Overview of the Turkish Language

Most Turkish speakers live in Turkey, though a substantial number of people also speak Turkish in Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Greece, and Cyprus. A number of Turkish dialects can be heard throughout different regions of Turkey. The Istanbul dialect evolved into what is considered Modern Standard Turkish.

Turkish is an important member of the Turkic language group which includes Gagauz, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, and Khorasan Turkic. The Turkic language group is a branch of the Altaic language family which includes the Mongolian and Tungusic languages.

The Turkish Alphabet and Turkish Vocabulary

Until 1928, five years after the founding of the Turkish Republic, Turkish was written in the Arabic script, due to the enormous Islamic influence on the area. After language reforms were initiated in 1928, Turkish began to be written in a Roman-based alphabet with 28 letters. This new alphabet adopted special phonetic symbols that correspond to specific sounds in the language. The old writing system was outlawed and soon became obsolete. In the transition to a Roman alphabet, many words of Arabic and Persian origin were purged from the language.

Some English words of Turkish descent include caviar, yogurt, and shish kebab. Also, the word tulip is derived from the Turkish word for turban, because the flower's shape was thought to resemble a turban.

Turkish Grammar

English speakers will find many differences between Turkish and English grammar. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Turkish language is agglutination: the practice of adding on multiple suffixes to word stems to indicate grammatical functions such as number, gender, or tense. Often, a single word with various suffixes can convey the meaning of an entire phrase or sentence. Understanding the meaning of some of these lengthy words can prove especially challenging, as some suffixes have multiple meanings.

Vowel harmony is another essential aspect of the Turkish language. Turkish vowels are divided into two classes: front vowels and back vowels. Vowel harmony means that all vowels in a given word should belong to the same class, as well as the vowels in suffixes added to the word.

Turkish nouns have six cases: nominative, genitive, accusative, dative, locative, and ablative. Verbs must agree with their subjects in both case and number. As with nouns, suffixes are added to verbs to signify grammatical function.

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