The development and

characteristics of
Turkish in comparison
to English
Banu Bostan, Figen Kahraman
Hauptstudium, LN
 Overview
1. General overview of Turkish
2. Historical background
3. Borrowings
4. Vowels
5. Consonants
6. Word classes
7. Word formation process
8. Case
9. Tense
10. Kinship and colour terms
 General overview of Turkish
 Main geographic locations of Turkish
languages
1. Turkey (Turkish)
2. Azerbaidjan (Azerbaidjani)
3. The formerly Soviet Central Asia,
Kazakhstan, Southern Siberia (Uzbek,
Kazakh, Turkmenian, Kirghiz)
4. On the Volga (Tatar)
5. In northwestern China (Uighur)
 The Altaic language families:
the Turkic languages, Mongolic languages,
Tungusic languages, Korean and the Japonic
languages.

 The Turkic languages include Chuvash,

Turkish, Azeri, Turkmen, Crimean Tatar,
Urum, Qashqai, Khorasani, Salar, Gagauz,
Khalaj, Tatar, Bashkir, Baraba, Urum,
Karachay-Balkar, Kumyk, Karaim, Krymchak,
Kazakh, Karakalpak, Nogay, Uzbek, Uyghur,
Lop, Kyrgyz, Altay,Yakut,Tuvan, Khakas,
Shor, Fuyü Gïrgïs, Chulym, Tofa, Dolgan,
Western Yugur, and Northern Altay
 Common features

 Ural - Altaic languages:

 principle of vowel harmony
 are agglutinative
 SOV word order
 no grammatical gender
 Regions Turkish is spoken in:
Turkey, Caucasus, Cyprus, Balkans
 Historical background
 10th century: the Turks had begun to convert to
Islam and to adopt the Arabo – Persian alphabet
 11th century: under the leadership of the Seljuk
dynasty they overran Persia, Persian became the
language of administration and literary culture
(Persian borrowed many words from Arabic)
 This hybrid language became the official
language of the Ottoman dynasty
 Until 1922 the language of Turkey was known as
Osmanlıca or Ottoman Turkish
 The downfall of the Ottoman dynasty made it
necessary to find a new name to distinguish
this language from all other members of the
same linguistic family
 Formally the language is called Türkiye
Türkçesi (Turkey -Turkish)
The language-reform movement:
 With the establishment of the Republic
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk wanted his people to
turn their backs on their Asian past
 In 1928 he introduced the Latin alphabet in
place of the Arabo – Persian
 The Turkish Language Society (Türk Dil
Kurumu –TDK) made up a list of pure Turkish
words (Öztürkçe)
 The language reform reached the Press the
schools and the general public
 Main points
 11th century Turkish speakers arrived in
Turkey
 Turkish history (three periods):
1. Old Anatolian Turkish (Eski Anadolu
Türkçesi)
2. Ottoman Turkish (Osmanlıca)
3. Modern Turkish (Yeni Türkçe)
 1928 introduction of the Latin alphabet
 Borrowings
 Words from Arabic, Persian, French, Italian,
German and English

Example:
Ask for your bill (hesap) in a restoran
(restoran) and the odds are that what the
garson (garson) brings you will be
headed adisiyon (adisiyon).
 Arabic:  French:
 haqq- right – hak  station - station -
 afw - pardon – af istasyon
 tamass - contact -  statisque -statistics-
temas istatistik
 ism - name – isim  sport - sports - spor
 adl - justice - adil  club - club - klüp
 qism - part - kısım  groupe - group - grup
 aql - intelligence – akıl  principe - principle -
 matn- text – metin prensip
 umr - life – ömür
 fıkr - thought - fikir
 Italian:  English:
 scala - quay - iskele  screw - uskur
 sgombro - mackerel -  steam – istim or islim
uskumru  train – tren
 spirito - alcohol –
ispirto
 Persian:
 German:  shahr - city – şehir
 Schlepp - cargo- boat –  zahr - poison – zehir
şilep
 tukhm - seed - tohum
 Groschen - kuruş
Vowels
 Turkish has 8 vowels
The vowels
 4 front vowels (e, i, ö, ü)

