This article is a companion to Turkish grammar and contains some information that might be considered grammatical. The purpose of this article is mainly to show the use of some of the yapım ekleri "structural suffixes" of the Turkish language, as well as to give some of the structurally important words, like pronouns, determiners, postpositions, and conjunctions.
Around 86% of the Turkish vocabulary is of Turkic origin. Most of the core vocabulary and the most commonly used words in Turkish, including those first acquired by children as they learn to speak, come from Turkic. Meanwhile, around 14% of Turkish words are of foreign origin, in particular Arabic, French, and Persian. According to the Turkish Language Association, 6,463 of these foreign words come from Arabic, 4,974 from French, 1,374 from Persian, 632 from Italian, 538 from English, 399 from Greek, and 147 from Latin.[2]
The most significant linguistic influence in the Turkish language started with the Turks' conversion to Islam in the 10th century. The borrowing of Arabic and Persian words began during the Seljuk Empire, in which the long language contact between the Seljuk Turks and Persians in Iran (Persia) led to Persianization and the adoption of the Persian language for official and literary use.[3] As a result, educated Turks had access to the vocabularies of three languages: Oghuz Turkic as their native language as well as for dynastic and military purposes, Persian for cultural, artistic, literary, courtly and scholarly purposes, and Arabic for theological, juridical, scientific and religious purposes.[4]
Borrowing from Arabic and Persian continued during the Ottoman Empire, alongside a new increased influence from French, Italian, English and other European languages due to trade, diplomacy and modernization efforts particularly in the 18th century, and the official language of the Ottoman Turks became Ottoman Turkish (Osmanlıca). Nevertheless, Ottoman Turkish differed significantly from the everyday language spoken by the general population and was largely unintelligible to ordinary people. The everyday Turkish, known as kaba Türkçe ("vulgar Turkish"), was spoken by the less-educated and rural communities, and retained a much higher percentage of native Turkish vocabulary, which later served as the foundation for the modern Turkish language.[5]
With the advent of the Turkish Republic in 1923 came the attempt to unify the languages of the people and the administration, and to westernize the country. The modern Turkish alphabet, based on the Latin script, was introduced. Language reform efforts led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk were also introduced in an aim to remove foreign loanwords in Turkish and restore a more Turkic-based vocabulary, where the majority of Arabic and Persian words were replaced by: Turkish words surviving in speech, obsolete Turkish words, new words formed regularly from the agglutinative structure of Turkish, and entirely new words or formations. As a result, many foreign words had Turkish equivalents. Some foreign words became outdated and fell out of use during the republican period, while others remained in daily conversation. For example, the Turkish word güney became the standard term for "south", replacing the Arabic loanword cenup, but in some cases the foreign word remained dominant - such as dünya (Arabic) being more commonly used for "world" than the Turkish equivalent yeryüzü. In other instances, both words remained in use, like isim (Arabic) and ad (Turkish) for "name", which are often used interchangeably.[6]
demonstrative (gösterme "to show" or işaret "sign"),
numerical (sayı "number"),
indefinite (belirsizlik or belgisiz),
interrogative (soru "question").
For an intensive form, the first consonant and vowel of a (descriptive) adjective can be reduplicated; a new consonant is added too, m, p, r, or s, but there is no simple rule for which one:
Adjective
Intensive Form
başka "other"
bambaşka "completely different"
katı "hard"
kaskatı "hard as a rock"
kuru "dry"
kupkuru "dry as a bone"
temiz "clean"
tertemiz "clean as a whistle"
The determinative adjectives, or determiners, are an essential part of the language, although Turkish takes some of its determiners from Arabic and Persian.
Demonstrative adjectives
o "that",
bu "this",
şu "this" or "that" (thing pointed to).
These are also demonstrative pronouns. Used with plural nouns, these adjectives represent the English "those" and "these"; there is no such inflexion of adjectives in Turkish.
