Turkish vocabulary is the set of words within the Turkish language. The language widely uses agglutination and suffixes to form words from noun and verb stems. Besides native Turkic words, Turkish vocabulary is rich in loanwords from Arabic, Persian, French and other languages.
This article is a companion to Turkish grammar and contains some information that might be considered grammatical. The purpose of this article is mainly to show the use of some of the yapım ekleri "structural suffixes" of the Turkish language, as well as to give some of the structurally important words, like pronouns, determiners, postpositions, and conjunctions.
Origins
Around 86% of the Turkish vocabulary is of Turkic origin. Most of the core vocabulary and the most commonly used words in Turkish, including those first acquired by children as they learn to speak, come from Turkic. Meanwhile, around 14% of Turkish words are of foreign origin, in particular Arabic, French, and Persian. According to the Turkish Language Association, 6,463 of these foreign words come from Arabic, 4,974 from French, 1,374 from Persian, 632 from Italian, 538 from English, 399 from Greek, and 147 from Latin.
The most significant linguistic influence in the Turkish language started with the Turks' conversion to Islam in the 10th century. The borrowing of Arabic and Persian words began during the Seljuk Empire, in which the long language contact between the Seljuk Turks and Persians in Iran (Persia) led to Persianization and the adoption of the Persian language for official and literary use.*Encyclopaedia Iranica, "Šahrbānu", Online Edition: "here one might bear in mind that non-Persian dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Saljuqs and Ilkhanids were rapidly to adopt the Persian language and have their origins traced back to the ancient kings of Persia rather than to Turkish heroes or Muslim saints ..." O.Özgündenli, "", Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition M. Ravandi, "The Seljuq court at Konya and the Persianisation of Anatolian Cities", in Mesogeios (Mediterranean Studies), vol. 25–26 (2005), pp. 157–69 F. Daftary, "Sectarian and National Movements in Iran, Khorasan, and Trasoxania during Umayyad and Early Abbasid Times", in History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol 4, pt. 1; edited by M.S. Asimov and C.E. Bosworth; UNESCO Publishing, Institute of Ismaili Studies: "Not only did the inhabitants of Khurasan not succumb to the language of the nomadic invaders, but they imposed their own tongue on them. The region could even assimilate the Turkic Ghaznavids and Seljuks (eleventh and twelfth centuries), the Timurids (fourteenth–fifteenth centuries), and the Qajars (nineteenth–twentieth centuries) ..." As a result, educated Turks had access to the vocabularies of three languages: Oghuz Turkic as their native language as well as for dynastic and military purposes, Persian for cultural, artistic, literary, courtly and scholarly purposes, and Arabic for theological, juridical, scientific and religious purposes.C.E. Bosworth, "Turkish Expansion towards the west" in UNESCO History of Humanity, Volume IV, titled "From the Seventh to the Sixteenth Century", UNESCO Publishing / Routledge, p. 391: "While the Arabic language retained its primacy in such spheres as law, theology and science, the culture of the Seljuk court and secular literature within the sultanate became largely Persianized; this is seen in the early adoption of Persian epic names by the Seljuk rulers (Qubād, Kay Khusraw and so on) and in the use of Persian as a literary language (Turkish must have been essentially a vehicle for everyday speech at this time)."
Borrowing from Arabic and Persian continued during the Ottoman Empire, alongside a new increased influence from French, Italian, English and other European languages due to trade, diplomacy and modernization efforts particularly in the 18th century, and the official language of the Ottoman Turks became Ottoman Turkish (Osmanlıca). Nevertheless, Ottoman Turkish differed significantly from the everyday language spoken by the general population and was largely unintelligible to ordinary people. The everyday Turkish, known as kaba Türkçe ("vulgar Turkish"), was spoken by the less-educated and rural communities, and retained a much higher percentage of native Turkish vocabulary, which later served as the foundation for the modern Turkish language.
