Turkish Basics
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Chapter 1: Basics
This page will teach you the basics of Turkish, and what is to come in the next few chapters. Turkish is a Turkic language, which means it shares some features such as agglutination, vowel harmony, 7 cases, and unique word formation.
Turkish is important if you'd like to visit Turkey, one of the largest tourist locations and home to some amazing natural and archeological wonders. Cities like Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir are treasure troves chock full of human history.
Phonetics
Turkish has surprisingly similar phonology to English, though, there are some important vowel differences and consonants that differ a large amount from English. It will be covered in Chapter 1a.
Agglutination
Turkish word formation is based on suffixes, which is the principle of agglutination. This can change based on case, verb tense and mood, as well as various grammatical suffixes which extend the meaning of the root word. This will be covered in Chapter 1c.
Vowel Harmony
Turkish word formation also consists of matching up vowels to suffixes. In every case, verb, and grammatical device, vowel harmony are imperative to proper Turkish grammar. While you'll most likely be understood, it's good to learn it for proper word formation. This will be covered in Chapter 1d.
History
Turkish is said to originate from older Turkic Languages, such as Ottoman Turkish, Seljuk Turkic, and Old Anatolian Turkish.
Ottoman Turkish
Its current nearest language relations are Azerbaijani, Turkmen, and Gagauz, all of which can be learned on this website.
It was written in the Arabic script for a long time, with a brief and politically motivated switch to the Latin script, led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
From the 1920s onwards, Modern Turkish has been changing from its Ottoman form, which had no regulation or clear speaker base. Today, it's spoken by nearly 90 million people in Turkey and Cyprus. Its speaker base is also supplemented by thousands of Turks who call places like America or Germany home, as well as the Balkan dialect.
This course will mainly be detailing Turkey Turkish.
The Fatih District, Istanbul