Lesson 43 © Turkish Tea Time

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Vowel Harmony Made with love.
Vowel harmony is the single biggest challenge to new Turkish learners.
Join us today as we chat in detail about this part of the language and
learn to harmonize like a barber shop quartet.

Vowel harmony. Noobie

Dialog

1 | Tuğçe Bu kek neli?

2 | Selen Bu şekerli. Ballı. Fıstıklı. Ayrıca tuzsuz, sütsüz, ve yumurtasız.

3 | Tuğçe Peki bu kek neli? Çilekli mi? Çikolatalı mı? Havuçlu mu?

4 | Selen Bu çikolatalı kek. Partine kim gelecek?

5 | Tuğçe Kuzenim, arkadaşlarım, şoförüm, ve başkaları.

6 | Selen Yemekte ne var?

7 | Tuğçe Peynirler, pastalar, tatlılar, ve başka şeyler.

Dialog Translation

1 | Tuğçe What's in this cake?

2 | Selen This has sugar, honey, and nuts. Also, it doesn't have salt, milk, or eggs.

3 | Tuğçe Alright, what's in this cake. Is it strawberry? Chocolate? Carrot?

 3 | Tuğçe Alright, what's in this cake. Is it strawberry? Chocolate? Carrot?

4 | Selen This is a chocolate cake. Who will come to your party?

5 | Tuğçe My cousin, my friends, my driver, and some others.

6 | Selen What's to eat?

7 | Tuğçe Cheeses, cakes, sweets, and some other stuff.

Language Points

Vowel Harmony

One of the most important concepts central to the Turkish language is that of vowel harmony: the matching of
vowels in words and suffixes. Turkish vowel harmony rules work to make words as easy to say as possible - that is,
to minimize the movement of the mouth and tongue while pronouncing them. To understand vowel harmony fully,
it's important to understand that there are two main variables that affect how a vowel is pronounced: whether the
mouth is rounded or unrounded, and whether the sound is formed in the front or back of the mouth.

Rounded vowels are those that are made by putting your mouth into a round shape. The rounded vowels in
Turkish are u, ü, o, and ö. When you make these sounds, you'll notice that your lips naturally assume a round
shape, a bit like the fish face children make. The unrounded vowels, then, are those in which your mouth doesn't
round: i,ı,a, and e.

The vowels can similarly be grouped by another characteristic: whether they're voiced from the back or front of the
mouth. The back vowels in Turkish are ı, a, o, and u. To speak with a convincing Turkish accent, you want to be
sure that these sounds are coming from your throat. The front vowels, then, are e, i, ö, and ü. A useful trick for
remembering the two groups are the phrases back a-undotted vowels and front e-dotted vowels, referring to the
dots above the three letters in the front group.

This might all seem like a lot but, fortunately, memorizing the technicalities of vowel harmony won't help your
Turkish as much as simply listening, speaking, and reading. After awhile, gülın (your rose) will look as wrong to you
as something like speshal (misspelled "special").

We have more on vowel harmony in our grammar reference.

E-type Vowel Harmony

Turkish has two sets of vowel harmony rules. E-type vowel harmony (also known as two-fold vowel harmony) is the
easier of the two, because it offers only two options to pick from - a version using e and a version using a. If the
last vowel of the word you are suffixing is a front vowel (e,i,ö,ü) you use the version of the suffix with e; if the the
last vowel is a back vowel, you use the version using a.

Some common suffixes that use this type of vowel harmony are -ler (-lar), -ebil (-abil), and -le (-la). Below we've
using the plural suffix -ler to show how the suffix is harmonized with the last vowel in the suffixed word.

Ev. Evler.
House. Houses.

Kedi. Kediler.
Cat. Cats.

Öpücük. Öpücükler.
Kiss. Kisses.

Gül. Güller.
Roses

Adam. Adamlar.
Man. Men.

Kız. Kızlar.
Woman. Women.

Yol. Yollar.
Road. Roads.

Bu. Bunlar.
This. These

I-type Vowel Harmony

Whereas e-type vowel harmony just concerns itself with matching front and back vowels, i-type vowel harmony
(also known as four-fold harmony) demands that the vowel match in both back/front position and roundness.
Instead of two options then, i-type harmony offers four different version of the same suffix. The i version follows i
and e (both front, unrounded), the ı version follows ı and a (back, unrounded), the u version follows u and o (back,
unrounded), and the ü version follows ü and ö (back, rounded).

Some common i-type suffixes are the present tense -iyor (-ıyor, -uyor, üyor) and the possessive -in (-ın, un, ün).
Below, we've used the present tense suffix as an illustration.
 Gel-iyor.
He is coming.

İç-iyor.
He is drinking.

At-ıyor.
He is throwing.

Isır-ıyor
He is biting.

Koş-uyor
He is running.

Bul-uyor
He is finding.

Gör-üyor
He is looking.

Yüz-üyor
He is swimming.

Whenever you learn a new suffix, you should be sure note which of these two rules it follows, since that will
determine whether there are two version or four versions of the suffix. It's not hard to remember since e-type
suffixes are most often referred to by their e-form (-ecek, -le, -ebil), while i-type suffixes are referred to by their i-
form (-iyor, -meli, -in).

Vocabulary

şeker sugar

ayrıca also

başkaları others

şoför driver
kuzen cousin

havuç carrot

çikolata chocolate

çilek strawberry

bal honey

Review

1. Which if the following is a correct use of vowel harmony?

a. sucukli

b. sucuklı

c. sucuklu

d. sucuklü

2. Which of the following is a correct use of vowel harmony?

a. defterlar

b. üzümler

c. otobüslar

d. koltukler

3. Pick all the correct constructions. (pick all)

a. Taksim'da
 b. yumurtasız

c. zeytinsiz

d. acısiz

e. güçlu

f. sandalyelar

4. Pick all the correct constructions. (pick all)

a. koşıyorum

b. gelecek

c. gidacak

d. yazayorsun

e. çalışıyorler

f. uyuyoruz

5. Translate: my computer (bilgisayar). (write)

Answer Key

1. c
2. b
3. b c
4. b f
5. Bilgisayarım , Benim bilgisayarım

More. . .

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