Pronunciation is everything.Many foreigners who visit Turkey come with two essentials: their compact Turkish guide book and a phrase book. Sometimes how the word looks in writing and how we are to pronounce the word are very different. The name of a port city on the Black Sea, Trabzon is an example. Usually emphasis is on the first syllable for a place name. We Americans tend to put it on the second syllable, and stretch the O out. I sometimes flinch when I hear it said “trab-ZONE.” (Like the pop group Boyzone?)
By the way, my British friends are amazed at how many syllables I can give the English word, vehicle! Just imagine what we can do with some Turkish words!
Those of us from the States, the southern ones, we tend to draw things out… I still catch myself saying “BowDRUM” instead of “BO-drum.” We southerners love those long vowels. A simple rule: Turkish vowels tend to be very short in sound, (with the exception of the soft g (ğ). I think Turkish has fewer exceptions to language rules than English. As much as I love the southern States, I feel for any Turk who ends up there and I wonder how they ever manage to understand us Southerners. It is not hard to see we have big hearts, but it is hard to understand us sometimes. For example, a Turk new to the area may meet some locals who say to each other: “Whaat a ya’ll doin’ t’nite?” You’ll shake your head and wonder if it was English you just heard and ask them to repeat the question, please.
For the foreigner new to Turkey -- if you do not have a lot of Turkish friends yet or are only visiting for a short trip, there are many well-educated Turks who are fluent in English, often speaking it more grammatically correctly than do native speakers. In fact, when some foreigners come to Turkey and enroll in a Turkish course, they wonder the first day if they are in the right class. Maybe it was an English lesson. They seem to be learning more technical grammatical terms, such as the aorist, or the names of many other tenses which they never had any need to know existed even though English is their native tongue. Many Turks have been educated exclusively in English since the age of 14. Others may also be fluent in German (if they went to one of the Anadolu high schools) or French (similarly, there are prestigious high schools that teach only in French), but English is much more widespread.
Just remember: Turks are very patient and helpful. They are generally eager to please the newcomer (unless you’ve married the person they wanted to marry); if you have just met some Turks, in a group they will make sure they speak your language (if they can) so that you are not left out. This may extend to nominating their young son or daughter to act as your translator for the evening; the adults who do not speak English will be very proud of the efforts of their young relative even if that individual has only very basic skills in the language.
Turkish is a phonetic language, with every letter being pronounced as it is written. Some important differences for foreigners to be aware of are:
C - is not a hard c like a k, or a soft c like an s, but is always pronounced like a hard j such as cam (glass) is said like jam
Ç - is pronounced ch. Example: as çay (tea) is said like chi
Ğ - is not pronounced, but lengthens the vowel before it as in oğul (son) which is said oo-ul
J - is always a soft j
Ş - is pronounced sh like in şiş (skewer) which is said shish
If you are on holiday at Çeşme near Izmir, the place is said cheshmay, not sesame!
This can lead to interesting spellings in words borrowed from English: fotokopi and taksi are ones I love. Next time we will explore a little more about language.
In the meantime, when you want to say “thank you” to your Turkish friends or host, instead of struggling to get your tongue around “teşekkürler,” most Turks understand the French word “merci.”
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