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Turkish vocabulary is the set of words within the
Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...
. The language widely uses
agglutination In linguistics, agglutination is a morphology (linguistics), morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes (word parts), each of which corresponds to a single Syntax, syntactic feature. Languages that use agglu ...
and
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
es to form words from noun and verb stems. Besides native Turkic words, Turkish vocabulary is rich in
loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
s from
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
, Persian, French and other languages. This article is a companion to
Turkish grammar Turkish grammar (), as described in this article, is the grammar of standard Turkish as spoken and written by the majority of people in Turkey. Turkish is a highly agglutinative language, in that much of the grammar is expressed by means of suffi ...
and contains some information that might be considered grammatical. The purpose of this article is mainly to show the use of some of the ''yapım ekleri'' "structural suffixes" of the
Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...
, as well as to give some of the structurally important words, like pronouns, determiners, postpositions, and conjunctions.


Origins

Around 86% of the Turkish vocabulary is of Turkic origin. Most of the core vocabulary and the most commonly used words in Turkish, including those first acquired by children as they learn to speak, come from Turkic. Meanwhile, around 14% of Turkish words are of foreign origin, in particular
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
, French, and Persian. According to the
Turkish Language Association The Turkish Language Association (, TDK) is the List of language regulators, regulatory body for the Turkish language, founded on 12 July 1932 by the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. The Institution acts as ...
, 6,463 of these foreign words come from Arabic, 4,974 from French, 1,374 from Persian, 632 from Italian, 538 from English, 399 from
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, and 147 from
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
. The most significant linguistic influence in the Turkish language started with the Turks' conversion to Islam in the 10th century. The borrowing of Arabic and Persian words began during the
Seljuk Empire The Seljuk Empire, or the Great Seljuk Empire, was a High Middle Ages, high medieval, culturally Turco-Persian tradition, Turco-Persian, Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, established and ruled by the Qiniq (tribe), Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. ...
, in which the long language contact between the
Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turks, Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate society, Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persi ...
and
Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...
in
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
(Persia) led to Persianization and the adoption of the Persian language for official and literary use. As a result, educated Turks had access to the vocabularies of three languages: Oghuz Turkic as their native language as well as for dynastic and military purposes, Persian for cultural, artistic, literary, courtly and scholarly purposes, and Arabic for theological, juridical, scientific and religious purposes.C.E. Bosworth, "Turkish Expansion towards the west" in ''UNESCO History of Humanity'', Volume IV, titled "From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century", UNESCO Publishing / Routledge, p. 391: "While the Arabic language retained its primacy in such spheres as law, theology and science, the culture of the Seljuk court and secular literature within the sultanate became largely Persianized; this is seen in the early adoption of Persian epic names by the Seljuk rulers (Qubād, Kay Khusraw and so on) and in the use of Persian as a literary language (Turkish must have been essentially a vehicle for everyday speech at this time)." Borrowing from Arabic and Persian continued during the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
, alongside a new increased influence from French, Italian, English and other European languages due to trade, diplomacy and modernization efforts particularly in the 18th century, and the official language of the
Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks () were a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group in Anatolia. Originally from Central Asia, they migrated to Anatolia in the 13th century and founded the Ottoman Empire, in which they remained socio-politically dominant for the e ...
became
Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...
(''Osmanlıca''). Nevertheless, Ottoman Turkish differed significantly from the everyday language spoken by the general population and was largely unintelligible to ordinary people. The everyday Turkish, known as ''kaba Türkçe'' ("vulgar Turkish"), was spoken by the less-educated and rural communities, and retained a much higher percentage of native Turkish vocabulary, which later served as the foundation for the modern
Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...
. With the advent of the Turkish Republic in 1923 came the attempt to unify the languages of the people and the administration, and to westernize the country. The modern
Turkish alphabet The Turkish alphabet () is a Latin-script alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which ( Ç, Ğ, I, İ, Ö, Ş and Ü) have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements o ...
, based on the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...
, was introduced. Language reform efforts led by
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...
were also introduced in an aim to remove foreign loanwords in Turkish and restore a more Turkic-based vocabulary, where the majority of Arabic and Persian words were replaced by: Turkish words surviving in speech, obsolete Turkish words, new words formed regularly from the agglutinative structure of Turkish, and entirely new words or formations. As a result, many foreign words had Turkish equivalents. Some foreign words became outdated and fell out of use during the republican period, while others remained in daily conversation. For example, the Turkish word '' güney'' became the standard term for "south", replacing the Arabic loanword '' cenup'', but in some cases the foreign word remained dominant - such as '' dünya'' (Arabic) being more commonly used for "world" than the Turkish equivalent '' yeryüzü''. In other instances, both words remained in use, like '' isim'' (Arabic) and '' ad'' (Turkish) for "name", which are often used interchangeably.


