Modern Turkish is the descendant of Ottoman Turkish and its predecessor, so-called Old Anatolian Turkish, which was introduced into Anatolia by the Seljuq Turks in the late 11th century AD. Old Turkish gradually absorbed a great many Arabic and Persian words and even grammatical forms and was written in Arabic script.

After the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923, the Arabic script was replaced by the Latin alphabet (1928). The reform of the language was initiated and supported by the Turkish republican government. In spite of disputes and resistance, the movement contributed greatly to purifying the Turkish vocabulary of foreign elements. An essentially new literary language emerged, and the older one soon became obsolete.