Hi,

I often see renk used as "rengi" instead of "renği". shouldn´t it be renği since "renk" ends with a "k"? For example, why is the phrase "different color"  "farklı rengi" and not "farklı renği"?

This question is has been bothering me. also, when i look for "rengi" it isn´t recognized. But if I type "renği", it recognizes it and goes to "renk".

Can someone please help me understand this?

 The rule is; If a word ends with p,ç,t,k consonants and takes suffıx starting with a vowel then these consonants change into b,c,d,g,ğ. You are right on getting confused about ´k´. Normally words ends with ´k´ should turn into ´ğ´  but there is always exceptions ! and ´rengi´ is one of the exception. Because:

Words that ends with ´nk´ takes ´g´ instead of ´ğ´

Renk-i > rengi Kepenk-e >Kepenge
Denk-i > dengi Çelenk –e > Çelenge
Ahenk-i > ahengi Cenk-i > Cengi

Hope this info will be helpful for you.

Rengi is the correct spelling. (Kahve rengi = brown/coffee coloured, portokal rengi = orange/orange coloured)

I have seen an explanation somewhere as to why this is an exception, and I will add it here when I find it.

As Tunci has already stated the exception for the K to Ğ mutation (when adding a suffix starting with a vowel) are words ending with the NK consonants. These are from foreign words that are now in the Turkish language. (eg denk, renk)

thank you tunci and Henry. your explanations were very clear and I understand now. I also got some new vocabulary words from this

I´d be interested to know why words ending in "nk" are the exception. I´ll be glad if you can find it. thanks.

Unfortunately I could not find the explanation I read.

From what I can remember, it was because the final ´k´ is not preceded by a vowel, as in most native Turkish works. Normally ğ extends the immediately preceded vowel sound, and if the previous letter is a consonant then this cannot happen. I have never seen the ğ letter follow a consonant in Turkish.

I think this is why the ...nk mutates to a hard ....ng sound. 

Maybe si++, who has a good knowledge of Turkish word origins, might have a better explanation

Henry

"k to ğ" mutation works for VCV (vowel-consonant-vowel) clusters.

Ayak -> ayağ-a

Balık -> balığ-ı

Atak -> atağ-ı

etc.

In renk case there is no vowel before the k, so no "k to ğ" mutation occurs.

As for "k to g" mutation for ng+vowel, it may/may not occur:

Renk -> Reng-e (mutation)

Denk -> Deng-i (mutation)

Cenk -> Ceng-e (mutation) when used as a noun meaning "battle"

but

Cenk -> Cenk-e (no mutation) when used as a proper name

Tank -> Tank-a (no mutation)

Bank -> Bank-a (no mutation)

Künk -> Künk-e (no mutation)

These are the monosyllable words I can think of.

There may be some more.

For polysyllable words:

Fiyonk -> fiyong-u

thanks. I ´ll keep this in mind that it may/may not occur with "nk" words so I won´t be surprised if I see it.