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Lesson 2: Turkish Alphabet

Turkish Alphabet I

  • Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters - 8 vowels and 21 consonants.
  • Each letter has exactly one associated sound which never changes.
  • Three letters of the English alphabet are missing in the Turkish alphabet.
    • (Q-q)
    • (W-w)
    • (X-x)
  • There are six additional characters not found in the English alphabet.
    • (Ç-ç)
    • (Ğ-ğ)
    • (I-ı)
    • (İ-i)
    • (Ö-ö)
    • (Ş-ş)
    • (Ü-ü)

 

The letters of Turkish alphabet and the sounds associated with these are in the following table...

LetterPronunciation
A, a

like the a in car

B, blike the b in bet
C, clike the g in gender
Ç, çlike the ch in chance
D, dlike the d in debt
E, elike the e in less
F, flike the f in felony
G, glike the g in game
Ğ, ğthis is a very weak sound, not pronouncing at all will be ok
H, hlike the h in hello
I, ılike the e in halted
İ, ilike the ee in keen
J, jlike the ge in garage
K, k

like the k in kelly

L, llike the l in lamb
M, mlike the m in man
N, nlike the n in neighbor
O, olike the a in ball
Ö, ölike the u in urge
P, plike the p in pen
R, rlike the r in rent
S, s

like the s in send

Ş, şlike the sh in shed
T, tlike the t in tennis
U, ulike the oo in good
Ü, ülike the u in nude
V, vlike the v in vent
Y, ylike the y in yes
Z, zlike the z in zen

 

 

 

 

 

Turkish Alphabet II

 

Turkish Alphabet

 

Turkish alphabet is composed of twenty-one consonants and eight vowels. It lacks the English letters q, w, and x and has the following additional letters:
ç,  ğ,  i,  ö,  ş,  ü

 

The order of alphabet is:


A  b  c  ç  d  e  f  g  ğ  h  ı  i  j  k  l  m  n  o  ö  p  r  s  ş  t  u  ü  v  y  z


Letter           Name                                   Approximate Pronunciation

A a                  a                                             after, up
B b                  be                                           big, bad, boy
C c                  ce                                           jam, jar
Ç ç                  çe                                           church
D d                  de                                           dig, did
E e                  e                                             bed, fed
F f                   fe                                            fed, fit
G g                  ge                                           goal, gap
Ğ ğ                  yumuşak ge                          lengthens preceding, no pronunciation itself.
H h                 he/ha                                     hope, hat
I  ı                   ı                                              England, pencil
İ i                    i                                              sit, fit
J j                    je                                            like "s" in leisure, measure
K k                  ke/ka                                     cape, cost
L l                   le                                            leave, wool
M m               me                                          man, monkey
N n                 ne                                           not, number
O o                  o                                             open, no, go
Ö ö                  ö                                             early, girl
P p                  pe                                           paper, purpose
R r                  re                                           rot, rare
S s                   se                                           sit, soap
Ş ş                   şe                                           like "sh" in ship, shoe
T t                  te                                            tip, toe
U u                 u                                             put, pull
Ü ü                 ü                                             dew
V v                  ve                                           vote, vice
Y y                  ye                                           yes, you
Z z                  ze                                           zoo, zone


Syllables

The general rule is in Turkish is that every vowel will take the consonant before it to form a syllable, so apart from the first syllable of a word, every syllable in a pure Turkish word begins with a consonant. This applies also when suffixes are added to a word and when two or more words form  a single unit.

 

Examples:
bil-gi-sa-yar             - computer
ma-sa                        - table
bar-dak                     - glass
ka-lem                       - pencil
ki-tap                         - book
te-le-fon                    - phone
a-dam                        - man
def-ter                       - notebook

 

Stress in words

Turkish words are usually stressed on their last syllable. The common exceptions to this rule are place names, adverbs, compound words, certain foreign borrowings, and some words denoting relatives and living creatures. Some suffixes are not stressed but usually when a suffix is added the stress moves to the last syllable of the resultant word:

 

ar-ka-daş (friend)       
ar-ka-da-şım (my friend)             
ar-ka-da-şı-ma (to my friend)

 

ma-sa (table)              
ma-sa-da ( on the table)

 

Na-sıl-sı-nız?  (How are you?)
İ-yi-yim (I'm fine.)

 


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