Nouns

Turkish nouns and
pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts of speech, but so ...
s have no
grammatical gender In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...
(the same pronoun ''o'' means "he", "she" or "it"), but have six
grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a Nominal group (functional grammar), n ...
s:
nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...
or absolute (used for the subject or an indefinite
direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
),
accusative In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", " ...
(used for a definite
direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
), dative (= to), locative (= in), ablative (= from),
genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
(= of). There are two
grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a Feature (linguistics), feature of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement (linguistics), agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and many other ...
s, singular and plural.


Nouns from nouns and adjectives

The suffix ''-ci'' attached to a noun denotes a person involved with what is named by the noun: : The suffix ''-lik'' attached to a noun or adjective denotes an abstraction, or an object involved with what is named by the noun: :


Nouns from verbs

The noun in ''-im'' denoting an instance of action was mentioned in the introduction to
Turkish grammar Turkish grammar (), as described in this article, is the grammar of standard Turkish as spoken and written by the majority of people in Turkey. Turkish is a highly agglutinative language, in that much of the grammar is expressed by means of suffi ...
. :''yat-'' "lie down", :''yatır-'' "lay down", :''yatırım'' "investment". For more examples on word derivations, see the ''related article: List of replaced loanwords in Turkish''.


Adjectives


Classification of adjectives

Adjectives can be distinguished as being *descriptive (''niteleme'' "qualifying"), or *determinative (''belirtme''): in particular: **demonstrative (''gösterme'' "to show" or ''işaret'' "sign"), **numerical (''sayı'' "number"), **indefinite (''belirsizlik'' or ''belgisiz''), **interrogative (''soru'' "question"). For an intensive form, the first consonant and vowel of a (descriptive) adjective can be reduplicated; a new consonant is added too, ''m, p, r,'' or ''s'', but there is no simple rule for which one: : The determinative adjectives, or
determiner Determiner, also called determinative ( abbreviated ), is a term used in some models of grammatical description to describe a word or affix belonging to a class of noun modifiers. A determiner combines with a noun to express its reference. Examp ...
s, are an essential part of the language, although Turkish takes some of its determiners from Arabic and Persian.


Demonstrative adjectives

*''o'' "that", *''bu'' "this", *''şu'' "this" or "that" (thing pointed to). These are also demonstrative pronouns. Used with plural nouns, these adjectives represent the English "those" and "these"; there is no such inflexion of adjectives in Turkish.


Numerical adjectives

The
cardinal number In mathematics, a cardinal number, or cardinal for short, is what is commonly called the number of elements of a set. In the case of a finite set, its cardinal number, or cardinality is therefore a natural number. For dealing with the cas ...
s are built up in a regular way from the following: : : Units follow multiples of ten; powers of ten come in descending order. For example: :''yüz kırk dokuz milyar beş yüz doksan yedi milyon sekiz yüz yetmiş bin altı yüz doksan bir metre'' ("149,597,870,691 metres"). : : : : The cardinals are generally not used alone, but a general word for a unit is used, such as: *''tane'', literally "grain"; *''kişi'' "person". Remembering that the plural suffix is not used when numbers are named, we have: :''dört tane bira'' "four beers"; :''Altı kişiyiz'' "We are six." From the ''cardinal'' numbers, others can be derived with suffixes: *ordinal ''-(i)nci'' *: ''yedi'' "seven" → ''yedinci'' "seventh" *:: ''Sırada yedincisiniz.'' *::"You are seventh in line." *distributive ''-(ş)er'' *: ''bir'' "one" → ''birer'' "one each" *: ''iki'' "two" → ''ikişer'' "two each" *collective ''-(i)z'' *: ''iki'' "two" → ''ikizler'' "twins"


Indefinite adjectives

The cardinal ''bir'' "one" can be used as an indefinite article. Other so-called indefinite adjectives might be listed as follows: *universal: ''her'' "each, every", ''tüm'' "the whole", ''bütün'' "whole, all"; *existential: ''bazı'' "some", ''biraz'' "a little", ''birkaç'' "a few, several"; *negative: ''hiç'' "none"; *quantitative: ''az'' "little, few", ''çok'' "much, many"; *distinguishing: ''başka, diğer, öteki, öbür'' "other"; *identifying: ''aynı'' "same".


Interrogative adjectives

*''hangi'' "which?" *''kaç'' "how much?" or "how many?" *: ''Saat kaç?'' "What time is it?" *: ''Kaç saat?'' "How many hours?" *''nasıl'' "what sort?" (this is also the interrogative adverb "how?")


