Translation exercise 1

Bob's site references some links to Turkish sites. That gave me the idea of trying to read Turkish news and see how much I can recognize. To the extent that I'm clueless, to that extent my motivation increases to work harder to learn more.

In this case, I chose this headline: Benzinde 4 yeni kuruş indirim. My translation is this: 4 new reductions of gasoline prices.

Since I had to struggle to get that much, that's my clue to work harder. My goal is to be able to finish reading a Turkish news article with a minimum of trips to my Turkish/English dictionary.

Note to "whining politically correct nitwits"

Another reason for me to like Bob Cromwell, author of the site I raved about in my previous post, is this quote from his background page: "The third person singular pronoun o means "he", "she", and "it" equally. So, all whining politically correct nitwits should learn Turkish immediately and use it exclusively."

Turkish grammar on the web

Hey, look what I found—basics of Turkish grammar on the web. It's a freakin' gold mine of Turkish study material!

Google is the ever fertile search engine that led me to it. All I needed to do was decide to conduct a search on "Turkish grammar". This puppy was the first hit.

I decided to do the search because I was in the midst of practicing my Turkish via Rosetta Stone (RS). I found myself wanting to understand a point of grammar more clearly. RS is mainly a lot of pictures with Turkish words with the idea, apparently, being that you'll learn ostensively -- i.e., via showing you a thing or action and placing with it the appropriate word or words along with how they sound. Very helpful for this novice.

However, I also want to understand things. So, hearing and seeing "atın üstünde bir kız" (a girl atop a horse) along with practicing "oğlanın üstünde bir top" (a ball atop a boy), I wanted to break down the -ın ending of horse (at) and boy (oğlan). However, my usual Turkish grammar book is still in storage somewhere following my months long renovations project.

Hence my hope I could scare something up on the web. My expectations were low. What I found was gold.

I find it interesting this site was built by a man who's into a lot of heavy technical matters. I'm impressed, to put it gently.

Anyway, my thanks go to this fine fellow for producing another resource for me to sink my teeth into.

Maşallah!

Vocabulary building 02

I've been using Rosetta Stone to build my Turkish vocabulary. I've decided to reinforce some of those words here. This effort echoes a January post but with pictures this time.

	Dog: Köpek
	Puppy: Köpek yavrusu
	Woman (Salma Hayek; aka hubba hubba!): Kadın (aka çok güzel!)
	Man (Gary Cooper): Adam
	Cat: Kedi
	Kitten: Kedi yavrusu
	Bathroom: Tuvalet
	Bathroom countertop and toiletries: tuvalet masası ve tuvalet malzemeleri
	Baskets (on top of my cabinets to maximize the use of space and give it a uniform appearance): Sepetler (Sepet = basket; -ler is the Turkish version of -s in English; -ler instead of -lar here to conform to the vowel harmony rule
	Electric light and fan combination (part of my recent kitchen renovations): Elektrik lâmbası ve vantilatör terkip

Bayram

Man, over 7 months! That's how long I've been away from my Turkish blog. Ouch! During this period, I've been preoccupied with my home renovations (as well as helping Mary with her home's maintenance). They've been very disruptive, to put it gently. You can read about it at my main blog.

In any event, I'm back. And starting with a blurb about bayram is fitting, as it's now holidays here in America. In fact, Christmas music is already being played on the radio even though Thanksgiving has not even occurred yet. Irritating—can we finish with one holiday first? Christmas, wait your turn! Stop trying to shove past Thanksgiving, the distinctly American holiday!

Historical footnote: New England's religious Pilgrims were not the first to usher in Thanksgiving. That honor goes to the secular settlers of Jamestown, Virgina. For more information, check this link out.

Back to bayram (bai-ram), which means "religious or national festival". Turkey has two religious bayrams. During both, it's customary for young people to visit older family members and friends and kiss their hands.

Note: My source for this information is lonely planet's Turkish phrasebook.

One is called Şeker Bayramı, the feast of the sweets, or Ramazan Bayramı, the feast of Ramadan. During the lunar month of Ramadan that precedes Ramazan Bayramı, Muslims fast during the day and feast at night for one month. At the end of the month, they celebrate this three-day bayram and public holiday, making sweets and visiting each other. Children also go from house to house wishing people Mutlu bayramlar (Happy Bayrams!) and receiving sweets, chocolate or money.

Shades of Halloween! Interesting surface similarities but, of course, the context is totally different.

During Kurban Bayramı, the feast of the sacrifice, the second bayram, people make animal sacrifices and give the meat to the poor and needy. This festival last for four days and is also a public holiday.

