Turkiye prepares 800,000-word Turkish dictionary
The Turkish Language Association is preparing a new dictionary expected to contain more than 800,000 words, a major expansion of the institution’s existing reference work, its president Prof. Osman Mert told Anadolu Agency.
The new dictionary is intended to represent Turkish across cultural fields and branches of science. The current Turkish Dictionary contains about 132,000 words and focuses largely on the language of literature.
Mert said initial trials for the new project had identified a vocabulary exceeding 800,000 words.
A balanced corpus containing one billion words is being compiled to help researchers examine meanings in context, as well as proverbs, idioms, technical terms and different language structures.
Turkish language model enters practical phase
The association is also developing a large language model designed to train artificial intelligence to “think in Turkish”.
Mert said TDK had worked on the project for about three years and had completed its theoretical phase. The project has now entered practical development in cooperation with HAVELSAN.
He said the technical infrastructure was largely complete and data entry had begun. The data is being extensively labeled, with the resulting dataset also expected to support linguistic research.
Term bank to open this year
TDK is preparing to make the Türkiye Term Bank available to the public and relevant institutions this year.
The database currently contains about 310,000 terms and was developed through cooperation between TDK, ministries, public institutions and the Presidency.
Mert said the system could eventually be expanded to include terminology from other Turkic countries, creating a wider Turkic World Term Bank.
New tools to monitor language use
TDK is also developing three software programs aimed at identifying language problems.
One will detect language, spelling and punctuation errors in Turkish texts and suggest corrections. Another will continuously scan public institutions’ websites and report identified language errors to TDK.
The third will search the internet for words that are not included in the Turkish Dictionary and report them to the association.
Mert said the three programs are expected to be launched within a year.
TDK expands work with teachers and students
The association is also increasing efforts to improve Turkish language awareness among young people, amid concerns over careless use of spoken and written Turkish linked to the spread of the internet and social media.
TDK has held diction courses for teachers in Ankara, Cyprus, Karaman and Denizli and plans to expand the programme nationwide in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education.
The association also organized a 120-hour story workshop for university students last year. The programme ran from October to June, and selected works by participants are being published.
Mert said the initiative aims to support young people’s writing skills and raise awareness of language use.
Türkiye keeps its current alphabet
Mert also addressed efforts to develop a common alphabet for the Turkic world.
A 34-letter framework alphabet was adopted and announced in Baku in 2024. Countries involved have since evaluated the letters proposed for their own languages.
The letters to be used by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were announced at a meeting in Astana on June 15, 2026, while the process in Uzbekistan is continuing.
Mert stressed that the work does not involve changing the alphabet used in Türkiye, saying there is no need for such a change.
Source:AA
