To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish—the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire—spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet.
About 40% of all speakers of Turkic languages are native Turkish speakers.[9]The characteristic features of Turkish, such as vowel harmony, agglutination, and lack of grammatical gender, are universal within the Turkic family. The Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia.
The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia. Erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate.[11] After the discovery and excavation of these monuments and associated stone slabs by Russian archaeologists in the wider area surrounding the Orkhon Valley between 1889 and 1893, it became established that the language on the inscriptions was the Old Turkic language written using the Old Turkic alphabet, which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to a superficial similarity to the Germanicrunic alphabets.[12]
With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages (c. 6th–11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across Central Asia, covering a vast geographical region stretching from Siberia and to Europe and the Mediterranean. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, Oghuz—the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into Anatolia during the 11th century.[13] Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages, Mahmud al-Kashgari from the Kara-Khanid Khanate, published the first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the Compendium of the Turkic Dialects (Ottoman Turkish: Divânü Lügati't-Türk).[14]
Following the adoption of Islam c. 950 by the Kara-Khanid Khanate and the Seljuq Turks, who are both regarded as the ethnic and cultural ancestors of the Ottomans, the administrative language of these states acquired a large collection of loanwords from Arabic and Persian. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was heavily influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters and a great quantity of imported words. The literary and official language during the Ottoman Empire period (c. 1299–1922) is termed Ottoman Turkish, which was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that differed considerably and was largely unintelligible to the period's everyday Turkish. The everyday Turkish, known as kaba Türkçe or "rough Turkish", spoken by the less-educated lower and also rural members of society, contained a higher percentage of native vocabulary and served as basis for the modern Turkish language.[15]
After the foundation of the modern state of Turkey and the script reform, the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, with the aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a language reform to replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents.[16] By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries.[17]
Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used a style of Ottoman which sounded so alien to later listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995.[18]
The past few decades have seen the continuing work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language, mostly from English. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance. However, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval (fırka has been replaced by the French loanword parti). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example betik (originally meaning "book") is now used to mean "script" in computer science.[19]
Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are:
Ottoman Turkish
Modern Turkish
English translation
Comments
müselles
üçgen
triangle
Compound of the noun üç the suffix -gen
tayyare
uçak
aeroplane
Derived from the verb uçmak ("to fly"). The word was first proposed to mean "airport".
nispet
oran
ratio
The old word is still used in the language today together with the new one. The modern word is from the Old Turkic verb or- (to cut).
şimal
kuzey
north
Derived from the Old Turkic noun kuz ("cold and dark place", "shadow"). The word is restored from Middle Turkic usage.[20]
teşrinievvel
ekim
October
The noun ekim means "the action of planting", referring to the planting of cereal seeds in autumn, which is widespread in Turkey
Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey and by the Turkish diaspora in some 30 other countries. Turkish language is mutually intelligible with Azerbaijani and other Turkic languages. In particular, Turkish-speaking minorities exist in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the Ottoman Empire, such as Iraq[21], Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece (primarily in Western Thrace), the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia. More than two million Turkish speakers live in Germany; and there are significant Turkish-speaking communities in the United States, France, The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.[22] Due to the cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic Turkish immigrants speak the language with native fluency.[23]
In 2005, 93% of the population of Turkey were native speakers of Turkish,[24] about 67 million at the time, with Kurdish languages making up most of the remainder.[25]
In Turkey, the regulatory body for Turkish is the Turkish Language Association (Türk Dil Kurumu or TDK), which was founded in 1932 under the name Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti ("Society for Research on the Turkish Language"). The Turkish Language Association was influenced by the ideology of linguistic purism: indeed one of its primary tasks was the replacement of loanwords and foreign grammatical constructions with equivalents of Turkish origin.[29] These changes, together with the adoption of the new Turkish alphabet in 1928, shaped the modern Turkish language spoken today. TDK became an independent body in 1951, with the lifting of the requirement that it should be presided over by the Minister of Education. This status continued until August 1983, when it was again made into a governmental body in the constitution of 1982, following the military coup d'état of 1980.[17]
Modern standard Turkish is based on the dialect of Istanbul.[30] This "Istanbul Turkish" (İstanbul Türkçesi) constitutes the model of written and spoken Turkish, as recommended by Ziya Gökalp, Ömer Seyfettin and others.[31]
Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and the Turkish education system since the 1930s.[32] Academically, researchers from Turkey often refer to Turkish dialects as ağız or şive, leading to an ambiguity with the linguistic concept of accent, which is also covered with these words. Projects investigating Turkish dialects are being carried out by several universities, as well as a dedicated work group of the Turkish Language Association. Work is currently in progress for the compilation and publication of their research as a comprehensive dialect atlas of the Turkish language.[33][34]
Rumelice is spoken by immigrants from Rumelia, and includes the distinct dialects of Ludogorie, Dinler, and Adakale, which are influenced by the theoretized Balkan sprachbund. Kıbrıs Türkçesi is the name for Cypriot Turkish and is spoken by the Turkish Cypriots. Edirne is the dialect of Edirne. Ege is spoken in the Aegean region, with its usage extending to Antalya. The nomadic Yörüks of the Mediterranean Region of Turkey also have their own dialect of Turkish.[35] This group is not to be confused with the Yuruk nomads of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey who speak Balkan Gagauz Turkish.
