Lewis V Thomas ELEMENTARY TURKISH

Lewis V ThomasELEMENTARYTURKISHRevised and Edited byNorman Itzkowitz

Editor’s NoteL ew is V ic t o r T h o m as was born in Chicago, February 27, 1914, and diedin Princeton, October 21, 1965. He grew up in Indiana and was proud o f hisHoosier background. He was trained as a classicist and orientalist at theUniversity of Chicago and its Oriental Institute. Shortly after World War IIhe took his Ph.D. under Paul Wittek at Brussels. In 1947 he joined the Prince ton faculty.An accomplished teacher, Thomas made his seminars in Ottoman historyand his courses in the Turkish language a training ground for many ofAmerica’s growing group of Ottomanists and Turkish specialists. As a teacherhe was keenly aware of the lack of adequate teaching materials. During hislast year Thomas was hard at work preparing this grammar for publication,but his illness prevented him from completing the project to which he haddevoted so much effort. He asked me to see the book through to publication,and I have made the necessary revisions with the kind assistance o f Mr.Salih Necdet Ok, whose help I gratefully acknowledge.In the process of editing the manuscript I have preserved almost all ofThomas’s organization and method. This book has helped many Princetonstudents to learn modern Turkish quickly. It is hoped that it will now enableeven more students to achieve that goal and that through them Lewis V.Thomas’s influence will continue in the field of Turkish studies that he servedso well.Norman Itzkowitz

PrefaceT he p u r p o se o f this book is to enable English-speaking students to rec ognize, understand, and begin to use the basic patterns of modern standardTurkish. These basic patterns are, insofar as possible, presented one by onein a sequence that experience has shown to yield maximum results forEnglish speakers.The exercises are intended to present the student with the elements ofTurkish in a form which he can begin to use. New vocabulary occurring inthe exercises can be located in the Glossary.An effort has been made to limit the material presented to those forms andpatterns that in fact make up elementary standard modern Turkish. Mythanks are due to the generations o f Princeton University students who haveuncomplainingly used the book in its successive mimeographed editions andin so doing have helped me learn what elementary Turkish is. Thanks arealso due to my colleagues Professor Norman Itzkowitz and Mr. CevatErder and to a valiant typist, Mrs. Elsa Washington.Lewis V. Thomas

ContentsLESSO N S1The Alphabet. ‘ Soft g.’ Doubled Consonants. The CircumflexAccent. Spelling. Syllabification. Punctuation2Cardinal Numbers. ‘ One Half.’ Kaç, Çok, and Az. Parça and Tane3Position o f Adjectives. Indefinite Article with Adjectives. PredicateModifiers4Definite Article. Adjective and Noun. Agglutination. VowelHarmony. The Plural5Common Infinitive. Variable Consonants. Past Definite Verb.Agreement o f Subject and Verb6Verbs o f the Type Gitmek (Gider). The Objective Definite. VariableConsonants Followed by Objective Definite. Doubled ConsonantsFollowed by Objective Definite. ‘ Ayn Followed by ObjectiveDefinite. Final k Followed by Objective Definite. Nouns of theType Oğul Followed by Objective Definite7Personal Pronouns. Interrogative Pronouns. Demonstratives. TheImperative. Word Order8Nere*, Bura*, Ora*. Dative Suffix -(y) V 2. Locative Suffix -t/d V2.Ablative Suffix -t/d V2n. Dative, Locative, and Ablative Forms ofNere*, Bura*, Ora*, the Personal Pronouns, the Interrogatives, andthe Demonstratives. Fractions. Calendar. The Word d V29Negative Verb. Interrogative Particle (m V4). Negative Interroga tive. Negative Expressions

