While Turkish and English have a fairly similar alphabet (plus or minus a few letters), this does not mean the two languages are phonetically similar. This is not to imply that they do not share many similar sounds, as the Turkish letter “ç” is pronounced nearly identical to the “ch” sound in the English word “church” (The phonetic symbol for this sound conveniently also happens to be “ç”). Similarly, the Turkish letter “İ” (phonetically “i”) is pronounced the same as the “ee” sound in the English word “see”. However, the construction of words through the combination of letters is very different between the two languages. In English, consonants can combine to form new sounds. This is not so in Turkish and is one of the reasons for the few extra letters that symbolize sounds that, in English, are generally composed of multiple letters. Secondly, whereas English words contain diphthongs like in “oil” (/ɔɪl/) and “sprain” (/spreɪn/), Turkish words possess no such characteristic and even in loan words such as the French word “station” the vowels are separated so that the word becomes “istasyon” ([,istas’jσn]). Another unique characteristic of Turkish when compared to English is the yumuşak g (looks like “ğ”). This letter, when placed between two vowels in the front of the word, is sounded as [j]. However, when placed behind a vowel or between two vowels further on in a word, the yumuşak g is not pronounced. Instead, it lengthens the vowel. An example of this is the Turkish President’s name: Erdoğan. The phonetic transcription for this name is /ˈɛəɹdoʊˌɑːn/, showing that the yumuşak functions almost as more of a bilabial glide than anything else. As an English speaker, this phonetic characteristic of Turkish will be hard to master, as the closest English has to lengthening vowels sounds is just “oo” or “ee”.
As opposed to in English, Turkish words adhere to the concept of vowel harmony, in which, with very few exceptions, Turkish words incorporate either the front vowels (/e, i, œ, y/) or the back vowels (/a, ɯ, o, u/) but not both. For example, the copula (suffix-verb) “dir” (meaning he/she/it is) becomes “dür”, “dur”, or “dır” depending on the vowels of the word it is attached to. While in theory, this should make determining the pronunciation of a Turkish word easier (as all the words should match types of sounds), in reality, since English does not possess such a characteristic, it will still take much work to master. Listening to and watching Turkish soap operas may be useful in acquiring some listening skills for Turkish vowel harmony, as the somewhat exaggerated speech may assist in letting one recognize the vowel sounds used. Another characteristic of Turkish is the concept of consonant assimilation. This means that, depending on whether the consonant before a suffix is voiced or unvoiced, the suffix matches, becoming either voiced or unvoiced. For example, the suffix “cık” is the diminutive suffix when placed behind a noun. However, “adcık” (meaning little name) has the beginning of the suffix pronounced /s/ while the word “atçık” (meaning little horse) has the beginning of the suffix pronounced /ç/. Finally, an interesting and somewhat relieving characteristic of Turkish is the concept of word accents, in which a single syllable of a word will be stressed. Because English possesses this same characteristic, I am enthusiastic to see if I can recognize where these accents are just from listening to someone speaking. While the pronunciation for vowel harmony and consonant is slightly intimidating, I believe that it will become much easier after I begin to recognize the pattern in how each word is formed, and then pronunciation will have more to do with making a word sound correct (as in all the vowel sounds come from the front or back) than just sounding out what I think is written.
Comments