Numerical adjectives
The cardinal numbers are built up in a regular way from the following:
0-9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
sıfır
bir
iki
üç
dört
beş
altı
yedi
sekiz
dokuz
Multiples of Ten
—
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
on
yirmi
otuz
kırk
elli
altmış
yetmiş
seksen
doksan
Powers of Ten
10
100
1,000
1,000,000
1,000,000,000
on
yüz
bin
milyon
milyar
Units follow multiples of ten; powers of ten come in descending order. For example:
yüz kırk dokuz milyar beş yüz doksan yedi milyon sekiz yüz yetmiş bin altı yüz doksan bir metre ("149,597,870,691 metres").
yüz
kırk
dokuz
milyar
[one] hundred
forty
nine
billion
beş
yüz
doksan
yedi
milyon
five
hundred
ninety
seven
million
sekiz
yüz
yetmiş
bin
eight
hundred
seventy
thousand
altı
yüz
doksan
bir
metre
six
hundred
ninety
one
metres
The cardinals are generally not used alone, but a general word for a unit is used, such as:
tane, literally "grain";
kişi "person".
Remembering that the plural suffix is not used when numbers are named, we have:
dört tane bira "four beers";
Altı kişiyiz "We are six."
From the cardinal numbers, others can be derived with suffixes:
ordinal-(i)nci
yedi "seven" → yedinci "seventh"
Sırada yedincisiniz.
"You are seventh in line."
distributive-(ş)er
bir "one" → birer "one each"
iki "two" → ikişer "two each"
collective-(i)z
iki "two" → ikizler "twins"
Indefinite adjectives
The cardinal bir "one" can be used as an indefinite article. Other so-called indefinite adjectives might be listed as follows:
universal:her "each, every", tüm "the whole", bütün "whole, all";
existential:bazı "some", biraz "a little", birkaç "a few, several";
negative:hiç "none";
quantitative:az "little, few", çok "much, many";
distinguishing:başka, diğer, öteki, öbür "other";
identifying:aynı "same".
Interrogative adjectives
hangi "which?"
kaç "how much?" or "how many?"
Saat kaç? "What time is it?"
Kaç saat? "How many hours?"
nasıl "what sort?" (this is also the interrogative adverb "how?")
Adjectives from nouns
Added to a noun, -li or -siz indicates presence or absence, respectively, of what is named by the noun.
Noun
Presence (-li)
Absence (-siz)
tuz "salt"
tuzlu "salted"
tuzsuz "salt-free"
umut "hope"
umutlu "hopeful"
umutsuz "hopeless"
The suffix -li also indicates origin:
Ankaralıyım. "I am from Ankara."
Finally, added to the verbal noun in -me, the suffix -li creates the necessitative verb.
Pattern: (verb-stem) + me + li + (personal ending).
Gitmeliyim. "I must go".
The native speaker may perceive -meli as an indivisible suffix denoting compulsion.[7]
Added to a noun for a person, -ce makes an adjective.[8]
Noun
Adjective (Noun + -ce)
çocuk "child"
çocukça "childish"
kahraman "hero"
kahramanca "heroic"
Adverbs
Adjectives can generally serve as adverbs:
iyi "good" or "well"
The adjective might then be repeated, as noted earlier. A repeated noun also serves as an adverb:
kapı "door" → kapı kapı "door-to-door"
The suffix -ce makes nouns and adjectives into adverbs. One source (Özkırımlı, p.155) calls it the benzerlik ("similarity") or görelik (from göre "according to") eki, considering it as another case-ending.
Attached to adjectives, -ce is like the English -ly:
güzelce "beautifully"
Attached to nouns, -ce can be like the English like:
Türkçe konuş- "speak like Turks" (i.e., "speak Turkish")
Adverbs of place include:
aşağı/yukarı "down/up"
geri/ileri "backwards/forwards"
dışarı/içeri "outside/inside"
beri/öte "hither/yon"
karşı "opposite"
These can also be treated as adjectives and nouns (in particular, they can be given case-endings). Also, the suffix -re can be added to the demonstrative pronouns o, bu, and şu, as well as to the interrogative pronoun ne, treated as a noun. The result has cases serving as adverbs of place:
nereye/buraya/oraya "whither?/hither/thither"
nerede/burada/orada "where?/here/there"
nereden/buradan/oradan "whence?/hence/thence"
Postpositions
With genitive and absolute
The following are used after the genitive pronouns benim, bizim, senin, sizin, onun, and kimin, and after the absolute case of other pronouns and nouns:
gibi "like, as";
için "for";
ile "with";
kadar (Arabic) "as much as".
