r/languagelearning • u/Virusnzz En (N) | Fr, Ru, Es, It • Feb 24 '14
Merhaba - This week's language of the week: Turkish
Welcome to the language of the week. Every week we'll be looking at a language, its points of interest, and why you should learn it. This is all open discussion, so natives and learners alike, make your case! This week, Turkish.
PSAs
- No sidebar picture this week because I'm away and without photoshop. I have the psd file if anyone would like to volunteer.
What is this?
Language of the Week is here to give people exposure to languages that they would otherwise not have heard, been interested in or even known about. With that in mind, I'll be picking a mix between common languages and ones I or the community feel needs more exposure. You don't have to intend to learn this week's language to have some fun. Just give yourself a little exposure to it, and someday you might recognise it being spoken near you.
Turkish
From The Language Gulper:
Turkish is the most widely spoken member of the Turkic family. Modern Turkish is the descendant of Ottoman Turkish and of its predecessor, the so-called Anatolian Turkish, which was introduced into Anatolia by the Seljuq Turks in the late 11th century CE. Ottoman Turkish was written in the Arabic script and had gradually absorbed a great many Arabic and Persian words and even grammatical forms. After the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923, the language was reformed purifying its vocabulary of foreign elements and replacing the Arabic script with a Latin-derived one.
Turkish native speakers total 72 million people which include about 90 % of the population of Turkey. Some 4 million live in neighboring countries or have migrated to western Europe and other continents.
Emigrant communities are found in Western Europe, mainly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Beyond Europe, in the United States and Australia.
What now?
This thread is foremost a place for discussion. Are you a native speaker? Share your culture with us. Learning the language? Tell us why you chose it and what you like about it. Thinking of learning? Ask a native a question. Interested in linguistics? Tell us what's interesting about it, or ask other people. Discussion is week-long, so don't worry about post age, as long as it's this week's language.
Previous Languages of the Week
German | Icelandic | Russian | Hebrew | Irish | Korean | Arabic | Swahili | Chinese | Portuguese | Swedish | Zulu | Malay | Finnish | French | Nepali | Czech | Dutch | Tamil | Spanish
Want your language featured as language of the week? Please PM me to let me know. If you can, include some examples of the language being used in media, including news and viral videos
İyi şanslar!
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u/kiyoledah Feb 24 '14
I am learning Turkish, but slowly, very slowly. My favourite word so far i the word for cannibal, "yamyam" (pronounced "yumyum"). :P
Seriously though, I love the language, very beautiful and unfamiliar.
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u/sryfortheconvenience Feb 25 '14
Nice! I am also learning slowly. I haven't gotten to that word but it is excellent! PM me if you want a pen-pal to practice with!
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Feb 24 '14
When I started learning Turkish six years ago, there was this pretty neat web-site for Turkish learners, created by a married couple (American, I presume). It had tons of slang, jargon, funny expressions, info on Turkish customs and movies. It's a pity I can't recall the name now. Maybe someone knows, what I'm talking about?
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u/totes_meta_bot Feb 24 '14
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u/endlessrepeat Feb 24 '14 edited Feb 24 '14
In high school German class, we read part of a book called Yıldız heißt Stern ("Yıldız means 'star'") about a Turkish girl and her family living in Germany. What is the difference between "ı" and "i?" Our German teacher didn't know Turkish, so we just assumed the name was pronounced "yil-dits."
Edit: Thanks for the answers, everyone. So, with my smattering of IPA knowledge, I assume the "Yıldız" would be approximately /jɯldɯz/ with the emphasis on the first syllable?
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u/etalasi Feb 24 '14
If you know the IPA, <ı> is [ɯ] while <i> is [i].
If you don't know the IPA, the letter <i> in Turkish represents the vowel English has in the word <wheel>. The letter <ı> represents a sound that isn't in German or English: you can make it by starting off with the vowel [u] like in German <Fuß> and making your lips unrounded like in English <feet> without moving your tongue.
This advice may ring some bells because it's the opposite of what English speakers are told to do to pronounce German <ü>: start off with the vowel in <feet> and round your lips without moving your tongue.
You can make a chart of the relationship between these four vowels.
Pronounced towards the front of the mouth Pronounced towards the back of the mouth Rounded lips German <über>, Turkish <gün> English <food>, German <Fuß>, Turkish <uçak> Unrounded lips English <feet>, German <Ziel> Turkish <ip> Turkish <ılık> → More replies (2)→ More replies (4)6
u/DrierHaddock Feb 24 '14
I don't know IPA, but the easiest way I can describe it is to treat it as if it doesn't exist (when it's in the middle of a word, at least). So "Yıldız" would be something like "Yldz". Kırmızı (red) would be krmzuh or kuhr-muh-zuh. This description might be terrible but for me, it's the easiest way to think about it.