Güneydoğu is spoken in the southeast, to the east of Mersin. Doğu, a dialect in the Eastern Anatolia Region, has a dialect continuum. The Meskhetian Turks who live in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia as well as in several Central Asian countries, also speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, originating in the areas of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin and sharing similarities with Azerbaijani, the language of Azerbaijan.[36]
At least one source claims Turkish consonants are larengially specified three-way fortis-lenis (aspirated/neutral/voiced) like Armenian.[39]
The phoneme that is usually referred to as yumuşak g ("soft g"), written ⟨ğ⟩ in Turkish orthography, represents a vowel sequence or a rather weak bilabial approximant between rounded vowels, a weak palatal approximant between unrounded front vowels, and a vowel sequence elsewhere. It never occurs at the beginning of a word or a syllable, but always follows a vowel. When word-final or preceding another consonant, it lengthens the preceding vowel.[40]
In native Turkic words, the sounds [c], [ɟ], and [l] are in complementary distribution with [k], [ɡ], and [ɫ]; the former set occurs adjacent to front vowels and the latter adjacent to back vowels. The distribution of these phonemes is often unpredictable, however, in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. In such words, [c], [ɟ], and [l] often occur with back vowels:[41] some examples are given below.
Turkish orthography reflects final-obstruent devoicing, a form of consonant mutation whereby a voiced obstruent, such as /b d dʒ ɡ/, is devoiced to [p t tʃ k] at the end of a word or before a consonant, but retains its voicing before a vowel. In loan words, the voiced equivalent of /k/ is /g/; in native words, it is /ğ/.[42][43]
Obstruent devoicing in nouns
Underlying consonant
Devoiced form
Underlying morpheme
Dictionary form
Dative case / 1sg present
Meaning
b
p
*kitab
kitap
kitaba
book (loan)
c
ç
*uc
uç
uca
tip
d
t
*bud
but
buda
thigh
g
k
*reng
renk
renge
color (loan)
ğ
k
*ekmeğ
ekmek
ekmeğe
bread
This is analogous to languages such as German and Russian, but in the case of Turkish, the spelling is usually made to match the sound. However, in a few cases, such as ad/at/ 'name' (dative ada), the underlying form is retained in the spelling (cf. at/at/ 'horse', dative ata). Other exceptions are od 'fire' vs. ot 'herb', sac 'sheet metal', saç 'hair'. Most loanwords, such as kitap above, are spelled as pronounced, but a few such as hac 'hajj', şad 'happy', and yad 'strange(r)' also show their underlying forms.[citation needed]
Native nouns of two or more syllables that end in /k/ in dictionary form are nearly all //ğ// in underlying form. However, most verbs and monosyllabic nouns are underlyingly //k//.[44]
The vowels of the Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨ı⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨u⟩, ⟨ü⟩.[45] The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by how and where they are articulated focusing on three key features: front and back, rounded and unrounded and vowel height.[46] Vowels are classified [±back], [±round] and [±high].[47]
The only diphthongs in the language are found in loanwords and may be categorised as falling diphthongs usually analyzed as a sequence of /j/ and a vowel.[40]
Turkish is an agglutinative language where a series of suffixes are added to the stem word; vowel harmony is a phonological process which ensures a smooth flow, requiring the least amount of oral movement as possible. Vowel harmony can be viewed as a process of assimilation, whereby following vowels take on the characteristics of the preceding vowel.[48] It may be useful to think of Turkish vowels as two symmetrical sets: the a-undotted (a, ı, o, u) which are all back vowels, articulated at the back of the mouth; and the e-dotted (e, i, ö, ü) vowels which are articulated at the front of the mouth. The place and manner of articulation of the vowels will determine which pattern of vowel harmony a word will adopt. The pattern of vowels is shown in the table above.[49]
Grammatical affixes have "a chameleon-like quality",[50] and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony:
twofold (-e/-a):[51] the locative case suffix, for example, is -de after front vowels and -da after back vowels. The notation -de² is a convenient shorthand for this pattern.
fourfold (-i/-ı/-ü/-u): the genitive case suffix, for example, is -in or -ın after unrounded vowels (front or back respectively); and -ün or -un after the corresponding rounded vowels. In this case, the shorthand notation -in4 is used.
Practically, the twofold pattern (also referred to as the e-type vowel harmony) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the e-form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the a-form. The fourfold pattern (also called the i-type) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back.[48] The following examples, based on the copula-dir4 ("[it] is"), illustrate the principles of i-type vowel harmony in practice: Türkiye'dir ("it is Turkey"),[52]kapıdır ("it is the door"), but gündür ("it is the day"), paltodur ("it is the coat").[53]
There are several exceptions to the vowel harmony rules, which can be categorised as follows:
A few native root words such as anne (mother), elma (apple) and kardeş (brother). In these cases the suffixes harmonise with the final vowel.
