The phonetic inventory of Turkish, while in some respects similar to English, is best described as a vowel harmony. I’ve mentioned it before, but vowel harmony means vowels are either front (i, e, ö, and ü) or back (ı, a, o, and u), and rounded (ö, ü, o, and u) or unrounded (ı, a, i, and e). Below shows how to vowels come out of the mouth:
Zimmer, Karl; Orgun, Orhan (1999), "Turkish" (PDF), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
Turkish vowel and consonant sounds do exist in English, but they are parts of words rather than singular letters. For example: Çatalhöyük is pronounced “Cha-Tal-Hoo-Youk” or [Çataɭhoʎuk]. The “Ç” in Turkish makes a sound identical to our “ch”; similarly, Ş is pronounced like “sh” in English.
The sounds I have most difficulty pronouncing are the vowel sounds that do not sound like English vowels. My learning partner suggests listening to Turkish conversation to pick up on how it’s used colloquially and, as always, practice. She also sends audio clips of herself pronouncing letters, which makes it much easier to differentiate as opposed to trying to pick the sounds out in a conversation. I think I am capable of producing these sounds, but since I never have with intention, it’s a matter of attention and practice, not only knowing the sounds, but how they feel in my mouth.
Replies
Excellent post, Emmie! You've clearly done thorough research into this question, and I think you were largely prompted to do so by the fact that Turkish vowels differ starkly from those in English. Keep up the good work!