Turkish ( ) is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe. Turkish is also spoken by several million immigrants in Western Europe, particularly in Germany.

The roots of the language can be traced to Central Asia, with the first written records dating back nearly 1,200 years. 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 script was replaced with a phonetic variant of the Latin alphabet. Concurrently, the newly founded Turkish Language Association initiated a drive to reform the language by removing Persian and Arabic loanwords in favor of native variants and coinages from Turkic roots.

The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination. The basic word order of Turkish is Subject Object Verb. Turkish has a T-V distinction: second-person plural forms can be used for individuals as a sign of respect. Turkish also has no noun classes or grammatical gender.

Classification

Turkish is a member of the Turkish, or Western, subgroup of the Oghuz languages, which includes Gagauz and Azeri. The Oghuz languages form the Southwestern subgroup of the Turkic languages, a language family comprising some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia. and Siberia. Some linguists believe the Turkic languages to be a part of a larger Altaic language family. About 40% of all speakers of Turkic languages are native Turkish speakers. The characteristic features of Turkish, such as vowel harmony, agglutination, and lack of grammatical gender, are universal within the Turkic family and the Altaic languages. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz languages, including Azeri, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish.

History

The earliest known Turkic inscriptions are the two monumental Orkhon inscriptions. They reside in modern Mongolia and were erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khan and dating back to some time between 732 and 735, constitute another important early record. 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 Orkhon script, which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to an external similarity to the Germanic runic alphabets.

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 to Europe and the Mediterranean. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, Oghuz Turkic—the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into Anatolia during the 11th century. 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).

Ottoman Turkish

Following the adoption of Islam c. 950 by the Kara-Khanid Khanate and the Seljuq Turks, who are both regarded as the 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 Ottoman 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 (c. 1299–1922) was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that differed considerably from the period's everyday spoken Turkish and is termed Ottoman Turkish.

Language reform and modern Turkish

After the foundation of the Republic 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. 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.

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 particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used a style of Ottoman diction which today sounds so alien that it has had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995. There is also a political dimension to the language debate, with conservative groups tending to use more archaic words in the press or everyday language.

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 (in fact, 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.

Many of the words derived by TDK coexist with their older counterparts. This usually happens when a loanword changes its original meaning. For instance, dert, derived from the Persian dard (درد "pain"), means "problem" or "trouble" in Turkish; whereas the native Turkish word ağrı is used for physical pain. Sometimes the loanword has a slightly different meaning from the native Turkish word, giving rise to a situation similar to the coexistence of Germanic and Romance words in English (see List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents). Among some of the old words that were replaced are terms in geometry, cardinal directions, some months' names, and many nouns and adjectives. 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 ("three") and the very old Turkic noun gen ("tension", "side")
tayyare	uçak	airplane	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 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.
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

Geographic distribution

Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey and by the Turkish diaspora in some 30 other countries. In particular, Turkish-speaking minorities exist in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the Ottoman Empire, such as Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece (primarily in Western Thrace), the Republic of Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia. More than two million Turkish speakers live in Germany, and there are significant Turkish-speaking communities in France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Due to the cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic Turkish immigrants speak the language with native fluency.

The number of native speakers in Turkey is about 60 million, corresponding to about 90 percent of the population. There are roughly another 10 million native speakers worldwide. Turkish is spoken as a first or second language by almost all of Turkey's residents, with Kurdish making up most of the remainder (about 3,950,000 as estimated in 1980). However, even most linguistic minorities in Turkey are bilingual, speaking Turkish as a second language to levels of native fluency.

Official status

Turkish is the official language of Turkey and is one of the official languages of Cyprus. It also has official (but not primary) status in the Prizren District of Kosovo and several municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia, depending on the concentration of Turkish-speaking local population.

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. 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.

Dialects

Istanbul Turkish is established as the official standard language of Turkey. Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and the Turkish education system since the 1930s. 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 same 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.

