|
In English to ask yes/no question we change the word order like this:
Ali has gone.
Has Ali gone?
In Turkish we cant do this. Changing word order doesnt create a question. Usually it doesnt make any difference. To make yes/no questions in Turkish we use the question suffix -mi.
Ali gitti.
Ali gitti mi?
The question suffix -mi has four forms. These are -mı, -mi, -mu, -mü. We pick the correct one according vowel harmonly rules.
Before picking the -mi suffix we look to the last vowel.
-mı comes after a and ı
-mi comes after e and i
-mu comes after o and u
-mü comes after ö and ü
Why is this so? What are the vowel harmony rules?
1. Major vowel harmony rule: A back vowel is followed by a back vowel and a front vowel is followed by a front vowel.
2. Minor vowel harmony rule: A flat vowel is followed by a flat vowel and a round vowel is followed by a round vowel.
In Turkish we have eight vowels: a,e,ı,i,o,ö,u,ü
Four of them are back vowels: a,ı,o,u
Four of them are front vowels: e,i,ö,ü
Four of them are flat vowels: ı,i,a,e
Four of them are round vowels: o,ö,u,ü
The words flat, round, back and front reflect to the movements of our mouth when we generate the sounds.
According these rules
1. a,ı,o,u is followed by a,ı,o,u
2. e,i,ö,ü is followed by e,i,ö,ü
3. ı,i,a,e is followed by ı,i,a,e
4. o,ö,u,ü is followed by o,ö,u,ü
5. According 1 and 3 > a,ı, is followed by a,ı
6. According 1 and 4 > o,u, is followed by o,u
7. According 2 and 3 > e,i, is followed by e,i
8. According 2 and 4 > ö,ü, is followed by ö,ü
From number 5,6,7 and 8 we can understand what suffix to add. The question suffix has only four forms and not eight: -mı, -mi, -mu, -mü. So at number 5 for instance a and ı was followed by either a or ı but we dont have a question suffix as "ma". So regarding the question suffix we say a and ı is followed by 'mı'.
5. According 1 and 3 > a,ı, is followed by -mı
6. According 1 and 4 > o,u, is followed by -mu
7. According 2 and 3 > e,i, is followed by -mi
8. According 2 and 4 > ö,ü, is followed by -mü
Example:
Ali akıllı mı? (the last vowel before the question suffix is ı and we know that ı takes mı
Ali doktor mu? (the last vowel before the question suffix is o and we know that o takes mu)
Exercise:
Ali çalışkan ...?
Ali kör ...?
Ali Istanbullu ...?
Below you see the personal suffixes. As you see the third person singular has no personal suffix. Therefore we say:
"Ali doktor mu?" or "O doktor mu?" (Is HE a doctor?)
But if I want to use for instance the second person singular, then I should say:
"Sen doktor muXXX?" Here I need to add a personal suffix.
Which one should I add? There are four: -sın, -sin, -sun, -sün
Remember, the last vowel counts. What is the last vowel in "Sen doktor mu...?" It is the 'u' in 'mu'. What do I use after u? Look at number 6 above. I use either o or u. But There is no version with o. So I use -sun:
"Sen doktor musun?" is the correct sentence.
Second person plural would be:
"Siz doktor musunuz?" (mu+sunuz)
Personal suffixes:
Singular
1. : -(y)ım, -(y)im, -(y)um, -(y)üm
2. : -sın, -sin, -sun, -sün
3. : --
Plural
1. : -(y)ız, -(y)iz, -(y)uz, -(y)üz
2. : -sınız, -siniz, -sunuz, -sünüz
3. : -lar, -ler
|
