Świadomość językowa wśród pierwszych tureckich pisarzy wernakularnych

The written language that first developed in 13th-century Anatolia evolved, from the late 15th century onward, into the high language of the Turks, known as Ottoman Turkish. Western Turkish emerged as a written language during the period when the Anatolian Seljuk state weakened and the Beyliks (petty kingdoms) gained strength. The earliest surviving written works in Turkish date back to the late 13th century. In the following decades, the number of works increased, and they became more diverse in terms of genre and subject. The first Turkish works appeared in the courts of the Beyliks such as the Danismends, Aydinids, Germiyanids, Karamanids, and Ottomans. This development is attributed to the fact that these rulers did not know Persian or Arabic. However, new scholarly perspectives have challenged the validity of this view. This article examines the views on language of the authors who produced the first works in Turkish, comparing them to the first vernacular writers of Europe. The records of these authors’ language consciousness provide information regarding the foundation of the Turkish written language.