Compounds such as the bu-gün (today) and baş-kent (capital). In these cases vowels are not required to harmonise between the constituent words.
Loanwords often don't harmonise, however, in some cases the suffixes will harmonise with the front vowel even in words that may not have a front vowel in the final syllable. Usually this occurs when the words end in a palatal [l], for example halsiz < hal + -siz "listless", meçhuldür < meçhul + -dir "it is unknown". However, affixes borrowed from foreign languages do not harmonise, such as -izm (ateizm "atheism"), -en (derived from French -ment as in taxmen "completely), anti- (antidemokratik "antidemocratic").
A few native suffixes are also invariable (or at least partially so) such as the second vowel in the bound auxiliary -abil, or in the marker -ken as well as in the imperfect suffix -yor. There are also a few derivational suffixes that do not harmonise such as -gen in uçgen (triangle) or altigen (hexagon). [46]
Some rural dialects lack some or all of these exceptions mentioned above.
a native compound which does not obey vowel harmony: Orta+köy ("middle village"—a place name)
a loanword also violating vowel harmony: viyadük (< French viaduc "viaduct")
the possessive suffix -i4 harmonizing with the final vowel (and softening the k by consonant alternation): viyadüğü[citation needed]
The rules of vowel harmony may vary by regional dialect. The dialect of Turkish spoken in the Trabzon region of northeastern Turkey follows the reduced vowel harmony of Old Anatolian Turkish, with the additional complication of two missing vowels (ü and ı), thus there is no palatal harmony. It's likely that elün meant "your hand" in Old Anatolian. While the 2nd person singular possessive would vary between back and front vowel, -ün or -un, as in elün for "your hand" and kitabun for "your book", the lack of ü vowel in the Trabzon dialect means -un would be used in both of these cases — elun and kitabun.[54]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2018)
Word-accent is usually on the last syllable in most words.[40] There are however, several exceptions. Exceptions include certain loanwords, particularly from Italian and Greek, as well as interjections, certain question words, adverbs (although not adjectives functioning as adverbs), and many proper names. Loanwords are usually accented on the penultimate syllable ([ɫoˈkanta]lokanta "restaurant" or [isˈcele]iskele "quay"). Proper names are usually accented on the penultimate syllable as in [isˈtanbuɫ]İstanbul, but sometimes on the antepenultimate, if the word ends in a cretic rhythm (– u x), as in [ˈaŋkaɾa]Ankara. (See Turkish phonology#Place names.)
In addition, there are certain suffixes such as -le "with" and the verbal negative particle -me-/-ma-, which place an accent on the syllable which precedes them, e.g. kitáp-la "with the book", dé-me-mek "not to say".[55]
In some circumstances (for example, in the second half of compound words or when verbs are preceded by an indefinite object) the accent on a word is suppressed and cannot be heard.
Syntax
Sentence groups
Turkish has two groups of sentences: verbal and nominal sentences. In the case of a verbal sentence, the predicate is a finite verb, while the predicate in nominal sentence will have either no overt verb or a verb in the form of the copulaol or y (variants of "be"). Examples of both are given below:[56]
Sentence type
Turkish
English
Subject
Predicate
Verbal
Necla
okula gitti
Necla went to school
Nominal (no verb)
Necla
oğretmen
Necla is a teacher
(copula)
Necla
ev-de-y-miş (hyphens delineate suffixes)
Apparently Necla is at home
Negation
The two groups of sentences have different ways of forming negation. A nominal sentence can be negated with the addition of the word değil. For example, the sentence above would become Necla oğretmen değil ('Necla is not a teacher'). However, the verbal sentence requires the addition of a negative suffix -me to the verb (the suffix comes after the stem but before the tense): Necla okula gitmedi ('Necla did not go to school').[57]
Yes/no questions
In the case of a verbal sentence, an interrogative clitic mi is added after the verb and stands alone, for example Necla okula gitti mi? ('Did Necla go to school?'). In the case of a nominal sentence, then mi comes after the predicate but before the personal ending, so for example Necla, siz oğretmen misiniz? ('Necla, are you [formal, plural] a teacher?').[57]
Word order
Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally subject–object–verb, as in Korean and Latin, but unlike English, for verbal sentences and subject-predicate for nominal sentences. However, as Turkish possesses a case-marking system, and most grammatical relations are shown using morphological markers, often the SOV structure has diminished relevance and may vary. The SOV structure may thus be considered a "pragmatic word order" of language, one that does not rely on word order for grammatical purposes.[58]
Immediately preverbal
Consider the following simple sentence which demonstrates that the focus in Turkish is on the element that immediately precedes the verb:[59]
Word order
Focus
SOV
Ahmet
Ahmet
yumurta-yı
egg (accusative)
yedi
ate
unmarked: Ahmet ate the egg
SVO
Ahmet
yedi
yumurta-yı
the focus is on the subject: Ahmet (it was Ahmet who ate the egg)
OVS
Yumurta-yı
yedi
Ahmet
the focus is on the object: egg (it was an egg that Ahmet ate)
Postpredicate
The postpredicate position signifies what is referred to as background information in Turkish- information that is assumed to be known to both the speaker and the listener, or information that is included in the context. Consider the following examples:[56]
Sentence type
Word order
Nominal
S-predicate
Bu ev güzelmiş (apparently this house is beautiful)
unmarked
Predicate-s
Güzelmiş bu ev (it is apparently beautiful, this house)
it is understood that the sentence is about this house
Verbal
SOV
Bana da bir kahve getir (get me a coffee too)
unmarked
Bana da getir bir kahve (get me one too, a coffee)
it is understood that it is a coffee that the speaker wants
Topic
There has been some debate among linguists whether Turkish is a subject-prominent (like English) or topic-prominent (like Japanese and Korean) language, with recent scholarship implying that it is indeed both subject and topic-prominent.[60] This has direct implications for word order as it is possible for the subject to be included in the verb-phrase in Turkish. There can be S/O inversion in sentences where the topic is of greater importance than the subject.
