Vowel Harmony

Major Vowel Harmony

Vowel harmony is one of the most fundamental and important aspects of Turkish grammar. Turkish words general obey two vowel harmony rules, called the major vowel harmony and theminor vowel harmony. More important tha the words obeying these rules, there are ways these rules change the vowels in the suffixes added to words. A good understanding of these rules is necessary to be able to use suffixes, hence to be able to make correct and meaningfu sentences.

1. Major Vowel Harmony

The 8 vowels in the Turkish alphabet are separated into two groups called hard vowels and soft vowels. There are 4 hard vowels and 4 soft vowels. Hard vowels: a, , o, u Soft vowels: e, i, ,

Words of Turkish origin generally (not always) have all hard or all soft vowels. This is just a generalization that yo wont use for constructing Turkish words and sentences. Words that have hard and soft vowels together are said to violate the major vowel harmony. A word that violates the major vowel harmony probably has been adopted from another language or has been changed in the lifetime of the Turkish language.

Each of the hard vowels are the hard counterparts of one soft vowel (and vice versa). Following this rule, vowels ca be paired with their counterparts as follows: Hard Soft a e i o u

A Turkish word is either a hard word or a soft word depending on its last vowel. ev[home] is a soft word since its last and only vowel, e, is a soft vowel. okul[school] is a hard word since its last vowel, u, is a hard vowel. kahve[coffee] is a soft word since its last vowel, e, is a soft vowel. Now, try to guess if the following words are hard or soft. The correct answers are below the table. Word Hard or Soft meslek[job] ? araba[car] gzel[beautiful] yemek[food] glmse[smile] abuk[quick] ? ? ? ? ?

gl[rose] gl[lake] gidelim[lets go] telefon[telephone]

? ? ? ?

(Correct answers: soft, hard, soft, soft, soft, hard, soft, soft, soft, hard) Major vowel harmony states that: Any suffix appended to a hard word must have hard vowels Any suffix appended to a soft word must have soft vowels

As an example to this rule lets consider the suffix -de. When added to a noun, this suffix gives the meaning of "at/ the location expressed by that noun". When added to a soft word like ev[home], this suffix is -de. However, when added to a hard word like okul[school], the soft vowels in this suffix are replaced by their hard counterparts and the suffix becomes -da. Hence: at home --> evde at school --> okulda in the car --> arabada at the lake --> glde

Minor Vowel Harmony

Vowel harmony is one of the most fundamental and important aspects of Turkish grammar. Turkish words general obey two vowel harmony rules, called the major vowel harmony and theminor vowel harmony. More important tha the words obeying these rules, there are ways these rules change the vowels in the suffixes added to words. A good understanding of these rules is necessary to be able to use suffixes, hence to be able to make correct and meaningfu sentences.

2. Minor Vowel Harmony

We saw that the 8 vowels in the Turkish alphabet are divided into two groups as hard and soft vowels. Besides this grouping, the 8 vowels are divided into two groups as round vowels and flat vowels. There are 4 flat and 4 round vowels. A vowels being round or flat is actually determined from the shape of the mouth when pronouncing that vowel, but it can also be seen in the shape of the capital characters. Flat vowels: A, E, I, Round vowels: O, , U,

A Turkish word is either a round word or a flat word depending on its last vowel. ev[home] is a flat word since its last and only vowel, e, is a flat vowel. okul[school] is a round word since its last vowel, u, is a round vowel. kahve[coffee] is a flat word since its last vowel, e, is a flat vowel.