Adjectives from nouns

Added to a noun, ''-li'' or ''-siz'' indicates presence or absence, respectively, of what is named by the noun. : The suffix ''-li'' also indicates origin: :''Ankaralıyım.'' "I am from Ankara." Finally, added to the verbal noun in ''-me'', the suffix ''-li'' creates the necessitative verb. :Pattern: (verb-stem) + ''me'' + ''li'' + (personal ending). ::''Gitmeliyim.'' "I must go". The native speaker may perceive ''-meli'' as an indivisible suffix denoting compulsion. Added to a noun for a person, ''-ce'' makes an adjective.Lewis V,4/ref> :


Adverbs

Adjectives can generally serve as adverbs: :''iyi'' "good" or "well" The adjective might then be repeated, as noted earlier. A repeated noun also serves as an adverb: :''kapı'' "door" → ''kapı kapı'' "door-to-door" The suffix ''-ce'' makes nouns and adjectives into adverbs. One source (Özkırımlı, p. 155) calls it the ''benzerlik'' ("similarity") or ''görelik'' (from ''göre'' "according to") ''eki'', considering it as another case-ending. * Attached to adjectives, ''-ce'' is like the English ''-ly'': *:''güzelce'' "beautifully" * Attached to nouns, ''-ce'' can be like the English ''like'': *:''Türkçe konuş-'' "speak like Turks" (i.e., "speak Turkish") Adverbs of place include: *''aşağı/yukarı'' "down/up" *''geri/ileri'' "backwards/forwards" *''dışarı/içeri'' "outside/inside" *''beri/öte'' "hither/yon" *''karşı'' "opposite" These can also be treated as adjectives and nouns (in particular, they can be given case-endings). Also, the suffix ''-re'' can be added to the demonstrative pronouns ''o'', ''bu'', and ''şu'', as well as to the interrogative pronoun ''ne'', treated as a noun. The result has cases serving as adverbs of place: *''nereye/buraya/oraya'' "whither?/hither/thither" *''nerede/burada/orada'' "where?/here/there" *''nereden/buradan/oradan'' "whence?/hence/thence"


Postpositions


With genitive and absolute

The following are used after the genitive pronouns ''benim'', ''bizim'', ''senin'', ''sizin'', ''onun'', and ''kimin'', and after the absolute case of other pronouns and nouns: *''gibi'' "like, as"; *''için'' "for"; *''ile'' "with"; *''kadar'' (Arabic) "as much as". For example, a certain company may describe its soft drink as: : However, another company may say of itself: : Thus the label of postposition does not adequately describe ''gibi''; Schaaik proposes calling it a predicate, because of its use in establishing similarity: : : The particle ''ile'' can be both ''
comitative In grammar, the comitative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In English, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role. Other uses of "with", l ...
'' and ''
instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...
''; it can also join the preceding word as a suffix. Examples: *''Deniz ile konuştuk'' or ''Deniz'le konuştuk'' *:"Deniz and I r we we spoke." *:(here the literal translation "We spoke with Deniz" may be incorrect) *''çekiç ile vur-'' or ''çekiçle vur-'' *:"hit with a hammer"


With dative

Used after nouns and pronouns in the dative case are: *''doğru'' "towards"; *''göre'' "according to"; *''kadar'' "as far as"; *''karşı'' "against".


With ablative

*''önce/sonra'' "before/after"; *''beri'' "since"; *''itibaren'' (Arabic) "from…on"; *''dolayı'' "because of".


With absolute

The following postpositions are case-forms of nouns with the third-person possessional suffix; they can be understood as forming nominal compounds, ''always indefinite'', with the preceding words (see also Turkish grammar#Nouns): *''bakımdan'' "from the point of view of" (''bak-'' "look"); *''hakkında'' "concerning, about" (''hak'' "right, justice"); *''tarafından'' "by the agency of" (''taraf'' "side"); *''yüzünden'' "because of" (''yüz'' "face").


Interjections

Some samples include: *secular: ** ''Öf'' isgust **''Haydi'' "Come on": ''Haydi kızlar okula'' "Girls to school!" (slogan for an education campaign); *invoking the Deity: **implicitly: ***''Aman'' "Mercy"; ***''Çok şükür'' "Much thanks"; **explicitly: ***''Allah Allah'' "Goodness gracious"; ***''Hay Allah''; ***''Vallah'' "By God swear it.


Conjunctions

Some Turkish conjunctions are borrowed from Persian and Arabic.


Logical conjunction

The ''cumulative'' sense of the English "A and B" can be expressed several ways: *''A ve B'' (an Arabic borrowing); *''B ile A'' (''ile'' is also a ''postposition''); *''A, B de''. For the ''adversative'' sense of "but" or "only", there are ''ama'' and ''fakat'' (both Arabic), also ''yalnız'' (which is also an adjective corresponding to "alone"). For emphasis: ''hem A hem B'' "both A and B".