 4 back vowels (a, ı, o, u)

 4 high vowels (i, ı, u, ü)

 4 low vowels (e, a, o, ö)

 4 rounded vowels (o, ö, u , ü)

 4 unrounded vowels (a, e, i, ı)

examples:
akıl, okul, öpücük, elli
 Vowel harmony rules
1. Front vowel must be followed by a front
vowel (dolap – cupboard)
2. First vowel is unrounded so the other once
are also unrounded
3. First vowel is rounded, the following vowels
are rounded and close or unrounded and
open (erik - plum, uzak – far away)
 Exceptions
1. Foreign words
tiyatro- theatre, edebiyat- literature
2. Words which changed during the time into
standard Turkish
ana - anne (mother), alma – elma (apple)
3. Compound words
Karadeniz - Black Sea, bugün – today
4. Five invariable suffixes
(I)yor, -ki, - ken, - leyin, - (I)mtrak
 Consonants
Labio- Post-
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
dental alveolar

c ɟ
Plosives p b t d k g

Nasals m n

ʃ ʒ ɣ
Fricatives f v s z h

ʧ ʤ
Affricatives

ɾ
Tap

Approximant j

Lateral ɫ
l
approximants
Consonants
 b, f, m, p, s, z, y are pronounced as in English

The consonant k stands for two sounds in

Turkish
 A front k (key)

 A back k (cool)

example:
ek affix (front k)
ak white (back k)
The consonant l stands for two sounds
 A front l bal (honey)

 A back l bel (waist)

The consonant v
 At the beginning it is pronounced as in English,
in the middle and at the end it is weaker than the
English v, after a vowel or before a consonant it
is pronounced as bilabial fricative
tavşan (rabbit), yavru (young animal)
The Turkish consonant g
 two sounds /g/ and /ğ/ (called the soft g)
 /ğ/ is not found at the beginning of a word
 /g/ does not occur after or between vowels,
except words of European origin ( sigara -
cigarette, sigorta - insurance)
 If /ğ/ is between back vowels it is not
pronounced ( ağaç- tree, ağır - heavy)
 After a back vowel, before a consonant or at
the end of a word ğ is dropped and the
preceding vowel is lengthened ( dağ –
mountain, doğru - right)
 In some dialects ğ is pronounced as [y]
( diğer - other, değirmen - mill )

Consonant assimilation in suffixes:

 When a suffix beginning with c, d or g is
added to a word ending in one of the unvoiced
consonants ç,f,h,k,p,s,ş,t the initial consonant
of the suffix is unvoiced to ç, t or k
 example: kitap + cı = kitapçı, elektrikçi
 Syllable final plosives and affricatives are
devoiced
example:
şarap (wine)
şarap + -I (Acc.) = şarab-ı
kitap – kitab- ı
 Word classes
 Nouns
 Turkish nouns can take endings indicating
 the person of a possessor
 case-endings
 Plural endings

Example:
ev -house
evler - the houses
evin - your house
evimde - at my house
 Verbs
 Turkish verbs indicate person
 can be made negative or im/-potential
 can be progressive, future, present, past,
conditional, imperative
example:
gel- (to)come
gelme- not (to) come
geleme- not (to) be able to come
gelebil- (to) be able to come
 Adjectives
 Most adjectives can be used as nouns and
adverbs
example:
ihtiyar - old (adj.) -the old one (noun)
bir ihtiyar – an old one, an old person
ihtiyarlar – old ones, old people
Hasan yavaş yürüdü (adverb)
Hasan walked slowly
 Pronouns
 Personal pronouns  Possessive pronoun

 ben ( I )  ben-im ( my )
 sen ( you )  sen-in ( your )
 o ( he, she, it )  on- un ( his, her, its )

 biz ( we )  biz-im ( our )

 siz ( you )  siz-in ( your )
 onlar ( they )  on-lar-ın ( their )
 Word formation process
Nouns:
göz eye
gözlük eyeglasses
gözlükçü someone who sells eyeglasses
gözlükçülük the business of selling eyeglasses

Verbs:
yat- lie down
yatır- lay down [that is, cause to lie down]
yatırım instance of laying down: deposit, investment
yatırımcı depositor, investor
 Case
Türkiye'de modayı gazete sayfalarına taşıyan,gazetemiz
yazarlarından N. S. yaşamını yitirdi. “ One of the writers of
our newspaper, N. S., who brought fashion to newspaper
pages in Turkey, lost her life."

