turkish grammar.pdf

Turkishgrammar

DavidPierce

2005.05.02

Contents

0Preliminaries 1

0.0Introduction............................ 1

0.1Alphabet.............................. 2

0.2Sounds............................... 3

0.3Writing.............................. 4

1Partsofspeech 5

1.0Words............................... 5

1.1Nouns............................... 6

1.2Adjectives............................. 8

1.3Numerals............................. 9

1.4Pronouns............................. 9

1.5Adverbs..............................10

1.6Particles,conjunctionsandpostpositions............11

1.7Verbs................................11

1.7.1Stems...........................13

1.7.2Bases............................15

2Glossary 18

0Preliminaries

0.0Introduction

AsastudentofTurkish,Imakethesenotesinane orttounderstandthe

logicoftheTurkishlanguage.Thisisnottheaccountofanexpert;asshould

bequiteclear,thisisnotanythinglikeacompleteexpositionofTurkish

grammar.Theinformationhereismostlyfromsecondarysources:Imainly

2005.05.02,DavidPierce 2

useLewis’sTurkishGrammar[1],buthavealsoconsulted[2].Ihavemade

someuseofprimarysources,namely,Turkishspeechandwritingasthey

appearinthecourseofmylifeinTurkey.

Ishallproposesometechnicaltermsthataredi erentfromLewis’s.

Sincemyaccountiswritten,itwillusetheTurkishalphabet;therefore

myaccountillustratefeatureslikevowel-harmonythatarere ectedin

spelling.

0.1Alphabet

LikeEnglish,modernTurkish(since1928)usesanalphabetderivedfromthe

23-letterLatinalphabet

A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,V,X,Y,Z.

Englishgets3morelettersbyintroducing:

thevariantJofI,and

thevariantsUandW(double-U)ofV.

Theletter-formsgivenabovearecalleduppercase,todistinguishthem

fromthelowercase(a,b,candsoon).

The29-letterTurkishalphabetcanbederivedfromthe26-letterEnglish

oneby:

eliminatingQ,XandW;

derivingfromC,G,O,SandUthelettersC , G, O,S and Urespectively,

byadjoiningcedilla,breveorumlaut;

replacingIwithtwoletters,Iand _ I(distinguishedinbothupperand

lowercasebywhetheradotispresent:thelower-caseformsarethere-

fore andirespectively).

Theletter Giscalledyumu sakge(softG),anditneverbeginsaword.The

lettersthatare‘new’withrespecttotheEnglishalphabetcanbeunderstood

asderivedfromtheoldlettersbymeansofdiacriticalmarks.However,these

marksbecomeintegralpartsofthenewletters.Itisnottheshapeofthe

mark,butitspresenceatthetoporbottomoftheletterthatisusedto

distinguishtheletterfromits‘twin’.Forexample,oneTurkishdairystyles

itselfS utas . (theyuseadotinsteadofacedillaunderthes),andthereisa

buscompanycalledUluda g(takingtheirnamefromthemountainatBursa,

2005.05.02,DavidPierce 3

the rstcapitaloftheOttomanEmpire;theyuseagraveaccentratherthan

abreveovertheg).

Inthealphabeticalorder,Iprecedes _ I,andtheothernewlettersfollow

their‘twins’.HencetheTurkishalphabetis

A,B,C,C ,D,E,F,G, G,H,I, _ I,J,K,L,

M,N,O, O,P,R,S,S ,T,U, U,V,Y,Z.

Becauseofthedistinctionbetweentheletters andiinTurkish,neither

oftheseshouldbejoinedinaligaturetoaprecedingf.InEnglish,the

otherwordforamovieis lm:thewordisusuallyprintedthus,withthree

characters,namely ,iandm.ButfilmisalsoaTurkishword,andassuch

isprintedwithfourdistinctletters.(Also,forexample,filmeanselephant

orchess-bishop,whilef nd kmeanshazelnut.)

InTurkey,IhaveseenacapitalJwrittenwithadot.Butjisrarein

Turkishanyway,beingusedonlyinforeignwords.

0.2Sounds

Thenameofavowelisitself,andthenameofaconsonant(besides G,

yumu sakG)isitselfpluse.

Thenumberofvowelsiseight,thatis,2 3 ,sinceeachvowelisdetermined

bythequalityitpossessesfromeachofthreepairs:thick/thin, at/round

andnarrow/wide.TheseareliteraltranslationsoftheusualTurkishterms

(kal n/ince,d uz/yuvarlak,dar/geni s),butcommonlyinEnglishthe

termsare:

back/front,

unround/round,

close/open.

Thevowelscanthenbetabulated:

open close

backfrontbackfront

unround a e i

round o o u u

ThesoundofacanbespelledinEnglishbyuh;closethemouthmoreto

get .The oand uareasinGerman;theirsoundsarefoundinFrenchas

well.