Turkish is an agglutinative language and frequently uses affixes, and specifically suffixes, or endings.[61] One word can have many affixes and these can also be used to create new words, such as creating a verb from a noun, or a noun from a verbal root (see the section on Word formation). Most affixes indicate the grammatical function of the word.[62]
The only native prefixes are alliterative intensifying syllables used with adjectives or adverbs: for example sımsıcak ("boiling hot" < sıcak) and masmavi ("bright blue" < mavi).[63]
The extensive use of affixes can give rise to long words, e.g. Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınızcasına, meaning "In the manner of you being one of those that we apparently couldn't manage to convert to Czechoslovakian". While this case is contrived, long words frequently occur in normal Turkish, as in this heading of a newspaper obituary column: Bayramlaşamadıklarımız (Bayram [festival]-Recipr-Impot-Partic-Plur-PossPl1; "Those of our number with whom we cannot exchange the season's greetings").[64] Another example can be seen in the final word of this heading of the online Turkish Spelling Guide (İmlâ Kılavuzu): Dilde birlik, ulusal birliğin vazgeçilemezlerindendir ("Unity in language is among the indispensables [dispense-Pass-Impot-Plur-PossS3-Abl-Copula] of national unity ~ Linguistic unity is a sine qua non of national unity").[65]
Nouns
There is no definite article in Turkish, but definiteness of the object is implied when the accusative ending is used (see below). Turkish nouns decline by taking case endings. There are six noun cases in Turkish, with all the endings following vowel harmony (shown in the table using the shorthand superscript notation. The plural marker -ler ² immediately follows the noun before any case or other affixes (e.g. köylerin "of the villages").[citation needed]
The accusative case marker is used only for definite objects; compare (bir) ağaç gördük "we saw a tree" with ağacı gördük "we saw the tree".[66] The plural marker -ler ² is generally not used when a class or category is meant: ağaç gördük can equally well mean "we saw trees [as we walked through the forest]"—as opposed to ağaçları gördük "we saw the trees [in question]".[citation needed]
The declension of ağaç illustrates two important features of Turkish phonology: consonant assimilation in suffixes (ağaçtan, ağaçta) and voicing of final consonants before vowels (ağacın, ağaca, ağacı).[citation needed]
Additionally, nouns can take suffixes that assign person: for example -imiz4, "our". With the addition of the copula (for example -im4, "I am") complete sentences can be formed. The interrogative particle mi4 immediately follows the word being questioned: köye mi? "[going] to the village?", ağaç mı? "[is it a] tree?".[citation needed]
Turkish
English
ev
(the) house
evler
(the) houses
evin
your (sing.) house
eviniz
your (pl./formal) house
evim
my house
evimde
at my house
evlerinizin
of your houses
evlerinizden
from your houses
evlerinizdendi
(he/she/it) was from your houses
evlerinizdenmiş
(he/she/it) was (apparently/said to be) from your houses
Evinizdeyim.
I am at your house.
Evinizdeymişim.
I was (apparently) at your house.
Evinizde miyim?
Am I at your house?
Personal pronouns
The Turkish personal pronouns in the nominative case are ben (1s), sen (2s), o (3s), biz (1pl), siz (2pl, or 2h), and onlar (3pl). They are declined regularly with some exceptions: benim (1s gen.); bizim (1pl gen.); bana (1s dat.); sana (2s dat.); and the oblique forms of o use the root on. All other pronouns (reflexive kendi and so on) are declined regularly.[citation needed]
Noun phrases (tamlama)
Two nouns, or groups of nouns, may be joined in either of two ways:
definite (possessive) compound (belirtili tamlama). E.g. Türkiye'nin sesi "the voice of Turkey (radio station)": the voice belonging to Turkey. Here the relationship is shown by the genitive ending -in4 added to the first noun; the second noun has the third-person suffix of possession -(s)i4.