Ben Şeker Bayramı ile ilgileniyorum. Tatlı seviyorum. Güdülenme var. [Translation: I am interested in Şeker Bayramı. I like sweets. There's my motivation. :^) ]

Vowel Harmony

Since my body clock is out of whack (it's almost 2:00 AM my time and I am wide awake), I'm trying to use my time productively. So, staring at the screen, it dawned on me: "How many hits would I get with a Google search of 'vowel harmony'?" Lo and behold, I got well over 40,000!

Among them was this gem—http://www.turkishlanguage.co.uk/vh1.htm. Its explanation of Turkish vowel harmony is unlike others that I can recall. However, I'm still going with what sounds pleasing to my ear (welcoming corrections as I go along).

That's it for now. I'm going to try to sleep, perchance to dream.

Lonely Planet Phrasebooks

At my local Borders, I stumbled across a Lonely Planet Phrasebook for Turkish.

So far, I like what I see. First, it's small enough to fit in my coat pocket, making it easy to keep it with me and open it up when I find a few moments alone. Second, it was cheap at $9.00. You can find it for less via the net. Third, it includes transliteration for many words.

For example, bira is Turkish for beer. The transliteration for bira is bee-ra. This little paperback covers enough words to reinforce the correct pronunciation of all the letters of the Turkish alphabet.

This phrasebook also touches on Turkish grammar. As such, it's reinforcing the grammar I've been studying via other textbooks. It's also clarifying some elements of grammar on which I've stumbled.

For example, it touches on Turkish as a case language, "which means that endings are added to nouns and pronouns to show their relationship to other elements in the sentence." Examples follow:

nominative — shows the subject of the sentence: This bag is very heavy. Bu çanta çok ağır. (literally: this bag very heavy)

accusative — shows the object of the sentence: Did you see that bag? Şu çantayı gördün mü? (literally: that bag saw-you?

genetive — shows possession ("of"): The color of this bag is very nice. Bu çantanın rengi çok güzel. (literally: this bag-of color very nice)

dative — shows the indirect object with verbs like "happen" ('to'): What happened to your bag? Çantana ne oldu? (literally: bag-your-to what happened?

locative — shows location ("in", "on", "at", "with", etc.): It's her bag. Onun çantasında. (literally: her bag-in)

ablative — shows point of origin in space or time ("from"): He pulled the timetable from the bag. Tarifeyi çantasından çıkardı. (literally: timetable bag-his-from pulled)

All in all, it's an interesting, afforable complement to my other textbooks.

Var ol!

I stumbled across this Turkish expression while browsing through www.turkishdictionary.net: Var ol! Good for you!/Well done!/Bravo!

That's a keeper.

Q & A 01

Workbook exercise: match the following questions and answers.

Question	Answer
a. O Hollandalı mı?	i. Adım Berkant.
b. Adınız ne?	ii. Dört kişiyiz.
c. Siz polissiniz, değil mi?	iii. Eşim Asuman.
d. Milliyetiniz ne?	iv. Hayır, doktorum.
e. Yoğurt var mı?	v. Hayır, saçlarım kısa.
f. Saçlarınız uzun mu?	vi. Hayır, Türk.
g. Eşiniz kim?	vii. Var, ama taze değil.
h. Oteliniz nasıl?	viii. Türküm.
i. Kaç Kişisiniz?	ix. Güzel ama pahalı.

Answers:

1. vi
2. i
3. iv
4. viii
5. vii
6. v
7. iii
8. ix
9. ii

My translations:

Question	Answer
a. Are you Dutch?	i. My name is Berkant.
b. What is your name?	ii. 4 people.
c. Are you a policeman?	iii. My husband is Asuman.
d. What is your nationality?	iv. No, I am a doctor.
e. Is that yoghurt?	v. No, my hair is short.
f. Is your hair long?	vi. No, Turk.
g. Who is your husband?	vii. There, but it's not fresh.
h. How is your hotel?	viii. I am a Turk.
i. How many people?	ix. Good but expensive.

Possessive Names

Speaking of possessiveness, one of my Turkish/English dictionaries gave the following example of a possessive: Gülru (a woman's name); Gülru'nun (Gülru's).

This switched a light on for me. I had seen this form but didn't understand it. But, following a policy of the Little Prince, once I have a question, I never let it go. I just store it away for future reference.

Now, here's the answer from my textbook: "In written Turkish, proper names are usually separated from the suffix with an apostrophe, in order to avoid confusion."

Examples follow:

• Ali'nin şapkası (Ali's hat)
• Adamın evi (the man's house)
• Adamların evi (the men's house)
• Hanımın kitapları (the lady's books)

But, my textbook says,

If, in a combination of two nouns, the first noun is a modifier rather than a possessor, it does not take a separate suffix.