Türkiye'de "in Turkey“ (locative) modayı "fashion"

(accusative of moda) gazete "newspaper" (nominative)
sayfalarına "to its pages" (dative; sayfa "page", sayfalar
"pages", sayfaları "its pages")taşıyan, "carrying" (present
participle of taşı-)gazetemiz "our newspaper" (nominative)
gazete "newspaper"yazarlarından "from its writers" (ablative;
yazar "writer") N. S. [person's name] (nominative) yaşamını
"her/his life" (accusative; yaşam "life") yitirdi. "lost" (past
tense of yitir- "lose“ from yit- "be lost")
The Turkish language has got 6 cases:

 Nominative/absolute -Ø (Ahmet)
 Accusative/objective - (y)I (gazete-yi, the
newspaper)
 Dative - (y)A (konser-e, to the concert)
 Locative - DA (büro-da, in the office)
 Ablative - DAn (iş-ten, from work)
 Genitive - nIn (Ali`-nin, Ali`s)
 Tense
 Most tense markers in Turkish have aspectual
functions or function as mood markers
 Present
 The so- called broad tense ( -(I)r bi çimbirim,
geniş zaman) the general present tense,
expresses habitual actions and general events
example:
Hasan her sabah kahvaltı ed –er
Hasan has breakfat every morning
Bil know, bil –ir she knows
 Present (Progressive)
 -(I)-yor

example:
Hasan tenis oy-n -uyor (Pr. Prog.)
Hasan is playing tenis
Hasan tenis oy-n –uyor (habitual action)
Hasan plays tenis
 Past
 Two simple past tenses
1. Definite past -DI
2. Reported past -mIş

example:
Hasan dün operaya git-ti (past)
Hasan went to the opera yesterday
Hasan dün operaya git-miş (rep. past)
Hasan reportedly went to the opera yesterday
 Future
 -(AcAK)

example:
Yarın sana uğra-y-acağ- ım
Tomorrow I will drop by at your place
 Kinship and colour terms
 Kinship terms by  oğul – son
blood  torun – grandchild
 anne- mother  kardeş – sibling
 baba -father
 erkek kardeş – brother
 kızkardeş – sister
 nine -grandmother  abla – elder sister
 dede -grandfather  ağabey – elder brother
 anneanne -maternal  dayı – maternal uncle
grandmother  amca – paternal uncle
 babaanne- paternal  teyze – maternal aunt
grandmother  hala – paternal aunt
 çocuk, evlat – child  yeğen – niece or nephew,
 kız – daughter cousin
 Kinship terms by marriage
 bacanak -the husband of one`s wife`s sister
 baldız -sister- in- law
 damat - son-in-law
 dünür - the father and mother -in –law of one`s
child
 elti - sister -in -law
 enişte - brother -in -law
 gelin - daughter- in- law, bride
 görümce - sister- in- law, husband`s sister
 Colour terms
 black siyah, kara
 white beyaz, ak
 red kırmızı, kızıl, al
 yellow sarı
 green yeşil
 blue mavi
 brown kahverengi
 pink pembe
 orange- turuncu, portakal rengi (the colour of the
orange)
 Gray-boz, gri, kurşuni, kül rengi
 mor
 References
 Lewis, Geoffrey 2001. Turkish Grammar. Oxford
University Press.
 Kornfilt, Jaklin 1997. Turkish. London: Routledge.
 Slobin, D. I., Zimmer, K. (ed.) 1986. Typological
Studies in Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
 Underhill, R. 1993. Turkish Grammar.
Cambridge/Massachusetts/London: MIT Press.
 www.wikipedia.de
 www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/asia.html
Thanks for attention!

Teşekkürler!