indefinite (qualifying) compound (belirtisiz tamlama). E.g. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti "Turkey-Republic[67] = the Republic of Turkey": not the republic belonging to Turkey, but the Republic that is Turkey. Here the first noun has no ending; but the second noun has the ending -(s)i4—the same as in definite compounds.[citation needed]
The following table illustrates these principles.[68] In some cases the constituents of the compounds are themselves compounds; for clarity these subsidiary compounds are marked with [square brackets]. The suffixes involved in the linking are underlined. Note that if the second noun group already had a possessive suffix (because it is a compound by itself), no further suffix is added.
the Istanbul Consulate-General of Bulgaria (located in Istanbul, but belonging to Bulgaria)
[ [İstanbul Üniversitesi] [Edebiyat Fakültesi] ]
[ [Türk Edebiyatı] Profesörü]
Professor of Turkish Literature in the Faculty of Literature of the University of Istanbul
ne oldum
delisi
"what-have-I-become!"[71] madman = parvenu who gives himself airs
As the last example shows, the qualifying expression may be a substantival sentence rather than a noun or noun group.[72]
There is a third way of linking the nouns where both nouns take no suffixes (takısız tamlama). However, in this case the first noun acts as an adjective,[73] e.g. Demir kapı (iron gate), elma yanak ("apple cheek", i.e. red cheek), kömür göz ("coal eye", i.e. black eye) :
Adjectives
Turkish adjectives are not declined. However most adjectives can also be used as nouns, in which case they are declined: e.g. güzel ("beautiful") → güzeller ("(the) beautiful ones / people"). Used attributively, adjectives precede the nouns they modify. The adjectives var ("existent") and yok ("non-existent") are used in many cases where English would use "there is" or "have", e.g.süt yok ("there is no milk", lit. "(the) milk (is) non-existent"); the construction "noun 1-GEN noun 2-POSS var/yok" can be translated "noun 1 has/doesn't have noun 2"; imparatorun elbisesi yok "the emperor has no clothes" ("(the) emperor-of clothes-his non-existent"); kedimin ayakkabıları yoktu ("my cat had no shoes", lit. "cat-my-of shoe-plur.-its non-existent-past tense").[citation needed]
(Note. For the sake of simplicity the term "tense" is used here throughout, although for some forms "aspect" or "mood" might be more appropriate.) There are 9 simple and 20 compound tenses in Turkish. 9 simple tenses are simple past (di'li geçmiş), inferential past (miş'li geçmiş), present continuous, simple present (aorist), future, optative, subjunctive, necessitative ("must") and imperative.[74] There are three groups of compound forms. Story (hikaye) is the witnessed past of the above forms (except command), rumor (rivayet) is the unwitnessed past of the above forms (except simple past and command), conditional (koşul) is the conditional form of the first five basic tenses.[75] In the example below the second person singular of the verb gitmek ("go"), stem gid-/git-, is shown.
English of the basic form
Basic tense
Story (hikaye)
Rumor (rivayet)
Condition (koşul)
you went
gittin
gittiydin
–
gittiysen
you have gone
gitmişsin
gitmiştin
gitmişmişsin
gitmişsen
you are going
gidiyorsun
gidiyordun
gidiyormuşsun
gidiyorsan
you (are wont to) go
gidersin
giderdin
gidermişsin
gidersen
you will go
gideceksin
gidecektin
gidecekmişsin
gideceksen
if only you go
gitsen
gitseydin
gitseymişsin
–
may you go
gidesin
gideydin
gideymişsin
–
you must go
gitmelisin
gitmeliydin
gitmeliymişin
–
go! (imperative)
git
–
–
–
There are also so-called combined verbs, which are created by suffixing certain verb stems (like bil or ver) to the original stem of a verb. Bil is the suffix for the sufficiency mood. It is the equivalent of the English auxiliary verbs "able to", "can" or "may". Ver is the suffix for the swiftness mood, kal for the perpetuity mood and yaz for the approach ("almost") mood.[76] Thus, while gittin means "you went", gidebildin means "you could go" and gidiverdin means "you went swiftly". The tenses of the combined verbs are formed the same way as for simple verbs.
Attributive verbs (participles)
Turkish verbs have attributive forms, including present,[77] similar to the English present participle (with the ending -en2); future (-ecek2); indirect/inferential past (-miş4); and aorist (-er2 or -ir4).
The most important function of some of these attributive verbs is to form modifying phrases equivalent to the relative clauses found in most European languages. The subject of the verb in an -en2 form is (possibly implicitly) in the third person (he/she/it/they); this form, when used in a modifying phrase, does not change according to number. The other attributive forms used in these constructions are the future (-ecek2) and an older form (-dik4), which covers both present and past meanings.[78] These two forms take "personal endings", which have the same form as the possessive suffixes but indicate the person and possibly number of the subject of the attributive verb; for example, yediğim means "what I eat", yediğin means "what you eat", and so on. The use of these "personal or relative participles" is illustrated in the following table, in which the examples are presented according to the grammatical case which would be seen in the equivalent English relative clause.[79]
English equivalent
Example
Translation
Case of relative pronoun
Pronoun
Literal
Idiomatic
Nominative
who, which/that
şimdi konuşan adam
"now speaking man"
the man (who is) now speaking
Genitive
whose (nom.)
