8. Chuwash, spoken by the Chuwashes, who live between the Sura and the Wolga, and in some adjacent countries of eastern Russia. The Chuwash differs considerably from the Kiptshak dialects in the neigh bouring countries, and it contains a great number of Finnish words. (Schott, De Lingua Tschuwaschorum Dissertatio.') 9. Osmanli, or Turkish, commonly called so. This dialect, which is spoken by the Turkish conquerors of the Byzantine empire, must be considered as a compound of the ancient Seljukian language and that of the tribe of the Kdyi, from which the Osmanlis are descended. It is the richest and most polished of all the Turkish dialects ; and its regularity, precision, and elegance are such, that Jaubert says, if any academy were commissioned to make a language, it would not form one more perfect than the Turkish. Another principal feature of this language is its dignity, with regard to which Sir William Jones says, " The Turkish language has an admirable dignity. The Persian is fit for joyous and amatory subjects. the Arabic for poetry and eloquence, but the Turkish for moral subjects. Turkish is now the the diplomatic and official language not only of Turkey, but Egypt, Tunis, and Tripoli, and formerly of Algiers. The Osmanlis having received their civilisa tion from the Arabs and the Persians, and the Kortin (which among the Mohammedans is never translated from the Arabic into any other language) being still the source of theology and legislation, a great many Persian and Arabio words have gradually found their way into the Turkish language. However the groundwork is Turkish, and the Turks pronounce the Arabic words in a much softer way than the Arabs, a difference which is principally remarkable in the pronunciation of the gutturals and the long vowels.
The Turkish alphabet is composed of thirty-three letters, twenty eight of which arc taken from the Arabic alphabet: four (pa, chi,n, pa, and yhief) from the Persian ; and one, the " Saghir nun " (il) is exclusively Turkish. These letters are written from right to left. Turkish is also, and very frequently, written with Armenian characters, especially by the merchants. There is no article, but the demonstra tive pronoun " bo " (" that " or " this "), and the cardinal number " bir " (" one ") sometimes take its place. There is no gender. The declension of the nouns is easy : the plural is formed by annexing " ler" or " lar " to the word, and there are six cases as in Latin. The adjectives have neither declension nor gender. The declension of the pronouns is analogous to that of the nouns, but not always exactly the same. There are eight kinds of verbs, namely, auxiliary, active, passive, negative, impotential, causative, reciprocal, and personal. The infinitive of all regular verbs is formed by means of the syllables " mek " or " mak ;" they become passive by taking tho syllable " it " before " mek " or " mak." The verbs have six moods—indicative, imperative, optative, suppositive, conjunctive, and infinitive ; and there are five tenses—present, imperfect, preterimperfect, preterperfcct, and future. The different kinds of verbs are formed as follows : scumwk, to love; sewmemek, not to love ; sewehmemek, not to be able to love ; magmek, to be loved ; sewilmemek, not to be loved ; sewilehmemek, not to be able to be loved ; seuyttirmek, to make love; sewilditrtnek, to make that somebody is bred; sewishmek, to love each other ; sewinmek, to love oneself, &c. There is a considerable number of irregular verbs.
The Turkish construction resembles that of the Latin language, and generally a sentence cannot be perfectly understood till the reader comes to the last word. The Turks form new words by means of composition with as much we as the Greek, the German, and the Persian ; in this respect the Turkish language differs radically from the Arabic.
The Turkish literature is of ancient origin. During the reigns of Osman and his successors, a great number of Arabic, Persian, Greek, and Latin works were translated into Turkish. Mohammed II. ordered a translation of Plutarch ; Soliman I. had the `Commentaries' of Ciesar translated ; and Aristotle and Euclid were translated in the commencement of Turkish history'. Mustafa III. made a translation of the ' Principe' of Machiavelli, and of the ' Anti-Maclaiavel ' of Frederic II., King of Prussia. Some of the works of Boerhaave, Sydenham, Bonnycastle, Vauban, Latitude, Cassini, and, in later times, a great number of English, German, and French works on history, geography, medicine, chemistry, mathematics, and the military sciences, have likewise been translated into Turkish. The original literature of the Turks is valuable, though less so than the Arabic. Jcm. the brother, and Selina and Korkud, the sons of Bayazid II.; Soliman II.. Ahmed and Mustafa were distinguished poets, and their works have come down to us. The oldest Turkish poet of renown is 'Ashik-Pasha, who lived during the reign of Osman and Urkhan. The reign of Bayazid II. was distinguished by the following poets :—Nejiti, who was considered the first lyric poet of his time, and who translated several Arabic works into Turkish ; Mesihi, whose 'Ode on the Spring,' translated by Sir W. Jones and by Baron Hammer, is known as one of the finest specimens of poetry ; A'fitabi, Muniri, Prince Korkud, and the female poet Mihri, a native of Amasia. Bakt is the greatest Turkish poet. He was three times high judge of and died in Aar. 1008 (A. D. 1600) ; his Diwan,' or Collection of Poems,' has been translated by Von Hammer, under the title ' Baki's des groasten Tiirkischen Lyrikers Diwan,' Vienna, 1825. Nabi Efendi, Seyed Refet, and R:ighib-Pasha, were renowned in the past century. Rdghib-Pasha, grand-vizir under Osman III., was equally renowned as an historian and a poet, and his countrymen used to call him "the Sultan of the poets of RAm." The number of historians is very great, and several of them are highly esteemed for their impartiality, judg ment, and the concise beauty of their style. Such are 'Ali, the con temporary of Baki, whose work, Kunhol-Akhbdr ' (Mines of History), finished in A.u. 1006 (A.D. 1597), is one of the best sources concerning the earlier and middle periods of Turkish history; the author speaks with great impartiality about the Christians. Solak-zdde has written Tailkhi 'Ali Osman li Solak-zdele,' a short, but very exact history of the which finishes with the year A.u. 1054 (A D 1644).