10The Possessive Construction. Possessive Definite Suffix -(n) V 4 n.Possessive Suffixes. The Possessive Construction, Types I and II.Personal Pronouns as Members o f Possessive Constructions.Possessive Complexes. The Word Sahip in Possessive Con structions. Suffixes added to a Possessive Suffix. Kendi6011Infinitives. General Verbs7212Past General Verbs. FutureEmphatics. The Suffix -ç/c V 2Verbs.Adverbs.Comparison.7913Postpositions. Expressions o f Location8614The Verb ‘ to Be.’ Var and yok. The Resumptive Question9315The Suffixes -1 V4, -s V 4 z, and -1 V 4 k. Past Indefinite, Past Narra tive, and Past Perfect Verb Forms99The Partitive. Participles. Gerund -t/d V 4 k. Indirect Discourse.Relative Gerundive and Adverb104-ki. Ki. Çünkü. The Professional Doer. The Habitual Doer.Diminutives. Noun o f Manner111Progressive Verb Forms. Common Infinitive plus the Locative with‘ to Be.’ Ordinals and Distributives. Gerundive in -(y) V211719‘ To Be A ble’12320Auxiliary Verb. Optative-Subjunctive. Necessity. Condition12821Passive Verbs. The Agent. Causative, Reflexive, and Mutual Verbs13522Abbreviating Verb Forms. Attendant Circumstances. Verb Form in-(y) V 4 n c V 2. Verb Form in -t/d V 4 k ç V 2141Statement on Verb Forms. True and Untrue Conditions14816171823KEYTOE X E R C IS E SVOCABU LARY2152176

Lesson 1The Alphabet. ‘ S o ftg .’ D oubled Consonants.The Circumflex Accent. Spelling.Syllabification. Punctuationi. The alphabetThe Turkish alphabet contains 29 letters. Q, w, and x do not occur. SixTurkish letters are unfamiliar to the American student’s eye. They are thethree consonants p, g, and 3, and the three vowels 1, o, and u. The capital formso f these letters are p, f , g, C, j, , t, I, o, 0 , and u, V. Note that the capitalform of 1 (called the ‘ undotted i ’) is /; that o f / (the ‘ dotted i ’) is I.LETTERNAMEAPPROXIMATE PRONUNCIATIONABCabcCDEFCdefabece?edeefeGggeas u in sunas in Englishas j in jumpas ch in churchas in Englishas in fedas in Englishas in go3

LETTERNAMEAPPROXIMATE PRONUNCIATIONGgHIİJKLMN0ÖPRSh1iyumuşak ge(soft g)he1ias y in yet (See the notein Lesson 1, section 2.)as in headas the second vowel in nationas in bitas s in measureas in kingas in Englishas in Englishas in Englishas 0 in falsettoas eu in French peuas in Englishas in rockas in sitas sli in shoeas in Englishas u in pullas ii in iiberas in Englishas in yellowas in ereseşeteuÜveyezeIn general, stress tends to be placed on the last syllable in a word.2. ‘ Soft g ’Ğ, ğ (yumuşak ge ‘ soft g ’). This letter never begins a word. When itimmediately follows a back vowel, a vowel formed in the back o f the mouth(a, i, o, u: see Lesson 4, section 4), its sound resembles the glide one hearsbetween the words ‘ go on ’ or between the words ‘ go over’ when either ofthese pairs of words is slurred (as in ağaç ‘ tree’). When yumuşak ge immedi ately follows a front vowel, a vowel formed in the front of the mouth (e, i,ö, ü : see Lesson 4), its sound is approximately that o f y in ‘ yet’ (as in diğer‘ other’).3. Doubled consonantsThe sound of a doubled consonant is prolonged well beyond that of thesame consonant when single.elli4fiftyelithe hand (objective)