For example, a certain company may describe its soft drink as:
buz
gibi
ice
like
"like ice", "ice cold"
However, another company may say of itself:
Gibisi
yok.
its-like
non-existent
"There's nothing like it."
Thus the label of postposition does not adequately describe gibi; Schaaik proposes calling it a predicate, because of its use in establishing similarity:
The particle ile can be both comitative and instrumental; it can also join the preceding word as a suffix. Examples:
Deniz ile konuştuk or Deniz'le konuştuk
"Deniz and I [or we], we spoke."
(here the literal translation "We spoke with Deniz" may be incorrect)
çekiç ile vur- or çekiçle vur-
"hit with a hammer"
With dative
Used after nouns and pronouns in the dative case are:
doğru "towards";
göre "according to";
kadar "as far as";
karşı "against".
With ablative
önce/sonra "before/after";
beri "since";
itibaren (Arabic) "from…on";
dolayı "because of".
With absolute
The following postpositions are case-forms of nouns with the third-person possessional suffix; they can be understood as forming nominal compounds, always indefinite, with the preceding words (see also Turkish grammar#Nouns):
bakımdan "from the point of view of" (bak- "look");
hakkında "concerning, about" (hak "right, justice");
tarafından "by the agency of" (taraf "side");
yüzünden "because of" (yüz "face").
Interjections
Some samples include:
secular:
Öf [disgust];
Haydi "Come on": Haydi kızlar okula "Girls to school!" (slogan for an education campaign);
invoking the Deity:
implicitly:
Aman "Mercy";
Çok şükür "Much thanks";
explicitly:
Allah Allah "Goodness gracious";
Hay Allah;
Vallah "By God [I swear it]".
Conjunctions
Some Turkish conjunctions are borrowed from Persian and Arabic.
Logical conjunction
The cumulative sense of the English "A and B" can be expressed several ways:
A ve B (an Arabic borrowing);
B ile A (ile is also a postposition);
A, B de.
For the adversative sense of "but" or "only", there are ama and fakat (both Arabic), also yalnız (which is also an adjective corresponding to "alone").
For emphasis: hem A hem B "both A and B".
Logical disjunction
For the sense of English "(either)…or":
A veya B;
ya A veya B;
ya A ya da B.
The pattern of the last two can be extended:
ya A ya B veya C;
ya A ya B ya da C.
Implication
B, çünkü A "B, because A".
((Eğer)) A'ysa, (o zaman) B'dir. "If A, then B." ("Eğer" is not generally used.)
Both çünkü and eğer are Persian; the latter is not generally needed, because the conditional form of the verb is available.
The conjunction ki
The Persian conjunction ki brings to Turkish the Indo-European style of relating ideas (#Lewis [XIII,15]):
Beklemesini istiyorum "Her-waiting I-desire"; but
İstiyorum ki beklesin "I-desire that he-wait."
Thus ki corresponds roughly to English "that", but with a broader sense:
Güneş batmıştı ki köye vardık "The-sun had-set [when] that at-the-village we-arrived."
Kirazı yedim ki şeker gibi "The-cherry I-ate [and found] that [it was] sugar like."
Verbs
The verb-stem temizle- "make clean" is the adjective temiz "clean" with the suffix -le-. Many verbs are formed from nouns or adjectives with -le:
başla- "make a head", that is, "begin" (intransitive; baş "head");
kilitle- "make locked", that is, "lock" (kilit "lock");
Encyclopaedia Iranica, "Šahrbānu", Online Edition: "here one might bear in mind that non-Persian dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Saljuqs and Ilkhanids were rapidly to adopt the Persian language and have their origins traced back to the ancient kings of Persia rather than to Turkish heroes or Muslim saints..."
