As I already mentioned in the introduction to this Turkish Language for Tourists post series, Turkish is a phonetic language. This means that, by learning a few basic rules, it’s easy to pronounce the Turkish words correctly.

Turkish Alphabet

In order to create a phonetic language, a few changes were made to the Latin alphabet. The letters Q, W and X were disregarded and six additional letters were added: ç, ğ, ş, ö, ü and ı (undotted i). So, the Turkish alphabet is made up of eight vowels and twenty-one consonants.

Turkish Pronunciation

• Basic rules
  • each letter is pronounced – e.g. your buddy Mehmet is pronounced ‘mehh-met’ and not ‘me-met’.
  • vowels don’t combine to form diphthongs – e.g. eye, boy, and cow in English
  • consonants don’t combine to form other sounds – e.g. th, gh or sh in English
• Pronunciation of special characters
  • c – as the j in joker
  • ç – as the ch in child
  • g – as the g in garlic
  • ğ – this letter is not pronounced but lenghthens the preceding vowel
  • i – a short i, as in sit and tip
  • ı – as the u in butter
  • ö – as the u in fur
  • u – as the oo in book
  • ü – as the e in few
  • ş – as the sh in she

No related posts.

A bit of Turkish goes a long way. Locals appreciate tourists making the effort to use a few words or phrases, no matter how muddled you may think you sound.

Sure, Turkish may seem a bit daunting at a first glace – not in the least because of the 7 special characters that were added to the standard Latin alphabet and the subject-object-verb order.

However, the good news is that it’s a phonetic language – they way it’s written is the way it’s spoken. So, once you know the pronunciation rules, you can basically tackle any Turkish word or sentence

This Turkish Language for Tourists series will cover words and phrases a you may find useful during a city trip to Istanbul:

• Turkish Pronunciation Rules – Turkish Language for Tourists
• Numbers, Days, Months & Seasons – Turkish Language for Tourists
• Communication Essentials – Turkish Language for Tourists
• Accommodation, Getting Around, Sightseeing & Shopping – Turkish Language for Tourists
• Useful Everyday Phrases – Turkish Language for Tourists
• Deciphering What Is On the Menu – Turkish Language for Tourists

No related posts.