The standard dialect of the Turkish language is İstanbul. Rumelice is spoken by immigrants from Rumelia, and includes the distinct dialects of Deliorman, Dinler, and Adakale, which are influenced by the theoretized Balkan linguistic union. Kıbrıs 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 Yörük tribes of the Mediterranean Region of Turkey also have their own dialect of Turkish. 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 Eastern Anatolia, has a dialect continuum with Azeri, particularly with Karapapak dialects in some areas. The Central Anatolia region speaks Orta Anadolu. Karadeniz, spoken in the Eastern Black Sea Region and represented primarily by the Trabzon dialect, exhibits substratum influence from Greek in phonology and syntax. Kastamonu is spoken in Kastamonu and its surrounding areas. The Hemşinli dialect, known as Hemşince, is spoken by the eastern group of Hamshenis around Artvin, influenced by Armenian. Karamanlıca is spoken in Greece, where it is also named Kαραμανλήδικα (Karamanlidika). It is the literary standard for Karamanlides.

Sounds

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Standard Turkish

	Bilabial		Labio- dental		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Plosives
Nasal
Fricative
Affricate
Tap
Approximant
Lateral

The phoneme , usually referred to as yumuşak g ("soft g"), ğ in Turkish orthography, actually represents a rather weak front-velar or palatal approximant between front vowels. 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.

In native Turkic words, the sounds , , and are in complementary distribution with , , and ; 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, , , and often occur with back vowels: some examples are given below.

When a vowel is added to many nouns ending with postvocalic , the becomes <ğ> by consonant alternation.</ğ> <ğ>A similar alternation applies to certain loan-words ending in