Then, it cites some examples as follows:

• Ziraat (agriculture); banka (bank); but together Ziraat Bankası (the Agriculture Bank, the largest of the state-owned banks).
• Atatürk Havalimanı (the Atatürk Airport, in Istanbul).
• Üniversite (university); Anakara Üniversitesi (Anakara University)

There may be a connection between these examples and my question regarding arabanın but I don't see it yet.

Arabanın içinde bir kadın

Arabanın içinde bir kadın.

This evening, while working with Rosetta Stone's Turkish tutorials, this kind of image (see note below) and caption was shown. Clearly, it refers to a woman in a car. But I have a question.

First, let's break it down.

• Bir kadın = a woman
• içinde = inside, within, in
• araba = car

But what, exactly is arabanın?

One of my textbooks reports the following under the caption "Compound Posessive":

The suffix for the possessor: If the word ends in a vowel, add -nın/-nun (back vowel versions). Kedi (cat); kedinin (cat's)

So, in this case, if I'm following the Rosetta Stone guide correctly, the car here is the possessor. In effect, the car possesses within it a woman.

That translation feels awkward to me. Wouldn't it be the woman who possesses the car? Or am I confusing ownership with possessive grammar? :^)

Note: This is not the image from Rosetta Stone. I just couldn't clip out the exact image used in Rosetta Stone, so I borrowed this one from Fotosearch.com.

sen vs siz

Workbook exercise: when to use sen vs. siz.

Question: Would you address the following people with sen or siz?

Turkish	English	Sen/Siz
anneniz	your mother	Sen
şefiniz	your leader	Siz
bir bakkal	a grocer	Siz
kuaförünüz	your barber or hairdresser	Siz
küçük bir boyacı	a little shoeshine boy (?)	Sen
bir polis	a policeman	Siz
eşiniz	your friend	Sen

www.turkishdictionary.net

Today, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that
my favorite Turkish/English site now includes a little button that lets me hear the word I'm looking up.

Harika!

Odd Words Out

Workbook exercise: Which words in the following are the odd ones out?

1. çay, kahve, ayran, salep
2. ayran, bira, şarap, cin
3. üç, onaltı, beş, dokuz, onyedi, yirmibir
4. İtalya, Polonoya, Bulgaristan, Tokyo
5. polis, turist, memur, kuaför

Answers:

1. ayran: a cold drink vs. hot drinks
2. ayran: a cold drink vs. alcoholic drinks
3. onaltı: odd number vs. even
4. Tokyo: city vs. country
5. turist: someone on holiday vs. someone at work

'a' and 'the'

Another instance where Turkish may feel like pidgin English: the use of 'a' and 'the'. Some examples follow.

English	Turkish
The pen is green.	Kalem yeşil
There is a pen.	Kalem var.
The table is big.	Masa büyük.

However, there are times when you may see 'a' used:

English	Turkish
This is a pen	Bu bir kalem.
There is a pen.	Bir kalem var.

My policy will be this: when in doubt, leave it out.

Meze Tray & Restaurant Language

According to my textbook, when you're in restaurant in Turkey, a waiter may bring to your table a huge tray of starters. The custom, apparently, is to stop him, pick what you want and send the rest back.

A word to use to that end is "yeter", which means "that's enough".

To get the waiter's attention, say "Bakar mısınız!". Literally, that means "Would you look!" However, it's apparently similar to saying "garçon" at a French restaurant.

Hesap means the bill. Üstü kalsın means keep the change.

Meze means "a savory food (eaten while drinking something alcoholic), appetizer, hors d´oeuvre."

Other, critical Turkish words:

English	Turkish
ice cream	dondurma
chocolate	çikolata
chocolate ice cream	çikolata dondurma
yummy	lezzetli
strawberries	çilekler
strawberries and cream	çilekler ve krema
confectionery	şekerleme imalathanesi

Note: şekerleme imalathanesi apparently means, literally, sugar factory. Shades of Willy Wonka!

Questions with 'to be'

Since I was clearly confused in an earlier post on the relationship of "to be" and questions, here's the same subject from a different angle.

My textbook says "To turn İngilizsiniz (you are English) into a question, follow these steps:"

Step	Example
Take the statement	İngilizsiniz
Separate the to be ending from the noun or adjective	İngiliz siniz
Put mi in front of the ending.	İngiliz misiniz

Using mi to form a question echoes an earlier post.

English	Statement	Question
I am beautiful.	Güzelim.	Güzel miyim?
You're blind.	Körsün.	Kör müsün?
It's difficult.	Zor.	Zor mu?
We're ready.	Hazırız.	Hazır mıyız?
You're open.	Açıksınız.	Açık mısınız?
They're Turkish.	Onlar Türk.	Onlar Türk mü?

