Turkish Alphabet Turkish alphabet is composed of twenty-one consonants and eight vowels. It lacks the English letters q, w, and x and has the following additional letters: ç, ğ, i, ö, ş, ü The order of alphabet 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 z
Letter Name Approximate Pronunciation
A a a after, up B b be big, bad, boy C c ce jam, jar Ç ç çe church D d de dig, did E e e bed, fed F f fe fed, fit G g ge goal, gap Ğ ğ yumuşak ge lengthens preceding, no pronunciation itself. H h he/ha hope, hat I ı ı England, pencil İ i i sit, fit J j je like "s" in leisure, measure K k ke/ka cape, cost L l le leave, wool M m me man, monkey N n ne not, number O o o open, no, go Ö ö ö early, girl P p pe paper, purpose R r re rot, rare S s se sit, soap Ş ş şe like "sh" in ship, shoe T t te tip, toe U u u put, pull Ü ü ü dew V v ve vote, vice Y y ye yes, you Z z ze zoo, zone Syllables
The general rule is in Turkish is that every vowel will take the consonant before it to form a syllable, so apart from the first syllable of a word, every syllable in a pure Turkish word begins with a consonant. This applies also when suffixes are added to a word and when two or more words form a single unit. Examples: bil-gi-sa-yar - computer ma-sa - table bar-dak - glass ka-lem - pencil ki-tap - book te-le-fon - phone a-dam - man def-ter - notebook Stress in words Turkish words are usually stressed on their last syllable. The common exceptions to this rule are place names, adverbs, compound words, certain foreign borrowings, and some words denoting relatives and living creatures. Some suffixes are not stressed but usually when a suffix is added the stress moves to the last syllable of the resultant word: ar-ka-daş (friend) ar-ka-da-şım (my friend) ar-ka-da-şı-ma (to my friend) ma-sa (table) ma-sa-da ( on the table) Na-sıl-sı-nız? (How are you?) İ-yi-yim (I'm fine.) |