and , which become and , respectively, with the addition of a vowel.The /<ğ> alternation does not usually apply to monosyllabic nouns. Lewis (2001):10. This is because the final {{IPA|//ɡ//}}, {{IPA|//d//}}, and {{IPA|//b//}} consonants of these words lose their voicing when not followed by a vowel. === Vowels === {| style="float:right;" |- !align="right"|IPA chart for Turkish vowels |- |[[File:Turkish vowel chart.png]] |} The vowels of the Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, ''a'', ''e'', [[Turkish dotted and dotless I|''ı'']], [[Turkish dotted and dotless I|''i'']], ''o'', ''ö'', ''u'', and ''ü''. Undotted <ı> is the [[close back unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|[ɯ]}}."Americans will recognize in it the first vowel of ''M'''i'''ssouri'' as pronounced by a native of that state." Lewis (2001):13. There are no [[diphthongs]] in Turkish; when two vowels come together, which occurs rarely and only with [[loanword]]s, each vowel retains its individual sound. However, a slight diphthong can occur when two vowels surround a ''yumuşak g''. For example, the word ''soğuk'' ("cold") can be pronounced /soʊk/ (resembling the English ''soak'') by some speakers. === Vowel harmony === {{Details|Vowel harmony}} The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being two-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by two features: [[Vowel backness|front/back]] and [[Roundedness|rounded/unrounded]]. Vowel harmony is the principle by which a native Turkish word incorporates either exclusively [[back vowel]]s (''a'', ''ı'', ''o'', and ''u'') or exclusively [[front vowel]]s (''e'', ''i'', ''ö'', and ''ü''). The pattern of vowels is shown in the table below.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. {| class="wikitable" border="1" style="float:right; margin-left:1em;" |+ Turkish vowels |- ! || colspan="2" | Front || colspan="2" | Back |- ! || Unrounded || Rounded || Unrounded || Rounded |- ! High | ''i'' || ''ü'' || ''ı'' || ''u'' |- ! Low | ''e'' || ''ö'' || ''a'' || ''o'' |} Grammatical [[affix]]es have "a [[chameleon]]-like quality",Lewis (1953):21 and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony: * '''twofold (''-e/-a'')''':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). the [[locative]] suffix, for example, is ''-de'' after front vowels and ''-da'' after back vowels. The notation ''-de''² is a convenient shorthand for this pattern. * '''fourfold (''-i/-ı/-ü/-u'')''': the [[genitive]] 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 ''-in''⁴ is used. The following examples, based on the [[Turkish copula|copula]] ''-dir''⁴ ("[it] is"), illustrate the principles of vowel harmony in practice: ''Türkiye''''dir''''' ("it is Turkey"),In modern Turkish orthography, an apostrophe is used to separate proper names from any suffixes. ''kapı'''dır''''' ("it is the door"), bu ''gün'''dür''''' ("it is the day"), ''palto'''dur''''' ("it is the coat"). There are some exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony. In [[compound words]], the vowels need not harmonize between the constituent words of the compound. Forms like ''bu+gün'' ("today") or ''baş+kent'' ("capital") are permissible. In addition, vowel harmony does not apply in [[loanword]]s and some invariant affixes, such as ''-yor'' (present tense) and ''-bil-'' (potential). Some loanwords do, however, exhibit partial or even complete vowel harmony (e.g. ''mümkün'' "possible" < Arabic ''mumkin''; and ''dürbün'' "binoculars" < Persian ''dūrbīn'').In Lewis's marvellously precise formulation, "The effect of vowel harmony extends to non-Turkish words too, bringing as many vowels as possible of a foreign borrowing into one class, or pressing a foreign borrowing whose vowels happen to be all of one class still further into Turkish form." Lewis (2001): 17. There are also a few native Turkish words that do not follow the rule, such as ''anne'' ("mother"). In such words, suffixes harmonize with the final vowel: thus ''annedir'' ("she is a mother"). Many loanwords from Arabic and French, however, take front-vowel suffixes after final back vowels: for example ''halsiz'' < ''hal'' + ''-siz⁴'' "listless", ''meçhuldür'' < ''meçhul'' + ''-dir⁴'' "it is unknown", ''harfler'' < ''harf'' + ''-ler²'' "(alphabetical) letters" (instead of the expected *''halsız'', *''meçhuldur'' and *''harflar''). The [[#Geographic distribution|road sign in the photograph]] above illustrates several of these features: * a native compound which does not obey vowel harmony: ''Orta+köy'' ("middle village"—a place name) * a loanword also violating vowel harmony: ''viyadük'' ("viaduct" < French ''viaduc'') * the possessive suffix'' -i''⁴ harmonizing with the final vowel (and softening the ''k'' by consonant [[alternation (linguistics)|alternation]]): ''viyadüğü'' === Stress === [[Stress (linguistics)|Stress]] is usually on the last syllable.''Handbook of the IPA'', p. 155 Exceptions include some [[suffix]] combinations and [[loanword]]s, particularly from Italian and [[Modern Greek language|Greek]], as well as many proper names. While such loanwords are usually stressed on the penultimate syllable ({{IPA|[ɫoˈkanta]}} ''lokanta'' "restaurant" or {{IPA|[isˈcele]}} ''iskele'' "quay"), the stress of proper names is less predictable ({{IPA|[isˈtanbuɫ]}} ''İstanbul'', {{IPA|[ˈaŋkaɾa]}} ''Ankara''). == Grammar == {{main|Turkish grammar}} Turkish is an [[agglutinative language]] and frequently uses [[affix]]es, and specifically suffixes, or endings.This section draws heavily on Lewis (2001) and, to a lesser extent, Lewis (1953). Only the most important references are specifically flagged with footnotes. 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|Word formation]]). Most affixes indicate the grammatical function of the word.see Lewis (2001) Ch XIV. The only native prefixes are [[alliteration|alliterative]] intensifying syllables used with adjectives or adverbs: for example '''''sım'''sıcak'' ("boiling hot" < ''sıcak'') and '''''mas'''mavi'' ("bright blue" < ''mavi'')."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. The extensive use of affixes can give rise to long words. It is jokingly said that the longest Turkish word is ''Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınız'', meaning "You are said to be one of those that we couldn't manage to convert to a Czechoslovak". This example is of course contrived; but long words do 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").This "splendid word" appeared at the time of ''Bayram'', the festival marking the end of the [[Ramadan|month of fasting]]. Lewis (2001):287. 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").[http://www.dilimiz.com/dil/imlakilavuzu/TDK/imlaanasayfa.htm İmlâ Kilavuzu] === 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, as in [[Latin]]. There are six [[Declension|noun cases]] in Turkish, with all the endings following vowel harmony (shown in the table using the shorthand [[#Vowel harmony|superscript notation]]. The [[plural]] marker ''-ler''² immediately follows the noun before any case or other affixes (e.g. ''köylerin'' "of the villages"). {|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !rowspan="2"|Case !rowspan="2"|Ending !colspan="2"|Examples !rowspan="2"|Meaning |- !''köy'' "village" !''ağaç'' "tree" |- |[[Nominative case|Nominative]] |Ø (none) |''köy'' |''ağaç'' |(the) village/tree |- |[[Genitive case|Genitive]] |''-in''⁴ |''köyün'' |''ağa'''c'''ın'' |the village's/tree's
of the village/tree |- |[[Dative case|Dative]] |''-e''² |''köye'' |''ağa'''c'''a'' |to the village/tree |- |[[Accusative case|Accusative]] |''-i''⁴ |''köyü'' |''ağa'''c'''ı'' |the village/tree |- |[[Ablative case|Ablative]] |''-den''² |''köyden'' |''ağaç'''t'''an'' |from the village/tree |- |[[Locative case|Locative]] |''-de''² |''köyde'' |''ağaç'''t'''a'' |in the village/on the tree |} The accusative case marker is used only for definite objects; compare ''ağaç gördük'' "we saw '''a''' tree" with ''ağacı gördük'' "we saw '''the''' tree".Because it is also used for the indefinite accusative, Lewis uses the term "absolute case" in preference to "nominative". Lewis (2001):28. The plural marker ''-ler''² is 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]". The declension of ''ağaç'' illustrates