Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...
, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
and
Northern Cyprus
Northern Cyprus ( tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs), officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC; tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti, ''KKTC''), is a ''de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the Geography of Cyprus, isl ...
. Significant smaller groups of Turkish speakers also exist in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
,
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
, and other parts of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
.
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
has requested the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
to add Turkish as an official language, even though Turkey is not a member state. Turkish is the 13th most spoken language in the world.
To the west, the influence of
Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
—the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
—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
The Ottoman Turkish alphabet ( ota, الفبا, ') is a version of the Arabic script used to write Ottoman Turkish until 1928, when it was replaced by the Latin-based modern Turkish alphabet.
Though Ottoman Turkish was primarily written in thi ...
was replaced with a
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
.
The distinctive characteristics of the Turkish language are
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
and extensive
agglutination
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
. The basic word order of Turkish is
subject–object–verb
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*'' Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective con ...
. Turkish has no
noun class
In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some ...
es or
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
. The language makes usage of
honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
s and has a strong
T–V distinction
The T–V distinction is the contextual use of different pronouns that exists in some languages and serves to convey formality or familiarity. Its name comes from the Latin pronouns '' tu'' and '' vos''. The distinction takes a number of forms ...
which distinguishes varying levels of politeness,
social distance
In sociology, social distance describes the distance between individuals or social groups in society, including dimensions such as social class, race/ethnicity, gender or sexuality. Members of different groups mix less than members of the same gr ...
, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect.
Classification
Turkish is a member of the
Oghuz group of the
Turkic family. Other members include
Azerbaijani, spoken in
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
and north-west
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Gagauz of
Gagauzia
Gagauzia or Gagauz-Yeri, or ; ro, Găgăuzia; russian: Гагаузия, Gagauziya officially the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia; ro, Unitatea Teritorială Autonomă Găgăuzia, ''UTAG''; russian: Автономное территор ...
,
Qashqai of south
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and the
Turkmen of
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
.
[Aalto, P. "Iranian Contacts of the Turks in Pre-Islamic times," in Studia Turcica, ed. L. Ligeti, Budapest, 1971, pp. 29–37.]
Classification of the
Turkic languages is complicated. The migrations of the
Turkic peoples and their consequent intermingling with one another and with peoples who spoke non-
Turkic languages, have created a linguistic situation of vast complexity.
There is ongoing debate about whether the
Turkic family is itself a branch of a larger
Altaic
Altaic (; also called Transeurasian) is a controversial proposed language family that would include the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families and possibly also the Japonic and Koreanic languages. Speakers of these languages are c ...
family, including
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
,
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
,
Mongolian and
Tungusic. The nineteenth-century
Ural-Altaic
Ural-Altaic, Uralo-Altaic or Uraltaic is a linguistic convergence zone and former language-family proposal uniting the Uralic and the Altaic (in the narrow sense) languages. It is generally now agreed that even the Altaic languages do not share ...
theory, which grouped Turkish with
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
,
Hungarian and
Altaic
Altaic (; also called Transeurasian) is a controversial proposed language family that would include the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families and possibly also the Japonic and Koreanic languages. Speakers of these languages are c ...
languages, is controversial.
[Gandjeï, T. "Über die türkischen und mongolischen Elemente der persischen Dichtung der Ilchan-Zeit," in Ural-altaische Jahrbücher 30, 1958, pp. 229–31.] The theory was based mostly on the fact these languages share three features:
agglutination
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
,
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
and lack of grammatical gender.
History
![Irk bitig 07](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Irk_bitig_07.jpg)
The earliest known
Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental
Orkhon inscriptions
The Orkhon inscriptions (also known as the Orhon inscriptions, Orhun inscriptions, Khöshöö Tsaidam monuments (also spelled ''Khoshoo Tsaidam'', ''Koshu-Tsaidam'' or ''Höshöö Caidam''), or Kul Tigin steles ( zh, t=闕特勤碑, s=阙特勤 ...
found in modern
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
. Erected in honour of the prince
Kul Tigin
, native_name_lang = otk
, image = Turkic Head of Koltegin Statue (35324303410).jpg
, caption = Bust of Kul Tigin found at the Khoshoo Tsaidam burial site, in Khashaat, Arkhangai Province, Orkhon River valley. Located in the Nati ...
and his brother Emperor
Bilge Khagan
Bilge Qaghan ( otk, 𐰋𐰃𐰠𐰏𐰀:𐰴𐰍𐰣, Bilgä Qaγan; ; 683 – 25 November 734) was the fourth Qaghan of the Second Turkic Khaganate. His accomplishments were described in the Orkhon inscriptions.
Names
As was the custom, his ...
, these date back to the
Second Turkic Khaganate
The Second Turkic Khaganate ( otk, 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰃𐰠, Türük el, State of the Turks, , known as ''Turk Bilge Qaghan country'' ( otk, 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰝:𐰋𐰃𐰠𐰏𐰀:𐰴𐰍𐰣:𐰃𐰠𐰭𐰀, Türük Bilgä Qaγan eli) in Bai ...
