Research Article / Araştırma Makalesi Cite as/ Atıf: Bayrak, A. (2024). Son dönem Osmanlı Türkçesi Latin harfli eserlerinde art damak /ŋ/ ünsüzünün imlası. Turkish Studies - Language, 19(Ö1), 407-421. https://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.77261 Received/Geliş: 08 July/Temmuz 2024 Checked by plagiarism software Accepted/Kabul: 25 November/Kasım 2024 Published/Yayın: 30 November/Kasım 2024 Son Dönem Osmanlı Türkçesi Latin Harfli Eserlerinde Art Damak /ŋ/ Ünsüzünün İmlası The Orthography of the Velar Consonant /ŋ/ in Late Ottoman Turkish Works in Latin Letters Ayhan Bayrak * Abstract: The velar consonant /ŋ/ is one of the primary sounds of Turkish. This sound is included in the Köktürk alphabetic texts, which are one of the oldest known written sources of Turkish. In Köktürk texts, the consonants /ɲ/ and /n/ are also found along with this sound. These consonants were shown with different letters in the texts. The consonant /ŋ/, which was also used in works written in Uyghur, Sogdian, Mani and old Brahmi alphabets, was shown in a special way in Arabic letter texts of Ottoman Turkish. With the transition to the Latin alphabet in Türkiye Turkish, the /ŋ/ consonant was no longer shown in writing. It is known that the Latin alphabet was also used, although not much, in the late Ottoman Turkish period. Especially in many works written by orientalists, Turkish words were written with both Arabic and Latin letters. Was the /ŋ/ consonant shown in works where the Latin alphabet was used? If so, how was it shown? If not, what was the reason for this? In this study, it is aimed to find answers to these questions. In order to find answers to these questions, 15 works having been written between 1790 and 1911, in which both Latin and Arabic and only Latin letters were used, were examined. The spelling of 10 words containing the /ŋ/ consonant in historical texts, such as anlamak (understand), benzemek (resemble), deniz (sea), were determined on these works. In spellings used Arabic letters, the velar /ŋ/ was shown differently from the alveolar /n/. In words where the velar /ŋ/ turned into the alveolar /n/ sound, the letter ﻦwas used. In spellings used Latin letters, some writers indicated this sound with ñ, n̄ , n, ng while others did not use a letter or sign to distinguish this sound, and they also indicated the /ŋ/ sound in the words with the letter n. That the /ŋ/ consonant is often represented with the letter n indicates the change or development of /ŋ/ > /n/. In the words examined, it is seen that other consonants were used instead of the velar consonant in 91 of 170 spellings. Alveolar consonants were used in 82 of these 91 spellings. Both /ŋ/ and /n/ consonants were used in 17 orthographies. The main reason for the /ŋ/ > /n/ or /ŋ/ ~ /n/ phonetic events seen in spellings is the difference in the formant frequencies of the consonants. The formant frequency of the /ŋ/ consonant is higher than that of the /n/ consonant. The articulation point of the /ŋ/ consonant is further back than the /n/ consonant. For these reasons, it is much more difficult to articulate the velar consonant /ŋ/ than to articulate the alveolar consonant /n/. In this case, due to the rule of least effort, the velar consonant /ŋ/ turned into the alveolar consonant /n/. This phonetic change was also gradually reflected in writing. Structured Abstract: The velar consonant /ŋ/ is one of the primary sounds of Turkish. This sound is included in the Köktürk alphabetic texts, which are one of the oldest known written sources of Turkish. In Köktürk texts, the consonants /ɲ/ and /n/ are also found along with this sound. These consonants were shown with different letters in the texts. The consonant /ŋ/, which was also used in works written in Uyghur, Sogdian, Mani and old * Dr. Öğretmen-MEB Dr. Teacher, Republic of Türkiye, Ministry of National Education 0000-0001-5245-6120 ayhan_bayrak@hotmail.com