two important features of Turkish phonology: consonant [[assimilation (linguistics)|assimilation]] in [[suffix]]es (''ağaç'''t'''an, ağaç'''t'''a'') and [[voice (phonetics)|voicing]] of final consonants before vowels (''ağa'''c'''ın, ağa'''c'''a, ağa'''c'''ı''). Additionally, nouns can take suffixes that assign [[grammatical person|person]]: for example ''-imiz''⁴, "our". With the addition of the [[Turkish copula|copula]] (for example ''-im''⁴, "I am") complete sentences can be formed. The [[interrogative word|interrogative]] particle ''mi''⁴ immediately follows the word being questioned: ''köye mi?'' "[going] to the village?", ''ağaç mı?'' "[is it a] tree?". {|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !Turkish !English |- |''ev'' |align="right"|(the) house |- |''evler'' |align="right"|(the) houses |- |''evin'' |align="right"|your (sing.) house |- |''eviniz'' |align="right"|your (pl./formal) house |- |''evim'' |align="right"|my house |- |''evimde'' |align="right"|at my house |- |''evlerinizin'' |align="right"|of your houses |- |''evlerinizden'' |align="right"|from your houses |- |''evlerinizdendi'' |align="right"|(he/she/it) was from your houses |- |''evlerinizdenmiş'' |align="right"|(he/she/it) was (apparently/said to be) from your houses |- |''Evinizdeyim.'' |align="right"|I am at your house. |- |''Evinizdeymişim.'' |align="right"|I was (apparently) at your house. |- |''Evinizde miyim?'' |align="right"|Am I at your house? |} The Turkish [[personal pronouns]] in the nominative case are ''ben'' (1s), ''sen'' (2s), o (3s), biz (1pl), siz (2pl, or formal/polite 2s), 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. ==== Linking nouns (''Tamlama'') ==== Two nouns, or groups of nouns, may be joined in either of two ways: * definite (possessive) compound (''belirtili tamlama''). Eg ''Türkiye'nin sesi'' "the voice of Turkey (radio station)": the voice belonging to Turkey. Here the relationship is shown by the genitive ending ''-in''⁴ added to the first noun; the second noun has the third-person suffix ''-(s)i''⁴. * indefinite (qualifying) compound (''belirtisiz tamlama''). Eg ''Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'' "Turkey-RepublicLewis 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. = 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)i''⁴—the same as in definite compounds. The following table illustrates these principles.The examples are taken from Lewis (2001): 41-47. In some cases the constituents of the compounds are themselves compounds: these subsidiary compounds are marked with [square brackets]. {| class="wikitable" border="1" style="margin-left: 1em" |+ Linked nouns and noun groups |- ! Definite (possessive) || Indefinite (qualifier) || Complement || Meaning |- | ''kimsenin'' || || ''yanıtı'' || nobody's answer |- | || ''kimse'' || ''yanıtı'' || the answer "nobody" |- | ''Atatürk'ün'' || || ''evi'' || Atatürk's house |- | || ''Atatürk'' || ''Bulvarı'' || Atatürk Boulevard (named after, not belonging to, Atatürk) |- | ''Orhan'ın'' || || ''adı'' || Orhan's name |- | || ''Orhan'' || ''adı'' || the name "Orhan" |- | || ''R'' || ''sessizi'' || the consonant ''r'' |- | [''R sessizi'']''nin'' || || ''söylenişi'' || pronunciation of the consonant ''r'' |- | || ''Türk'' || [''Dil Kurumu''] || Turkish language-society |- | || [''Türk Dili''] || ''Dergisi'' || Turkish-language review |- | || ''Ford'' || [''aile arabası''] || Ford family car |- | ''Ford'un'' || || [''aile arabası''] || (Mr) Ford's family car |- | [''Ford ailesi'']''nin'' || || ''arabası'' || the Ford family's carFor other possible permutations of this vehicle, see Lewis (2001):46. |- | || ''Ankara'' || [''Kız Lisesi'']"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. || Ankara Girls' School |- | || [''yıl sonu''] || ''sınavları'' || year-end examinations |- | ''Bulgaristan'ın'' || || [''İstanbul Başkonsolosluğu''] || 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!"Note the similarity with the French phrase ''un m'as-tu-vu'' "a have-you-seen-me?", ie a vain and pretentious person. 