Lesson 6: Turkish Vowel Harmony
Introduction
In Turkish, vowel harmony is an essential rule for ensuring smooth pronunciation and consistency within words. A key aspect of vowel harmony is understanding the distinctions between back and front vowels, as well as rounded and unrounded vowels, and their impact on suffixes.
Vowel Categories
1. Back and Front Vowels
- Back Vowels: a, ı, o, u
- Front Vowels: e, i, ö, ü
2. Rounded and Unrounded Vowels
- Unrounded Vowels: a, ı, e, i
- Rounded Vowels: o, u, ö, ü
Combining Categories
Vowels in Turkish can be classified based on both their back/front and rounded/unrounded characteristics:
1. Back, Unrounded: a, ı
2. Back, Rounded: o, u
3. Front, Unrounded: e, i
4. Front, Rounded: ö, ü
e-type vowel harmony
"e-type" vowel harmony refers to the pattern where the vowel in the suffix can be either e or a, depending on the last vowel of the root word. This type of harmony is concerned with whether the last vowel is a front vowel (e, i, ö, ü) or a back vowel (a, ı, o, u).
Back vowels (a, ı, o, u): The suffix takes the a form.
Example: kitap (book) + -lar = kitaplar (books)
Front vowels (e, i, ö, ü): The suffix takes the e form.
Example: ev (house) + -ler = evler (houses)
i-type vowel harmony
"i-type" vowel harmony involves a four-way distinction, where the vowel in the suffix can be ı, i, u, or ü, depending on both the front/back and rounded/unrounded qualities of the last vowel in the root word. This type of harmony applies to suffixes that have a high vowel (like -im or -in).
Back, Unrounded (a, ı): The suffix takes the ı form.
Example: kitap (book) + -ım = kitabım (my book)
Back, Rounded (o, u): The suffix takes the u form.
Example: okul (school) + -um = okulum (my school)
Front, Unrounded (e, i): The suffix takes the i form.
Example: ev (house) + -im = evim (my house)
Front, Rounded (ö, ü): The suffix takes the ü form.
Example: göl (lake) + -üm = gölüm (my lake)
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Loandwords
Loanwords: Loanwords often do not follow Turkish vowel harmony rules, particularly when adding suffixes.
Example: rol (role) + -ler = roller (roles) instead of a suffix with e because the word is a loanword.
Homework
1. Find five more Turkish words and identify the type of their final vowels (back/front and rounded/unrounded).
2. Add the locative suffix (-de, -da) to these words.
Conclusion
Understanding the rounded and unrounded aspects of Turkish vowels, in addition to their front and back qualities, is crucial for correctly applying vowel harmony. Practice with different words and suffixes to get a solid grasp of this concept. In our next lesson, we'll cover basic sentence structure in Turkish.
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A1 Greeting and Farewell / Selamlaşma ve Veda
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