(dated 682–744 CE). After the discovery and excavation of these monuments and associated stone slabs by Russian archaeologists in the wider area surrounding the
Orkhon Valley
Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape (; mn, Орхоны хөндийн соёлын дурсгал, Orkhony xöndiiyn soyoliyn dursgal, Mongolian Script: ) sprawls along the banks of the Orkhon River in Central Mongolia, some 320 km west fro ...
between 1889 and 1893, it became established that the language on the inscriptions was the
Old Turkic language
Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic language, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of the Turkic languages, found in Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It is the old ...
written using the
Old Turkic alphabet
The Old Turkic script (also known as variously Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script, Turkic runes) was the alphabet used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic peoples, Turkic khanates from the 8th to 10th centuries to re ...
, which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to a superficial similarity to the
Germanic runic alphabet
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...
s.
With the
Turkic expansion
The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging to t ...
during Early Middle Ages (c. 6th–11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, covering a vast geographical region stretching from
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
all the way to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
. The
Seljuqs
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes
by the Turk ...
of the
Oghuz Turks
The Oghuz or Ghuzz Turks (Middle Turkic languages, Middle Turkic: ٱغُز, ''Oγuz'', ota, اوغوز, Oġuz) were a western Turkic people that spoke the Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages, Turkic language family. In th ...
, in particular, brought their language,
Oghuz—the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
during the 11th century.
[Findley] Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages,
Mahmud al-Kashgari
Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammed al-Kashgari, ''Maḥmūd ibnu 'l-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Kāšġarī'', , tr, Kaşgarlı Mahmûd, ug, مەھمۇد قەشقىرى, ''Mehmud Qeshqiri'' / Мәһмуд Қәшқири uz, Mahmud Qashg'ariy / М ...
from the
Kara-Khanid Khanate
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek ...
, published the first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the ''
Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk
The ' ( ar, ديوان لغات الترك, lit=Compendium of the languages of the Turks) is the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, compiled in 1072–74 by the Turkic scholar Mahmud Kashgari who extensively studied the Turkic ...
'' ().
Ottoman Turkish
![Oghusenbuchmuseum](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Oghusenbuchmuseum.jpeg)
Following the adoption of
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
c. 950 by the
Kara-Khanid Khanate
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek ...
and the
Seljuq Turks
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes
by the Turk ...
, who are both regarded as the ethnic and cultural ancestors of the
Ottomans
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
, the administrative language of these states acquired a large collection of loanwords from
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
.
Turkish literature
Turkish literature ( tr, Türk edebiyatı) comprises oral compositions and written texts in Turkic languages. The Ottoman and Azerbaijani forms of Turkish, which forms the basis of much of the written corpus, were highly influenced by Persian la ...
during the Ottoman period, particularly
Divan poetry
In Islamic cultures of the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily and South Asia, a Diwan ( fa, دیوان, ''divân'', ar, ديوان, ''dīwān'') is a collection of poems by one author, usually excluding his or her long poems ( mathnawī).
The ...
, 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
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
period (c. 1299–1922) is termed
Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
, 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.
Language reform and modern Turkish
After the foundation of the modern state of
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
and the
script reform, the
Turkish Language Association
The Turkish Language Association ( tr, Türk Dil Kurumu, TDK) is the regulatory body for the Turkish language, founded on 12 July 1932 by the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. The Institution acts as the off ...
(TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...
, with the aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a
language reform
Language reform is a kind of language planning by widespread change to a language. The typical methods of language reform are simplification and linguistic purism. Simplification regularises vocabulary, grammar, or spelling. Purism aligns the langu ...
to replace
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s 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.
In 1935, the TDK published a bilingual
Ottoman-Turkish/Pure Turkish dictionary that documents the results of the language reform.
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 modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
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.
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 ' to replace ', "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval (' has been replaced by the French loanword '). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example ' (originally meaning "book") is now used to mean "
script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
" in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
.
Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are:
Geographic distribution
![IKEABerlin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/IKEABerlin.JPG)
Turkish is natively spoken by the
Turkish people
The Turkish people, or simply the Turks ( tr, Türkler), are the world's largest Turkic ethnic group; they speak various dialects of the Turkish language and form a majority in Turkey and Northern Cyprus. In addition, centuries-old ethnic ...
in Turkey and by the
Turkish diaspora
The Turkish diaspora ( tr, Türk diasporası or ''Türk gurbetçiler'') refers to ethnic Turkish people who have migrated from, or are the descendants of migrants from, the Republic of Turkey, Northern Cyprus or other modern nation-states tha ...
