The development and characteristics of Turkish in comparison to English Banu Bostan, Figen Kahraman

The development and characteristics of Turkish in comparison to English

• Banu Bostan, Figen Kahraman

• Hauptstudium, LN

Overview

• General overview of Turkish

• Historical background

• Borrowings

• Vowels

• Consonants

• Word classes

• Word formation process

• Case

• Tense

• Kinship and colour terms

General overview of Turkish

• Main geographic locations of Turkish languages

• Turkey (Turkish)

• Azerbaidjan (Azerbaidjani)

• The formerly Soviet Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Southern Siberia (Uzbek, Kazakh, Turkmenian, Kirghiz)

• On the Volga (Tatar)

• In northwestern China (Uighur)

The Altaic language families:

• The Altaic language families:

• the Turkic languages, Mongolic languages, Tungusic languages, Korean and the Japonic languages.

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

Common features

• Ural - Altaic languages:

• principle of vowel harmony

• are agglutinative

• SOV word order

• no grammatical gender

Regions Turkish is spoken in: Turkey, Caucasus, Cyprus, Balkans

Historical background

• 10th century: the Turks had begun to convert to Islam and to adopt the Arabo – Persian alphabet

• 11th century: under the leadership of the Seljuk dynasty they overran Persia, Persian became the language of administration and literary culture (Persian borrowed many words from Arabic)

• This hybrid language became the official language of the Ottoman dynasty

• Until 1922 the language of Turkey was known as Osmanlıca or Ottoman Turkish

The downfall of the Ottoman dynasty made it necessary to find a new name to distinguish this language from all other members of the same linguistic family

• The downfall of the Ottoman dynasty made it necessary to find a new name to distinguish this language from all other members of the same linguistic family

• Formally the language is called Türkiye Türkçesi (Turkey -Turkish)

The language-reform movement:

• The language-reform movement:

• With the establishment of the Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk wanted his people to turn their backs on their Asian past

• In 1928 he introduced the Latin alphabet in place of the Arabo – Persian

• The Turkish Language Society (Türk Dil Kurumu –TDK) made up a list of pure Turkish words (Öztürkçe)

• The language reform reached the Press the schools and the general public

Main points

• 11th century Turkish speakers arrived in Turkey

• Turkish history (three periods):

• Old Anatolian Turkish (Eski Anadolu Türkçesi)

• Ottoman Turkish (Osmanlıca)

• Modern Turkish (Yeni Türkçe)

• 1928 introduction of the Latin alphabet

Borrowings

• Words from Arabic, Persian, French, Italian, German and English

• Example:

• Ask for your bill (hesap) in a restoran (restoran) and the odds are that what the garson (garson) brings you will be headed adisiyon (adisiyon).

Arabic:

• Arabic:

• haqq- right – hak

• afw - pardon – af

• tamass - contact - temas

• ism - name – isim

• adl - justice - adil

• qism - part - kısım

• aql - intelligence – akıl

• matn- text – metin

• umr - life – ömür

• fıkr - thought - fikir

Italian:

• Italian:

• scala - quay - iskele

• sgombro - mackerel - uskumru

• spirito - alcohol – ispirto

• German:

• Schlepp - cargo- boat – şilep

• Groschen - kuruş

Vowels

• Turkish has 8 vowels

The vowels

• The vowels

• 4 front vowels (e, i, ö, ü)

• 4 back vowels (a, ı, o, u)

• 4 high vowels (i, ı, u, ü)

• 4 low vowels (e, a, o, ö)

• 4 rounded vowels (o, ö, u , ü)

• 4 unrounded vowels (a, e, i, ı)

• examples:

• akıl, okul, öpücük, elli

Vowel harmony rules

• Front vowel must be followed by a front vowel (dolap – cupboard)

• First vowel is unrounded so the other once are also unrounded

• First vowel is rounded, the following vowels are rounded and close or unrounded and open (erik - plum, uzak – far away)

Exceptions

• Foreign words

• tiyatro- theatre, edebiyat- literature

• Words which changed during the time into standard Turkish

• ana - anne (mother), alma – elma (apple)

• Compound words

• Karadeniz - Black Sea, bugün – today

• Five invariable suffixes

• (I)yor, -ki, - ken, - leyin, - (I)mtrak

Consonants

Consonants

• Consonants

• b, f, m, p, s, z, y are pronounced as in English

• The consonant k stands for two sounds in Turkish

• A front k (key)

• A back k (cool)

• example:

• ek affix (front k)

• ak white (back k)

The consonant l stands for two sounds

• The consonant l stands for two sounds

• A front l bal (honey)

• A back l bel (waist)

• The consonant v

• At the beginning it is pronounced as in English, in the middle and at the end it is weaker than the English v, after a vowel or before a consonant it is pronounced as bilabial fricative

• tavşan (rabbit), yavru (young animal)

The Turkish consonant g

• The Turkish consonant g

• two sounds /g/ and /ğ/ (called the soft g)

• /ğ/ is not found at the beginning of a word

• /g/ does not occur after or between vowels, except words of European origin ( sigara - cigarette, sigorta - insurance)

• If /ğ/ is between back vowels it is not pronounced ( ağaç- tree, ağır - heavy)

• After a back vowel, before a consonant or at the end of a word ğ is dropped and the preceding vowel is lengthened ( dağ – mountain, doğru - right)

In some dialects ğ is pronounced as [y]

• In some dialects ğ is pronounced as [y]

• ( diğer - other, değirmen - mill )

