The study of linguistics has many layers to it, each of which contributes greatly to the meanings and functioning of a language. Phonology, the sounds a language employs, plays a huge role in the understanding of a language. Verbal language depends heavily on the sounds one makes in order to convey a certain word and, thus, meaning. A simple mispronunciation of a word can lead to a completely unintended meaning.
Turkish uses a lot of similar phonetics to English in some regard, especially considering that Turkish now uses a Latin script. However, there are many letters, with corresponding sounds, that exist in Turkish that do not explicitly exist in English. These include ı, ö, ğ, and ü. I find all four of these sounds very hard to pronounce correctly. Examples of words I have had difficulty pronouncing would be sınıf, phonetically pronounced /sɯnɯf/ and gülümsemek, phonetically pronounced /gylymsemek/. Because Turkish uses a phonetic system heavily dependent on vowel harmony, it is critical learning how to pronounce these letters correctly as all of them are either vowels or, in the case of ğ, involved in extending vowels.
My language instructor has been sending voice recordings of her saying certain greetings. In the future, I hope to ask her to send recordings of how to say words that are phonetically difficult for me to pronounce. I can try to replicate the recording and see if my pronunciation matches. I also want to pay more attention to bits of Turkish language in Turkish shows and continue doing so in Turkish music and commentary.
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