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
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, such as Iraq, Bulgaria,
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
, Greece (primarily in
Western Thrace
Western Thrace or West Thrace ( el, υτικήΘράκη, '' ytikíThráki'' ; tr, Batı Trakya; bg, Западна/Беломорска Тракия, ''Zapadna/Belomorska Trakiya''), also known as Greek Thrace, is a Geography, geograp ...
), the
Republic of North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...
, 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.
Due to the
cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially.
The different types of cultural assi ...
of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic members of the diaspora speak the language with native fluency.
In 2005 93% of the population of Turkey were native speakers of Turkish,
about 67 million at the time, with
Kurdish languages
Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language ...
making up most of the remainder.
Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani () or Azeri (), also referred to as Azeri Turkic or Azeri Turkish, is a Turkic language from the Oghuz sub-branch spoken primarily by the Azerbaijani people, who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan where the North Azerbaija ...
, official in Azerbaijan, is
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
with Turkish and speakers of both languages can understand them without noticeable difficulty, especially when discussion comes on ordinary, daily language. Turkey has very good relations with Azerbaijan, with a multitude of Turkish companies and authorities investing there, while the influence of Turkey in the country is very high. The rising presence of this very similar language in Azerbaijan and the fact that many children use Turkish words instead of Azerbaijani words due to satellite TV has caused concern that the dinstictive features of the language will be eroded. Many bookstores sell books in Turkish language along Azerbaijani language ones, with Agalar Mahmadov, a leading intellectual, voicing his concern that Turkish language has "already started to take over the national and natural dialects of Azerbaijan". However, the presence of Turkish as foreign language is not as high as Russian. In Uzbekistan, the second most populated Turkic country, a new TV channel ''Foreign Languages TV'' was established in 2022. This channel has been broadcasting Turkish lessons along with English, French, German and Russian lessons.
Official status
Turkish is the official language of
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
and is one of the official languages of
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
. Turkish has official status in 38 municipalities in
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
, including Mamusha,, two in the
Republic of North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...
and in
Kirkuk Governorate
Kirkuk Governorate ( ar, محافظة كركوك, Muḥāfaẓat Karkūk, ku, پارێزگای کەرکووک, Parêzgeha Kerkûkê/Parêzgayi Kerkûk, tr, Kerkük ili) or Kirkuk Province is a governorate in northern Iraq. The governorate has an ...
in Iraq.
In Turkey, the regulatory body for Turkish is the
Turkish Language Association
The Turkish Language Association ( tr, Türk Dil Kurumu, TDK) is the regulatory body for the Turkish language, founded on 12 July 1932 by the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. The Institution acts as the off ...
(''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
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the prescriptive practice of defining or recognizing one variety of a language as being purer or of intrinsically higher quality than other varieties. Linguistic purism was institutionalized th ...
: indeed one of its primary tasks was the replacement of loanwords and of foreign grammatical constructions with equivalents of Turkish origin. These changes, together with the adoption of the new
Turkish alphabet
The Turkish alphabet ( tr, ) is a Latin-script alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which (Ç, Ğ, Dotless I, I, İ, Ö, Ş and Ü) have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requ ...
in 1928, shaped the
modern Turkish language spoken today. The 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
Modern standard Turkish is based on the dialect of
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
. This Istanbul Turkish (''İstanbul Türkçesi'') constitutes the model of written and spoken Turkish, as recommended by
Ziya Gökalp
Mehmet Ziya Gökalp (23 March 1876 – 25 October 1924) was a Turkish sociologist, writer, poet, and politician. After the 1908 Young Turk Revolution that reinstated constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire, he adopted the pen name Gökalp ("cel ...
,
Ömer Seyfettin
Ömer Seyfettin (11 March 1884, Gönen – 6 March 1920, Istanbul), was a Turkish writer from the late-19th to early-20th-century, considered to be one of the greatest modern Turkish authors. His work is much praised for simplifying the Turkish ...
and others.
Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the
levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and in the
Turkish education system
Education in Turkey is governed by a national system which was established in accordance with the Atatürk's Reforms. It is a state-supervised system designed to produce a skillful professional class for the social and economic institutes of the ...
since the 1930s.
Academic 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. Several universities, as well as a dedicated work-group of the Turkish Language Association, carry out
project
A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...
s investigating Turkish dialects. work continued on the compilation and publication of their research as a comprehensive dialect-
atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...
of the Turkish language.
[Özsoy]
![Turkey Turkish dialects map (Main subgroups) en](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Turkey_Turkish_dialects_map_%28Main_subgroups%29_en.jpg)
Some
immigrants to Turkey from
Rumelia
Rumelia ( ota, روم ايلى, Rum İli; tr, Rumeli; el, Ρωμυλία), etymologically "Land of the Names of the Greeks#Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι), Romans", at the time meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians and more specifically Christians f ...
speak
Rumelian Turkish
Balkan Gagauz Turkish, or Rumelian Turkish ( tr, Rumeli Türkçesi), is a Turkic language spoken in European Turkey, in Dulovo and the Deliorman area in Bulgaria, the Prizren area in Kosovo and the Kumanovo and Bitola areas of North Macedon ...
