Turkish Basic Grammar: Alphabet Vowel Harmony Agglutination (suffixing words to change their meaning.) Consonant Mutation Lack of Gender. Intermediate: Nouns and Pronouns Adjectives Verbs and Tenses Possessive Relationship and Possession. Advanced: Verb Moods (can, may, must) Participles (verbal nouns and adjectives) Spatials and Spatial Relationships (where to, from, at) Word Formation in Turkish. Conversational Items: Time, Seasons, Numbers, Colours Saying "Thank you" About "buyurun " to express politeness Expressing need and obligation Daily Interjections Modes of Address Turkish Sign Language How to say "too much, too many Daily Talk Common Door Signs. Glossaries: List of Daily Locutions Daily Word List Irregular Tense List Turkish Single Syllable Verb List Intensified Adjectives List Reduplicated Words. A Nutshell Overview Turkish In Turkish words are changed by suffixing other words on to them. These other little important words show motion towards, location and motion from. These added words change their spelling according to set rules and they must follow the same vowel pattern (Vowel Harmony) as the word they are being affixed to. Sometimes they also have a consonant change (Consonant Mutation) for ease of pronunciation. These little words (suffixes) added to the stem of a verb may indicate its positive or negative form. Suffixes are then added for tense and person. Further meaning to verbs (Verb Moods) such as may, might, can, can't are also supplied by a suffix to the original verb, thus producing a new word. Nouns are also suffixed with possessor and the motion or location words are then added. There is no word for the Definite Article the and also there are no gender forms (no "le" or "la" as in French.) Adjectives (describing words) precede their noun as in English and always remain in their basic form. There being a lack of gender, thus no agreement is required. The sentence form is SOV Subject, Object, Verb.   Ch. 1 : About the Turkish Language. The Turkish Language and its Grammar "Turkish is a real pleasure; the ingenious grammar, the regularity, the transparency and intelligibility of the whole structure show the wonderful power of the human mind displaying itself in language." The Origins of Turkish. The Turkish Language originated in The Altay Mountain Range in Northern Siberia centuries ago. For this reason it is called an Altaic Language. As nomads expanded further into Asia Minor they brought their language to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and other countries. Many of these languages are mutually intelligible although local usage and vocabulary, spelling and alphabet may differ. They all exhibit the same grammatical structure of agglutination and vowel harmony. Turkish, being a language emanating from Central Asia, is spoken from the borders of Greece into the hinterland of Western China. While the Ottoman Empire flourished Turkish was spoken from Vienna to Arabia, Egypt and Northern Africa. The Turkish vocabulary contains many words from Arabic, Persian and European languages. These imported words mostly follow the basic grammar and vowel harmony of native Turkish.   The Structure of Turkish. Turkish is not a Classical Structured Language. The Turkish grammar is not looked on by the Turks themselves as a Classical Structured Language. They have their own grammar rules which are not based on the Classical System as those in Latin or Greek Most Turkish grammars for foreigners are written by linguists and grammarians, usually in consort with a Turkish national, and they tend to use a classical language framework. Consequently most grammars are peppered with "classical terms" as "accusative, dative, locative and ablative" together with such tenses and moods as "aorist, subjunctive etc." This book uses Turkish grammar nomenclature and many classical grammar terms have been discarded. Turkish has the concept of Vowel Harmony; the vowels of suffixes must mirror the final vowel of the root word being suffixed. Also there is Consonant Mutation, where spelling changes are made to preserve phonetic euphony with actual pronunciation. English has some consonant change usually to distinguish between different meanings of utterance. (fare, fair, peer, pier) There is also a "Reflexive Genitive" in Turkish where both the "owner" and "owned" are suffixed. This construction does not occur in English as only "owner" is modified (John's chair.) In this book, Turkish grammar rules are followed and it is called the "Possessive Relationship". Turkish is characterized by vowel harmony, consonant mutation and agglutination (word suffixation). Post‑positions (suffixes) are used instead of prepositions as in English. Suffixes added to the stem of a verb may indicate positive or negative forms of the passive, reflexive, causative, potential, subjunctive moods plus further additions for tense and person. Nouns can be suffixed with possessor (my, your) and condition (to from, in). Both the subject definite article and grammatical gender are lacking. Adjectives precede their noun and do not have to agree in number or case. The sentence form is SOV Subject, Object, Verb. The Turkish Alphabet. The Turkish Alphabet was changed in 1928 from the Ottoman script to Latin characters soon after the Turkish Republic was declared. Turkish does not as a rule allow two vowels to occur together. There are exceptions, but mostly in foreign imported words. As there are no diphthongs, whenever vowels do occur together they are each pronounced as a separate sound. The letter ‑Y‑ is considered as a consonant in Turkish. It is widely used as a buffer consonant to keep vowels apart during word building. The alphabet consists of twenty‑one consonants and eight vowels. There are no letters W, X ,Q. Turkish pronunciation is phonetic as each letter retains its individual pronunciation at all times. A B C Ç D E F G Ğ H I İ J K L M N O Ö P R S Ş T U Ü V Y Z Letter Pairs There are six pairs of similar but different letters. Each letter of the pair has a different pronunciation. C ‑ Ç O ‑ Ö G ‑ Ğ I ‑ İ S ‑ Ş U ‑ Ü Turkish Vowel Pronunciation. The Eight Vowels are divided into two groups for Vowel Harmony purposes. The A‑UnDotted Group of four vowels a ı o u The E‑Dotted Group of four vowels e i ö ü All pronunciation examples shown are given in British English. The A‑UnDotted Vowel Group. A is as u in English lucky or mutter. I [UnDotted I] is the er sound in porter or water without any r sound. O is as the o sound in lottery or bottom. U is as the oo sound in loot or boot. The E‑Dotted Vowel Group. E is as e in letter or set or met.

