Turkish Agglutination
Info
Chapter 1c: Agglutination
This page will teach you how to make different parts of speech using the main form of Turkish word formation, agglutination.
Essentially, words can be created by adding repeated suffixes at the end of a root.
Nouns to Adjectives
Adjectives can be formed with the ending
Koku
Smell (root noun)
In this example, -li turns to -lu due to Vowel harmony, this is discussed in the next chapter. Here are some more examples of adjectives formed from nouns:
| Root Noun | Adjective | English |
|---|---|---|
| yaş | yaşlı | year / old |
| yıldız | yıldızlı | star / starry |
| Çin | çinli | China / Chinese |
| söğüt | söğütlü | willow / willowy |
Nouns to Verbs
Making verbs from nouns in Turkish is very similar to making adjectives, though replace the ending -li with the ending -mek/-mak, also dependent on vowel harmony. This is the infinitive ending. For example 'to sleep':
Uyu
Sleep (root noun)
Here are some examples
| Root Noun | Verb | English |
|---|---|---|
| koku | koklamak | smell / to smell |
| yatak | yatmak | bed / to lie |
| soru | sormak | question / to ask |
| yağmur | yağmak | rain / to rain |
All of these words can be further agglutinated to be conjugated to the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person, singular or plural, in 7 cases. These will be explored later.
Verbs to Nouns
From the infinitive form -mek/-mak, we get the ending -iş to create nouns. This ending is not universal. This is the word for departure:
Gid
To go (root verb)
| Root Verb | Noun | English |
|---|---|---|
| gelmek | gelmiş | to come / arrival |
| satmak | satış | to sell / sale |
| yemek | yemiş | to eat / fruit (old term) |
| yağmak | yağış | to rain / precipitation |
Adjectives to Nouns
This can be done with the ending -lik, which is dependent on word harmony. This is the word for happiness:
Mutlu
Happy (root adjective)
| Root Adjective | Noun | English |
|---|---|---|
| sağ | sağlık | right / health |
| güvenli* | güvenlik | secure / security |
| kötü | kötülük | bad / evil (noun) |
| evli | evlilik | married / marriage |
*itself from the noun güven (trust)
This ending can also be used on non-abstract nouns to make them abstract, for example dost (friend) to dostluk (friendship)
Adverbs
The ending -ça/çe is used to turn an adjective to an adverb.
| Root Adjective | Adverb | English |
|---|---|---|
| yavaş | yavaşça | slow / slowly |
| hasta | hastaca | sick / sickly |
| hızlı | hızlıce | fast / quickly |
Stacking Agglutinatives
You can stack these endings as much as you like, as long as the word ends up making sense.
Sağ
Right (root adjective)
Meaning: you are all healthy.