Hi. Need a little tip on how to pronounce the different versions of the letter a.

Any help appreciated and welcomed. Teþekkür ederim.

Whodart, new to the forum.

a said as in apple

other a´s ?

well I thought a was

ar as in army

first of all there is no ä in Turkish, it is in German

the normal "a" is NOT pronounced as "a" in apple.

it is similarly pronounced as "u" in gun.

â sometimes causes the letter "a" to be read longer, and in other cases (mainly after g,k, and l) to be read "softer".

some cases that it is read longer:

adet (item)

âdet (custom)

hala (sister of your father)

hâlâ (still)

so in these cases you read the a longer, if there were two "a"s.

be aware that usually this letter is omitted in writing in modern turkish, only used in cases like above where there are two different words that could be confused.

the cases that it is softer:

dükkân, kâðýt, lâle, tezgâh...

I can´t remember an example in English same as these. It is a sound between "a" and "e" in Turkish.

As I have said, generally you don´t see ^ symbol when you are reading something, but you have to pronounce it correctly...

The wovel ( â )  is no longer used in Turkish because it has  actually never existed. Its use was due to a misconception. There is only one wovel (a) and three consonants (k),(l),(g)  that have softer (or maybe lispier) versions that only occur before an (a).

For example, in the word kaðýt, (k) is different from the (k) used in kalýn.  When we say kalýn we use the same consonant used in English. However when we say kaðýt we produce a little bir more frontal and relaxed plosive sound in the glottal opening. It is of course difficult to describe pronunciation by writing. You should listen and repeat.

 I am really confused now.  My Turkish tutor told me "a" is pronounced "ah" as in ball, not "u".  She said the"ý" is "u" like in gun.  For example, in Merhaba and abla. My friends say these words using the "a" in ball.  I do not say merh "u"b"u" or "u"bl"u".  I thought the "a" was like the a in "Ah hah!"

Are you or your tutur American?   If so, you probably pronounce the word ´ball´ differently to the way we do in Britain (well most of Britain ).  For example, I pronounce it ´bawl´ which if I followed your tutor´s rule would mean I would say ´Merhawba´.  You probably pronounce the word more like ´bahl´ in which case that would be the right sound for ´MerhAHba´.

Just a thought! 

Actually it was once completely removed from the written language and then the turkish language association decided to use it again in some cases, especially the cases where it might cause confusion. However, almost nobody uses it, even not in most of the newspapers, books, etc.

http://tdk.gov.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF4EC2F94D94121ECE