Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Alphabet
Phonology
Vocabulary
Grammar:
o Copula
History and reform:
o Ottoman Turkish
o
Replaced loanwords
The Turkish alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29
letters, a certain number of which (, , I, , , , and ) have been adapted or modified for the
phonetic requirements of the language.
These letters are:
Capital letters
A B C D E F GH I J K L MNO P R S T U V Y Z
Lower case letters
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v y z
Of these 29 letters, 8 are vowels (A, E, I, , O, , U, ); the 21 others are consonants.
The letters Q, W, and X of the Modern basic Latin alphabet do not occur in the Turkish alphabet.
Names
The names of the vowel letters are the vowels themselves, while the names of the consonant letters are
the consonant plus e. The one exception is "yumuak ge": a, be, ce, e, de, e, fe, ge, yumuak ge, he, ,
i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, , pe, re, se, e, te, u, , ve, ye, ze.
Sounds
See also: Turkish phonology
Turkish orthography is highly phonetic and a word's pronunciation is always completely identified by its
spelling. The following table presents the Turkish letters, the sounds they correspond to in International
Phonetic Alphabet and how these can be approximated more or less by an English speaker.
Letter IPA
English
approximation
English
approximation
Letter IPA
A a // As u in funny
M m /m/ As m in man
B b /b/ As b in bat
N n /n/ As n in nay
C c /d/ As j in job
O o /o/ As a shortened o in no
/t/ As c in cello
// As e in her
D d /d/ As d in dog
P p /p/ As p in put
E e /e/ As e in red
R r
F f
/f/
As f in far
G g /g/ As g in gap
// As the r in rapid
S s /s/ As s in sand
//
As s in sugar
/t/
As t in top
U u /u/ As oo in boot
// As e in open
/i/
V v /v/ As v in valve
J j
As i in hit
// As s in measure
K k /k/ As k in kangaroo
L l
/l/
Y y /j/
As y in you
Z z /z/ As z in zip
As l in let
History
Early history
The earliest known Turkish alphabet is the Orkhon script. In general, Turkic languages have been written
in a number of different alphabets including Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Armenian, Latin and some other
Asiatic writing systems.
Turkish was written using the Arabic script during the Ottoman era. However, 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.)
Atatrk introducing the new Turkish alphabet to the people of Kayseri. September 20, 1928
The current 29-letter Turkish alphabet, used for the Turkish language, was established by the Law on
the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, numbered 1353,[1] in Turkey on November 1,
1928, as a vital step in the cultural part of Atatrk's Reforms.[2] Replacing the earlier Ottoman Turkish
script, the script was created as an extended version of the Latin alphabet at the initiative of Mustafa
Kemal Atatrk, who announced the alphabet change in July 1928.[3]
The alphabet reform, combined later with the foundation of Turkish Language Association in 1932,
campaigns by the Ministry of Education including the opening of Public Education Centers throughout
the country, and the active encouragement of people by Atatrk with many trips to the countryside often
involving him teaching the new alphabet, succeeded in achieving a substantial increase in the literacy
rate of the population from a figure around 20% to over 90%.[4] The reforms were also backed up by the
Law on Copyrights, issued in 1934, encouraging and strengthening the private publishing sector.[5] In
1939, The First Turkish Publications Congress was organized in Ankara, for discussing the issues like
copyright, printing, the progress on improving the literacy rate and scientific publications, with the
attendance of 186 deputies.
Participants of the conference on the Turkish alphabet, including Atatrk. August 29, 1929
The work of preparing the new alphabet based on the Latin letters and incorporating necessary
modifications to account for sounds specific to Turkish language, was undertaken by the Language
Commission (Dil Encmeni) consisting of the following members:
Linguists
Distinctive features
Note that dotted and dotless I are separate letters, each with its own uppercase and lowercase form. I is
the capital form of , and is the capital form of i. (In the original law establishing the alphabet, the
dotted came before the undotted I; now their places are reversed [Yazm Klavuzu].) The letter J,
however, uses a tittle in the same way English does, with a dotted lowercase version, and a dotless
uppercase version.
Optional circumflex accents can be used with "", "" and "" to disambiguate words with different
meanings but otherwise the same spelling, or to indicate palatalization of a preceding consonant (for
example, while "kar" /kar/ means "snow", "kr" /car/ means "profit"), or long vowels in loanwords,
particularly from Arabic. These are seen as variants of "a", "i", and "u" and are becoming quite rare in
modern usage.
Status of Q, W, X
The Turkish alphabet has no Q, W or X. Instead, these are transliterated into Turkish as K, V, and KS,
respectively. The 1928 Law 1353 enforced usage of only the Turkish letters on official documents like
birth certificates, marriage documents, and land registers;[1] the 1982 Constitution explicitly retains this
law.[6] In practice, the requirement of using the Turkish alphabet in state registers has made it impossible
to register some Kurdish names exactly as they are rendered in Kurdish orthography, which includes q,
w, and x. The families can give their children Kurdish names, but these names cannot include these
letters and are required to use the aforementioned transliterations. Many Kurds have applied to the courts
seeking to change their names to specifically include the letters q, w, and x.[7] A similar situation exists in
Europe where many people with Turkish names reside.[8] Many Turkish names include , , , , , , and
, some of which are unavailable in local official alphabets.
In popular culture
In Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow, there are several fictional scenes
relating to the various committees supposedly assigned in the Soviet Union to create
the New Turkish Alphabet for use in Central Asia, one for a different letter, each one
advocating their letter at the expense of other alternative transliterations of the sound in
question.
