Monday, May 28, 2012

Turkish I Problem - Part 3 - The Solution

The Turkish I Problem is caused by the mapping of the letter i-I in the Latin character set to two different letters i-İ and ı-I in the Turkish alphabet. A solution should naturally separate out the two letters.

The most widespread existing solution proposal suggests introducing two new characters to Unicode to encode Turkish lowercase i and Turkish uppercase I. These letters look the same as the English versions but they will have different Unicode code points. This will solve the problem but it also introduces other issues. For example you need to type different version of the lowercase letter i when typing Turkish or English. This will be a headache if the text contains mixed words from these languages. It will be next to impossible to fix spelling mistakes involving lowercase i and uppercase I in mixed text. Consider the example from my earlier blog about the subject "Alice Harikalar Diyarında". To write this phrase correctly you need to use different versions of the lowercase letter i and switch between the Turkish and the English alphabets. If you mistype one of the letter i, you cannot see which one is wrong because both look the same.

My solution proposal
- Use characters i-I to replace Turkish i-İ.
- Use characters í-Í to replace Turkish ı-I.

This proposal removes the biggest complication from the Turkish alphabet. It also unifies the Turkish i-I with the Latin i-I avoiding the problems caused by the earlier proposal. Also note that the dot over the letter i is a result of the natural development of the alphabet, removing it in the Turkish alphabet was a mistake in the first place.

The solution has its week points as well. For one, it is changing the mapping of uppercase I. However I believe this is a desirable change in the long run which will bring Turkish closer to being a well behaving member of the Latin character set.

Sample text
Karín sessizliği, diye düşünüyordu otobüste şoförün hemen arkasínda oturan adam. Bu bir şiirin başlangící olsaydí içinde hissettiği şeye karín sessizliği derdi.

Onu Erzurum'dan Kars'a götürecek otobüse son anda yetişmişti, Istanbul'dan iki gün süren karlí fírtínalí bir otobüs yolculuğundan sonra Erzurum garajína varmíş, kirli ve soğuk koridorlarda elinde çantasí, kendisini Kars'a götürecek otobüslerin nereden kalktíğíní öğrenmeye çalíşírken biri, bir otobüsün hemen kalkmakta olduğunu söylemişti.

Yetiştiği Magirus marka eski otobüsün muavini, kapattíğí bagají yeniden açmak istemediği için "Acelemiz var," demişti. Bu yüzden şimdi bacaklarínín arasínda duran koyu vişne rengi Bally marka büyük el çantasíní yanína almíştí. Pencere kenarínda oturan yolcunun üzerinde beş yíl önce Frankfurt'ta bir Kaufhof'tan aldíğí kül rengi kalín bir palto vardí. Kars'ta geçireceği günlerde bu yumuşacík tüylü, güzel paltonun kendisi için hem utanç ve huzursuzluk, hem de güven kaynağí olacağíní şimdiden söyleyelim.

Snow/Kar by Orhan Pamuk
Read Part 1, Part 2

1 comment:

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