babası şimdi konuşan adam
"father-is now speaking man"
the man whose father is now speaking
whose (acc.)
babasını dün gördüğüm adam
"father-is-ACC yesterday seen-my man"
the man whose father I saw yesterday
at whose
resimlerine baktığımız ressam
"pictures-is-to looked-our artist"
the artist whose pictures we looked at
of which
muhtarı seçildiği köy
"mayor-its been-chosen-his village"
the village of which he was elected mayor
of which
muhtarı seçilmek istediği köy
the village of which he wishes to be elected mayor
Origin of the words in Turkish vocabulary, which contains 104,481 words, of which about 86% are Turkish and 14% are of foreign origin
Latest 2010 edition of Büyük Türkçe Sözlük (Great Turkish Dictionary), the official dictionary of the Turkish language published by Turkish Language Association, contains 616,767 words, expressions, terms and nouns.[82]
The 2005 edition of Güncel Türkçe Sözlük, the official dictionary of the Turkish language published by Turkish Language Association, contains 104,481 words, of which about 86% are Turkish and 14% are of foreign origin.[83] Among the most significant foreign contributors to Turkish vocabulary are Arabic, French, Persian, Italian, English, and Greek.[84]
Word formation
Turkish extensively uses agglutination to form new words from nouns and verbal stems. The majority of Turkish words originate from the application of derivative suffixes to a relatively small set of core vocabulary.[85]
Turkish obeys certain principles when it comes to suffixation. Most suffixes in Turkish will have more than one form, depending on the vowels and consonants in the root- vowel harmony rules will apply; consonant-initial suffixes will follow the voiced/ voiceless character of the consonant in the final unit of the root; and in the case of vowel-initial suffixes an additional consonant may be inserted if the root ends in a vowel, or the suffix may lose its initial vowel. There is also a prescribed order of affixation of suffixes- as a rule of thumb, derivative suffixes precede inflectional suffixes which are followed by clitics, as can be seen in the example set of words derived from a substantive root below:
Turkish
Components
English
Word class
göz
göz
eye
Noun
gözlük
göz + -lük
eyeglasses
Noun
gözlükçü
göz + -lük + -çü
optician
Noun
gözlükçülük
göz + -lük + -çü + -lük
optician's trade
Noun
gözlem
göz + -lem
observation
Noun
gözlemci
göz + -lem + -ci
observer
Noun
gözle-
göz + -le
observe
Verb (order)
gözlemek
göz + -le + -mek
to observe
Verb (infinitive)
gözetlemek
göz + -et + -le + -mek
to peep
Verb (infinitive)
Another example, starting from a verbal root:
Turkish
Components
English
Word class
yat-
yat-
lie down
Verb (order)
yatmak
yat-mak
to lie down
Verb (infinitive)
yatık
yat- + -(ı)k
leaning
Adjective
yatak
yat- + -ak
bed, place to sleep
Noun
yatay
yat- + -ay
horizontal
Adjective
yatkın
yat- + -gın
inclined to; stale (from lying too long)
Adjective
yatır-
yat- + -(ı)r-
lay down
Verb (order)
yatırmak
yat- + -(ı)r-mak
to lay down something/someone
Verb (infinitive)
yatırım
yat- + -(ı)r- + -(ı)m
laying down; deposit, investment
Noun
yatırımcı
yat- + -(ı)r- + -(ı)m + -cı
depositor, investor
Noun
New words are also frequently formed by compounding two existing words into a new one, as in German. Compounds can be of two types- bare and (s)I. The bare compounds, both nouns and adjectives are effectively two words juxtaposed without the addition of suffixes for example the word for girlfriend kizarkadaş (kiz+arkadaş) or black pepper karabiber (kara+biber). A few examples of compound words are given below:
Turkish
English
Constituent words
Literal meaning
pazartesi
Monday
pazar ("Sunday") and ertesi ("after")
after Sunday
bilgisayar
computer
bilgi ("information") and say- ("to count")
information counter
gökdelen
skyscraper
gök ("sky") and del- ("to pierce")
sky piercer
başparmak
thumb
baş ("prime") and parmak ("finger")
primary finger
önyargı
prejudice
ön ("before") and yargı ("splitting; judgement")
fore-judging
However, the majority of compound words in Turkish are (s)I compounds, which means that the second word will be marked by the 3rd person possessive suffix. A few such examples are given in the table below (note vowel harmony):
Atatürk introducing the new Turkish alphabet to the people of Kayseri. September 20, 1928. (Cover of the French L'Illustration magazine)
Turkish is written using a Latin alphabet introduced in 1928 by Atatürk to replace the Ottoman Turkish alphabet, a version of Perso-Arabic alphabet. The Ottoman alphabet marked only three different vowels—long ā, ū and ī—and included several redundant consonants, such as variants of z (which were distinguished in Arabic but not in Turkish). The omission of short vowels in the Arabic script was claimed to make it particularly unsuitable for Turkish, which has eight vowels.[86]
The reform of the script was an important step in the cultural reforms of the period. The task of preparing the new alphabet and selecting the necessary modifications for sounds specific to Turkish was entrusted to a Language Commission composed of prominent linguists, academics, and writers. The introduction of the new Turkish alphabet was supported by public education centers opened throughout the country, cooperation with publishing companies, and encouragement by Atatürk himself, who toured the country teaching the new letters to the public.[87] As a result, there was a dramatic increase in literacy from its original Third World levels.[88]
The Latin alphabet was applied to the Turkish language for educational purposes even before the 20th-century reform. Instances include a 1635 Latin-Albanian dictionary by Frang Bardhi, who also incorporated several sayings in the Turkish language, as an appendix to his work (e.g. alma agatsdan irak duschamas[89]—"An apple does not fall far from its tree").