, which includes the distinct dialects of
Ludogorie
The Ludogorie ( bg, Лудогорие, usually used with a definite article, Лудогорието, ''Ludogorieto'') or Deliorman (''Делиорман'', tr, Deli Orman, lit=mad forest and Bulgarian: lud - "mad", "crazy" and gora - "forest"), ...
, Dinler, and Adakale, which show the influence of the theoretized
Balkan sprachbund. ''Kıbrıs Türkçesi'' is the name for
Cypriot Turkish
Cypriot Turkish (''Kıbrıs Türkçesi'') is a dialect of the Turkish language spoken by Turkish Cypriots both in Cyprus and among its diaspora.
History
Emanating from Anatolia and evolved for four centuries, Cypriot Turkish is the vernacular s ...
and is spoken by the
Turkish Cypriots
Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,00 ...
. ''Edirne'' is the dialect of
Edirne
Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...
. ''Ege'' is spoken in the
Aegean region, with its usage extending to
Antalya
Antalya () is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, fifth-most populous city in Turkey as well as the capital of Antalya Province. Located on Anatolia's southwest coast bordered by the Taurus Mountains, Antalya is the largest Turkish cit ...
. The nomadic
Yörüks
The Yörüks, also Yuruks or Yorouks ( tr, Yörükler; , ''Youroúkoi''; bg, юруци; mk, Јуруци, ''Juruci''), are a Turkish ethnic subgroup of Oghuz descent, some of whom are nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia ...
of the
Mediterranean Region
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and wa ...
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
Balkan Gagauz Turkish, or Rumelian Turkish ( tr, Rumeli Türkçesi), is a Turkic language spoken in European Turkey, in Dulovo and the Deliorman area in Bulgaria, the Prizren area in Kosovo and the Kumanovo and Bitola areas of North Macedonia. ...
.
The
Meskhetian Turks
Meskhetian Turks, also referred to as Turkish Meskhetians, Ahiska Turks, and Turkish Ahiskans, ( ka, მესხეთის თურქები ''Meskhetis turk'ebi'') are an ethnic subgroup of Turks formerly inhabiting the Meskheti regio ...
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.
The
Central Anatolia Region
The Central Anatolia Region ( tr, İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, and Aksaray.
Located in Central Turkey, it is bordered ...
speaks ''Orta Anadolu''. ''Karadeniz'', spoken in the Eastern
Black Sea Region
The Black Sea Region ( tr, Karadeniz Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Samsun. Other big cities are Trabzon, Ordu, Tokat, Giresun, Rize, Amasya and Sinop.
It is bordered by the Marmara Region to the ...
and represented primarily by the
Trabzon
Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the Bl ...
dialect, exhibits
substratum
In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...
influence from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
in
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
and
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
;
it is also known as ''Laz dialect'' (not to be confused with the
Laz language
The Laz language (; ka, ლაზური ენა/ჭანური ენა, tr; tr, Lazca, tr) is a Kartvelian language spoken by the Laz people on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea. In 2007, it was estimated that there were arou ...
). ''Kastamonu'' is spoken in
Kastamonu
Kastamonu is the capital district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 102,059 of which 64,606 live in the urban center of Kastamonu. (Population of the urban center in 2010 is 91,012.) The ...
and its surrounding areas.
Karamanli Turkish
Karamanlı Turkish ( tr, Karamanlı Türkçesi, el, Καραμανλήδικα, Karamanlídika) is a dialect of the Turkish language spoken by the Karamanlides. Although the official Ottoman Turkish was written in the Arabic script, the Karam ...
is spoken in Greece, where it is called . It is the literary standard for the
Karamanlides
The Karamanlides ( el, Καραμανλήδες; tr, Karamanlılar), also known as Karamanli Greeks or simply Karamanlis, are a traditionally Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox people native to the Karaman and Cappadocia regions of Anatolia.
The ...
.
Phonology
Consonants
At least one source claims Turkish consonants are laryngeally-specified three-way fortis-lenis (aspirated/neutral/voiced) like Armenian.
The phoneme that is usually referred to as ''yumuşak g'' ("soft g"), written in Turkish
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
, 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.
[''Handbook of the IPA'', p. 155]
In native Turkic words, the sounds , , and are in
complementary distribution
In linguistics, complementary distribution, as distinct from contrastive distribution and free variation, is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other ele ...
with , , and ; the former set occurs adjacent to front vowels and the latter adjacent to back vowels. The distribution of these
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
s is often unpredictable, however, in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. In such words, , , and often occur with back vowels: some
examples
Example may refer to:
* '' exempli gratia'' (e.g.), usually read out in English as "for example"
* .example, reserved as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain of the Internet
** example.com, example.net, example.org, ex ...
are given below.
