The Swedish-Turkish Dictionary Written for Charles XII, King of Sweden: Preliminary Notes

Abstract

For Europeans, developing expertise in the Turkish language and creating dictionaries was usually to meet the needs of missionaries, individuals on personal pilgrimages, or extended stays in Turkish captivity. These valuable dictionaries, some of which belong to the so-called transcription texts, i.e. written in alphabets other than Arabic alphabet. However, the origins of Petter Carling’s Swedish-Turkish dictionary are quite different and unique. This dictionary was written in Ottoman Turkey, at the military camp of Swedish king, Charles XII, near the small fortress-town of Bender in modern day Moldova, following the Swedish defeat by Peter I of Russia at the battle of Poltava. Carling adopted the Latin writing system and Swedish spelling conventions to reflect the phonetic structure of Turkish, thereby capturing its pronunciation. The dictionary is a unique example of a transcription text and a practical illustration of cross-cultural communication, as it facilitates the exchange of information between people of different cultures, primarily for use in various business transactions that were needed to keep the military camp functioning.