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.