Ottoman Turkish (لسان عثمانى) was the form of Turkish that was spoken during the time of the Ottoman Empire. In comparison to modern Turkish, the Ottoman era language contained a lot more Arabic and Persian words, with some estimates putting the use of Arabic and Persian vocabulary as high as 88% of the Ottoman vocabulary in some texts.

In this video we take a look at how well modern Turkish speakers can understand Ottoman Turkish, with Engin and Bünyamin as the Turkish speakers, and Can, representing Ottoman Turkish.

Please note, the texts that Can is reading in this video are from the late Ottoman era.

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It's interesting to note that since the Arabic words in Ottoman Turkish were borrowed through Persian, they possess a typical Persian phonology, and their usage and pronunciation at times differs greatly from the original Arabic. The degree of the use of Arabic and Persian loanwords in Ottoman Turkish also played a role in the form of its varieties, which were typically classified into Fasih Türkçe (Eloquent Turkish), Orta Türkçe (Middle Turkish), Kaba Türkçe (Rough Turkish). The Fasih Türkçe contained a lot more Persian and Arabic loanwords, and it was the language of poetry and administration.

As far as the development of the language, it typically falls into three stages historically, starting with the Eski Osmanlı Türkçesi (Old Ottoman Turkish) which was more or less the same as the Seljuk empire and Anatolian beyliks' language, and it was used until the 16th century. Later on, the Orta Osmanlı Türkçesi (Middle Ottoman Turkish) or Klasik Osmanlıca (Classical Ottoman Turkish) developed, and used for literature and poetry, as well as administration of the Ottoman Empire. The later stage, known as the Yeni Osmanlı Türkçesi (New Ottoman Turkish) began to develop in the 19th century.

The Turkish language (Türkçe), which is also referred to as Istanbul Turkish, is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with most of its native speakers living in Western Asia, and significant group of speakers in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Ottoman Turkish, which was a variation of the Turkish spoken today, influenced many parts of Europe during the time that the Ottoman Empire expanded. When the modern Turkish republic was established, as part of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's reforms, many Persian and Arabic loanwords were replaced with Turkic equivalents, and the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. Today, Turkish is recognized as a minority language in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Iraq, Macedonia, and Romania.

The Turkic languages consist of over 35 different documented languages, originating from East Asia. Turkish has the highest number of native speakers out of all Turkic languages. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility among the various Oghuz languages, which include Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, Balkan Gagauz Turkish and Oghuz-influenced Crimean Tatar.