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Turkish Alphabet & Pronunciation

The Latin-based Turkish alphabet, special letters, vowel sounds, and pronunciation rules
Consonant mutation: p/ç/k/t softening
final stops soften before vowel suffixes
varies
Kitap → kitabı; ağaç → ağacı; renk → rengi; final consonant softens
Buffer consonants y and n
prevent vowel clash between root and suffix
varies
Araba + yı (not arabaaı); kapı + nın (not kapıın)
Vowel dropping in stems
some stems drop stem vowel before suffix
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Burun → burnu (nose); isim → ismi (name); oğul → oğlu (son)
Stress in Turkish words
generally on the last syllable
varies
Turkish stress is mostly final; exception: place names and some loanwords
Loanword pronunciation: Fransızca, İngilizce
French and English loans
frahn-suhz-jah, een-gee-leez-jeh
-ce/-ca suffix on nationality = language: Fransızca = French language
Ğ in practice: dağ, yağmur
soft g lengthening examples
dah, yah-moor
Dağ = mountain; yağmur = rain; ğ completely silent but lengthens vowel
Ö and Ü pronunciation practice
front rounded vowels unique to Turkish
ur, ew
Göz (eye), güzel (beautiful); lips rounded like French but tongue front
Minimal pairs: ı vs i
dotless ı vs dotted i distinction
uh vs ee
Kız (girl) vs. kiz is not a word; ışık (light) vs. iş (work)
Long vowels in Arabic/Persian loanwords
historically long vowels now mostly leveled
varies
Aile (family), lakin (however) -- Arabic loans with historical long vowels
Syllable structure and division
Turkish prefers open CV syllables
varies
Hyphenation follows syllable boundaries: ki-tap, a-ra-ba, öğ-ren-ci