehlerine tezahür etmesinden başka çare olmadığını tebarüz ettirmiş ve esasen her meslekten ziyade feragati nefisle çalışan hâkimlerimizi daha ziyade şevk ve gayretle mesleklerine bağlamıştır. Mesleğin istilzam ettiği ağır mes’uliyete katlanacak olan hâkimlerimizden arzolunan 2556 sayılı kanunla muayyen olan usul dairesinde lâzımgelen şartları ihraz edenlerin terfi edebilmeleri için her sene alınan kadrolar ihtiyaç nisbetinde arttırılmış ve nihayet bu sene 30/5/938 tarihinde Yüksek Meclisce kabul buyurulan 3408 sayılı kanunla 63 adet (90) liralık ve 79 adet (80) liralık, 188 adet (70) liralık ve 268 adet (55) liralık ve 347 adet (45) liralık ve 485 adet (40) liralık ve 660 adet (35) liralık ve 350 adet (30) liralık olmak üzere çok geniş bir kadro alınarak hâkimlerin terfileri esbabı temin edilmiştir. Cümhuriyetin ilânından beri yapılan adli teşkilâttaki tedrici değişiklikleri, bu yolda elde edilen tekâmülü tebarüz ettirmek için şu suretle sıralayabiliriz: A — Sivasda hukuku şer’iye ve ceza ve istida dairelerinden mürekkep muvakkat bir temyiz heyeti teşkiline dair olan 7/Haziran/337 tarih ve 4 numaralı kanun. B — Kazalarda bidayet mehakimi vazife ve salâhiyetini haiz olmak üzere tek hâkimliklerle vilâyet ve livalarda bir reis ve iki âzadan mürekkep istinaf mahkemelerinin teşkiline dair 30/Nisan/337 tarih ve 117 sayılı kanun. C — Salâhiyeti adliyeye müteallik 1/T.Sani/339 tarih ve 367 sayılı kanun. D — Heyeti temyiziye merkezinin Eskişehire nakline ve teşkilâtın genişletilmesine dair 14/T.Şani/339 tarih ve 371 sayılı kanun.
Transcription from Sayfa:C.H.P. 15. Yıl Kitabı (1938).pdf/33, Turkish Wikisource (page-quality level 3, validated) (Public domain).
What modern Turkish text looks like on the page
The Turkish Grand National Assembly adopted the new Latin alphabet on 1 November 1928, and within weeks the Millet Mektepleri, or Nation’s Schools, campaign was teaching the new letters to adults across the country in evening classes held in ordinary schoolrooms. Newspapers switched over almost as fast as the law itself, so a Turkish paper from December 1928 already looks like a modern one rather than like the Ottoman press that had run every day before it.
The alphabet the reform settled on has twenty-nine letters and no native q, w or x. Four of those letters are easy to confuse if you are not expecting them: İ and i are the dotted capital and lower-case pair, while I and ı are a completely separate dotless pair, so capitalising ı does not produce an I with no relation to dotting rules from English. Ç, ğ and ş are likewise independent letters rather than accented forms of c, g and s: ç and ş mark distinct consonant sounds, and ğ, the yumuşak ge or soft g, is silent or lengthens the vowel before it and never opens a word.
Everyday modern documents build their own conventions on top of that alphabet. Turkish laws and regulations are organised into numbered maddeler, or articles, and a clause that has been revised since first publication carries a parenthetical note citing the Official Gazette date and number where the amendment appeared. Newspapers, forms and street signs use the same standard orthography, though older newsprint adds the usual problems of period print: dense multi-column layouts, decorative masthead type, and the fading and foxing of seventy- or eighty-year-old paper.
Why ordinary OCR struggles here
Four letters where English keeps two
İ/i and I/ı are two independent letter pairs, not one pair with an optional dot. Software that case-folds Turkish text using English rules turns İstanbul into istanbul with the dot in the wrong place, or reads ısı, meaning temperature, as if it began with the letter i.
Ğ, ş and ç are not accented letters
A system built to strip diacritics the way it might for French or Spanish deletes information Turkish needs: ş and s, ç and c, ğ and g are different letters standing for different sounds, and collapsing them changes both the spelling and the meaning of a word.
An article-and-amendment apparatus in legal text
Turkish regulations number their articles as Madde 1, Madde 2 and so on, and a revised clause carries a parenthetical citation to the Official Gazette date and issue where the change was published. That apparatus has to stay attached to the exact clause it modifies rather than drifting into the surrounding prose.
Old newsprint, not old letterforms
A 1920s or 1930s Turkish newspaper is already in the modern alphabet, so none of the letterform confusion of Ottoman material applies, but tight multi-column layouts, decorative headline type and decades of fading and foxing still make period print harder to read than a current page.
Who works with this material
Legal and regulatory researchers
Turkish law is organised into numbered Madde articles with amendment histories cited inline, and getting those citations attached to the right clause is essential for legal research and compliance work.
Press historians of the early Republic
Newspapers from the months and years after 1928 document how quickly the new alphabet took hold and are a primary source for the Millet Mektepleri literacy campaign itself, provided the period print can be read reliably.
Translators and localisation teams
Correctly distinguishing İ, i, I and ı, and preserving ğ, ş and ç rather than stripping them, is basic to producing usable Turkish text from any source, since a dropped dot or a flattened letter silently changes a word.
Municipal and government-records staff
Street signs, permits and public notices need consistent transcription for address databases and public information systems, including the place names where ğ and ş are most common.
Getting the best transcription
Say which pair of i’s you need
Tell the model that İ/i and I/ı are four distinct letters and ask for casing to follow Turkish rules, not the English convention of folding I to i.
Ask for ğ, ş and ç to be kept as their own letters
Specify that these should never be stripped down to g, s and c, since doing so changes both the spelling and the sound of the word.
Preserve the article-and-amendment apparatus
On a law or regulation, ask for each Madde number and any parenthetical Official Gazette citation to stay attached to the exact clause it modifies, rather than drifting into the surrounding text.
Test on the densest or oldest sample first
Run a multi-column 1920s or 1930s newspaper page, or a heavily amended regulation, before the rest of a batch. If those come through cleanly, plainer modern material needs only a light check.
Frequently asked questions
- Does it distinguish dotted İ/i from dotless I/ı?
- Yes. These are treated as two separate letter pairs, and casing follows Turkish conventions rather than the English rule that folds I to i.
- Are ğ, ş and ç treated as separate letters?
- Yes. They are transcribed as the distinct letters they are, never stripped down to g, s or c the way accents might be removed in another language.
- Can it read pre-1928 Ottoman Turkish material?
- Ottoman Turkish, written in Arabic script before the 1928 reform, is a different writing system with its own page; this page covers modern Republican Turkish in the Latin alphabet.
- Can it read a legal or regulatory document with amendment citations?
- Yes. Numbered Madde articles and their parenthetical Official Gazette citations are transcribed together, so a reader can see exactly which clause a cited amendment changed.
- Can it read an old newspaper photograph or microfilm, like a 1920s issue?
- Yes. Faded, foxed or tightly columned period print is read on its own terms; because it is already in the modern alphabet, the main obstacles are print quality rather than letterforms.
Related scripts and pages
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