SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN TURKISH FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD TURKISHWHO SPEAKS UZBEK? Merhaba! LEARN MORE ABOUT TURKS AND [mɛ:raba] THEIR LANGUAGE Uzbeks are the most numerous Turkic /merabah!/ 1. Turkish is the most widely spoken of all Turkic people in Central Asia. They predomi- Hello! languages, with over 80 million native speakers. nantly mostly live in Uzbekistan, a land- Most speakers live in Turkey; however, there is a Sizin adınız ne(dir)? Benim adım Sam(dir). locked country of Central Asia that shares [sizin adɨnɨz ne(dir) benim adɨm sæm(dir)] substantial population of Turkish speakers living in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Once borders with Kazakhstan to the west and /Sizin ahdiniz ne(dir)? Benim ahdim Sam(dir)/ you speak Turkish, you can easily learn other Turkic What is your name? My name is Sam. languages in a very small amount of time and north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the Nasılsın(ız)? Çok iyiyim. boast speaking about 20-30 languages, and reach a east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan [nasɨlsɨn(ɨz) tʃokʰ ijijim] population of 200 million people across Eurasia. /Nasɨlsineez? Chok iyiyim/ 2. Turkish shares many linguistic features with other to the south. Many Uzbeks can also be How are you? I am (doing) very good. Turkic languages, such as agglutination, SOV word found in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyr- order, vowel harmony, and a lack of grammatical Siz neredensiniz? Ben Amerika’danım. gender. Turkish is mutually understandable with gyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the [siz neredɛnsiniz bɛn amerikʰadanɨm] many of these languages, such as Azerbaijani, Uzbek Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of /Siz neredaensiniz? Ben Amerikadahnɨm./ and Turkmen. China. Where are you from? I am from America. 3. Modern Turkish is written using a modified Latin Bu kitap ne kadar? On beş dolar. alphabet, so you only have to learn 6 new letters, ç, [bu kʰitap ne kʰadar on bɛʃ dolar] ğ, i, ö, ş, ü, in order to write it/type it. /Bu kitap ne kadaar? Ohn besh dohlar./ 4. Istanbul, Turkey is the only city in the world that How much is this book? Fifteen dollars. is located on two continents: Europe and Asia. Throughout history, this Turkish city has been the Zahmet olmazsa! capital of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman [za:met olmazsa] empires. /Zaamat ohlmahzsah./ Please, if it is not too much trouble. 5. Turkish cuisine has become increasingly popular across the United States in the last few decades. Hilton Otel’i nerede(dir)? Learn Turkish, so you can impress your friends by [hilton otʰeli nerede(dir)] ordering your pide, kebab, and pilav in the target /Hiltohn Oteli neredeh(dir)?/ language! Where is Hilton Hotel? ABOUT US Sağ olun or Teşekkür ederim. The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region [sa: olun] or [tʰeʃekkʰyr ederim] (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for /Saa ohloon/ or /teshekkuer edehrim/ learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian Thank you. languages. For more information, go to www.iub.edu/~celcar. İyi günler or güle güle. [iji gynlɛr̥ ] or [gyle gyle] 718 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, /iyi guenler/ or /guele guele/ Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 Good-bye. Phone: (812) 856-1230 Fax: (812) 856-1206 Center for Languages of the E-mail : [email protected] Special thanks goes to Dr. Öner Özçelik Web site: http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar for his contributions to this pamphlet. Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) WHO ARE THE TURKS AND suffixes to word stems for indicating grammatical community and it meaning) that uses a subject-object-verb word order, is not uncommon features vowel harmony (vowels of the suffixes change to find several WHERE DO THEY LIVE? to match the other vowels in the stem), and lacks generations of Turkish is the most grammatical gender. Turkish stress is word final, and families living under widely spoken of all lacks the prosodic constituent Foot. Turkish lacks one roof. Turkic languages, with onset clusters, but allows coda clusters when they fall Again, much of over 80 million native in Sonority (i.e. liquid + stop, nasal +stop). These Turkish cuisine is speakers worldwide. make it a relatively simple