Black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love.

"Black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love." This is apparently a Turkish proverb about coffee.

If I've got the grammar right, the Turkish for this would read as follows, with the word order the opposite of the English version:

Cehennem gibi siyah, ölüm gibi kuvvetli, sevgi gibi tatlı.

This proverb rings true based on my experience with Turkish coffee. For a web-taste of Turkish coffee, check out
www.ineedcoffee.com/04/turkishcoffee/.

Question words

Handy words for asking questions:

• kim? : who?
• ne? : what?
• nerede? : where?
• ne zaman? : when? (literally "what time?")
• nasıl? : how?
• kaç tane? : how many?
• ne kadar? : how much? (literally "what extent?)

In an earlier post, I mentioned this common greeting: How are you?: Nasılsınız?

Let's break that down.

"How?", of course, is "Nasıl?"

The verb "to be" are handled in Turkish as endings: -im, -sin, -siniz, and -ler. Some examples follow:

Singular	Plural
ben İngilizim I am English	biz İngiliziz we are English
sen İngilizsin You are English	siz İngilizsiniz you are English
o İngiliz he/she is English	onlar İngiliz(ler) they are English

-ler is in brackets because it's usually left out.

Getting back to "Nasılsınız?", it evidently translates literally to "How are?" Apparently, "you" is understood, unless, of course, I'm missing something.

In any event, interesting.

Araba!

That's my Turkish word of the day—araba, which means car. I could have posted a pic of my own modest, so-last-century car but where's the fun in that when I can scrape off the web a showy pic like this?

Besides, Bond's classic Aston Martin serves as an effective mnemonic.

Maşallah!

Addressing People

In a sample dialogue (konuşma) in my textbook, a visitor to Turkey is greeted by an immigration officer. Their exchange included a predictable set of appropriate greetings.

One of them was memur bey, said by the visitor to the official. Literally, this means "official mister". But, the translation is similar to what you might say to a policeman approaching you: "Hello officer"...or "I didn't do it!!" (kidding, of course).

At www.turkishdictionary.net, the following information is provided on a search of bey:

1. gentleman, sir; a title meaning Mr. (used after a first name): Mehmet Bey.
2. prince, ruler, chieftain; chief, head, master.
3. notable, country gentleman.
4. playing cards ace.

In short, bey conveys respect.

Keeping that in mind, a common greeting by someone providing you with a service is beyefendi. Efendi means gentleman. Bey, in effect, stresses a positive message. It ends up meaning sir.

In the same vein, hanımefendi means madam. Efendi can apparently mean madam too as well as meaning sir.

Here's a phrase I'll likely be using often in Turkey: efendim? As in, "I beg your pardon! Sorry! Can you repeat that, please?"

The Turkish equivalents for Mr., Mrs. or Miss are Bey and Hanım, respectively. Curveball: Unlike English, Bey and Hanım are used with the first name, not the surname. So, instead of John Smith being called Mr. Smith, he's John Bey. His wife, Jane, would be Jane Hanım.

Practical use for bey: say you're trying to hail a bus driver, say şoför bey! The respect should come naturally — i.e., respect the fact that you want something from the driver: to stop!/durmak!

Don't

According to my textbook, you tell someone not to do something by adding -me to the end of an informal command. Example follow.

• Gelmek: To come; Gelme!: Don't come!
• Yapmak: To do; Yapma!: Don't do!
• Koymak: To put; Koyma!: Don't put!
• Gülmek: To smile/laugh; Gülme!: Don't smile/Don't laugh!

Formal versions of the above follow:

• Gelmeyin!
• Yapmayınız!
• Koymayın!
• Gülmeyiniz!

Reminder: -y- inserted to avoid vowel clashes.

Personal note: I like the word gülmek. Its full definition at www.turkishdictionary.net follows:

1. to laugh.
2. to be happy, experience happiness.
3. to have a good time, have fun.
4. /a/ to laugh at, make fun of.
5. /a/ to smile on. Gülerim!/Güleyim bari! Oh really?/How interesting! (sarcastic way of showing disbelief).

It's the root word for saying goodbye: Güle güle (said by the one who is staying to the one who is leaving).

Other pleasant variations follow:

Good luck! Güle güle gidin(iz).
Have a good trip! Güle güle giyin(iz).

There are more. However, www.turkishdictionary.net is offline as I type this entry. Hopefully, it'll be available by the time you read this.

Parts of the Body

Wayyyy behind! As far as my blog is concerned, that is. I've been happily busy with my life, reading my Turkish textbook in moments here and there.

