I copy a sentence below.  Please can a native speaker of Turkish translate it for me into English.  The use of ´rağmen´ is causing me problem!!

>500 yıllık iktidarına rağmen Turk dilinin dayatılmadığı görülür<

If ´rağmen´ is properly used ... should it not then be ´dayatılma-ma-dığı´ ....???

Thanks

-rağmen is properly used in the sentence because ,

The structure is  .............e/a  rağmen 

                      despite....................

500 yıllık iktidarI-n-a   rağmen............

Despite the 500 years of his[or its] rule [authority over area and its people].........

Despite the 500 years of its rule [I guess Ottoman Empire ?], It is seen that Turkish Language was not imposed [on people by Ottomans ]

500 yıllık iktidarına rağmen Turk dilinin dayatılmadığı görülür.

Thank you tunci efendi.  My problem is when ´-ma´ is used as a light form ... as meaning ´-ing´ in English!!  So ´Yapmak´ [to make] is the heavy form ... while ´Yapma´ [making] is the the light form!!  In the sentence I copied, intuitively I knew that it MUST mean ... ´not imposed´.  But ´dayatilma´ .... does it not mean ´Impos-ing´ ... as in ´Yapma´??? Should it not be ´dayatilma-ma-dığı´ for ´not imposing?

I get confused as to when ´-ma´ means ... ´-ing´ and when ´-ma´ means ´NOT´. 

Can you please explain this to me!!  Thanks.

Tazx1

Hello.

It should be "dayatılmadığı" because the verb is "dayat-ıl-mak"

dayat-ıl-ma-dı-(ğ)ı

"-ma" is used to make this sentence negative, not an "-ing" form.

Also if the verb root (dayat-) takes a negative form (-ma) and it´s used with -dık/dik (or with "rağmen", dığa/diğe) it cannot take "-ing" form.

Yapma is not just a light form of yapmak, it is a noun. -ma is used to create nouns from verbs.

Yapma does not simply mean making (like I´m making pie), it means THE making (noun).

Be careful not to literally translate -ing with -ma, there is a great difference in usage of -ma in Turkish.

In a construction with rağmen you have to use the verb, not the noun. 

Therefor you start with the root verb -dayat- (impose) and add the suffixes -ıl (be~), -dık (that), -ı (object)

I trust a native will correct me if I´m wrong.