language, structure wise. In addition, once you heavily influenced speak Turkish, it is Due to the geographical region in which it is mainly by the region in which the very easy to learn other spoken (Europe and Central Asia), modern Turkish Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Turkic languages (such lexicon has been influenced by Germanic, Romance, population exists, as Azerbaijani, Kazakh, and Persian languages. for many Turkish speakers in Turkey eat a lot of seafood (particularly anchovies) because of the Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Like most languages, Turkey has many dialects. Some Uyghur, Uzbek, etc.), letting you communicate with country being surrounded by the Aegean, Black, of the main regional dialects include: Güneydoğu and Caspian seas, and an inland sea, called the over 200 million speakers worldwide! The largest (Southeast), Doğu (Eastern), Orta Anadolu (Central concentration of native Turkish speakers is found Marmara, which connects Europe to Asia. Turkish Anatolia region), Karadeniz (Eastern Black Sea cuisine all over Central Eurasia includes lots of in Turkey, which is located in southern Eurasia, i.e. region), Kastamonu (Kastamonu region), and between Bulgaria, Greece and the Aegean Seas to the meat, rice or bulgur, and fresh vegetables. Because, Karamanlidika (or Karamanli Turkish) spoken in western Turkey is well known for their abundant West; Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to the East; Greece. the Black Sea to the North; the Mediterranean Sea to olive trees and olive oil production, many Turkish the South and Syria, Iran and Iraq to the Southeast. dishes include these ingredients as well. Some However, there are smaller, yet still significant WHAT ALPHABET DO TURKS USE? popular Turkish dishes include kebap, keşkek (meat populations of Turkish speakers and barley stew), manti (meat dumping), and pide throughout Eastern and Western Europe The earliest known Turkic inscriptions, (a flat bread with cheese and meat and/or vegetable (most notably in Bulgaria, Cyprus, discovered in Modern day Mongolia, toppings). And some popular Turkish drinks are Germany, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, were written using the Orkhon, or Old ayran ( a salt yogurt drink – “yogurt” by the way is Romania, and Turkey), Central Asia Turkic, alphabet. Through the Turkish a word borrowed from Turkish), salgam suyu (hot (Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan), and conquests, Turks came in contact with turnip juice), and of course, lots of different kinds the Middle East (Iran and Iraq). Many people to the West of Central Asia, and of teas, as well as Turkish coffee. due to the Persian and Arabic influences of these speakers are descendants of the The Turkish people are famous for their handmade Turkish Ottoman Empire (1299-1923), there, Ottoman Empire adopted a which extended from Central , Eastern version of the Perso-Arabic script carpets and rugs. Either hand knotted or flat and Northern Europe to North Africa known as the Ottoman Turkish script. woven, these rugs are known for being durable and the entire Middle East. Modern Turkey (founded from the ashes and beautiful, designed with intricate distinct of the Ottoman Empire in 1923), however, adopted a styles according to the region from Turkish is the official language of Turkey and one of version of the Latin alphabet in 1928, which is what where they come. the official languages in Cyprus, Kosovo, Macedonia, Turkish speakers use today. Historically, these and Romania. rugs have had significant cultural WHAT IS TURKISH CULTURE LIKE? meaning and religious application. WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS TURKISH? Because over their history Turkish speakers have become so spread out across Eastern and Western And while in some Turkish is an Altaic language, and more specifically, places they still do, it is a member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East, it is hard to define one distinct Turkish generally the rugs are language family along with other Central Asian popular worldwide Turkic languages such as Azerbaijani, Kazakh and culture. However, Central Asian Turks are almost all Sunni Muslim, with a very small percentage of just because of their Turkmen. Like many Turkic languages, Turkish is an fine craftsmanship. agglutinative language (uses a set system of adding Christians and Jews. They are a family oriented