I don´t understand anything anymore, the more I read, the more I get confused. In the excercise of putting major and minor vowel harmony together we must make lists of which vowel has to follow, choosing from flat / round / back / front. But in all other lessons the terms are also hard / soft and high / low. Maybe I did not look good but I can´t find a logic system in these terms. Every explanation seems to cover half. Would it be possible to use the same pairs of terms? Now I have no idea what to pick.

Hello,

I prefer to call them back and front vowels. Therefore the exercises and the lessons are using different terms. Anyway, it is like this:

back vowel = hard vowel = a, ı, o, u

front vowel = soft vowel = e, i, ö, ü

what gets me mixed up is when i try to use the major and minor vowel harmony together, coz then we have round soft fowels and hard flat vowels and aaaaaaaaaaaaah it makes me wanna pull my hair plus its confusing and everytime i try to amke a sentence i ahv to stop and think!

OK, here is some more help. But you need to do the rest yourself.  

back vowel = hard vowel = a, ı, o, u

front vowel = soft vowel = e, i, ö, ü

flat vowels = a, e, ı, i

round vowels = o, ö, u, ü

Now the question is very simple:

What vowels are back and flat at the same time?

What vowels are back and round ?

What vowels are front and flat ?

What vowels are front and round ?

Please don´t answer here since learners need to do the exercises themselves.

Trudy, I know that too much theory can kill the spirit of a student so, instead of trying to memorise those concepts like hard/soft/back/front, try to think which vowels resemble one another. They replace each other (or adjust) logically. E.g.:

a <-> e

ı <-> i

u <-> ü

o <-> ö

Now, adding a suffix or an infix, look what vowel occurs last in the root and replace the suffix/infix vowel with a corresponding one. Things are easy with suffixes that have "a" like -dan or -da because "a" can only be replaced with "e" so you´ll have -den, - de (you can´t say -din or -don)

In other cases (suffixes/infixes without a/e) watch the last vowel and decide if it´s from a "dotted" group (i, ü, ö +e) or "undotted" (ı, u, o +a). The rule of the thumb is dotted are followed by dotted, undotted by undotted. Hence:

ev + im (e and i are from dotted group)

at + ım (a nad ı are from undotted group)

gül + üm (ü and ü are..well..the same )

göl + üm (ö and ü are from dotted group -> why didn´t we use -öm? Because we never do, so, after ö use ü

So, first look at the suffix - if it has "a/e" things are easy - only a/e can follow it

If it has i/ı, ö/o, ü/u - it can be either "i/ı"or "ü/u"

Then look at the last vowel of the root (base of the word) and choose either the dotted or undotted vowel.

Examples:

Suffixes containing i/ı or ü/u 

kız + in/ın ? ün/un? 

("ı" is undotted and more similar to "ı" than "u" so we choose - ın)

kömür + in/ın? ün/un?

("ü" is dotted and more similar to "ü" than "i" so we choose - ün)

döl + in/ın? ün/un?

("ö" is dotted and more similar to "ü" than "i" so we choose - ün)

Suffixes containing a/e

masa + da/de?

("a" can be followed by "a" so we choose - da)

ev + dan/den?

("e" can be followed by "e" so we choose - den)

That´s more or less my line of reasoning, I´m not a native Turkish speaker so I might be wrong. If I am, please don´t hesitate to correct me.

WOW that was sooooo good!!!! and much easier than memorizing!! u should turn it into a lesson! U put it in an easy way! THX!!

Thanks Daydreamer.

Hi, thanks for the explanation on this ... I´m tearing my hair out too trying to understand the question .... now, I have no idea how to answer it...  the 1st one has been done for us, but I cannot figure out what I am supposed to say next. 

Erdincs explanation was good ... he gave us what the questions would be:

´what vowels are back and flat at the same time?´

´what vowels are back and round?´

´what vowels are front and flat?´

´what vowels are font and round?´

If this was on the original question, then I think I could answer it following Erdincs explanation.

Am I stupid because I just don´t get how to answer the question after the 1st one has been done for us..... am I the only one struggling after it´s been explained?

Help please.

I have no problem with the other homeworks ... just this one

Thank you

Jo

 Merhaba Özçelik,

It was me who wrote the homeworks about vowel harmony. When questions started pouring in here, I realized it must have been a little tricky. I will revise it after the current group is finished with them.

What you do is simple. First answer the four question that I asked above, in this thread.  Then looking at your answers have a look again to the original questions.