Karamanli

The terms 'Karamanli texts' and 'Karamanli literature', often called 'Karamanlidika' (Καραμανλίδικα),conventionally refer to Turkish texts written in Greek characters, produced by and for the Turkish-speaking Christian communities living mainly in Inner Asia Minor and in the cities of Izmir and Istanbul until the population exchange in 1924. The texts were initially written for religious purposes, i.e., in order to provide the flock with liturgical and other religious-related material in their mother tongue. The first printed book of this kind was published in 1718. Later, texts on non-religious topics, such as literature, history, music, and geography, were also produced. From the beginning of the 18th c. to the first quarter of the 20th c. about 750 printed titles are known to have been published, while there was also an extensive manuscript production. From a linguistic point of view, Karamanli texts are written in various Ottoman Turkish varieties. This entry is a survey on the linguistic aspects of Karamanli texts

History of Teaching of Turkish in Europe

The present entry is a survey on learning and teaching of Ottoman Turkish in Europe from the first quarter of the 16th c. until the 19th c. The main target learners of the teaching material produced in the first few centuries were merchants and diplomats, and later missionaries. The significant production of dictionaries, grammars and phrase books, both printed and manuscript, occurred in the17th c. and 18th c., whereas the 19th c. was characterized by a more practical approach to language teaching. Several European states, beginning with Venice and France, instituted a system called 'language youth' in order to teach young dragomans-to-be in Constantinople. The most current languages in which Turkish grammars were written until the beginning of the 20th c. are Latin, Italian, German, French, and English

Lingua Franca of the Levant

The term 'Lingua Franca of the Levant' has entered Turcological bibliography thanks to Henry and Renée Kahane & Andreas Tietze's homonymous work on Turkish nautical terminology of Italian and Greek origin. It forms part of a wider lingua franca of the Mediterranean with a Romance basis and Arabic, as well as Turkish elements. This entry deals with the various nautical terms which entered Turkish between the 13th c. and the 18th c

In Vitro Inhibition of Neutrophil Elastase Activity by Inhaled Anti-Pseudomonas Antibiotics Used in Cystic Fibrosis Patients

Background. Inhaled antibiotics are commonly used in the treatment of cystic fibrosis lung disease. A previous study suggested neutrophil elastase activation by colistin in vitro. Here, we investigated direct effects of the commonly used antibiotics colistin and tobramycin on neutrophil elastase activity. Methods. Neutrophil elastase was measured spectrophotometrically. The antibiotics colistin and tobramycin were added in different concentrations with or without the addition of albumin. Results. Generally, neutrophil elastase activity was lower in the absence of albumin compared to its presence. Both antibiotics, colistin and tobramycin, had inhibitory effects on neutrophil elastase activity except for high concentrations of colistin when albumin was absent. Conclusions. Our results suggest inhibitory effects of colistin and tobramycin in vitro. There was a clear dependency of neutrophil elastase measurements on the presence of albumin. Clinical studies are needed to investigate potential direct effects of inhaled antibiotics on neutrophil elastase activity in cystic fibrosis airways

Detection of secretory IgA antibodies against gliadin and human tissue transglutaminase in stool to screen for coeliac disease in children: validation study

Objective To evaluate two commercial stool tests for detection of secretory IgA antibodies against gliadin and human tissue transglutaminase for diagnosis of coeliac disease in children with symptoms.Setting Tertiary care children's hospital.Participants Coded stool samples from 20 children with newly diagnosed coeliac disease and 64 controls. Six children with coeliac disease had stool tests every two weeks for three months after starting a gluten-free diet.Main outcome measures Secretory IgA antibodies against gliadin and human tissue transglutaminase in stool samples, determined in duplicate by using recommended cut-off limits.Results Sensitivity of faecal antibodies against human tissue transglutaminase was 10% (95% confidence interval 1% to 32%), and specificity was 98% (91% to 100%). For antibodies against gliadin, sensitivity was 6% (0% to 29%) and specificity was 97% (89% to 100%). Optimisation of cut-off limits by receiver operating characteristic analysis and use of results of both tests increased sensitivity to 82%, but specificity decreased to 58%. All follow-up stool tests remained negative, except for two positive anti-gliadin results in one patient, six and 10 weeks after the gluten-free diet was started.Conclusions Neither stool test was suitable for screening for coeliac disease in children with symptoms

Surfactant protein a in cystic fibrosis: supratrimeric structure and pulmonary outcome.

The state of oligomerization of surfactant associated protein-A (SP-A) monomers differs between individuals. This likely affects SP-A's functional properties and could thereby influence clinical status in patients with lung diseases. In this study we focus on SP-A structure in cystic fibrosis (CF) compared to both healthy subjects and disease controls. SP-A composition and function were assessed in both bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and serum of 46 CF patients with mild disease, 25 patients with chronic bronchitis and 22 healthy subjects by gel chromatography and a functional agglutination assay. Relation of SP-A agglutination ability to disease severity of the subjects was explored. SP-A was present in seven major oligomeric forms with the majority of SP-A being structurally organized as complex oligomeric forms. More complex oligomeric forms were associated with better SP-A function with regard to its agglutination ability. These forms were more frequently observed in BAL than in serum, but there were no differences between disease groups. In CF patients, more complex forms of SP-A were associated with better lung function. Organizational structure of SP-A affects its functional activity and is linked to disease severity in CF

“Le nostre lettere sono greche, ma parliamo il turco”. «Karamanlidika» e altri casi di sincretismo grafico in ambiente ottomano

“Karamanlidika” is the conventional denomination for a vast group of printed and manuscript Turkish texts written in Greek characters and produced mainly between the eighteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries in Asia Minor, Istanbul and other cities of the Ottoman Empire. In the present contribution the terms syncretistic writing and graphic syncretism (borrowed from the term syncretism in religious studies) are proposed for a comprehensive labelling covering not only “Karamanlidika”, but also “Aljamiado Greek” (i.e. Greek in Arabic characters) and other writing forms resulting from a symbiosis of languages with non-conventionally correlated alphabets. The article aims to present the salient features of “Karamanlidika” production from a historic and typological point of view, concluding with a comparative outlook on “Aljamiado Greek”

An unedited sketch of Turkish grammar (1711) by the Venetian giovane di lingua Pietr’Antonio Rizzi

The unedited manuscript Memoria locale di precetti grammaticali turchi (‘A local memory of Turkish grammatical rules’), dated 1711, is an Italian grammar of Ottoman Turkish compiled by Pietr’Antonio Rizzi, a member of the Venetian “language boys” (giovani di lingua). Essentially a translated summary of F. Meninski’s Grammatica turcica (Vienna, 1680), the grammar consists of 27 chapters covering writing, phonetics, morphology, and syntax. The Turkish language material is written in both Arabic and Latin scripts. The Memoria locale was not written for publication, but is an example of an auto-referential language notebook addressed directly to its own author. The manuscript constitutes a valuable source of information about the history of the teaching and learning of Ottoman Turkish in the eighteenth century, and about the reception history of Meninski’s monumental work; it also adds to our knowledge regarding the Venetian diplomatic institution of the “language boys.” My principal aims in this preliminary study are to analyse the system of grammatical description adopted by Rizzi in the Memoria locale, and to compare some of the linguistic data therein with corresponding material in Meninski’s Grammatica