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, ý, i, o, ö, u, and ü.
In the first part of our lesson we separated them in two groups according to the position of tongue when pronouncing them.
Now we will also separate them According to the lips positioning:
As I said in major vowel harmony lesson there are times we have 4 different forms of the same suffix that we need to choose the correct one according to the vowel harmony. In such situations in addition to finding out if the last vowel of the word is soft or hard we also need to know if it is round or Flat. So the characteristics of the last vowel of the word and first vowel of the suffix should match.
Okudum: I read
Oku-du-m: oku ends with "u" which is hard and round vowel so the suffix we added was "du".
Yazdým: I wrote
Yaz-dý-m: the last vowel of "yaz" is "a" which is hard and Flat vowel. So does "ý". That's why we picked "dý".
Yedim: I ate
Ye-di-m: the last vowel of "ye" is"“"” which is soft and Flat. So does "i". That's why the correct suffix is "di".
Gördüm: i saw
Gör-dü-m. The last vowel of "gör" is "ö" which is soft and round. So does "ü". That’s why the suffix to be used is "dü". Listen to the Turkish vowels
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Minor Vowel Harmony
We have 8 vowels in Turkish, which are:a, e, ý, i, o, ö, u, and ü.
In the first part of our lesson we separated them in two groups according to the position of tongue when pronouncing them.
- Back vowels: a, ý, o, u.
- Front vowels: e, i, ö, ü.
Now we will also separate them According to the lips positioning:
- Flat vowels: a, e, ý, i.
- Round vowels: o, ö, u, ü.
As I said in major vowel harmony lesson there are times we have 4 different forms of the same suffix that we need to choose the correct one according to the vowel harmony. In such situations in addition to finding out if the last vowel of the word is soft or hard we also need to know if it is round or Flat. So the characteristics of the last vowel of the word and first vowel of the suffix should match.
Examples
(di, dý, du, dü) is the past tense suffix in Turkish.Okudum: I read
Oku-du-m: oku ends with "u" which is hard and round vowel so the suffix we added was "du".
Yazdým: I wrote
Yaz-dý-m: the last vowel of "yaz" is "a" which is hard and Flat vowel. So does "ý". That's why we picked "dý".
Yedim: I ate
Ye-di-m: the last vowel of "ye" is"“"” which is soft and Flat. So does "i". That's why the correct suffix is "di".
Gördüm: i saw
Gör-dü-m. The last vowel of "gör" is "ö" which is soft and round. So does "ü". That’s why the suffix to be used is "dü". Listen to the Turkish vowels
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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