Consonant devoicing
Turkish orthography reflects
final-obstruent devoicing
Final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voiced obstruents in final p ...
, a form of
consonant mutation
Consonant mutation is change in a consonant in a word according to its morphological or syntactic environment.
Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of al ...
whereby a voiced obstruent, such as , is devoiced to 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/''.
This is analogous to languages such as
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, but in the case of Turkish it only applies, as the above examples demonstrate, to stops and affricates, not to fricatives. The spelling is usually made to match the sound. However, in a few cases, such as ''ad'' 'name' (dative ''ada''), the underlying form is retained in the spelling (cf. ''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' or 'stranger' also show their underlying forms.
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//''.
Vowels
![Turkish vowel chart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Turkish_vowel_chart.svg)
The vowels of the Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, , , , , , , , . 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
{{See also, grave and acute (phonetics)
From an articulatory perspective, phonemes can be described as front or back. Front vowels refer to vowels articulated towards the front of the mouth. This can either refer to vowels that are more front th ...
,
rounded and unrounded and
vowel height
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
.
Vowels are classified
back roundand
high
The only
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s in the language are found in
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s and may be categorised as falling diphthongs usually analyzed as a sequence of /j/ and a vowel.
Vowel harmony
![TurkishRoadSign-WelcomeToEurope Modified](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/TurkishRoadSign-WelcomeToEurope_Modified.jpg)
The principle of vowel harmony, which permeates Turkish word-formation and suffixation, is due to the natural human tendency towards economy of muscular effort.
[Mundy, C. Turkish Syntax as a System of Qualification. Oxford, 1957, pp. 279–305.] This principle is expressed in Turkish through three rules:
# If the first vowel of a word is a back vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a back vowel; if the first is a front vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a front vowel.
# If the first vowel is unrounded, so too are subsequent vowels.
# If the first vowel is rounded, subsequent vowels are either rounded and close or unrounded and open.
[Deny, J. Grammaire de la langue turque. Paris, 1963.]
The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to the phenomenon of labial assimilation:
[von Gabain, A. Alttürkische Grammatik. Leipzig, 1950.] if the lips are rounded (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels.
If they are unrounded for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently.
Grammatical
affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
es have "a chameleon-like quality", and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony:
* twofold (''-e/-a''): the
locative case
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
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 case
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
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.
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.
The following examples, based on the
copula ''-dir''
4 ("
tis"), illustrate the principles of i-type vowel harmony in practice: ''Türkiye'
dir'' ("it is Turkey"), ''kapıdır'' ("it is the door"), but ''gündür'' ("it is the day"), ''paltodur'' ("it is the coat").
= Exceptions to vowel harmony
=
These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony:
# Native, non-compound words, e.g. ' "also," ' "light brown," ' "apple," ' "which," ' "where," ' "come on," ' "to believe," ' "brother," ' "fat," ' "mother"
# Native compound words, e.g. ' "today," ' "gossip"
# Foreign words, e.g. ' (< Farsi ' "command"), ' (< French ' "microbe"), ' (< Greek ' "bishop")
# Invariable suffixes: –daş (denoting common attachment to the concept expressed by the noun), –yor (denoting the present tense in the third person), –ane (turning adjectives or nouns into adverbs), –ken (meaning "while being"), –leyin (meaning "in/at/during"), (weakening an adjective of color or taste in a way similar to the English suffix –ish as in blueish), –ki (making a pronoun or adjective out of an adverb or a noun in the locative case), –gil (meaning "the house or family of"), –gen (referring to the name of plane figures)
The
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'' (< French ''viaduc'' "viaduct")
* the possessive suffix'' -i''
4 harmonizing with the final vowel (and softening the ''k'' by consonant
alternation): ''viyadüğü''
The rules of vowel harmony may vary by regional dialect. The dialect of Turkish spoken in the
Trabzon
Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the Bl ...
region of northeastern Turkey follows the reduced vowel harmony of
Old Anatolian Turkish
Old Anatolian Turkish (OAT, tr, Eski Anadolu Türkçesi, ''EAT'') is the stage in the history of the Turkish language spoken in Anatolia from the 11th to 15th centuries. It developed into Early Ottoman Turkish. It was written in the Arabic scr ...
, with the additional complication of two missing vowels (ü and ı), thus there is no
palatal harmony Palatal harmony, also called palatovelar harmony, is a type of vowel harmony that manifests in forcing agreement between vowels that are either neighboring or in the same word regarding their place of articulation-- specifically the difference betwe ...
. 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''.
Word-accent
With the exceptions stated below, Turkish words are oxytone (accented on the last syllable).
Exceptions to word-accent rules
# Place-names are not oxytone:
(Anatolia), . Most place names are accented on their first syllable as in and . This holds true when place names are spelled the same way as common nouns, which are oxytone: (maize), (Egypt), (vinegar-seller), (district in Istanbul), (doll, baby), (district in Istanbul), (army), (a Turkish city on the Black Sea).