So, here's a small exercise in my textbook: parts of the body.

• baş: head
• göz: eye
• gözler: eyes
• burun: nose
• boyun: neck
• göğüs: chest/brest
• göbek: belly/stomach
• el: hand
• bacak: leg
• ayak: foot
• kafa: head
• kulak: ear
• kol: arm
• sırt: back
• popo: buttocks
• parmak: fınger

Shakespeare's Hamlet

Following up on the fact that Turkish does not have a separate verb "to be," Mary asked this: how would you translate Hamlet's famous line "To be or not to be?".

This good question reminds me of efforts to translate any classic literature into a language other than the one in which it was originally written. For example, check out this heartfelt/içten review of Edmond Rostand's great play Cyrano de Bergerac. In it, the review's author, Jonathan Yardley, touches on how hard it is to translate a literary work of art. He gives proper credit to Brian Hooker for bringing to the English-speaking world the magic of Cyrano.



Years ago, I was given the same tip about Cyrano—"Make sure the Cyrano play is based on the Hooker translation!" Apparently, lesser translations deprive you of the full spirit of the Frenchman's achievement.

That said, I approach the idea of translating even this tiny fragment of the great William Shakespeare with reverent caution.

First, though Turkish has no separate verb "to be," it does have the means to express the concept, as Barry showed in his comment on my Decartes post. It's just not a literal translation.

Therein lies a key lesson I'm teaching myself—try to capture the spirit of what's being said, not a verbatim, word-for-word translation. As in everything I do, reality is my guide. It comes first, language second. The latter is a tool to help me hold on firmly to the former. And, as I continue to discover, learning an additional tool like Turkish, is helping me even more to stay happily anchored to reality.

So, taking all this into account, what would be an appropriate translation of Hamlet's famous phrase?

First, I'll make a philosophical observation. To be is to be something. Attributes are attributes of some entity in reality. They don't exist apart from what gives rise to them in the first place.

Am, are, is are all different parts of the English verb to be. What is Hamlet really talking about? Translating that, first, into prosaic English, he's saying "To be...a living man or to be...worm food" or "To live or not to live."

That said, my prosaic translation is as follows: "Yaşamak, yaşamak değil." Yaşamak means to live. Değil means not.

Now, I'm being literal here, of course. Knowing that, I stand especially ready and willing to be corrected.

Another reason why I'm tentative about this prosaic translation is this—my textbook describes the use of değil in the context of transforming a noun or an adjective into a negative. I haven't seen it applied to an infinitive yet.

Scholars, weigh in, lütfen!

Directions

During my 2001 trip to Turkey, I had to give directions to a taxi driver from a wedding party to my hotel in old Istanbul. He spoke only Turkish. Though I was a little tipsy from the wedding party, I managed to direct the driver to my hotel with only 3 Turkish words:

• sol: left
• sağ: right
• doğru: straight

Of course, it helped that I had paid attention to landmarks during the 6 days of my visit prior to the wedding party.

Lesson learned: Pay attention to your surroundings and learn at least a few key words of your host country.

Other direction words:

• Go straight.: Doğru gidin.
• Go back.: Geri gidin.
• Stop here.: Burada durun.
• I'm lost.: Kayboldum.
• Where?: Nerede?
• To where?: Nereye?
• Where am I?: Neredeyim?
• Where is the road to Konya?: Konya yolu nerede?
• Do you know where Arjantin Avenue is?: Arjantin Caddesi nerede biliyor musunuz?
• Where are you going? Nereye gidiyorsunuz?
• We want to go to this address.: Bu adrese gitmek istiyoruz.
• Is it near? Yakın mı?
• It is near.: Yakın.
• Is it far?: Uzak mı?
• It is very far.: Çok uzak.

Common Signs

• Entrance: Giriş
• Exit: Çıkış
• No entry: Girilmez
• No smoking: Sigara içilmez
• Danger: Tehlike
• Stop!: Dur! (Handy that an important word is a single syllable.)

Endearments

I've added to my studies this assignment: what are some Turkish words of affection? Here's what I've found so far.

• dear or sweetheart: sevgili
• honey: bal
• "Word for expressing affection. Similar to sweetheart or honey. The literal meaning is my life.": canım (pronounced janum)
• sugar: şeker or şekerim (my sugar)

February 2007

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Pazar	Pazartesi	Salı	Çarşamba	Perşembe	Cuma	Cumartesi
_	_	_	_	1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	_	_	_

Descartes

A famous statement by the French philosopher Descartes is this: "I think, therefore I am." As I learned earlier, Turkish does not have a separate verb "to be". Given this, what would be the translation for this quote?

