AN OTTOMAN INTELLECTUAL DREAMING OF UNIVERSAL COMMUNICATION: HÜSEYIN TEVFIK

Abstract

In many artificial language projects, a new language was constructed, which was claimed to be suitable for oral/written communication and easy and quick to learn, while in others, written communication based on passigraphy and cryptology was taken as a basis. H & uuml;seyin Tevfik, the 20th-century Ottoman intellectual who observed that the cosmopolitan structure of the Ottoman Empire negatively affected the commercial and social relations of those who could not speak a language other than their mother tongue, argued in his work & Idot;& scedil;tirak Bey & acirc;n & imath; Musavver) & Scedil;ifre-i Um & ucirc;m & icirc; T & acirc;rif & acirc;t & imath; (1326/1910) that speakers of different languages could communicate with the encryption system he developed by utilizing the universality of numerical signs without the pain of learning a language. This article aims to analyze H & uuml;seyin Tevfik's work, which he wrote to show that universal written communication is possible without knowing a foreign language and which he presented as a solution to the universal communication problem of his time, and to contribute to the history of artificial languages by comparing it with artificial language projects designed for the same purpose. After introducing & Scedil;ifre-i Um & ucirc;m & icirc; T & acirc;rif & acirc;t & imath; (1326/1910), the article will focus on the similarities and differences between the work and other artificial language projects based on cryptology and passigraphy.