With the advent of the Turkish Republic in 1923 came the attempt to unify the languages of the people and the administration, and to westernize the country. The modern Turkish alphabet, based on the Latin script, was introduced. Language reform efforts led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk were also introduced in an aim to remove foreign loanwords in Turkish and restore a more Turkic-based vocabulary, where the majority of Arabic and Persian words were replaced by: Turkish words surviving in speech, obsolete Turkish words, new words formed regularly from the agglutinative structure of Turkish, and entirely new words or formations. As a result, many foreign words had Turkish equivalents. Some foreign words became outdated and fell out of use during the republican period, while others remained in daily conversation. For example, the Turkish word güney became the standard term for "south", replacing the Arabic loanword cenup, but in some cases the foreign word remained dominant - such as dünya (Arabic) being more commonly used for "world" than the Turkish equivalent yeryüzü. In other instances, both words remained in use, like isim (Arabic) and ad (Turkish) for "name", which are often used interchangeably.
Nouns
Turkish nouns and pronouns have no grammatical gender (the same pronoun o means "he", "she" or "it"), but have six grammatical cases: nominative or absolute (used for the subject or an indefinite direct object), accusative (used for a definite direct object), dative (= to), locative (= in), ablative (= from), genitive (= of). There are two grammatical numbers, singular and plural.
Nouns from nouns and adjectives The suffix -ci attached to a noun denotes a person involved with what is named by the noun: {| class=wikitable ! Noun !! Noun + -ci |- | iş "work" || işçi "worker" |- | balık "fish" || balıkçı "fisherman" |- | gazete "newspaper" || gazeteci "newsagent", "journalist"
The suffix -lik attached to a noun or adjective denotes an abstraction, or an object involved with what is named by the noun: {| class=wikitable ! Noun !! Noun + -lik |- | iyi "good" || iyilik "goodness" |- | tuz "salt" || tuzluk "salt shaker" |- | gün "day" || günlük "diary", "daily" (adverb) |- | gece "night" || gecelik "nightgown"
Nouns from verbs
The noun in -im denoting an instance of action was mentioned in the introduction to Turkish grammar. yat- "lie down", yatır- "lay down", yatırım "investment".
For more examples on word derivations, see the related article: List of replaced loanwords in Turkish.
Adjectives Classification of adjectives Adjectives can be distinguished as being descriptive (niteleme "qualifying"), or determinative (belirtme): in particular: demonstrative (gösterme "to show" or işaret "sign"), numerical (sayı "number"), indefinite (belirsizlik or belgisiz), interrogative (soru "question").
For an intensive form, the first consonant and vowel of a (descriptive) adjective can be reduplicated; a new consonant is added too, m, p, r, or s, but there is no simple rule for which one: {| class=wikitable ! Adjective !! Intensive Form |- | başka "other" || bambaşka "completely different" |- | katı "hard" || kaskatı "hard as a rock" |- | kuru "dry" || kupkuru "dry as a bone" |- | temiz "clean" || tertemiz "clean as a whistle"
The determinative adjectives, or determiners, are an essential part of the language, although Turkish takes some of its determiners from Arabic and Persian.
Demonstrative adjectives o "that", bu "this", şu "this" or "that" (thing pointed to). These are also demonstrative pronouns. Used with plural nouns, these adjectives represent the English "those" and "these"; there is no such inflexion of adjectives in Turkish.