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Furtherdistinctionsarepossible,mainlybecauseTurkishretainsborrow-

ingsfromArabicandPersian.Adi erencefromthenormmightbeshown

byacircum ex:sokarmeanssnow,butk^ar,soundingsomethinglikekyahr,

meanspro t.

Theother21lettersareconsonants.Besidesthe‘semi-vowel’y,thecon-

sonantsmightbetabulated:

b/pv/f m

d/t j/ sc/ cn l

z/s

g/k g/h r

Therowshereareintendedtocorrespondtopositionofthelipsandthe

tipofthetongue;thecolumns,tothe owofbreathusedtopronouncethe

consonant.(Thisparticulartableismyowninventionthough,andisnot

theresultofcarefulphonologicalstudy.)Themembersofthepairs=are

voicedandunvoicedrespectively,orsoftandstronginTurkish(yumu sak

andsert).Themaine ectof gistolengthentheprecedingvowel.(Soit

functionslikeghinEnglishinchanging tinto ght,althoughtheEnglish

longIisnotthesameastheTurkishlong _ I.)Theletterjispronouncedas

inFrench.ThesoundofcisspelledinEnglishbyjordge;thesoundsof c

and s,bychandsh.

0.3Writing

AsinEnglish,writtenTurkishisdividedintosentences,andtheseinto

words.Somewordsareenclitic,beingunaccented,butcausingtheprevious

syllabletobeaccented.(SyllabicaccentsarenotverystronginTurkish

though.)Thevowelinanencliticmayalsochangeaccordingtothepreceding

vowel.Thissamevowelharmonyisshownbymanysu xes.

Ishallindicatethevariabilityofvowelswiththefollowingsymbols:

@foranopenunroundvowel(aore);

#foraclosevowel( ,i,uor u).

Ihavenotseensuchsymbolsusedelsewhereinthisway.(Perhapsusing

insteadof@wouldbemorelogical,butitsappearanceseemsmoreconfusing.)

Usedinacompleteword(orsentence),eachsymbolresolvestoavowelthat

agreesasfaraspossiblewiththeprecedingvowel.Inparticular,after@,the

onlypossibilitiesfor#aretheunroundvowels andi.

Thevariabilityinconsonantswillnotbeindicated.However,whenit

beginsasu xappendedtoawordendinginanunvoiced(thatis,strong)

2005.05.02,DavidPierce 5

consonant,theletterdisunvoiced(‘strengthened’)tot.Also,terminalk

changesto gwhenasu xbeginningwithavowelisadded.(Thesechanges

a ectthesu x-d#randthetermination-kmentionedbelow.Othersuch

changescanoccur,asbetweencand c.)

Example.ThequestionAvrupa+l#+l@ s+d#r+@m@+d#k+l@r

+#m#z+d@nm#+s#n#z?resolvestoAvrupal la st ramad klar m z-

danm s n z?meaningAreyouoneofthosewhomwecouldnotEuro-

peanize?

Thesymbol#mayresolvetozero(nothing)whenitbeginsasu x

placedafteravowel;alternatively,aconsonantmaybeinterposed,n,sory,

dependingonthesituation.Sometimestheynarrowsthepreceding@to#.

1Partsofspeech

1.0Words

Noteverywordappearsinadictionary,evenifthewordiswell-formed;the

wordmaybein ected(orotherwisederived)fromadictionary-wordac-

cordingtostandardrules.Otherwise,wemightsaythatthesamewordmay

beusedinmanyforms,onlyoneorafewofwhichappearinthedictionary.

Forexample,inEnglish,wecansaythatmanandmenaretwowords,or

elsethattheyaretwoformsofthesameword.In ectedformsarefewin

English;inTurkishtheyaremany.

WordsinaTurkishdictionarycanbeassignedtosomeofthesameparts

ofspeechasEnglishwords:noun,pronoun,adjective,numeral,verb,

adverbandconjunction.Insteadofprepositions,butful llingsomeofthe

samefunctions,Turkishhaspostpositions.Somegrammaticalfunctions

areservedbyparticles.

SomeTurkishwordsusedinexampleslikethefollowingarede nedina

glossarybelow(inx2):

Example.Thepostpositiongibicorrespondstotheprepositionlike.So,

buzgibimeanslikeice,thatis,icecold.(ItisasloganonsignsinTurkey

advertisingacertainAmericansoftdrinkthatismarketedallovertheworld.)

Thisreversaloforderinpassingfromtheonelanguagetotheotheroccurs

inotherways.ATurkishword(asintheearlierexample)mayhaveparts

which,inEnglish,wouldappearasseparatewordsintheoppositeorder.As

inEnglishthough,adjectivesgenerallyprecedethenounstheymodify.

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