M. Ravandi, "The Seljuq court at Konya and the Persianisation of Anatolian Cities", in Mesogeios (Mediterranean Studies), vol. 25–26 (2005), pp. 157–69
F. Daftary, "Sectarian and National Movements in Iran, Khorasan, and Trasoxania during Umayyad and Early Abbasid Times", in History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol 4, pt. 1; edited by M.S. Asimov and C.E. Bosworth; UNESCO Publishing, Institute of Ismaili Studies: "Not only did the inhabitants of Khurasan not succumb to the language of the nomadic invaders, but they imposed their own tongue on them. The region could even assimilate the Turkic Ghaznavids and Seljuks (eleventh and twelfth centuries), the Timurids (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries), and the Qajars (nineteenth–twentieth centuries)..."
↑ C.E. Bosworth, "Turkish Expansion towards the west" in UNESCO History of Humanity, Volume IV, titled "From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century", UNESCO Publishing / Routledge, p. 391: "While the Arabic language retained its primacy in such spheres as law, theology and science, the culture of the Seljuk court and secular literature within the sultanate became largely Persianized; this is seen in the early adoption of Persian epic names by the Seljuk rulers (Qubād, Kay Khusraw and so on) and in the use of Persian as a literary language (Turkish must have been essentially a vehicle for everyday speech at this time)."
↑ Glenny, Misha (2001). The Balkans - Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-1999. Penguin. p.99.
↑ Lewis, Geoffrey (2002). The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success. Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-925669-1.
Books of use in the writing of this article include:
Grammars:
Kaya Can,Yabancılar İçin Türkçe-İngilizce Açıklama Türkçe Dersleri, Ankara: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen ve Edebiyat Fakültesi, 1991. "Turkish lessons with Turkish-English explanation[s] for foreigners".
G. L. Lewis,Turkish Grammar, Oxford University Press, 1967; second edition, 2000. [Structural differences between the two editions are not named in the second, but appear to be as follows: IV,4 "-çe", VI,7 "Arithmetical terms", XI,16 "-diğinde", and XII,25 "tâ" are new, while XV,1 "Nominal sentences and verbal sentences" in the first edition was dropped.
Eran Oyal, Sözcüklerin Anlamsal ve Yapısal Özellikleri: Konular, Örnekler, Sorular, Açıklama Yanıtlar (ÖSS ve ÖYS için Dil Yeteneği Dizisi 2), Ankara, 1986. "Semantic and syntactic properties of words: subjects, examples, questions, answers with explanation (language ability for the university entrance examinations, 2)".
Atilla Özkırımlı, Türk Dili, Dil ve Anlatım, İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları 2001. "The Turkish language, language, and expression".
Bengisu Rona,Turkish in Three Months, Hugo's Language Books Limited, 1989.
Gerjan van Schaaik,The Bosphorus Papers: Studies in Turkish Grammar 1996–1999, İstanbul: Boğaziçi University Press, 2001.
Dictionaries:
İsmet Zeki Eyuboğlu, Türk Dilinin Etimoloji Sözlüğü, expanded and revised second edition, 1991.
H.-J. Kornrumpf, Langenscheidt's Universal Dictionary: English-Turkish, Turkish-English, Istanbul; new edition revised and updated by Resuhi Akdikmen, 1989.
Redhouse Yeni Türkçe-İngilizce Sözlük. New Redhouse Turkish-English Dictionary. Redhouse Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1968 (12th ed., 1991).
Redhouse Büyük Elsözlüğü İngilizce-Türkçe, Türkçe-İngilizce. The Larger Redhouse Portable Dictionary English-Turkish, Turkish-English. Redhouse Yayınevi, İstanbul 1997 (9th printing, 1998).
Türk Dil Kurumu [Turkish Language Foundation], Türkçe Sözlük, expanded 7th edition, 1983.
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