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.The term ''substantival sentence'' is Lewis's. Lewis(2001:257). === Adjectives === Turkish adjectives are not [[declension|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''"). === Verbs === {{seealso|Turkish copula}} Turkish verbs indicate [[Grammatical person|person]]. They can be made negative, potential ("can"), or impotential ("cannot"). Furthermore, Turkish verbs show [[Grammatical tense|tense]] ([[Present tense|present]], [[Past tense|past]], [[Grammatical mood#Inferential|inferential]], [[Future tense|future]], and [[aorist]]), [[Grammatical mood|mood]] ([[Conditional mood|conditional]], [[Imperative mood|imperative]], necessitative, and [[Optative mood|optative]]), and [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]]. Negation is expressed by the [[infix]] ''-me²-'' immediately following the stem. {|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !Turkish !English |- |''gel-'' |align="right"|(to) come |- |''gelebil-'' |align="right"|(to) be able to come |- |''gelme-'' |align="right"|not (to) come |- |''geleme-'' |align="right"|(to) be unable to come |- |''gelememiş'' |align="right"|Apparently (s)he couldn't come |- |''gelebilecek'' |align="right"|(s)he'll be able to come |- |''gelmeyebilir'' |align="right"|(s)he may (possibly) not come |- |''gelebilirsen'' |align="right"|if thou can come |- |''gelinir'' |align="right"|(''passive'') one comes, people come |- |''gelebilmeliydin'' |align="right"| thou shouldst have been able to come |- |''gelebilseydin'' |align="right"|if thou could have come |- |''gelmeliydin'' |align="right"|thou shouldst have come |} All Turkish verbs are conjugated in the same way, except for the [[irregular verbs|irregular]] and [[defective verb]] ''i-'', the [[Turkish copula]], which can be used in compound forms (the shortened form is called an [[enclitic]]): ''Gelememişti'' = ''Gelememiş idi'' = ''Gelememiş + i- + -di''. ==== Attributive verbs (participles) ==== Turkish verbs have [[Attributive verb|attributive forms]], including present (with the ending ''-en''²), future (''-ecek''²), indirect/inferential past (''-miş''⁴), and [[aorist]] (-''er''² or -''ir''⁴). These forms can function as either adjectives or nouns: ''oynamayan çocuklar'' "children who do not play", ''oynamayanlar'' "those who do not play"; ''okur yazar'' "reader-writer = literate", ''okur yazarlar'' "literates". The most important function of attributive verbs is to form modifying phrases equivalent to the [[relative clause]]s found in most European languages. The attributive forms used in these constructions are the future (''-ecek''²) and an older form (-''dik''⁴), which covers both present and past meanings.See Lewis (2001):163–165, 260–262 for an exhaustive treatment. 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.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). {|class="wikitable" border="1" |- !colspan="2"|English equivalent !rowspan="2"|Example !colspan="2"|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-his now speaking man" |the man whose father is now speaking |- | |whose (acc.) |''babasını dün gördüğüm adam'' |"father-his-ACC yesterday seen-my man" |the man whose father I saw yesterday |- | |at whose |''resimlerine baktığımız ressam'' |"pictures-his-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'' |"mayor-its to-be-chosen wishing-his village" |the village of which he wishes to be elected mayor |- |Remaining cases (incl. prepositions) |whom, which |''yazdığım mektup'' |"written-my letter" |the letter (which) I wrote |- | |from which |''çıktığımız kapı'' |"emerged-our door" |the door from which we emerged |- | |on which |''geldikleri vapur'' |"come-their ship" |the ship they came on |- | |which + subordinate clause |''yaklaştığını anladığı hapishane günleri'' |"approach-their-ACC understood-his prison days-its" |the prison days (which) he knew were approachingThis more complex example from [[Orhan Pamuk]]'s ''Kar'' (''[[Snow (novel)|Snow]]'') contains a nested structure: [''which he knew'' [''were approaching'']].</ğ> <ğ>Maureen Freely's more succinct and idiomatic translation is the days in prison he knew lay ahead.</ğ> <ğ>Note that Pamuk uses the spelling hapisane.