#Foreign nouns usually retain their original accentuation,
e.g., (< Italian "restaurant"), (< Greek "fishing line"), (< Italian "newspaper")
#Some words about family members
and living creatures
have irregular accentuation: (mother), (older sister), (husband's sister), (brother's wife), (paternal aunt), (maternal aunt), (paternal uncle), (grasshopper), (ant), (skunk)
#Adverbs
are usually accented on the first syllable, e.g., (now), (after), (suddenly), (really), (but (from reality)), (during winter)
#Compound words
are accented on the end of the first element, e.g., (naked), (stark naked), (minister), (prime minister)
#Diminutives constructed by suffix –cik are accented on the first syllable, e.g., (very tiny), (small house)
#Words with enclitic suffixes, –le (meaning "with"), –ken (meaning "while"), –ce (creating an adverb), –leyin (meaning "in" or "during"), –me (negating the verbal stem), –yor (denoting the present tense)
* Enclitic words, which shift the accentuation to the previous syllable, e.g., ol- (meaning to be), mi (denoting a question), gibi (meaning similar to), için (for), ki (that), de (too)
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
copula ''ol'' or ''y'' (variants of "be"). Examples of both are given below:
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 öğretmen 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').
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 öğretmen misiniz''? ('Necla, are you
ormal, plurala teacher?').
Word order
Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally
subject–object–verb
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*'' Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective con ...
, as in Korean and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, 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.
Immediately preverbal
Consider the following simple sentence which demonstrates that the focus in Turkish is on the element that immediately precedes the verb:
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:
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. 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.
Grammar
Turkish is an
agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including stems and affixes) tend to remain ...
and frequently uses
affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
es, and specifically suffixes, or endings. 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
In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either:
* the processes through which words can change (i.e. morphology), or
* the creation of new lexemes in a particular language
Morphological
A common method of word form ...
). Most affixes indicate the grammatical function of the word.
The only native prefixes are
alliterative
Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
intensifying syllables used with adjectives or adverbs: for example ''sımsıcak'' ("boiling hot" < ''sıcak'') and ''masmavi'' ("bright blue" < ''mavi'').
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
estivalRecipr-Impot-Partic-Plur-PossPl1; "Those of our number with whom we cannot exchange the season's greetings"). 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
ispense-Pass-Impot-Plur-PossS3-Abl-Copulaof national unity ~ Linguistic unity is a ''
sine qua non
''Sine qua non'' (, ) or ''condicio sine qua non'' (plural: ''condiciones sine quibus non'') is an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for " conditionwithout which it could not be" ...
'' of national unity").
Nouns
Gender
Turkish does not have grammatical gender and the sex of persons do not affect the forms of words. The third-person pronoun ' may refer to "he," "she" or "it." Despite this lack, Turkish still has ways of indicating gender in nouns:
# Most domestic animals have male and female forms, e.g., ' (stallion), ' (mare), ' (bull), ' (cow).
# For other animals, the sex may be indicated by adding the word ' (female) before the corresponding noun, e.g., ' (female cat).
# For people, the female sex may be indicated by adding the word ' (girl) or ' (woman), e.g., ' (heroine) instead of ' (hero).
# Some foreign words of
French or
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
origin already have separate female forms, e.g., ' (actress).
# The
Serbo-Croat feminine suffix –ica is used in three borrowings: ' (queen), ' (empress) and ' (tsarina). This suffix was used in the neologism ' (< Old Turkic ' "god").
Case
There is no
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
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
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomina ...
in Turkish, with all the endings following vowel harmony (shown in the table using the shorthand
superscript notation). Since the postposition ''ile'' often gets suffixed onto the noun, some analyze it as an
instrumental case
In grammar, the instrumental case (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the ''instrument'' or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or an ...
, although it takes the genitive with personal pronouns, singular demonstratives, and interrogative ''kim''. The
plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
marker ''-ler'' ² immediately follows the noun before any case or other affixes (e.g. ''köylerin'' "of the villages").
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". 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
s we walked through the forest
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''.
History ...
—as opposed to ''ağaçları gördük'' "we saw the trees
n question.
The declension of ''ağaç'' illustrates two important features of Turkish phonology: consonant
assimilation in
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
es (''ağaçtan, ağaçta'') and
voicing of final consonants before vowels (''ağacın, ağaca, ağacı'').
Additionally, nouns can take suffixes that assign
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...
: for example ''-imiz''
4, "our". With the addition of the
copula (for example ''-im''
4, "I am") complete sentences can be formed. The
interrogative
An interrogative clause is a clause whose form is typically associated with question-like meanings. For instance, the English sentence "Is Hannah sick?" has interrogative syntax which distinguishes it from its declarative counterpart "Hannah is ...
particle ''mi''
4 immediately follows the word being questioned, and also follows vowel harmony: ''köye mi?'' "
oingto the village?", ''ağaç mı?'' "
s it atree?".