My current shot at a translation follows: ben düşün bundan benim

Office Vocabulary

Several days behind, I'm going to take steps to get caught up.

The first is just to list some words I've picked up at the office. A method I experimented with produced some success. That is, I used sticky notepads to write down the Turkish words of things in my office cubicle and then stick that note onto the object. My idea was to simulate immersion—i.e., simulate being surrounded by a new language.

One of the first words I learned this way was bilgisayar or computer. Seeing that little sticky note every stuck to my computer made it easy to have that word sink into my subconscious.

Using this method, I've learned the following words so far:

• kâğıt (paper)
• şiir (poem, specifically, this one)
• kordon (cord)
• şehir (city [a 1940s picture of the NYC skyline])
• ataş (paperclip)
• fincan (coffee cup)
• bardak (plastic or paper cup)
• duvar (wall)
• masa (table)
• masaüstü (table top)

This is a handy method though not a be-all-end-all, of course. It's just a good supplement to other efforts.

January 2007

Instead of a textbook assignment tonight, I decided to make a simple calendar for January to practice the days of the week. Seeing them in this form makes it easier for me to remember them.

Pazar	Pazartesi	Salı	Çarşamba	Perşembe	Cuma	Cumartesi
_	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31	_	_	_

-im and -iniz

Make-up post since I missed one yesterday.

-im can mean my and -iniz can mean your.

• Ceketiniz siyah. Your jacket is black.
  
• Ceketim güzel. My jacket is nice.
  
• Adınız ne? What's your name?
  
• Bluzunuz bu. This is your blouse.
  
• Sütünüz soğuk. Your milk is cold.
  
• Adım Ali. My name is Ali.
  
• Bu pasaportum. This is my passport.
  
• Kuaförüm iyi. My hairdresser is good.
  

Note: Evidently, the English word is is implied here. Literally translated, "Ceketim güzel" means "my jacket nice". It may feel like pidgin English but it's correct Turkish. So, practice, practice, practice to get over the feeling.

If the word ends ın a vowel, avoid a vowel clash and start with a consonant. For example,

Türkçem my Turkish
bankanız your bank

Numbers / Sayılar (iki)

Another textbook assignment—find ten Turkish numbers in this square.

o	n	ğ	ş	b	e	ş	ç
n	s	ı	f	ı	r	ö	m
i	e	ş	d	f	ü	g	i
k	k	b	a	y	ü	z	l
i	i	y	ö	i	ğ	v	y
ü	z	ğ	z	r	i	r	a
y	a	r	ı	m	e	l	r
k	ı	r	k	i	ş	t	ö

I found 11 (onbir).

on (10)
iki (2)
oniki (12)
sekiz (8)
beş (5)
yirmi (20)
sıfır (0)
yüz (100)
kırk (40)
yarım (0.5)
milyar (1 billion)

Note: Though yarım = 0.5, 1.5 = bir buçuk (which literally means 1 and a half).

Motivation / güdülenme

At 52, what is my motivation to learn Turkish? The proximate cause is my best friend's residence in Turkey. The next time I visit, I want to be versed enough in Turkish to talk with strangers as well as with my friend's family and friends.

Beyond that, I find it a fascinating hobby. It's a relaxing extension of my work as a computer programmer. In my work, I am constantly learning new languages. However, they're highly technical, of course. As such, there's a small number of people with whom I can share that language. In contrast, Turkish can be shared with about 200 million people. I like that.

What I also like is that this hobby keeps me mentally sharp. It's like going to the gym and doing weight training. You don't start with the heaviest weights. You work up to them...gradually.

Also, like being at the gym, you don't worry about what the guy next to you is doing. He may be an Arnold S. compared to your 90 pound weakling effort. To focus on that is to drop context, specifically your personal context. So, holding your own in this case means holding your own context. Holding that, you just stick to it and keep pushing yourself to do more and more each day.

Beyond that, I am a lifelong advocate of reason. I have always marveled at the capacity of the human mind and what it can accomplish. My 50+ years have only deepened that conviction. I don't mean just in terms of learning technical stuff and languages. I mean everything, every aspect of life, especially when it comes to morality and emotions, aspects too often relegated to the subjective, mystic realm.

That doesn't mean it's easy. Far from it. It just means that it's possible...with the appropriate effort tempered and guided by a rational, long range perspective.

Armed with that spirit, I'm overcome a rough childhood, dealt with a weak education by educating myself continually after formal schooling, pushed myself across years to unravel the philosophic mess I absorbed from America's culture and to learn a wholly new one grounded solidly in reality, taught myself a set of programming languages sufficiently well enough to make a good living with them and much more.

