Abstract:

Punctuation marks as one of the technical components of our written cultural and artistic life is of vital importance in the development of a certain language as a sophisticated language of literacy and culture.  In Turkish and generally in all world languages the use of punctuation marks enjoys continuity therefore in this study we investigated the historical evolution and development of punctuation marks and focused on some works which the are the first examples in terms of the use of punctuation marks. Texts written in Orkhun Turkish which are known to be oldest written document in Turkish, to Old Uyghur Turkish and then Old Anatolian Turkish texts and Classical Ottoman Turkish Texts alongside with texts from literary eras such as Tanzimat, Servet-I Fünun, National Literature and Republican Literature were investigated in this study. We believe this study will shed light on the historical development of punctuation marks in Turkish and will present a thorough and updated review of the issue. In the appendix, we presented some texts which are of literary and historical value in order to give concrete examples for the discussion in the study.

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