You were asked a question when you won the competition in Babylon in 1987. What did you say, “What is your favorite language?” he asked.
Prof. Dr. Johan Vandewalle replied, “The language I love and admire the most is Turkish. At that time I knew 22 languages, now I have learned about 50 languages and my answer is always the same. After learning languages with very different systems, the language that I still admire the most, the language that I find most logical and mathematical is Turkish.”
Prof. Dr. Johan Vandewalle stated that his interest in Turkish started at the age of 13 when he traveled to Turkey with his family.
He stated that he was impressed by the hospitality of the Turks during his visits and that he started researches on Turkish on this occasion.
Stating that he was amazed by the grammar of the Turkish language in these studies, he emphasized that he spent a lot of effort to learn Turkish at the most advanced level.
He added that he learned Turkish at an advanced level in a short time, and that he was not content with it and started researching on other Turkish dialects.
Vandewalle stated that she learned French, German and English in her primary and high school life along with her mother tongue Dutch, adding that she added many languages to her literature in a short time.
The Power of Turkish Language
Many linguists around the world have made such excellent recipes for Turkish that it is impossible not to be proud.
Max Müller (1823 – 1900) describes Turkish as follows in his work “The Science of Language”
“Even reading a Turkish grammar is a real pleasure, even if he hasn’t had the slightest desire to speak and write Turkish. Those who hear the skillful style in the mods, the compliance with the rules that dominate all the shots, the transparency seen throughout the productions, the marvelous power of the human intelligence that shines in the language will not fail to be amazed. This is such a grammar that we can watch the inner formations of thought in it, just as we can watch the formation of honeycombs in a crystal… The grammatical rules of the Turkish language are so orderly and flawless that a committee of linguists, an academy, approves this language. It is possible to think that it is a language made with consciousness.
Prof. David Cuthell used the following expressions: “I know many foreign languages. Among these languages, Turkish is such a different language that it is as if a hundred high mathematics professors came together to create Turkish. A dozen words are produced from one root. The meaning changes according to the sound harmony. Turkish is such a language that it is a language of emotion, thought, logic and philosophy in itself.”
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