Note 36 — Chapter III · CONSTANTINOPLE

[The structure of Turkish can only be said to resemble Latin in the general sense that the verb comes at the end of the sentence, which can be swelled out to enormous, and indeed preposterous, dimensions. The Turk of the old school thinks that a letter or document, and even a single chapter of a book, ought to consist of one sentence; but in this respect there has been considerable improvement of late, and modern newspapers and light literature are written in phrases of relatively reasonable length,—not longer, say, than German,—and with a much smaller proportion of Arabic and Persian words. The Osmanli gets few opportunities for public speaking nowadays, but it is said that the short-lived Turkish Parliament in 1877 furnished a very creditable oratorical display.]