Turkish Grammar › Phonology
Alfabe ve Ünlü Uyumu
Alphabet and Vowel Harmony
Level A1Phonology
The letters of the Turkish alphabet, vowels and consonants, and the basic rules of sound harmony.
The Turkish alphabet has 29 letters: 8 vowels and 21 consonants. Turkish words are generally written as they are pronounced and pronounced as they are written.
Vowels are sounds made with the mouth open, and they fall into two groups: back vowels (a, ı, o, u) and front vowels (e, i, ö, ü). One of the most basic rules in Turkish is vowel harmony. According to it, if the vowel in the first syllable is a back vowel, the vowels in the following syllables should also be back (a, ı, o, u); if the first vowel is front, the following ones should also be front (e, i, ö, ü). Remember that although this holds most of the time, there are exceptions — for example: kalem, otobüs.
Consonants are letters that cannot be sounded on their own and are read together with a vowel (b, c, ç, d, f, g, ğ, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, ş, t, v, y, z). When words are derived and suffixes are added in Turkish, you have to pay attention to whether the vowels are back or front.
Examples
- Araba (Kalın ünlüler: a-a-a)Araba — car (back vowels: a-a-a)
- Evlerimiz (İnce ünlüler: e-e-i-i)Evlerimiz — our houses (front vowels: e-e-i-i)
- Okul (Kalın ünlüler: o-u)Okul — school (back vowels: o-u)
- Gözlük (İnce ünlüler: ö-ü)Gözlük — glasses (front vowels: ö-ü)
- Kalem (Türkçeye yabancı dilden geçmiş, uyuma uymayan kelime: a-e)Kalem — pen (a loanword that breaks harmony: a-e)
- Sınıf (Kalın ünlüler: ı-ı)Sınıf — classroom (back vowels: ı-ı)