I am just reading the first parts of Turkish grammar. I translate those lessons in English into my own language (Dutch) because then I really have to think about it and I understand it better, most of the times.

At the chapter of minor vowel harmoney there is a statement about round-soft words and about round-hard words, the part about suffixes ending at -i changes in other letters like ü. But no information about flat-hard words or flat-soft words. Does that mean these words do not exist or does it mean this lesson about minor vowel harmony is not completed (yet).

Anybody who can help me?

          a------o      back

         /|     /|     -----

  open  e------ö |    front

 -----  | |    | |

 close  | ı----|-u 

        |/     |/

        i------ü

           /

  unround / round

Hi Aslan2,

Thanks for your reply. But I do not understand anything of it, it is too mathematical for me (which I am not good at). The statements about hard and soft words I understand. The statements about round and flat words I understand. But when you combine them, that is the problem, that I do not get, because to me it is not completed. Only about suffix -i there are statements with round and flat. Can you try once more please?

has anyone been to marmaris this year i went to lovely hotel and met i think the love of my life he is the manager of the kirlangic hotel im going to spend the winter with him clioxxx

Hi Aslan2,

I have to think about it and to make a lot of examples for myself but I think I now know what you mean. And my conclusion that the lesson about the minor vowel harmony was not completed is correct. You told me about -a suffixen, in that part there is no information. Thanks again for your time & efforts, it will take some time (sweat and tears) but I will learn.

Major vowel harmony divides the eight vowels into two groups:
a - ı - o - u - hard
e - i - ö - ü - soft

Minor vowel harmony divides the same eight vowels differently:
a - e - ı - i - flat
o - ö - u - ü - round

When a suffix is added to a word, we look at the last vowel in the word and first apply major vowel harmony picking the appropriate vowel (hard or soft) to use in the suffix. Then, if the vowel in the suffix is not a and is not e we apply the minor vowel harmony selecting the appropriate vowel (flat or round) to use in the suffix.

A few examples:

Add the suffix -de (meaning "in" or "at") to some words

ev - house/home
ev + de - 'e' in 'ev' is soft so we use 'e' in 'de'
= evde - at home.

araba - car
araba + de - 'a' in 'araba' is hard so we change 'e' to 'a' in 'da'
= arabada - in a car.

Note that in the examples above we only use major vowel harmony because the vowel in the word has its last vowel as 'a' or 'e'

Now we will add -dim (meaning I did) to some verb stems.

bil - know (bilmek = to know)
bil + dim - 'i' in 'bil' is soft so we use 'i' in 'dim'
Now minor harmony - 'i' in 'bil' is flat so we use 'i' in 'dim'
= bildim - I knew

çıldır - go insane (çıldırmak = to go insane)
çıldır + dim - 'ı' in 'çıldır' is hard so we change 'i' in 'dim' to 'dım'
Now minor harmony - 'ı' in 'çıldır' is flat so we use 'ı' in 'dım'.
çıldırdım - I went insane.

öl - die (ölmek = to die)
öl + dim - 'ö' is soft so we use 'i' in 'dim'
Now minor harmony - 'ö' is round so we use 'ü' in 'düm'
öldüm - I have died.

sol - fade (olmak = to fade)
sol + dim - 'o' is hard so we use 'ı' in 'dım'
Now minor harmony - 'o' is round so we use 'u' in 'dum'
soldum - I have faded.

üzül - be upset (üzülmek = to be upset)
üzül + dim - 'ü' is soft so we keep 'i' in 'dim'
Now minor harmony - 'ü' is round so we use 'ü' in 'düm'
üzüldüm - I was upset.

vur - hit (vurmak = to hit)
vur + dim - 'u' is hard so we use 'ı' in 'dım'
Now minor harmony - 'u' is round so we change 'ı' to 'u' in 'dum'
vurdum - I have hit.

Don't worry about learning them too vigourously as they become totally natural after a while.

Aslan2 :your explanations are always very detailed and great , thank God this "Vowel Harmony" thing was easy to understand and now my biggest headache are conjunctions!
I hope there is grey matter left
On second thoughts... I still have problems with "consonant mutation"!
Dilara.

wow...teşekkürler aslan2...that was so clear, even i understood that!