Turkish: spelling → sound
Turkish spelling is the youngest on the site after Malay and the most deliberate: in 1928 the Arabic script was replaced overnight by a Latin alphabet designed for this language, so one letter is one sound almost without exception. The new letters are the whole lesson — ç /t͡ʃ/, ş /ʃ/, c /d͡ʒ/ (cam is 'jam'), j /ʒ/, y /j/, ı /ɯ/ (an i said with the lips spread and the tongue pulled back), ö /ø/ and ü /y/ as in German. The one letter that is not a sound is ğ, the 'soft g': it lengthens the vowel before it (dağ 'mountain' is daː), turns into a y between front vowels (değil), and disappears between back ones (soğuk). The eight vowels split front/back and rounded/unrounded, and VOWEL HARMONY makes every suffix copy the vowels of the root — ev-ler 'houses' but at-lar 'horses' — so the sound system is also the grammar. k and g are said further forward next to a front vowel (kedi, göz) and further back beside a back vowel (kara, gol). Stress normally falls on the last syllable, and moves as suffixes are added; the exceptions — place names (ˈAnkara, İsˈtanbul), many adverbs (ˈşimdi, ˈyarın) and the negative -me- — are where learners are caught. The tracer does not mark stress.
Trace a word
Every box is one rule firing. Hover a box (or open the table) to see why. Rules are applied in order, first match wins — that order is the spelling system. Type it as written, with ç ğ ı ö ş ü (kahvaltı, değil). One letter, one sound — except ğ, which mostly lengthens the vowel before it.
Consonants & glides
| IPA | Spelled | Example |
|---|---|---|
| p | p | pul pul stamp |
| b | b | balık baˈlɯk fish — At the end of a word Turkish writes the devoicing it hears: kitap, but kitabı 'the book' when a vowel follows. |
| t | t | tuz tuz salt — Lightly aspirated at the start of a word, more than in French, less than in English. |
| d | d | deniz deˈniz sea |
| k | k (beside a, ı, o, u) | kara kaˈɾa land / black |
| c | k (before e, i, ö, ü, and â) | kedi ceˈdi cat — The same letter k, said with the tongue on the hard palate: a faint y glides into the vowel. Before â it is the only thing that tells kâr 'profit' from kar 'snow'. |
| ɡ | g (beside a, ı, o, u) | gol ɡol goal |
| ɟ | g (before e, i, ö, ü, and â) | göz ɟøz eye — The voiced partner of the palatal k. rüzgâr 'wind' keeps it before an a, and the circumflex is there to say so. |
| f | f | fırın fɯˈɾɯn oven / bakery |
| v | v | ev ev house — Between vowels and beside u/ü it softens towards a w: tavuk 'chicken'. |
| s | s | su su water |
| z | z | yüz jyz face / hundred |
| ʃ | ş | şeker ʃeˈceɾ sugar — The cedilla letter. Hindi श and Russian ш are the same sound. |
| ʒ | j | jandarma ʒanˈdaɾma gendarmerie — Only in loans, mostly French and Persian: garaj, plaj, müjde. A French reader already says it. |
| h | h | hava haˈva air / weather — Always said, even at the end of a word (Allah, sabah) — the Arabic and Persian loans keep it. |
| t͡ʃ | ç | çay t͡ʃaj tea |
| d͡ʒ | c | cami d͡ʒaːˈmi mosque — THE trap for a French or English reader: Turkish c is always j as in 'jam'. ceket = 'jacket', almost spelled phonetically. |
| m | m | meyve mejˈve fruit |
| n | n | ne ne what |
| ŋ | n (before k, g) | renk ɾeŋk colour — Not a letter of its own any more — Ottoman script had one (ڭ), and some dialects still keep the sound between vowels. |
| l | l | dil dil tongue / language — Light beside front vowels (dil, gel), dark beside back ones (kol, yol) — the same split as k and g. |
| ɾ | r | araba aɾaˈba car — A tap. At the end of a word it is often devoiced into a faint hiss: bir 'one', var 'there is'. |
| j | y, ğ (between front vowels) | yol jol road — The letter y = IPA /j/. ğ joins it between front vowels: değil 'not' is deˈjil. |
Vowels
| IPA | Spelled | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a | a, â | anne anˈne mother |
| e | e | el el hand — Many speakers open it towards /æ/ before l, m, n, r at the end of a syllable: gel, ben. |
| i | i, î | iki iˈci two — Dotted, and its capital keeps the dot: İ. İstanbul is spelled with it. |
| ɯ | ı | kız kɯz girl — Undotted, and its capital has no dot either: I. Say i, keep the lips spread, pull the tongue back — the Korean ㅡ and the Japanese u are close neighbours. |
| o | o | okul oˈkul school — In native words o and ö appear only in the first syllable — suffixes never contain them, apart from -iyor. |
| ø | ö | göl ɟøl lake — German ö, French eu in deux. |
| u | u, û | kuş kuʃ bird |
| y | ü | gül ɟyl rose — German ü, French u in tu. |
The rules, in order
32 rules. The left column is a pattern (regular expression) matched at the current position of the word; (?=…) looks ahead, (?<=…) looks behind, $ is the end of the word.
| # | Pattern | Sound | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (?<=[eiöü])ğ(?=[eiöü]) | ğ between front vowels is a y (değil) | |
| 2 | (?<=a)ğa|(?<=ı)ğı|(?<=o)ğo|(?<=u)ğu | ğ between two identical vowels: they merge into one long vowel (ağaç → aaç) | |
| 3 | ğ(?![aeıioöuüâîû]) | ğ before a consonant or at the end lengthens the vowel before it (dağ, doğru) | |
| 4 | ğ | ğ between back vowels is silent — the two vowels run together (soğuk) | |
| 5 | ck(?=[eiöüîâû]) | ck (English loans) before a front vowel: one palatal k | |
| 6 | ck | ck (English loans): one k | |
| 7 | w | w is not a Turkish letter: loans say it as v (low → lov) | |
| 8 | x | x is not a Turkish letter: written ks in Turkish spelling (taksi) | |
| 9 | q | q is not a Turkish letter: said k | |
| 10 | [?!.,] | punctuation | |
| 11 | k(?=k?[eiöüîâû]) | k before a front vowel is made on the hard palate (kedi) | |
| 12 | g(?=g?[eiöüîâû]) | g before a front vowel is made on the hard palate (göz) | |
| 13 | g | ||
| 14 | n(?=[kg](?![eiöüîâû])) | n before a back k or g becomes ng (renk, banka) | |
| 15 | aa | a doubled vowel in an Arabic loan is one long vowel (saat, kanaat) | |
| 16 | ii | a doubled vowel in an Arabic loan is one long vowel (tabii) | |
| 17 | ee | a doubled vowel in a loan is one long vowel | |
| 18 | uu | a doubled vowel in a loan is one long vowel | |
| 19 | c | c is always j as in jam | |
| 20 | ç | ç = ch | |
| 21 | ş | ş = sh | |
| 22 | j | j = the s in measure (French loans) | |
| 23 | y | y = IPA /j/ | |
| 24 | r | r is a tap | |
| 25 | ı | undotted ı: i with the tongue pulled back | |
| 26 | ö | ||
| 27 | ü | ü = IPA /y/ | |
| 28 | â | â: an a that keeps the k, g or l before it soft (kâr) | |
| 29 | î | ||
| 30 | û | ||
| 31 | [aeiou] | ||
| 32 | [pbtdkfvszhmnl] |