Turkish now has an alphabet suited to the sounds of the language: the spelling is largely phonemic, with one letter corresponding to each phoneme.[90] Most of the letters are used approximately as in English, the main exceptions being ⟨c⟩, which denotes [dʒ] (⟨j⟩ being used for the [ʒ] found in Persian and European loans); and the undotted ⟨ı⟩, representing [ɯ]. As in German, ⟨ö⟩ and ⟨ü⟩ represent [ø] and [y]. The letter ⟨ğ⟩, in principle, denotes [ɣ] but has the property of lengthening the preceding vowel and assimilating any subsequent vowel. The letters ⟨ş⟩ and ⟨ç⟩ represent [ʃ] and [tʃ], respectively. A circumflex is written over back vowels following ⟨k⟩, ⟨g⟩, or ⟨l⟩ when these consonants represent [c], [ɟ], and [l]—almost exclusively in Arabic and Persian loans.[91]
The Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters (q, x, w omitted and ç, ş, ğ, ı, ö, ü added); the complete list is:
a, b, c, ç, d, e, f, g, ğ, h, ı, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, ö, p, r, s, ş, t, u, ü, v, y, and z (Note that capital of i is İ and lowercase I is ı.)
The specifically Turkish letters and spellings described above are illustrated in this table:
In the Turkish province of Giresun, the locals in the village of Kuşköy have communicated using a whistled version of Turkish for over 400 years. The region consists of a series of deep valleys and the unusual mode of communication allows for conversation over distances of up to 5 kilometres. Turkish authorities estimate that there are still around 10,000 people using the whistled language. However, in 2011 UNESCO found whistling Turkish to be a dying language and included it in its intangible cultural heritage list. Since then the local education directorate has introduced it as a course in schools in the region, hoping to revive its use.
A study was conducted by a German scientist of Turkish origin Onur Güntürkün at Ruhr University, observing 31 "speakers" of kuş dili ("bird's tongue") from Kuşköy, and he found that the whistled language mirrored the lexical and syntactical structure of Turkish language.[92]
^Katzner, Kenneth (2002). Languages of the World (Third ed.). loca: Routledge, An imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd. p. 153. ISBN978-0-415-25004-7. Turkish is the national language of Turkey, spoken by about 60 million people, or 90 percent of the country’s population. There are also some 750,000 speakers in Bulgaria, 150,000 in Cyprus, and 100,000 in Greece. In recent decades a large Turkish-speaking community has formed in Germany, numbering over 2 million people, and smaller ones exist in France, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, and other European countries. (90% of 2018 population would be 73 million)
^Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Turkish". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
^The name TDK itself exemplifies this process. The words tetkik and cemiyet in the original name are both Arabic loanwords (the final -i of cemiyeti being a Turkish possessive suffix); kurum is a native Turkish word based on the verb kurmak, "set up, found".[citation needed]
^Campbell, George (1995). "Turkish". Concise compendium of the world's languages. London: Routledge. p. 547.
^Brendemoen, B. (1996). "Conference on Turkish in Contact, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Wassenaar, 5–6 February 1996".
^Balta, Evangelia (Fall 2017). "Translating Books from Greek into Turkish for the Karamanli Orthodox Christians of Anatolia (1718-1856)". International Journal of Turkish Studies. 23(1-2): 20 – via Ebsco.
^The vowel represented by ⟨ı⟩ is also commonly transcribed as ⟨ɨ⟩ in linguistic literature.
^ abGoksel, Asli; Kerslake, Celia (2005). Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. pp. 24–25. ISBN0-415-11494-2.
^Khalilzadeh, Amir (Winter 2010). "Vowel Harmony in Turkish". Karadeniz Araştırmaları: Balkan, Kafkas, Doğu Avrupa ve Anadolu İncelemeleri Dergisi. 6(24): 141–150 – via Central and Eastern European Online Library.
^ abUnderhill, Robert (1976). Turkish Grammar. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. p. 25. ISBN0-262-21006-1.
^Note that this table is essentially the same as the IPA vowel chart shown above: both table and chart indicate the physical location and quality of each vowel. However, the second table includes additional information on how Turkish harmonies vowels sounds across syllables based on the physical location and quality of the initial syllable.
