Pronunciation.
Now, the book I have makes pronunciation complicated, mostly because I'm not from northern England, and therefore don't speak like that. So, for the sake of simplicity, I'll link a website that I think is pretty good. It doesn't give examples, and I'm still looking for a site that does. If you find one, would you mind sending it to me?
http://www.edwebproject.org/anatolia/turkish.htmlAa - a - f
ather
Bb - be - as in English
Cc - ce -
jam
Çç - çe -
charge
Dd - de - as in English
Ee - e - b
ed
Ff - fe - As in English
Gg - ge -
goat (see note)
Ğğ - yumuşak (soft) ge - see pronunciation note
Hh - he - Always as in
house, never alpha or hour.
Iı - ı - see note
İi - i - f
eet
Jj - je - mea
sure
Kk - ke -
key (see note)
Ll - le - see note
Mm - me - as in English
Nn - ne - as in English
Oo - o - b
onus
Öö - ö - German K
önig, G
oethe
Pp - pe - As in English
Rr - re - Japanese 'r,' bu
tter
Ss - se -
sing
Şş - şe -
ship
Tt - te -
take
Uu - u - p
ool, b
ooÜü - ü - German F
ührer, French t
uVv - ve - see note
Yy - ye -
yet
Zz - ze -
zoo
G. Before or after a front vowel, it is palatalized, meaning a y sound is added to the end.
Ğ is a strange letter. Apparently, in some dialects, it is the voiced velar fricative, like the 'ghayin' in Arabic. I will not be using this pronunciation. Ğ never appears as the beginning of a word. When you find it at the end of a word or preceding a consonant, it lengthens the precedeing vowel. Dağ /daː/, ağda /aːda/.
When it comes between two back vowels (a, ı, u, o), the first vowel is lengthened, while the second is lost. If one of the vowels surrounding the ğ is a u, you may hear the ğ as a faint w.
When it comes between two front vowels (e, i , ö, ü), it is heard as a faint 'y' sound, like in paying. Ciğer.
Occasionally, the ğ will replace the v in words such as dövmek or övmek, but only in writing, and not in pronunciation.
I is also weird. Various places give different examples. Some say it is like the i in cousin, or like the a in about, or like the e in open.
This a link to a Wikipedia page for the sound, if you want to listen to the sound.
K will change into ğ if it ends a word, and a vowel is added to it. biçak - knife + ım = biçağım. Before or after a front vowel, it is palatalized, meaning a y sound is added to the end.
L has two pronunciations, clear and dark. When an l comes with front vowels, it is pronounced like in least, but when it comes with back vowels, it is pronounced like in wool.
V is sometimes pronounced as a weak w, especially between a and u. F is also weaker than English.
There are also some other letters not in the alphabet, but still in the Turkish orthography. These are:
â - indicates long vowels, generally of Persian or Arabic decent. adet vs âdet. It may also be used to indicate a palatalized k or g. It also shows when a clear l should be used with a in Arabic borrowings, though it is often omitted. malûm
û - this indicates that the preceding k or g are palatalized. It also shows when a clear l should be used with u in Arabic borrowings, though it is often omitted. malûm
aa - this indicates a long a following a non-palatalized k or g. Normally, it would be written as â, but, if the preceding k or g is not meant to be palatalized, this will not work. For this reason aa is employed.
Vowel Harmony.
Whee. This is probably one of my least favorite parts of Turkish. It's just that it doesn't come naturally for me. In any case, vowel harmony is a rule that decides what sorts of vowels appear in words, sort of.
The general law of vowel harmony in Turkish is that if the first syllable's vowel is a back vowel, the rest are as well. If it is a front vowel, the rest change accordingly. An example would be: sınırlarımız - our fronteirs, as opposed to sinirlerimiz - our nerves. There are, of course, exceptions, such as the eight invariable suffixes, like '-yor-' and a few words, such as 'anne,' meaning mother.
The special law of vowel harmony is that unrounded vowels are followed by unrounded vowels, and that rounded vowels are followed by low unrounded, or high rounded vowels.
My book gives a chart displaying what each vowel is followed by:
a - a, ı
e - e, i
ı - ı, a
i - i, e
o - a, u
ö - ü, e
u - u, a
ü - ü, e
Vowel harmony influences case endings. I will include a chart of the changes when I touch on the cases.