• Consonant assimilation in suffixes:

• When a suffix beginning with c, d or g is added to a word ending in one of the unvoiced consonants ç,f,h,k,p,s,ş,t the initial consonant of the suffix is unvoiced to ç, t or k

• example: kitap + cı = kitapçı, elektrikçi

Syllable final plosives and affricatives are devoiced

• Syllable final plosives and affricatives are devoiced

• example:

• şarap (wine)

• şarap + -I (Acc.) = şarab-ı

• kitap – kitab- ı

Word classes

• Nouns

• Turkish nouns can take endings indicating

• the person of a possessor

• case-endings

• Plural endings

• Example:

• ev -house

• evler - the houses

• evin - your house

• evimde - at my house

Verbs

• Verbs

• Turkish verbs indicate person

• can be made negative or im/-potential

• can be progressive, future, present, past, conditional, imperative

• example:

• gel- (to)come

• gelme- not (to) come

• geleme- not (to) be able to come

• gelebil- (to) be able to come

Adjectives

• Adjectives

• Most adjectives can be used as nouns and adverbs

• example:

• ihtiyar - old (adj.) -the old one (noun)

• bir ihtiyar – an old one, an old person

• ihtiyarlar – old ones, old people

• Hasan yavaş yürüdü (adverb)

• Hasan walked slowly

Pronouns

• Personal pronouns

• ben ( I )

• sen ( you )

• o ( he, she, it )

• biz ( we )

• siz ( you )

• onlar ( they )

Word formation process

• Nouns:

• göz eye

• gözlük eyeglasses

• gözlükçü someone who sells eyeglasses

• gözlükçülük the business of selling eyeglasses

• Verbs:

• yat- lie down

• yatır- lay down [that is, cause to lie down]

• yatırım instance of laying down: deposit, investment

• yatırımcı depositor, investor

Case

• Türkiye'de modayı gazete sayfalarına taşıyan,gazetemiz yazarlarından N. S. yaşamını yitirdi. “ One of the writers of our newspaper, N. S., who brought fashion to newspaper pages in Turkey, lost her life."

• Türkiye'de "in Turkey“ (locative) modayı "fashion" (accusative of moda) gazete "newspaper" (nominative) sayfalarına "to its pages" (dative; sayfa "page", sayfalar "pages", sayfaları "its pages")taşıyan, "carrying" (present participle of taşı-)gazetemiz "our newspaper" (nominative) gazete "newspaper"yazarlarından "from its writers" (ablative; yazar "writer") N. S. [person's name] (nominative) yaşamını "her/his life" (accusative; yaşam "life") yitirdi. "lost" (past tense of yitir- "lose“ from yit- "be lost")

The Turkish language has got 6 cases:

• The Turkish language has got 6 cases:

• Nominative/absolute -Ø (Ahmet)

• Accusative/objective - (y)I (gazete-yi, the newspaper)

• Dative - (y)A (konser-e, to the concert)

• Locative - DA (büro-da, in the office)

• Ablative - DAn (iş-ten, from work)

• Genitive - nIn (Ali`-nin, Ali`s)

Tense

• Most tense markers in Turkish have aspectual functions or function as mood markers

• Present

• The so- called broad tense ( -(I)r biçimbirim, geniş zaman) the general present tense, expresses habitual actions and general events

• example:

• Hasan her sabah kahvaltı ed –er

• Hasan has breakfat every morning

• Bil know, bil –ir she knows

Present (Progressive)

• Present (Progressive)

• -(I)-yor

• example:

• Hasan tenis oy-n -uyor (Pr. Prog.)

• Hasan is playing tenis

• Hasan tenis oy-n –uyor (habitual action)

• Hasan plays tenis

Past

• Past

• Two simple past tenses

• Definite past -DI

• Reported past -mIş

• example:

• Hasan dün operaya git-ti (past)

• Hasan went to the opera yesterday

• Hasan dün operaya git-miş (rep. past)

• Hasan reportedly went to the opera yesterday

Future

• Future

• -(AcAK)

• example:

• Yarın sana uğra-y-acağ- ım

• Tomorrow I will drop by at your place

Kinship and colour terms

• Kinship terms by blood

• anne- mother

• baba -father

• nine -grandmother

• dede -grandfather

• anneanne -maternal grandmother

• babaanne- paternal grandmother

• çocuk, evlat – child

• kız – daughter

Kinship terms by marriage

• Kinship terms by marriage

• bacanak -the husband of one`s wife`s sister

• baldız -sister- in- law

• damat - son-in-law

• dünür - the father and mother -in –law of one`s child

• elti - sister -in -law

• enişte - brother -in -law

• gelin - daughter- in- law, bride

• görümce - sister- in- law, husband`s sister

Colour terms

• black siyah, kara

• white beyaz, ak

• red kırmızı, kızıl, al

• yellow sarı

• green yeşil

• blue mavi

• brown kahverengi

• pink pembe

• orange- turuncu, portakal rengi (the colour of the orange)

• Gray-boz, gri, kurşuni, kül rengi

• mor

References

• Lewis, Geoffrey 2001. Turkish Grammar. Oxford University Press.

• Kornfilt, Jaklin 1997. Turkish. London: Routledge.

• Slobin, D. I., Zimmer, K. (ed.) 1986. Typological Studies in Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

• Underhill, R. 1993. Turkish Grammar. Cambridge/Massachusetts/London: MIT Press.

• www.wikipedia.de

• www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/asia.html

• Thanks for attention!

• Teşekkürler!