Personal pronouns
The Turkish
personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
s 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''. As mentioned before, all demonstrative singular and personal pronouns take the genitive when ''ile'' is affixed onto it: ''benimle'' (1s ins.), ''bizimle'' (1pl ins.); but ''onunla'' (3s ins.), ''onlarla'' (3pl ins.). All other pronouns (reflexive ''kendi'' and so on) are declined regularly.
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 ''-in''
4 added to the first noun; the second noun has the third-person suffix of possession
4.
* indefinite (qualifying) compound (''belirtisiz tamlama''). E.g. ''Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'' "Turkey-Republic = 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
4—the same as in definite compounds.
The following table illustrates these principles. In some cases the constituents of the compounds are themselves compounds; for clarity these subsidiary compounds are marked with
quare brackets Quare is a subset of queer theory exploring the intersectionality of race and sexuality.
Quare could also mean:
* “The Quare Fellow”, a Brendan Behan play produced in 1954
* quare impedit
In English law, ''quare impedit'' was a writ commenc ...
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.
As the last example shows, the qualifying expression may be a substantival sentence rather than a noun or noun group.
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, 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
Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontological property of being.
Etymology
The term ''existence'' comes from Old French ''existence'', from Medieval Latin ''existentia/exsistentia ...
") 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"); ("my cat had no shoes", ''lit.'' "cat-''my''-''of'' shoe-''plur.''-''its'' non-existent-''past tense''").
Verbs
Turkish verbs indicate
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...
. They can be made negative, potential ("can"), or non-potential ("cannot"). Furthermore, Turkish verbs show
tense (
present
The present (or here'' and ''now) is the time that is associated with the events perception, perceived directly and in the first time, not as a recollection (perceived more than once) or a speculation (predicted, hypothesis, uncertain). It is ...
,
past
The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience t ...
,
future
The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
, and
aorist
Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the I ...
),
mood (
conditional,
imperative,
inferential,
necessitative, and
optative
The optative mood ( or ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope regarding a given action. It is a superset of the cohortative mood and is closely related to the subjunctive mood but is distinct from the desiderative mood. ...
), and
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
. Negation is expressed by the
infix
An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem (an existing word or the core of a family of words). It contrasts with ''adfix,'' a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.
When marking text for int ...
''-me²-'' immediately following the stem.
Verb tenses
(''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
Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the I ...
), future, optative, subjunctive, necessitative ("must") and imperative. 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. In the example below the second person singular of the verb ''gitmek'' ("go"), stem ''gid-/git-'', is shown.
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. 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, similar to the English
present participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
(with the ending
2); future (
2); indirect/inferential past (
4); and
aorist
Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the I ...
(
2 or
4).
The most important function of some of these attributive verbs is to form modifying phrases equivalent to the
relative clause
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...
s found in most European languages. The subject of the verb in an
2 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 (
2) and an older form (
4), which covers both present and past meanings. These two forms take "personal endings", which have the same form as the
possessive suffix
In linguistics, a possessive affix (from la, affixum possessivum) is an affix (usually suffix or prefix) attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives.
Possessive affixes are found in many languages o ...
es 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.
Vocabulary
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, including place names and person names, both from the standard language and from dialects.
Word formation
Turkish extensively uses
agglutination
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
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.
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
clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
s, as can be seen in the example set of words derived from a substantive root below:
Another example, starting from a verbal root:
New words are also frequently formed by
compounding
In the field of pharmacy, compounding (performed in compounding pharmacies) is preparation of a custom formulation of a medication to fit a unique need of a patient that cannot be met with commercially available products. This may be done for me ...
two existing words into a new one, as in German. Compounds can be of two types- bare and . The bare compounds, both nouns and adjectives are effectively two words juxtaposed without the addition of suffixes for example the word for girlfriend () or black pepper (). A few examples of compound words are given below:
However, the majority of compound words in Turkish are 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
In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
):
Writing system
![Ataturk-September 20, 1928](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Ataturk-September_20%2C_1928.jpg)
Turkish is written using a
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
introduced in 1928 by
Atatürk to replace the
Ottoman Turkish alphabet
The Ottoman Turkish alphabet ( ota, الفبا, ') is a version of the Arabic script used to write Ottoman Turkish until 1928, when it was replaced by the Latin-based modern Turkish alphabet.
Though Ottoman Turkish was primarily written in thi ...
, a version of
Perso-Arabic
The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran ( Western Persian) and Afghanistan (Dari Persian) since the 7th cent ...
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, pre-modern levels.
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
Frang Bardhi (Latin: ''Franciscus Blancus'', it, Francesco Bianchi, 1606–1643) was an Albanian Catholic bishop and writer. Bardhi is best known as an author of the early eras of Albanian literature. He served as Bishop of Sapë (1635–1644). ...
