The Turkish Language

          My main goal of the last almost 9 months has been to learn Turkish. This seems like such an easy pursuit when I say that way, but it has been anything but. Perhaps a better way to say it would be that the Turkish language has been the bane of my existence here. 

          Turkish is both a very difficult and very simple language. The grammar is very complex seeming but once you have learned it, it is hypothetically relatively easy to use. So today, I will attempt to give you all an insight into the beautiful language that I have devoted this year to learning. 

The first thing to know about Turkish grammar is that the word order is opposite from English, although this is flexible and you can usually be understood as long as the verb is always last in the sentence. 

Ex) Bir kitap okuyorum. - I am reading a book. 

However, translated directly from Turkish this sentence says a book reading am I. 

Which leads to verbs. Turkish verbs are wonderful because there are no irregular verbs and you can tell the subject of the sentence based on the conjugation of the verb, which means you are often able to not put any subject word into the sentence and everyone still knows what you are talking about. 

Ex) Koşuyorum. - I am running. 

      Koşuyorsun. - You are running. 

      Koşuyor. - He/She is running. 

      Koşuyoruz. - We are running.  

      Koşuyorsunuz. - You (plural/formal) are running.  

      Koşuyor(lar). - They are running. 

The subjects in Turkish are Ben (I), Sen (you), O (he/she/it), Biz (we), Siz (you formal/plural), and Onlar (they). However, as I said above, these often aren't used in sentences and are just assumed from the ending on the verb. 

Ex) Okula gidiyoruz. - We are going to school. 

Using biz is not necessary because it is implied by the ending on the verb. 

Turkish is an agglutinative language meaning that there are many endings that you add on to words to change their meaning. Because of that, it is possible to make an entire English sentence with one word in Turkish. 

Ex) Ev - house

      Evim - my house

      Evimde - in my house

      Evimdeyim - I am in my house. 

Another interesting part of Turkish grammar is their use of vowel harmony. There are 8 vowels and whenever you add endings onto words, you have to make sure that the vowels "match". If the word has a, ı, o, or u, the ending you add will also have those vowels. If the word has e, i, ö, or ü, the ending you add will also have those vowels. Seems confusing but really just takes practice. 

The last thing I will mention because I'm guessing most of you don't really care that much about Turkish grammar is that there is no gender on nouns. It is truly a language lovers dream because every noun is used with either bir which means one or with nothing before it. 

Ex) Araba kullanıyorum. - I am driving a car. But directly translated as car driving am I. 

This is such a tiny part of the enormity of Turkish grammar but it may give you some idea of what this language is like and maybe it was at least a little bit interesting. 

Now I will list some of my favorite words and things you are most likely to hear if you were to come to Turkey. 

Merhaba - Hello

Nasılsın(ız)? - How are you? (Casual and formal) 

Hoşgeldin(iz) - Welcome

Hoşbulduk - The response to welcome

Buyurun - There is really no English equivalent of this but is said when you enter shops or houses usually and kind of means look or here you go. It's ised all the time. 

Teşekkürler/Sağol - Thank you (formal and casual)

Inşallah - used as hopefully. 

Maşallah - a pretty general exclamation but used as great or wow mostly. 

Some of my favorite/most used words:

Ahududu - raspberry. I have actually never seen a raspberry in Turkey but I still like the word. 

Keçi - goat. This was the first Turkish word I learned and it has stuck with me although I don't use it much. 

Karpuz - This was pretty much the only word my friend Jake knew when we arrived and he told it to us so much, it became one of the only words I knew for awhile. It means watermelon. 

Çay - it means tea. Now whenever I hear chai tea I laugh because it sounds like they are saying tea tea. 

Susar mısın? - I just think this phrase is really funny because it's the polite way of asking someone to shut up. Basically "Could you please shut up?) 

I hope I didn't bore you all too much with this post and I hope it gave you a little glimpse into what I've been studying these past months. Turkish is an incredibly difficult language to learn but it is truly very fun to speak and is really beautiful when spoken by people with not my accent. I get frustrated by this language very regularly but I am so glad that I decided to learn it and I can't wait to continue my learning. 

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful week!