4- The circumflex accentThe circumflex accent ( ) may stand over the vowels a, i, and u (â, i, û).It has two distinct functions.a. Standing over the letter a which is preceded by g, k, or I (gâ, kâ, lâ),the circumflex indicates that a y sound is to be pronounced betweenthe consonant and the following a. In the syllable lâ, the y sound isfainter than in the syllables gâ and kâ.gâvurkârlâleheathenprofit (compare kar ‘ snow’)tulipb. Except in the syllables gâ, kâ, and lâ, the circumflex indicates thatthe vowel sound is to be prolonged. This is the case in the many(originally Arabic) adjectives ending in Î.ŞamîLübnanîmillîedebîİktisadîDamascene (Şam ‘ Damascus ’)Lebanese (Lübnan ‘ the Lebanon’)nationalliteraryeconomic, economicalSometimes the circumflex is used to distinguish between two words which,without it, would be spelled and pronounced identically.Aliproper name (of a man)âlilofty, sublimeOccasionally a word beginning with ga, ka, or la has a long vowel in thefirst syllable but does not have in that syllable the y sound which the use of acircumflex (gâ, kâ, lâ) would indicate. This may be shown by doubling the a,e.g. kaatil ‘ murderer.’ Compare katil ‘ murder.’5. SpellingTurkish spelling is phonetic, the same letter always indicating the samesound. Words borrowed from other languages are frequently spelled lN o te : Any sequence o f vowel im mediately followed by vowel is to be pro nounced with a full stop between the tw o vowels. (The use o f aa to indicate5

long a in a word like kaatil ‘ murderer’ [see above, section 4b] is the soleexception to this rule.) Words containing the sequence vowel-vowel are alwaysof non-Turkish origin. Some Turkish writers and presses use an apostropheto show the full stop between the two vowels, but this is now very rare. Thestop is always to be made, whether an apostrophe is used or not.«aat or sa'atSait or Sa’fthour, time: watch, clockproper name (of a man)(For other uses of the apostrophe, see Lesson 4.)6. SyllabificationTurkish admits six syllable patterns (V vowel; C consonant).V0VCcvcvcvcccvccakvedagiistgenehe, she, it;that (derwhiteandmountaintopyoungEach syllable begins with a single vowel or with a single consonant. Borrowedwords which begin with two consonants may undergo one o f two changes.a. A vowel is inserted between the two initial consonantskiralkingb. A vowel is prefixed to the first consonant.ispirtospirits, alcoholc. With some borrowings, however, this does not occur.kredicredit7. PunctuationTurkey’s authors, editors, and publishers have not yet standardizedpunctuation. The period and question mark are ordinarily used as they arein English. A comma often indicates the end o f the subject. Direct quotationsmay be shown by single or double quotation marks, by continental quotationmarks, by dashes, or even by parentheses. Frequently, only the beginningo f a quotation is shown. Often, a quotation is not indicated at all.6

ExercisesA. Practice aloud.annebabaaltıkaç?altı ağaçkaç ağaç?birbeşbenbüyükbalıkbeş balıkcaddecamisözcügecekaç gece?beş caddebir geceçocukbüyük çocukçokçok büyükçok gecegüçgeçdörtdokuzdoksandişdokuz dişdoksan geceçok camimotherfathersixhow much?how many?six treeshow many trees ?one; a, anfiveIbig, large, greatfishfive fishstreet, avenuemosquespokesmannighthow many nights ?five streetsone night; anightchild (male orfemale)big child, boymuch, many,veryvery bigmany nightsdifficultlatefournineninetytoothnine teethninety nightsmany mosquesdört beşdört beşçocukeverkenfenafincanfilhaftakaç hafta?bir fincanbüyük camifena filgüngölgenişgözfena günbüyük göloğulyağçok yağdiğerdiğer gözeğereğer benbahçesabahkahvekaşıkşekerbir fincankahvekaç kaşıkşeker?four (or) fivefour (or) fivechildrenhouseearlybadcupelephantweekhow many weeks?one cup; a cupbig mosquebad elephantdaylakewideeyebad daybig lakesongrease,(cooking) fat,(vegetable) oillots o f grease(the) other(the) other eyeifif I . . .garden, yardmorningcoffee, coffeehousespoonsugarone cup of coffee,a cup o f coffeehow many spoonso f sugar?7