ABSTRACT
The earliest literary records in Turkish date from the thirteenth century and already show substantial Arabo-Persian influence, a component which was to increase so markedly through following centuries that literary O ttom an Turkish is largely an artificial construct, rem ote from spoken Turkish. This Classical Turkish literature culminates in two great poets - Baki and Fuzuli (both in the sixteenth century). In the wake of the political and social reform movement known as the Tanzimat (m id-nineteenth century) Turkish writers were intro duced to W estern models, a widening of mental and technical horizons which bore fruit most notably in the work of Ekrem Recaizade, Namik Kemal, and Tevkif Fikret. The associated movement for the erosion of the Arabo-Persian elem ent in favour of native Oguz words antedates the switch from Arabic to Rom an script by some twenty years. M odern Standard Turkish is based on the Istanbul dialect.