And the more now includes learning this fascinating language and the intriguing history of its homeland.

Maşallah!

Find 8 (sekiz) Turkish adjectives

Another assignment from my textbook—find sekiz adjectives in this grid.

ı	ğ	i	y	i	p	ş	ü
g	ö	n	ı	ğ	ö	ş	s
k	ğ	g	ü	z	e	l	ı
ğ	b	i	ö	ş	ö	ç	c
k	o	l	a	y	ü	g	a
ş	ş	i	s	o	ğ	u	k
ö	ş	z	ç	ü	ğ	ü	ö
a	m	e	r	i	k	a	n

• güzel (beautiful)
• amerikan (American)
• soğuk (cold)
• kolay (easy)
• iyi (good)
• sıcak (hot)
• boş (empty)
• İngiliz (English)

Greetings Review

This is an exercise my text book had me complete today.

Greetings Review

Phrase	Greeting	Farewell	Time of Day
günaydın	Yes	No	Morning
hoşça kalın	No	Yes	Any time
iyi akşamlar	Yes	Yes	Evening
iyi geceler	No	Yes	Late night
iyi günler	Yes	Yes	Morning to early afternoon
merhaba	Yes	No	Any time
selam	Yes	No	Any time

Atatürk's Reforms and Dil Devrimi (the language revolution)

As a new student of Turkish history as well as of its language, I've been looking for good references on the web on the subject. Today, I found this particularly good link—www.allaboutturkey.com/reform.htm.

Also, Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism has this page on its language.

Making a question negative: değil

Salami?: Salam mı?
It's not salami: Salam değil

The weather isn't hot: Hava sıcak değil

Tag değil mi onto any statement to ask isn't it? or aren't they?

This garlic sausage is nice, isn't it?: Bu sucuk güzel, değil mi?

They're Turks, aren't they?: Türkler, değil mi?

Plurals / çoğul ekleri

How to make nouns plural in Turkish?

Add -ler or -lar, whichever sounds best; specifically, whichever rhymes best with the last vowel in the word to which it will be attached.

Examples:

Day: Gün
Days: Günler

Night: Gece
Nights: Geceler

Evening: Akşam
Evenings: Akşamlar

Television: Televizyon
Televisions: Televizyonlar

-ler harmonizes best with i, e, ö, ü
-lar harmonizes best with ı, a, o, u

Mı, mi, mu, mü

Apparently, a statement can be turned into a question by adding mı, mi, mu, mü at the end of it.

Which one to use? See the vowel harmoney rule.

Scottish?: İskoçyalı mı?
Paris?: Paris mi?
Istanbul?: İstanbul mu?
Turkish?: Türk mü?

Rome?: Roma mı?
Me?: Ben mi?
Driver?: Şoför mü?

Mnemonic: Notice how Şoför sounds like chauffeur.

Note to self: Mistakes are ok. They reflect effort in the right direction. Take pride in the effort and stay focussed on the direction's goal.

"There is" / Var and "There is not" / Yok

There's a problem: Problem var.

Yes, problem in English is written the same way as in Turkish! Problem? Problem yok! (No problem!)

Is there any tea?: Çay var mı?

Isn't there any bread?: Ekmek yok mu?

Basics

This morning, I'm just reviewing some basic expressions. Along with reinforcing them in my mind, perhaps some of my friends who'll also be visiting Istanbul again may benefit from seeing how easy some of them are.

Also, during my visit to Istanbul in 2001, I was pleased to see how much goodwill I generated just by knowing a few words of Turkish.

Yes: Evet
No: Hayır

Note: Turkish has two distinct letters— ı and i. That is one without a dot above it and one with a dot above it. The dotless ı is pronounced like the vowel sound in "put" and "book". The dotted i, meanwhile, is pronounced like the vowel sound in "it" or "ee", depending on the particular word. Which sound to use? When in doubt, I'm going with the vowel harmony rule.

Good morning: Günaydın
Hello or hi: Merhaba
Hello or goodbye: İyi günler (Said during the daytime; appropriate to say both when entering and leaving a shop or office.)

Note: I recently activated a language bar on my Windows computer. It allows me to toggle back and forth between English and Turkish characters. Very handy.

Goodbye:
Allaha ısmarladık (Said by the person leaving.)
Güle güle (Said by the person staying.)

Hoşça kalın (Modern, without religious overtones; used by TV announcers, for example.)

Welcome!:
Hoş geldiniz! (Said when you welcome a guest.)
Hoş bulduk! (Said by the arriving guests.)

Good evening: İyi akşamlar

Note: ş is pronounced "sh" as in show.

Good night: İyi geceler

Note: c is pronounced like j (judge) in English. It is never pronounced with a k sound as in "catch" or with an s sound as in "fleece".

