Vowel harmony is one of the essential components of Turkish. Without mastering it very well it will be very difficult to add the suffixes to the root words correctly.
It might seem daunting at the beginning but when you grasp the basic rules it is not really a big challenge.
a, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, and ü.
In the first part of our lesson we will separate them in two groups according to the position of tongue when pronouncing them.
Originally if a Turkish word starts with a soft vowel it continues with a soft vowel and ends with a soft vowel. The suffixes added to that word contains soft vowels as well. The same rule applies to the words starting with hard vowels. They continue and end with a hard vowel and the suffixes they take must have hard vowels.
Öğrenci-ler
Ö-e-i-e they are all soft vowels
Arabalar: cars
Araba-lar.
a-a-a-a they are all hard vowels
e-e-i-o starts and continues with soft vowels but ends with a hard vowel. So we should consider the last vowel to decide which suffix should follow.
Takside: in the taxi
In both cases above we had only two options to choose from:
"ler/lar" plural suffix and "de/da" suffix for (in, on, at). That's why it was enough to know if the last vowel of the word is back or front vowel. However, There are times we have 4 options to choose from. Listen to the Turkish vowels Continue to minor vowel harmony
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Major vowel harmony
We have 8 vowels in Turkish, which are:a, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, and ü.
In the first part of our lesson we will separate them in two groups according to the position of tongue when pronouncing them.
- Back vowels: a, ı, o, u.
- Front vowels: e, i, ö, ü.
Originally if a Turkish word starts with a soft vowel it continues with a soft vowel and ends with a soft vowel. The suffixes added to that word contains soft vowels as well. The same rule applies to the words starting with hard vowels. They continue and end with a hard vowel and the suffixes they take must have hard vowels.
Examples
ÖğrencilerÖğrenci-ler
Ö-e-i-e they are all soft vowels
Arabalar: cars
Araba-lar.
a-a-a-a they are all hard vowels
Important Note:
Turkish has some words borrowed from other languages. These words might not follow vowel harmony. In such cases the last vowel of the word determines the suffix to be added.Examples
Televizyonda on the TBe-e-i-o starts and continues with soft vowels but ends with a hard vowel. So we should consider the last vowel to decide which suffix should follow.
Takside: in the taxi
In both cases above we had only two options to choose from:
"ler/lar" plural suffix and "de/da" suffix for (in, on, at). That's why it was enough to know if the last vowel of the word is back or front vowel. However, There are times we have 4 options to choose from. Listen to the Turkish vowels Continue to minor vowel harmony
Characteristics of Turkish Vowels
| Vowel Characteristics | Hard vowels | Soft Vowels | ||
| Flat Vowels | a | ı | e | i |
| Round Vowels | o | u | ö | ü |
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