Turkey, is spoken by about 60 million people. Other important Turkic languages are Azeri (15 million speakers)
and Uzbek (14 million speakers). Turkish formerly used the same alphabet as Arabic, but has been written in the
Latin alphabet since 1928 as mentioned above; since 1940, Azeri and Uzbek have been written in Cyrillic but
efforts are now under way to replace it with Latin.
As an Altaic language, Turkish has virtually nothing in common with English or other Indo-European languages
except for some loan words, usually from French or English.
Turkish grammar is complex, but also quite regular. Its two most characteristic features are : (1) vowel harmony
(vowels within a word follow certain harmonic patterns) and (2) agglutination (addition suffixes to words.) Through
this process, astoundingly long word phrases can be encountered. For example, the following means, "Maybe you
are one of those whom we were not able to Turkify."
Trkletiremedigimizlerdensinizdir.
Another interesting feature is that there is no gender in Turkish.The same word , "o", for example, means "he",
"she" and "it".
Turks generally call each other by their given names.For example, a man whose name is Ahmet Kuran would be
called Ahmet bey( bey = Mr.), and his wife whose name is Aye Kuran would be called Aye hanm ( hanm =Ms.).
Good friends drop the "bey" and "hanm". But a letter would be addressed to Bay ve Bayan Ahmet Kuran (Mr. and
Mrs...).
Some useful Turkish words and expressions are :
Merhaba
Gnaydn
Good day
Hogeldiniz
Welcome
Ho bulduk
Naslsnz?
yiyim
I am well
Teekkr ederim
Thank you
Bir ey degil
Adnz / sminiz
nedir ?
My name is _____.
Memnun oldum
Ben de memnun
oldum.
yi Gnler
yi Akamlar
Good evening
yi Geceler
Good night
Allahasmarladk
Gle gle
Buyurun
Elinize saglk
Bon apptit
Affedersiniz
Excuse me
Ltfen
Please
nallah
If God wills
Efendim?
Dikkat
Kaa?/ Ne kadar?
Bu pahal
This is expensive
O pahal degil
Bu ok ucuz
stiyorum
stemiyorum
Numbers :
Bir(1) , iki(2), (3), drt(4), be(5), alt(6), yedi(7), sekiz(8), dokuz(9), on(10), onbir(11), oniki(12) , yirmi(20),
yirmibe(25), otuz(30), otuz(33), krk(40), krkalt(46), elli(50) , ellibe(55), altm(60), altmiki(62),
yetmi(70), yetmisekiz(78), seksen(80), seksenbir(81), doksan(90), doksanyedi(97), yz(100),
water
Fincan
cup
Portakal suyu
Orange-juice
Bardak
glass
Et suyu
meat-broth
Tabak
plate
St
milk
Bak
knife
eker
big, large
Kahve
coffee
Kk
small, little
Sade
no sugar
Erkek
man, male
Az ekerli
a little sugar
Kadn
woman
ok ekerli
a lot of sugar
Kz
girl
ay
tea
ocuk
child
Ayran
yogurt drink
Oglan
boy
Bira
beer
Kz
daughter
arap
wine
Ogul
son
Beyaz
white
Anne
mother
Krmz
red
Baba
father
Buz
ice
Karde
sibling
Biber
pepper
Kz karde
sister
Tuz
salt
Erkek karde
brother
Ekmek
bread
Tereyag
butter
Bu
this
Peynir
cheese
Arkada
friend, colleague
Meze
appetizers
Et
meat
Soguk
cold
Tavuk
chicken
Balk
fish
Pilav
pilaf
Salata
salad, lettuce
Meyva
fruit
Sebze
vegetable
orba
soup
Sandvi
Sandwich
Tatl
dessert
Dondurma
atal
fork
Kak
spoon
Pahal
expensive
Adnz ne?
Benim adm...
Nerelisiniz?
Londralym/stanbulluyum
Turkish (Trke)
Welcome
Hello
Good morning
Gnaydn
Good afternoon
Tnaydn, yi gnler
Good evening
yi akamlar
Good night
yi geceler
Goodbye
Hoa kal
Good luck
yi anslar!
Cheers/Good health!
yi gnler!
Bon appetit
Afiyet olsun!
Bon voyage
I don't understand
Anlamyorum, Anlamadm
Ltfen yaznz
Yes, a little
ok az Trke biliyorum
Excuse me
Ne kadar?
Sorry
Thank you
Response (You're
welcome)
Tuvalet nerede?
This gentleman/lady
will pay for everything
I love you
Seni seviyorum
Gemi olsun
Help!
Fire!
Stop!
mdat!
Yangn!
Dur!
Polis arn!
Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year
Happy Easter
Happy Birthday
My hovercraft is full of
eels
Turkish (Trke)
Turkish is a Turkic language with about 70 million speakers in Turkey and in 35
other countries, including Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany,
Greece, Honduras, Iran, Iraq and Israel.
Until 1928, Turkish was written with a version of the Perso-Arabic script known as
the Ottoman Turkish script. In 1928, as part of his efforts to modernise Turkey,
Mustafa Kemal Atatrk issued a decree replacing the Arabic script with a version of
the Latin alphabet, which has been used ever since. Nowadays, only scholars and
those who learnt to read before 1928 can read Turkish written in the Arabic script.
Numerals
Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed
with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)