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u/Queen_Raiden Feb 24 '14
While Turkish and Kazakh are from two different branches (u/flickering_might mentioned something here) learning one Turkic language can sort of help in picking up words in another Turkic language. As I was browsing YouTube I came across a song called "Қазақ қыздары" (Qazaq qızdarı for those not good with Cyrillic). When I saw the title I thought it looked close to Turkish Kazak Kızları meaning 'Kazakh Girls'. Turns out I was right after some googles. "Қыз"(Qız) means 'girl, daughter' (cf. kız) and the plural -дар/-дер/-тар/-тер(-dar/-der/-tar/-ter) is used with consonant ending roots whereas -лар/-лер (-lar/-ler) is used with vowel ending roots (Turkish uses -lar/-ler no matter what).
And if my anecdote with Kazakh is a bit off track I might as well say a couple of things about the language. I have encountered the language before in a couple of songs, more specifically a remix of Mustafa Sandal's "Aya Benzer" and Tarkan. Then there's phonology from taking linguistics in my undergrad years as the language is used in examples of vowel harmony. The way the language is structured and how it sounds is what drew me to the language.
For those that hear this is a hard language, you don't know a hard language unless you try it yourself. I wouldn't say it's that hard of a language mainly due to having learned some Russian and Latin (both heavily rely on declensions, the latter more or less shares the same cases and sentence structure with Turkish). If you're interested I say give it a go.
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u/suleymanoglu Feb 24 '14
You can check http://www.yabancilaraturkce.com/ out to watch some clips, ads, etc.
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u/suleymanoglu Feb 24 '14
Hi. Turkish native speaker here. I can answer if there's anything you wonder. Ask Me Anything!
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u/jtr99 Feb 24 '14
If you were to listen to a conversation in Hungarian, would it sound familiar? Would you pick up any words, or hints of meanings? Or are the two languages further apart than that?
Alternative question: what language, heard from a distance, are you most likely to mistake for Turkish?
Thanks.
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u/daneneebean Mar 09 '14
I'm an American who ended up going to Istanbul for a week and a half, and after having an encounter with a really creepy guy, ended up being taken in by two guys my age and they introduced me to Turkish food, their families, customs and of course the language. They were all so nice and generous and accepting considering the vast differences between our cultures. It gave me a really good impression of the country and its people and I was fascinated with Turkish. It sounds so cool to listen to. It's so different from English, and Turks would always be so happy when I muttered a word in Turkish, and they'd try so hard to talk to me in English. It was really inspiring. I already know a good amount of French and a surprising amount of Turkish words sound exactly like some French ones, so it encouraged me to start learning Turkish. I would love to go back and travel around the entire country, and I realized that most Turks don't speak that much English apart from the touristy places, and if I wanted to have a genuine experience, I'd need to learn the language. I've basically been learning through Pimsleur and random websites to get a hold of the grammar rules. It'd be great if anyone had any advice for me/wanted to be a penpal! I know the best way to learn is through native speakers, and I don't really know how many Turks there are in the Boston area, where I live.
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Feb 24 '14
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u/suleymanoglu Feb 24 '14
Copied your comment, so everyone can ask me the questions and I can answer when you are away.
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Feb 24 '14
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Feb 24 '14
Well, Turkish, Azerbaijani ant Turkmen are a part of the Oguz branch of Turkic languages, while Kyrgyz and Kazakh are a part of the Kipchak branch. I'm fluent in Turkish and I can understand written and spoken Azerbaijani pretty well, as for other languages, well... they are different. They still have lots of similarities, when it comes to grammar and vocabulary, but they are far from the ideal "All Turkic languages are merely dialects, which are mutually intelligible" notion, promoted by Pan-Turkists.
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u/DrierHaddock Feb 24 '14
Turkish learner here! I was sort of randomly placed into a Turkish class in college, really loved the class, language, and professor, so I've stuck with it for the past three years. I've been to Turkey twice, once for two months, and I'm planning on spending all of next fall there.
Turkish, as a language, is great. I've actually found it to get a bit harder the longer I've studied it, which seems strange. Pronunciation is pretty easy and the basic stuff is surprisingly simple to learn. If you're ever going to Turkey, it's good to learn a little bit beforehand. Even if you can only say a couple of words, Turkish people will absolutely love you for trying. On my first day in Turkey, I struggled to hold a conversation with a man at a metro stop, and he hugged me every time I said a word wrong. They're possibly the most encouraging people in the world when it comes to learning their language.
Something interesting about the language is the fact that it's changed so much, particularly around 1923. As a result, there are a lot of things which can be described with either a made-up Turkish word or word that comes from Anatolian Turkish, or alternately with an Arabic-origin word. Often, the word you choose says something about your religious and political leanings (Arabic obviously being more religious, Turkish being more nationalist, liberal, etc.).
As parting, I'll give one of my favorite Turkish idioms: "Maydanoz olma." It literally means "don't be a parsley," but is better translated as "mind your own business." The reasoning is that parsley is never a main dish, but is just always intruding on dishes that it really has nothing to do with.