, 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
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
, with one letter corresponding to each
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
.
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 , representing . As in German, and represent and . The letter , in principle, denotes but has the property of lengthening the preceding vowel and assimilating any subsequent vowel. The letters and represent and , respectively. A
circumflex
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...
is written over
back vowel
A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be c ...
s following and when these consonants represent and —almost exclusively in Arabic and Persian
loans
In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that de ...
.
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:
Sample
''Dostlar Beni Hatırlasın'' by
Âşık Veysel Şatıroğlu
An ashik ( az, aşıq, ; tr, âşık; fa, عاشیق) or ashugh ( hy, աշուղ; ka, აშუღი) is traditionally a singer-poet and bard who accompanies his song—be it a dastan (traditional epic story, also known as '' hikay ...
(1894–1973), a
minstrel
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...
and highly regarded poet in the
Turkish folk literature
Turkish folk literature is an oral tradition deeply rooted, in its form, in Central Asian nomadic traditions. However, in its themes, Turkish folk literature reflects the problems peculiar to a settling (or settled) people who have abandoned the ...
tradition.
Whistled language
In the Turkish province of
Giresun
Giresun (), formerly Cerasus (Ancient Greek: Κερασοῦς, Greek: Κερασούντα), is the provincial capital of Giresun Province in the Black Sea Region of northeastern Turkey, about west of the city of Trabzon.
Etymology
Giresun wa ...
, the locals in the village of
Kuşköy
Kuşköy (English meaning is "Village of the Birds") is a village in Çanakçı district of Giresun province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The village is famous for its 400-year-old whistled language
Whistled languages use whistling to e ...
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
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
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
Onur Güntürkün (born 18 July 1958, in İzmir) is a Turkish-German neuroscientist. He is professor of behavioral neuroscience at Ruhr University Bochum.
Güntürkün studied psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum from 1975 to 1980 and receive ...
at Ruhr University, observing 31 "speakers" of ' ("bird's tongue") from Kuşköy, and he found that the whistled language mirrored the lexical and syntactical structure of Turkish language.
Turkish computer keyboard
![Turkish Q computer keyboard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Turkish_Q_computer_keyboard.jpg)
Turkish language uses two standardised
keyboard layout
A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard.
is the actua ...
s, known as Turkish Q (QWERTY) and Turkish F, with Turkish Q being the most common.
See also
*
Sun Language Theory
The Sun Language Theory ( tr, Güneş Dil Teorisi) was a Turkish ultranationalist, racist, pseudolinguistic, and pseudoscientific hypothesis developed in Turkey in the 1930s that proposed that all human languages are descendants of one proto-T ...
*
Turkish name
A Turkish name consists of an ''ad'' or an ''isim'' (given name; plural ''adlar'' and ''isimler'') and a ''soyadı'' or ''soyisim'' (surname). Turkish names exist in a "full name" format. While there is only one ''soyadı'' (surname) in the full na ...
*
Turkish Sign Language
Turkish Sign Language ( tr, Türk İşaret Dili, TİD) is the language used by the deaf community in Turkey. As with other sign languages, TİD has a unique grammar that is different from the oral languages used in the region.
TİD uses a two-ha ...
*
List of English words of Turkic origin
This is a list of words that have entered into the English language from the Turkic languages. Many of them came via traders and soldiers from and in the Ottoman Empire. There are some Turkic words as well, most of them entered English via the Rus ...
*
List of Turkish exonyms
An exonym is a Toponymy, place name, used by non-natives of that place, that differs from the official or native name for that place. Turkish has a wealth of exonyms in areas beyond the current borders of Turkey notably those that were once Subdiv ...
*
Öztürkçe
Öztürkçe refers to a purist form of Turkish, which is largely free of Persian and Arab influences. Öztürkçe was an active target of the Turkish language reform. This language policy of Turkification was enforced by the written reform and fr ...
*
Languages used on the Internet
Slightly over half of the homepages of the most visited websites on the World Wide Web are in English, with varying amounts of information available in many other languages. Other top languages are Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Persian, French, Germ ...
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* (2nd edition 1989)
*
*
*
*
*
*
On-line sources
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Further reading
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*Rezvani, B. "Türkçe Mi: Türkçe’deki İrani (Farsca, Dimilce, Kurmançca) Orijinli kelimeler Sözlüğü.
urkish title (roughly translated): Is this Turkish? An etymological dictionary of originally Iranic (Persian, Zazaki, and Kurmanji Kurdish) words" (2006).
External links
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Swadesh list of Turkish basic vocabulary words(from Wiktionary'
Swadesh-list appendix
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turkish Language
Turkic languages
Agglutinative languages
Languages of Azerbaijan
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Subject–object–verb languages
Vowel-harmony languages