Now, try to guess if the following words are round or flat. Move the mouse over the right table cell of the word to s the answer. Word Round or Flat meslek[job] ? araba[car] ? gzel[beautiful] yemek[food] glmse[smile] abuk[quick] gl[rose] gl[lake] ? ? ? ? ? ?

gidelim[lets go] ? ? telefon[telephone] (Correct answers: flat, flat, flat, flat, flat, round, round, round, flat, round)

Minor vowel harmony states that: If a suffix starting with -i is appended to a round word, the -i in the suffix becomes -u or -. This depends on wheth the word is hard or soft. The major vowel harmony and the minor vowel harmony apply to words simultaneously. T means: If a suffix starting with -i is added to a hard and round word, the -i in the suffix becomes -u. okul --> school [a hard vowel] suffix we will add is -im (gives the meaning my) my school --> okulum [the suffix -im changes according to vowel harmonies and becomes -um] If a suffix starting with -i is added to a soft and round word, the -i in the suffix becomes -. gl --> rose suffix we will add is -im (gives the meaning my) my rose --> glm [the suffix -im changes according to vowel harmonies and becomes-m] my telephone --> telefonum my beautiful --> gzelim my lake --> glm

Notes on Vowel Harmony

Vowel harmony is one of the most fundamental and important aspects of Turkish grammar. Turkish words general obey two vowel harmony rules, called the major vowel harmony and theminor vowel harmony.

These rules change the vowels in the suffixes added to words. A good understanding of these rules is necessary to b able to use suffixes, hence to be able to make correct and meaningful sentences.

3. Practical notes about vowel harmony rules

As far as vowel harmony is concerned, we can separate all the suffixes in Turkish into two main groups. Thinking i terms of these two cases simplifies these seemingly complicated rules. These are:

Case 1: The suffixes with first vowel -i (the suffixes -i, -di, -iyor, -im, -in ...) Case 2: suffixes with first vowel -e (the suffixes -e, -de, -den, -erek, ...) All suffixes with first vowel -i, - , -u, - fall into the first group, and they are different forms of this case modified according to vowel harmony rules. bal- m --> bal m (my honey) ev-im --> evim (my home) s n f-im --> s n f m (my class) dil-im --> dilim (my tongue) sol-im --> solum (my left) gz-im --> gzm (my eye) okul-im --> okulum (my school) zm-im --> zmm (my grape) All suffixes with first vowel -e, -a fall into the second group, and they are different forms of this case modified according to vowel harmony rules. araba-den --> arabadan (from the car) ev-den --> evden (from home) kap -den --> kap dan (from the door) deniz-den --> denizden (from the sea) sol-den --> soldan (from the left) gz-den --> gzden (from the eye) okul-den --> okuldan (from school) kap -den --> kap dan (from the door)

Note that no suffix has -o or - as the first vowel. Actually, no suffix has the letter - in it and there is only one suff that has the vowel -o (this is the suffix for present continuous tense, -iyor and this -o does not change according to a vowel harmony rules). bak-iyor --> bak yor (he/she/it is looking) gel-iyor --> geliyor (he/she/it is coming) s k-iyor --> s k yor (he/she/it is squeezing) bil-iyor --> biliyor (he/she/it knows) ko -iyor --> ko uyor (he/she/it is running) gr-iyor --> gryor (he/she/it is seeing) bul-uyor --> buluyor (he/she/it is finding) gl-iyor --> glyor (he/she/it is laughing)

The suffixes in case 1 are affected from both the major vowel harmony and the minor vowel harmony. For example the suffix -di can become -di, -d , -du or -d depending on the word at which it is appended. ara-di --> arad gel-di --> geldi k r-di --> k rd bil-di --> bildi sol-di --> soldu gr-di --> grd bul-du --> buldu

 -di --> d

The suffixes in case 2 are affected by only the major vowel harmony rule. For example, the suffix -erek can becom erek or -arak depending on the word at which it is appended. bak-erek --> bakarak (with looking) sev-erek --> severek (with loving) s k-erek --> s karak (with squeezing) bil-erek --> bilerek (with knowing, knowingly) ko -erek --> ko arak (with running) gr-erek -- grerek (with seeing) vur-erek -- vurarak (with hitting) bk-erek -- bkerek (with bending)