• [Dotted İ] is as ee in meet or ea in seat.
• is as ir in bird or shirt without any r sound.
• is as ew sound few or stew.

Turkish vowels are pronounced shorter than English vowels. This is one of the difficulties for Turkish learners as they are sometimes difficult to distinguish in normal paced conversation. Turkish Consonant Pronunciation. The Pronunciation of these Consonants differs from English Pronunciation: C is always a J sound as in JamJar. [In Turkish the word sound "jamjar" would be spelled "camcar"]

• is the CH sound as in CHurCH.

G is always hard as in Gate. It is never soft as in "General."

• (soft G) lengthens the preceding vowel. It has no sound and never begins a word.

[The Turkish soft ğ can be likened to the silent "gh"sound in the English words weight, light, fought.] H is always aspirated as in Henry. It is never silent as in "Heir". R is always strongly rolled even on the end of words. S is always hissed as in Safe. It is never a z sound as in "these" or "those".

• is the SH sound as in SHarp or baSH.

Sound Names used in Wireless and Telegraphy. A‑Adana, B‑Bolu, C‑Ceyhan, Ç‑Çanakkale, D‑Denizli, E‑Edirne, F‑Fatsa, G‑Giresun, Ğ‑Yumuşak ge, H‑Hatay, I‑Isparta, İ‑İzmir, J‑Jandarma, K‑Kars, L‑Lüleburgas, M‑Muş, N‑Niğde, O‑Ordu, Ö‑Ödemiş, P‑Polatlı, R‑Rize, S‑Sinop, Ş‑Şırnak, T‑Tokat, U‑Uşak, Ü‑Ünye, V‑Van, Y‑ Yozgat, Z‑Zonguldak The Features of Turkish Grammar. The Adjectives Adjectives and adjectival phrases precede their noun and do not agree in number or gender. Adjectives can not be suffixed and cannot be plural. Some adjectives have an "intensified" version. A list of these is shown in the Word Glossary (Ch. 56) Vowel Harmony Turkish has eight vowels consisting of four pairs: A ‑ E I ‑ İ O ‑ Ö U ‑ Ü having corresponding front/back, and rounded/un‑rounded sounds. This difference in pronunciation forms the basis for Vowel Harmony Rules. According to these rules, vowels of suffixes must have the same properties as the vowel in the last syllable of the word being suffixed: either front/back or rounded/un‑rounded. Agglutination (addition of suffixes) Agglutination in Turkish takes the form of suffixes attached to the end of nouns and verbs. These suffixes add to the word's meaning and/or mark its grammatical function. Words may have chains of different suffixes added to them. The Absence of Gender Turkish has no gender distinctions, nor does it have gender pronouns. The single word "O" signifies he, she, it. Verbs The verb always come at the end of the sentence. Sentence construction follows the subject‑object‑verb (SOV) pattern. The Structure of Turkish Turkish differs in both grammatical structure and vocabulary to the Indo‑European and Romance languages, English, Spanish, French etc. Turkish is a phonetic language as each letter always retains it own sound. In English the sound of the letters can change, as the letter a does in "fat, fate, fare" etc. Turkish has no such pronunciation change to letters of the alphabet. Consonant Mutation In certain circumstances changes are made to the spelling of consonants. If the pronunciation of a consonant changes the spelling also changes to reflect this. Turkish Noun Conditions. These six conditions are suffixed to the root word according to Vowel Harmony Rules. The vowels of the suffix match the final vowel of the root word. Subject Condition (Nominative) The root word (nominative) carries no suffix. The Subject Condition is regarded as already substantive in Turkish. There is no separate subject definite article. el hand, the hand. adam man, the man Ownership Condition (Genitive): ‑in/‑ın/‑un/‑ün The condition of "belonging to" meaning of, 's in English. elin [el‑in] the hand's, of the hand. arabanın [araba‑nın] the car's, of the car Specific Object Condition (Accusative): ‑i/‑ı/‑u/‑ü The direct object of a verb meaning specific the in English. eli [el‑i] the hand (obj.) gözü [göz‑ü] the eye (obj.) Movement Towards Condition (Dative): ‑(y)a/‑(y)e The condition of movement towards meaning to, towards in English. ele [el‑e] to/towards the hand. masaya [masa‑ya] to, towards the table Static Position Condition (Locative): ‑da ‑ta/‑de ‑te The condition of place and position meaning in, on, at in English. elde [el‑de] in/on/at the hand. işte [iş‑te] at work. Movement Away Condition (Ablative): ‑dan ‑tan/‑den ‑ten The Movement Away condition meaning from, by, via in English. elden [el‑den] from/by/via the hand. işten [iş‑ten] from work. Turkish Grammar is Regular. Turkish Pronunciation is Phonetic, In Turkish each letter of the alphabet always retains its basic pronunciation. Turkish grammar is regular but differs in that it consists of post‑positions which are suffixed directly to nouns or other parts of speech to modify their meaning. Agglutination (a sticking on to.) The putting together of language particles where each expresses a single definite meaning, thus forming a new word. The use of suffixes is called agglutination, literally meaning "a gluing on". This is in contrast to English which uses individual prepositions for the same reasons. In English there are many words which agglutinate (extend) to form other words. The word argue can be agglutinated to argument by sticking on a ‑ment suffix. his word can take addition the suffix ‑ative producing argumentative and even further to argumentatively by adding a the ‑ly suffix. This then, is the way of Turkish. Even the little words like in, from, at are suffixed to their noun, thus producing an extended word. Consonant Mutation. Changes in pronunciation and spelling of consonants to preserve phonetics and euphony. About Voicing of Consonants. A Voiced Consonant is one where the voice box is used to produce the sound d, b are in this category. An Unvoiced Consonant is where the voice is silent and only air is expelled to produce the sound such as t, p. The Main Consonants with Two Forms in Turkish. There is some consonant mutation in English. The terminal ‑y of lady changes to an ‑ie‑ in its plural ladies, and the terminal ‑f of knife changes to a ‑v‑ in its plural knives. Turkish has consonant change, but it is on a larger scale than English. The changes: k to ğ and d to t. The main changes that occur in Turkish words is that a terminal ‑k may change to a ‑ğ (soft g) when a suffix with a vowel is added. The first letter ‑d of a suffix may change to a ‑t when the suffix is added to a word ending in a hard (unvoiced) consonant ç f h k p s ş t. There are also some other minor consonant changes. The Eight Vowels of Turkish. In Turkish the voice sounds are separated into two main groups, consonants and vowels. When there is no obstacle to a voice then the sound is called a vowel. Vowel Classification. This is a description of how the Turkish vowels are classified by linguists. This book does not use this system, it is only added for completeness. (A) According to the position of tongue and exit. The A‑UnDotted vowels are pronounced at the back of the mouth more like English. Thick vowels: a ı o u. The A‑UnDotted vowels are pronounced at the back of the mouth more like English. Thin vowels: e i ö ü. E‑Dotted vowels are pronounced at the front of the mouth, as the French Language. (B) According to the lips positioning. Straight vowels: a e ı i Rounded vowels: o ö u ü (C) According to the mouth opening. Wide Vowels: a e o ö Narrow vowels: ı i u ü Vowel Harmony Basics. Vowel Harmony: A grammatical rule where subsequent vowels in a word or suffix follow the vowel properties (rounded/un‑rounded, front produced/back produced) of the previous vowel. A peculiarity of Turkish is Vowel Harmony where vowels can change in pronunciation and spelling to mirror the previous vowel in a word. In this book Turkish vowels are classified into two groups as follows: The A‑UnDotted Group of four vowels are a ı o u The E‑Dotted Group of four vowels are e i ö ü The harmony lies in the fact that all Turkish words of Altaic Turkic Origin are pronounced entirely containing: (1) A‑UnDotted Vowels The A‑UnDotted plural suffix ‑lar is added to kapı to form the word for doors kapılar (2) E‑Dotted Vowels The E‑Dotted plural suffix ‑ler is added to köylü to produce villagers köylüler. All suffixes follow vowel harmony. For every suffix there is both an A‑UnDotted Vowel Form and an E‑Dotted Vowel Form . Adding the suffix ‑de in, on, at and the suffix ‑den from These suffixes harmonize with the vowel in the word ev house evlerde [ev‑ler‑de] in the houses. evden [ev‑den] from the house. evlerinden [ev‑leri‑nden] from their house Similarly adding suffix ‑da in, on, at and ‑dan from These suffixes harmonize with the final vowel of the word oda room. odalarda [oda‑lar‑da] in the rooms odadan [oda‑dan] from the room bulmacalarında [bulmaca‑ları‑nda] in their crosswords. Foreign Words Incorporated into Turkish Turkish has