Logical disjunction

For the sense of English "(either)…or": *''A veya B''; *''ya A veya B''; *''ya A ya da B''. The pattern of the last two can be extended: *''ya A ya B veya C''; *''ya A ya B ya da C''.


Implication

*''B, çünkü A'' "B, because A". *''((Eğer)) A'ysa, (o zaman) B'dir.'' "If A, then B." ("Eğer" is not generally used.) Both ''çünkü'' and ''eğer'' are Persian; the latter is not generally needed, because the ''conditional'' form of the verb is available.


The conjunction ''ki''

The Persian conjunction ''ki'' brings to Turkish the
Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
style of relating ideas ( #Lewis III,15: :''Beklemesini istiyorum'' "Her-waiting I-desire"; but :''İstiyorum ki beklesin'' "I-desire that he-wait." Thus ''ki'' corresponds roughly to English "that", but with a broader sense: :''Güneş batmıştı ki köye vardık'' "The-sun had-set henthat at-the-village we-arrived." :''Kirazı yedim ki şeker gibi'' "The-cherry I-ate nd foundthat
t was T, or t, is the twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is d ...
sugar like."


Verbs

The verb-stem ''temizle-'' "make clean" is the adjective ''temiz'' "clean" with the suffix ''-le-''. Many verbs are formed from nouns or adjectives with ''-le'': :*''başla-'' "make a head", that is, "begin" (intransitive; ''baş'' "head"); :*''kilitle-'' "make locked", that is, "lock" (''kilit'' "lock"); :*''kirlet-'' "make dirty" (''kir'' "dirt") :*''köpekle-'' (from ''köpek'' "dog", discussed at Turkish grammar#Parts of speech). The suffix ''-iş-'' indicates reciprocal action, which is expressed in English by "each other" or "one another". :*''görüşmek'' "to see one another" (from ''görmek'' "to see", for example ''Görüşürüz'', "Goodbye" (literally "We see one another")) (But there are exceptions: ''sevişmek'' does not mean "to love one another" (from ''sevmek'' "to love") but rather "to make love with each other." Many causative verbs are formed with ''-dir-''. :*''öldürmek'' "to kill" (from ''ölmek'' "to die") :*''yaptırmak'' "to have something done" (from ''yapmak'' "to do")


References

Books of use in the writing of this article include: *Grammars: **Kaya Can, ''Yabancılar İçin Türkçe-İngilizce Açıklama Türkçe Dersleri'', Ankara: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen ve Edebiyat Fakültesi, 1991. "Turkish lessons with Turkish-English explanation for foreigners". **G. L. Lewis, ''Turkish Grammar'', Oxford University Press, 1967; second edition, 2000. [Structural differences between the two editions are not named in the second, but appear to be as follows: IV,4 "''-çe''", VI,7 "Arithmetical terms", XI,16 "''-diğinde''", and XII,25 "''tâ''" are new, while XV,1 "Nominal sentences and verbal sentences" in the first edition was dropped. **Eran Oyal, ''Sözcüklerin Anlamsal ve Yapısal Özellikleri: Konular, Örnekler, Sorular, Açıklama Yanıtlar (ÖSS ve ÖYS için Dil Yeteneği Dizisi 2)'', Ankara, 1986. "Semantic and syntactic properties of words: subjects, examples, questions, answers with explanation (language ability for the university entrance examinations, 2)". **Atilla Özkırımlı, ''Türk Dili, Dil ve Anlatım'', İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları 2001. "The Turkish language, language, and expression". **Bengisu Rona, ''Turkish in Three Months'', Hugo's Language Books Limited, 1989. **Gerjan van Schaaik, ''The Bosphorus Papers: Studies in Turkish Grammar 1996–1999'', İstanbul: Boğaziçi University Press, 2001. *Dictionaries: **İsmet Zeki Eyuboğlu, ''Türk Dilinin Etimoloji Sözlüğü'', expanded and revised second edition, 1991. **H.-J. Kornrumpf, ''Langenscheidt's Universal Dictionary: English-Turkish, Turkish-English'', Istanbul; new edition revised and updated by Resuhi Akdikmen, 1989. **''Redhouse Yeni Türkçe-İngilizce Sözlük. New Redhouse Turkish-English Dictionary.'' Redhouse Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1968 (12th ed., 1991). **''Redhouse Büyük Elsözlüğü İngilizce-Türkçe, Türkçe-İngilizce. The Larger Redhouse Portable Dictionary English-Turkish, Turkish-English.'' Redhouse Yayınevi, İstanbul 1997 (9th printing, 1998). **Türk Dil Kurumu [Turkish Language Foundation], ''Türkçe Sözlük'', expanded 7th edition, 1983.


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turkish Vocabulary Turkish language, Vocabulary Lexis (linguistics)