Ce que dire que l’on parle veut dire : réflexion sur les compétences linguistiques des derniers Ottomans

Abstract

Language knowledge has often been used as a double dividing line between written and oral cultures, and between traditional skills (the three languages of the adab culture) and modernist dispositions (related with European languages, mainly French). However, a precise study of the terminology of the biographical registers set up during Abdülhamid the Second's rule (1876-1909) by the Commission of Personnel Records [sicill-i ahvâl komisyonu] reveals that this interpretative framework is flawed, partly due to the nature of self-assessment practices. Indeed, some employees did not always mention the languages they could effectively use; their colleagues who did so sometimes declared written abilities while omitting oral ones; conversely, those who sought to secure or promote their careers would claim knowledge of French even if they could not speak a single word of it. Although the Commission was aware of these problems and tried to implement normative coding procedures, this affected biographical discourses in particular ways. As a result, if one addresses the question of literacy as more related to practical capacities than cultural orientations or theoretical knowledge, one draws a collective portrait different from the individual analysis of self-evaluations and reputations: on the one hand, the cultivated modernist elites do not always display remarkable skills; on the other hand, some employees who were versed in a limited number of languages and had poor linguistic reputations had often a more sophisticated relation with literacy than what appears in the sources.

Keywords

• biographical discourses
• language knowledge
• linguistic reputations
• written and oral abilities
• normative coding procedures