Word order

Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally Subject Object Verb, as in Korean and Latin, but unlike English. In more complex sentences, the basic rule is that the qualifier precedes the qualified: this principle includes, as an important special case, the participial modifiers discussed above. The definite precedes the indefinite: thus çocuğa hikâyeyi anlattı "she told the child the story", but hikâyeyi bir çocuğa anlattı "she told the story to a child".

It is possible to alter the word order to stress the importance of a certain word or phrase. The main rule is that the word before the verb has the stress without exception. For example, if one wants to say "Hakan went to school" with a stress on the word "school" (okul, the indirect object) it would be "Hakan okula gitti". If the stress is to be placed on "Hakan" (the subject), it would be "Okula Hakan gitti" which means "it's Hakan who went to school".

Vocabulary

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. Among the most significant foreign contributors to Turkish vocabulary are Arabic, French, Persian, Italian, English, and Greek.

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.

An example set of words derived from a substantive root:

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)

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	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. 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

Writing system

Turkish is written using a modified version of the Latin alphabet introduced in 1928 by Atatürk to replace the Arabic-based Ottoman Turkish 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.

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.As a result, there was a dramatic increase in literacy from its original Third World levels.

Latin 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 – '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 phonetic, with one letter corresponding to each phoneme. Most of the letters are used approximately as in English, the main exceptions being , which denotes ( being used for the found in Persian and European loans);and the undotted <ı>, representing .</ı> <ı>As in German, <ö> and <ü> represent and</ü></ö></ı>

. The letter <ğ>, in principle, denotes   but has the property of lengthening the preceding vowel and assimilating any subsequent vowel.</ğ> <ğ>The letters <ş> and <ç> represent   and  , respectively.</ç></ş></ğ> <ğ><ş><ç>A circumflex is written over back vowels following , , or  when these consonants represent  ,  , and  —almost exclusively in Arabic and Persian loans.</ç></ş></ğ> <ğ><ş><ç>An apostrophe is used to separate proper nouns from any suffixes: eg İstanbul'da 'in Istanbul'.</ç></ş></ğ>

The specifically Turkish letters and spellings described above are illustrated in this table:

Turkish spelling	Pronunciation	Meaning
Cağaloğlu		[İstanbul district]
çalıştığı		where/that s/he works/worked
müjde		good news
lazım		necessary
mahkûm		condemned

Sample

Dostlar Beni Hatırlasın by Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu (1894–1973), a minstrel and highly regarded poet in the Turkish folk literature tradition.

Orthography		Translation
Ben giderim adım kalır		After I pass, my name remains
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May the friends remember me
Düğün olur bayram gelir		Weddings happen, holidays come
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May the friends remember me
Can kafeste durmaz uçar		Soul flies from the cage
Dünya bir han konan göçer		World is an inn, settlers depart
Ay dolanır yıllar geçer		The moon wanders, years go by
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May the friends remember me
Can bedenden ayrılacak		Body will be deprived of life
Tütmez baca yanmaz ocak		Hearth won't burn, smoke won't rise
Selam olsun kucak kucak		By armfuls, salutes I pass
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May the friends remember me
Açar solar türlü çiçek		Many blooms thrive and fade
Kimler gülmüş kim gülecek		Who had laughed, who'll be glad
Murat yalan ölüm gerçek		Desire's lie, real is death
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May the friends remember me
Gün ikindi akşam olur		Into evening will turn the days
Gör ki başa neler gelir		Behold what soon will take place
Veysel gider adı kalır		Veysel departs, his name remains
Dostlar beni hatırlasın		May the friends remember me

See also

• Turkish alphabet
• Turkish folk literature
• Turkish Language Olympics
• Turkish literature
• Turkish Sign Language
• List of English words of Turkic origin
• List of replaced loanwords in Turkish

Notes

Details of the sources cited only by the author's name are given in full in the References section.

References

Printed sources

• (2nd edition 1989)

On-line sources

Further reading

External links

• VikiKaynak, Turkish Wikisource
• Vikisöz, Turkish Wikiquote
• Turkish Phrases with Video
• Turkish Talking Dictionary
• LangToLang Turkish-to-many Dictionary
• BBC Turkish, including online Turkish radio service
• Sözlerin Soyağacı: Online Turkish etymological dictionary
• 250.000 Pretranslated English-Turkish Sentences
• A short English-Turkish-Japanese phraselist (renewal) incl. sound file
• Zargan Turkish Dictionary, with a special emphasis on law, medicine, finance
• Turkish vowels: sound and photos
• Sesli Sözlük, online Turkish, Ottoman, English, Spanish, German, French, Italian dictionary with vocabulary translation pronunciations and idioms

Learning resources

• Turkish Language: Resources - University of Michigan
• Turkish lessons at the University of Arizona
• Turkish Language Class free online Turkish course
• United States Foreign Service Institute free online Turkish Basic Course
• LT: LearningTurkish
• LT: Automatic Turkish Verb Declinations
• The Site of Education Turkish Language
• Turkish Language Resources
• Learn Turkish
• Folksongs, tales and epics in Turkish from the Uysal-Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative at Texas Tech University