Numerical adjectives The cardinal numbers are built up in a regular way from the following:
{| class="wikitable" |- align="center" ! rowspan=2 | 0-9 ! 0 ! 1 ! 2 ! 3 ! 4 ! 5 ! 6 ! 7 ! 8 ! 9 |- align="center" | sıfır | bir | iki | üç | dört | beş | altı | yedi | sekiz | dokuz |- align="center" ! rowspan=2 | Multiples of Ten | rowspan=2 | — ! 10 !! 20 !! 30 !! 40 !! 50 !! 60 !! 70 !! 80 !! 90 |- align="center" | on | yirmi | otuz | kırk | elli | altmış | yetmiş | seksen | doksan
{| class="wikitable" ! rowspan=2 | Powers of Ten ! 10 !! 100 !! 1,000 !! 1,000,000 !! 1,000,000,000 |- | on || yüz || bin || milyon || milyar
Units follow multiples of ten; powers of ten come in descending order. For example: yüz kırk dokuz milyar beş yüz doksan yedi milyon sekiz yüz yetmiş bin altı yüz doksan bir metre ("149,597,870,691 metres").
| yüz || kırk || dokuz || milyar |- | [one] hundred || forty || nine || billion
| beş ||yüz || doksan || yedi || milyon |- | five || hundred || ninety || seven || million
|sekiz || yüz || yetmiş || bin |- | eight || hundred || seventy || thousand
|altı || yüz || doksan || bir || metre |- | six || hundred || ninety || one || metres
The cardinals are generally not used alone, but a general word for a unit is used, such as: tane, literally "grain"; kişi "person".
Remembering that the plural suffix is not used when numbers are named, we have: dört tane bira "four beers"; Altı kişiyiz "We are six."
From the cardinal numbers, others can be derived with suffixes: ordinal -(i)nci yedi "seven" → yedinci "seventh" Sırada yedincisiniz. "You are seventh in line." distributive -(ş)er bir "one" → birer "one each" iki "two" → ikişer "two each" collective -(i)z iki "two" → ikizler "twins"
Indefinite adjectives The cardinal bir "one" can be used as an indefinite article. Other so-called indefinite adjectives might be listed as follows: universal: her "each, every", tüm "the whole", bütün "whole, all"; existential: bazı "some", biraz "a little", birkaç "a few, several"; negative: hiç "none"; quantitative: az "little, few", çok "much, many"; distinguishing: başka, diğer, öteki, öbür "other"; identifying: aynı "same".
Interrogative adjectives hangi "which?" kaç "how much?" or "how many?" Saat kaç? "What time is it?" Kaç saat? "How many hours?" nasıl "what sort?" (this is also the interrogative adverb "how?")
Adjectives from nouns
Added to a noun, -li or -siz indicates presence or absence, respectively, of what is named by the noun. {| class=wikitable ! Noun !! Presence (-li) !! Absence (-siz) |- | tuz "salt" || tuzlu "salted" || tuzsuz "salt-free" |- | umut "hope" || umutlu "hopeful" || umutsuz "hopeless"
The suffix -li also indicates origin: Ankaralıyım. "I am from Ankara."
Finally, added to the verbal noun in -me, the suffix -li creates the necessitative verb. Pattern: (verb-stem) + me + li + (personal ending). Gitmeliyim. "I must go".
The native speaker may perceive -meli as an indivisible suffix denoting compulsion.Lewis, [VIII,30]
Added to a noun for a person, -ce makes an adjective.Lewis [IV,4] {| class=wikitable ! Noun !! Adjective (Noun + -ce) |- | çocuk "child" || çocukça "childish" |- | kahraman "hero" || kahramanca "heroic"
Adverbs
Adjectives can generally serve as adverbs: iyi "good" or "well"
The adjective might then be repeated, as noted earlier. A repeated noun also serves as an adverb: kapı "door" → kapı kapı "door-to-door"
The suffix -ce makes nouns and adjectives into adverbs. One source (Özkırımlı, p. 155) calls it the benzerlik ("similarity") or görelik (from göre "according to") eki, considering it as another case-ending. Attached to adjectives, -ce is like the English -ly: güzelce "beautifully" Attached to nouns, -ce can be like the English like: Türkçe konuş- "speak like Turks" (i.e., "speak Turkish")
Adverbs of place include: aşağı/yukarı "down/up" geri/ileri "backwards/forwards"