I suppose different grammarians use different terms. I learnt it in English as "stressed syllable", but you also can say "accented", "emphasized" etc. The accentuation of simple words - like pronouns, nouns, adverbs, adjectives etc. can be found in some better dictionaries (e.g. baBA, bıçAK, SOnra, etc.), but it is rather difficult to learn which suffixes are to be pronounced with emphazis (vurgu), and which ones not. For example: babA - babaLAR - babalarıMIZ - babalarımızDAN. Sufixes -ler/lar, possessive suffixes, ablative suffix and many others are pronounced with emphazis, and some of them not - so-called "enclitical suffixes" (like in personal suffixes for the predicate nominative, like "dokTORum - I am a doctor) - which makes the great difference between seemingly homonymous words:
gelMEM - my coming; GELmem - I don't come
VARdı - there was; varDI - he arrived
KIZsın - you are girl; kızSIN - let him be angry!
etc.
Of course native Turkish speakers don't have problems to make the difference and stress the right syllable, but it is very hard for strange learners.

The second problem is accentuation (melody) of a phrase/sentence, with all the mentioned problems of homonymity. I rewrite two examples:

Çalış__baban__gibi // BOŞ__OTURMA! – Work like your father, don't sit idle!
ÇALIŞ // baban__gibi__boş__oturma! – Work, don't sit idle like your father!

The third problem of accentuation are - as I have found - three types of accent. For these, I do not know exact terms, so I translate literally:
1) musical or melodical accent (the syllable is pronounced a bit higher)
2) dynamic or expiratory (the strongest syllable in a word, with the strong expiration)
3) secundary expiratory accent - ...but the explanation is so long an complicated that I won't write it here.

Hope I managed to explain some of the most acute problems with accentuation. Suppose many foreign learners have the same problems. I can hear some Turkish word or sentence thousand times, but I just cannot remember its accent, because I cannot "classify" it in my mind as a consequence of some phonetical rule.

Regards, D.

I see your point. These are too much detail I think. If you ignore any stress you should be fine. There is very little difference between "vardı" as "arrived" and "vardı" as "there was". Simply follow the syllables and say "var-dı" without any stress just simply straight forward as "var+dı", and you will be fine.

If you are trying to learn Turkish by following verbal language you are not going to make it. Ignore spoken language and concentrate on written langauge.

Spoken language has too many irregularities and it has too limited vocabulary. You need exactly the opposite. You need more vocabulary and smooth progress.

My suggestion is to read. Read like you would never need to talk in Turkish. If you build enough vocabulary and if you understand written sentences, no matter if you haven't talked to anybody şin Turkish, believe me all the verbal aspect of the langauge will be a matter to be solved in one day.

Distraction by extreme deatials is going to hold you back. Read a childrens book and if you understand half of it read another book and then another.

When I was learning English I was reading a new Sherlock Holmes book every day. At this time I had a good vocabulary plus I had a sufficient grammar, although I didn't study much, but I had no idea I was pronouncing many words incorrectly. For instance I didn't know that I couldn't pronounce the word "sure" correctly. I thought it was pronounced like the s in to sue. Did this stop me building up vocabulary? Not at all.

Pronounciation details will correct themselves immediately when the right time comes. All you need is vocabulary and you are not going to find it in verbal langauge.

Sorry if asked too much, but that's the problem with lingiuistics-lovers. I think you had said in one of your old posts (or it was somebody other) that there are different types of learners - those who grasp foreign language "by ear" and those who must systemize all the grammar almost mathematically in their heads first. I am of the last ones. I've already started with easy texts (a little digression - I liked your "picture books - excellent thing for beginners!!! - hope you will do some more) and I can translate a bit, but I am still not able to talk at all. I am afraid it will happen just the same as when I was learning Russian myself. After all those years I can read it, translate it and even write it, but I hardly speak it. On the contrary, when I was learning Medieval Slavic - which is "dead" language, just as Latin - I practized it with my husband, and I was able to talk (I remember how my proffesor at the university was surprised ). I admire your advice as words of an experienced teacher, and I hope you are right, but I will still like to see a thread about accentuation here. In fact, I started similar thread few months ago, but nobody answered. Or even better - a grammar page, like those that already exist. It would helpo much.

Thanks once again, and I promise not to be so boring in future, but thgis topic really got me interested in.

Regards, D.

We are here to help. Right now I don't have time to investigate on this deep suject. There are too many details to consider when it comes to pronounciation. There are some secondary sounds of vowels. For instance genç and gen have different 'e' sounds. The first and second a is different in "daha". Future tense is pronounced different than written such as geleceğim is pronounced as geliceğm.

There are too many details. You are right. It would be perfect if we had these topics covered somewhere including sound files.

Well, I am staying in hope you will write about all that one day, and that it would be soon! Thank you.

D.

Thank you, aslan2! In fact, I have some similar examples in my grammar book, but it's hard to grasp the rule just from a few sentences. I know the accentuation was not the topic here, but as it is tightly connected to suffixes (and thus to noun cases), hope I didn't miss the point. The accens and disiguishing of homonymous words/phrases is a great problem for learners who don't have possibility to listen (in my country it's very hard to find even the simpliest "acemi" assimils). If you are in mood for a new thread about accents... I can say only thank you!

Best regards,
D.