imported many words from French, such as televizyon télévision and müzisyen musician, kuaför coiffure. These importations have been modified phonetically to the Turkish Alphabet and incorporated into the language. These are spelled according to Turkish phonetics and often have both A‑UnDotted and E‑Dotted vowels within one word which is unnatural for Turkish. Such is true for the numerous Turkish words of Arabic origin, such as mektup letter and merhaba hello, and of Persian origin as hane office where vowel harmony does not occur in the word itself. In these cases, consistent with the general rule for vowel harmony in Turkish, the final vowel of the word determines the vowel harmony for suffixation. Vowel Harmony Rules Summary UnDotted Vowels follow each other. Dotted Vowels follow each other. Turkish Verbs. There are no irregular verbs in Turkish. One single conjugation is used for all verbs. Turkish Verbs are also obey vowel harmony rules. All verbs belong to one of two groups determined by their infinitive forms, those ending in ‑mak (The A‑UnDotted Vowel Group) and those ending in ‑mek (The E‑Dotted Vowel Group). In consequence there is more than one form for the tense sign suffix. For illustration the Future Tense suffix may be ‑acak or ‑ecek to follow Vowel Harmony Rules. The suffixes for all ‑mak verbs have only A‑UnDotted Back Vowels. bakmak to look becomes bakacak [bak‑acak] he will look. However only E‑Dotted Front Vowels are found in the suffixes of ‑mek verbs gelmek to come becomes gelecek [gel‑ecek] He will come. Turkish Articles. English uses the same Definite Article "THE" for both subjects and objects. THE dog bit THE man." Turkish does not have separate definite articles. Turkish does not have a Subject Definite Article "THE" Turkish makes an object word definitive by adding an objective suffix "‑i ‑ı ‑u ‑ü" which equates to the English Object Definite Article "THE". This is one of the difficulties for those learning Turkish as English does not distinguish between subject "the" and object "the" as it uses the definite article "THE" for both of them. An illustration of the Objective Definite Article (accusative): Fincan masada. The cup is on the table. [subject: "The cup" is already considered as a specific subject in Turkish.] Masadaki fincanı bana verin. Give me the cup which is on the table. [object: "The cup"] Here the object the cup fincan has been made definitive (specific) by the addition of the objective suffix ‑ı to produce fincanı [fincan‑ı], the way of saying "the cup" as a specific object. Turkish Adjectives Turkish is a descriptive language, adjectives abound. If Turkish can make something into an adjective then it will do so. Being an descriptive language basically the adjective or adjectival phrase always preceded its noun: kara kedi a black cat as in English. However Turkish makes great use of adjectival phrases and clauses to describes nouns, actions and thoughts. An Example In English: The black cat with the long tail which is sitting on the mat looks hungry. Using a reduced relative clause: The long‑tailed black cat sitting on the mat looks hungry. The Turkish Way Describes the cat not only as "black and long‑tailed" but also "where and upon what it is sitting" together with any other attributes, such as "its long tail": Minderin üstünde oturan uzun kuyruklu kara kedi aç görünüyor. On the mat which is sitting long tailed black cat hungry looks. In Turkish the subject and object are described adjectivally with regards to place and disposition. Once all the describing is done, the verb is placed last in the sentence. Structure of Turkish Words. In the structure of Turkish words a vowel always follows a consonant and a consonant always follows a vowel. There are no diphthongs (two vowels occurring together) in Turkish words, other than imported foreign exceptions. In order to preserve this rule certain consonants are inserted as "buffers" between vowels. These buffers are always Y, N or S. (Y is considered as a consonant in Turkish.) The majority of Turkish Vowels are always pronounced quite short, there is no lengthening of vowels. For Turkish learners this sometimes makes understanding difficult as there is little and light stress in Turkish pronunciation. There is no gender distinction, so there are no "le" and "la" problems as in French. This borne out by the fact that Turkish only has one word "O" for he, she and it.