^For the terms twofold and fourfold, as well as the superscript notation, see Lewis (1953):21–22. In his more recent works Lewis prefers to omit the superscripts, on the grounds that "there is no need for this once the principle has been grasped" (Lewis [2001]:18).
^In modern Turkish orthography, an apostrophe is used to separate proper names from any suffixes.
^Boeschoten, Hendrik; Johanson, Lars; Milani, Vildan (2006). Turkic Languages in Contact. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN978-3-447-05212-2.
^Levi, Susannah V. (2005). "Acoustic correlates of lexical accent in Turkish". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 35 (1): 76. doi:10.1017/S0025100305001921.
^ abUnderhill, Robert (1976). Turkish Grammar. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. ISBN0-262-21006-1.
^Thompson, Sandra (April 1978). "Modern English from a Typological Point of View: Some Implications of the Function of Word Order". Linguistische Berlichte. 1978(54): 19–35 – via ProQuest.
^Erguvanlı, Eser Emine (1984). The Function of Word Order in Turkish Grammar. Linguistics Vol. 106. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN0-520-09955-9.
^This section draws heavily on Lewis (2001) and, to a lesser extent, Lewis (1953). Only the most important references are specifically flagged with footnotes.
^"The prefix, which is accented, is modelled on the first syllable of the simple adjective or adverb but with the substitution of m, p, r, or s for the last consonant of that syllable." Lewis (2001):55. The prefix retains the first vowel of the base form and thus exhibits a form of reverse vowel harmony.
^This "splendid word" appeared at the time of Bayram, the festival marking the end of the month of fasting. Lewis (2001):287.
^Because it is also used for the indefinite accusative, Lewis uses the term "absolute case" in preference to "nominative". Lewis (2001):28.
^Lewis points out that "an indefinite izafet group can be turned into intelligible (though not necessarily normal) English by the use of a hyphen". Lewis (2001): 42.
^For other possible permutations of this vehicle, see Lewis (2001):46.
^"It is most important to note that the third-person suffix is not repeated though theoretically one might have expected Ankara [Kız Lisesi]si." Lewis (2001): 45 footnote.
^Note the similarity with the French phrase un m'as-tu-vu "a have-you-seen-me?", i.e., a vain and pretentious person.
^The term substantival sentence is Lewis's. Lewis(2001:257).
^The conventional translation of the film title Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam, The Man Who Saved the World, uses the past tense. Semantically, his saving the world takes place though in the (narrative) present.
^See Lewis (2001):163–165, 260–262 for an exhaustive treatment.
^For the terms personal and relative participle see Lewis (1958):98 and Lewis (2001):163 respectively. Most of the examples are taken from Lewis (2001).
^This more complex example from Orhan Pamuk's Kar (Snow) contains a nested structure: [which he knew [were approaching]]. Maureen Freely's more succinct and idiomatic translation is the days in prison he knew lay ahead. Note that Pamuk uses the spelling hapisane.
^From the perspective of Turkish grammar yaklaştığını anladığı is exactly parallel to babasını gördüğüm ("whose father I saw"), and could therefore be paraphrased as "whose approaching he understood".
^Lewis (2001):3–7. Note that in these cases the circumflex conveys information about the preceding consonant rather than the vowel over which it is written.
Bazin, Louis (1975). "Turcs et Sogdiens: Les Enseignements de L'Inscription de Bugut (Mongolie), Mélanges Linguistiques Offerts à Émile Benveniste". Collection Linguistique, publiée par la Société de Linguistique de Paris (in French) (LXX): 37–45.
Brendemoen, B. (1996). "Conference on Turkish in Contact, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Wassenaar, 5–6 February 1996".
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Expo 70 Edition Vol 12. William Benton. 1970.
Coulmas, Florian (1989). Writing Systems of the World. Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford. ISBN0-631-18028-1.
Lewis, Geoffrey (2001). Turkish Grammar. Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-870036-9.
Lewis, Geoffrey (2002). The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success. Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-925669-1.
Özsoy, A. Sumru; Taylan, Eser E., eds. (2000). Türkçe’nin ağızları çalıştayı bildirileri [Workshop on the dialects of Turkish] (in Turkish). Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınevi. ISBN975-518-140-7.
Soucek, Svat (2000). A History of Inner Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-65169-1.
Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999). "Turkish"(PDF). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 154–158. ISBN0-521-65236-7.
Eyüboğlu, İsmet Zeki (1991). Türk Dilinin Etimoloji Sözlüğü [Etymological Dictionary of the Turkish Language] (in Turkish). Sosyal Yayınları, İstanbul. ISBN978975-7384-72-4.
Özel, Sevgi; Haldun Özen; Ali Püsküllüoğlu, eds. (1986). Atatürk'ün Türk Dil Kurumu ve Sonrası [Atatürk's Turkish Language Association and its Legacy] (in Turkish). Bilgi Yayınevi, Ankara. OCLC18836678.
Püsküllüoğlu, Ali (2004). Arkadaş Türkçe Sözlük [Arkadaş Turkish Dictionary] (in Turkish). Arkadaş Yayınevi, Ankara. ISBN975-509-053-3.
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