Thank you: Teşekkür ederim or Mersi

You're welcome: Bir şey değil

How are you?: Nasılsınız
I am fine, thank you. How are you?: İyiyim, teşekkür ederim. Siz nasılsınız?
(Note: The pronoun siz emphasizes "you" as in "and you, how are you?")

Excuse me: Affedersiniz

I have pleasant memory of using this word on a Turkish trolley. A lovely Turkish woman and I struck up a conversation for the space of my short ride. As I was leaving, trying to get through the normally crowded trolley, I said politely, "Affedersiniz, lütfen" to the passengers. The woman's eyes opened wide with surprise as I said that and then goodbye. I don't clearly recall saying "Allaha ısmarladık" but that would have been an appropriate salutation.

OK: Tamam

Well, tamam, that's it for now.

Numbers / Sayılar

I've got a few minutes before I need to dash out. So, this will be just some practice on my numbers.

1: bir
2: iki
3: üç
4: dört
5: beş
6: altı
7: yedi
8: sekiz
9: dokuz
10: on

little: az
a lot: çok
very little: çok az
hundred: yüz
thousand: bin
million: milyon
billion: milyar

Typing / daktilo

Interesting how I can struggle for a number of minutes just to write "I am typing" or "ben daktiloyum".

I might be completely wrong here. I may even be an unwitting foil for my friends' laughter. :^)

That's more than ok. I welcome their laughter as well as their constructive comments as I forge ahead.

daktilo etmek = to type

The Turkish equivalents of the verb to be are the endings -im, -sin, -iz, -siniz and -ler. Example: ben İngilizim = I am English

Note 1: The -ler (as well as -lar) ending is also used to make a noun plural. However, my text book writes that -ler is usually left out in this verb context. For example, "onlar İngiliz" is used to say "they are English" instead of saying "onlar İngilizler".

Next, the rule of vowel harmony factors in. What's that? It's the practice of making word endings rhyme or harmonize with the words they're being added to.

Note 2: Turkish often says a lot with one word whereas English often uses a number of words to say one thing. Example: "you will be able to come" = gelebileceksin; gel (come)-ebil (be able to)-ecek(will)-sin(you). This is called agglutination—i.e., sticking words together. Interesting!

Honoring the vowel harmony rule, the ending to tag to daktilo in this case would be -um. However...

Look at daktiloum. Though I'm a novice, saying that word as is does not sound right. Appropriately, Turkish has another (simple) rule to fix that—keep vowels apart. -y- is the buffer used to accomplish this.

End result: daktiloyum or ben daktiloyum

That's it for now. Hoşça kal!

Hagia Sofia

As part of starting here, I decided to post this lovely picture and identify some of its elements in Turkish.

Picture: resim
Lovely: güzel
Building: yapı
Grass: ot

Note: At http://www.turkishdictionary.net/, I'm finding multiple words for the same thing. For now at least, I'm just picking one out of the bunch and going with that. So, my listing of a one-to-one relationship between English and Turkish words is just my way of keeping it simple for myself at this phase.

Flowers: çiçekler
Bush: çalı
Tree: ağaç
Trees: ağaçler (??)
Small: az
Small tree: az ağaç
Dome: kubbe
Top: üst
Dome top: kubbe üst
Minaret: mınare
Minarets: minarelar (??)

Note: Wherever you see (??) that means I'm not sure. Please feel free to leave a comment if I mess it up or if I karışmak. :^)

Man: adam
Walking: yürüyor
Color: renk
Colors: renklı

That's it for now. Hoşça kal!

Hoş geldiniz! (Welcome!)

Amerikalıyım (I am an American) learning Turkish yavaş (slowly). So, bear with me, lütfen (please), while I move at a snail's pace.

To force myself to get on a committed learning schedule, I decided to set up this blog and do something with it every day that involves learning at least one new word each day.

So, here I am, armed with my English-Turkish dictionaries, taking this public step. It puts me on the spot—i.e., my friends can keep tabs on me from afar and crack the whip as needed.

Comments written in Turkish are encouraged and welcomed. I may not understand them for a while but give me time and keep me challenged.

Teşekkür ederim! (Thank you)

Hoşça kalın. (Bye; Cheers; said by the one who is leaving)

Note: My posts will be bilingual for a while. As well as helping my mind adapt to Turkish gradually, I'm keeping my strictly English-speaking friends in mind in the hope that they may pick up a word or two for their next visit to Istanbul.

However, once I give the English equivalent of a word or expression, I won't repeat it since the translation will be somewhere else in my blog. As needed, the translation can be searched easily within my blog.