NORTH CYPRUS Language

The Turkish Language can be a little tricky to get to grips with.  It bears no relation to other more familiar European languages.  Linguists are still disputing its origins, but the common consensus seems to be  that it is part of a group known as the Uro-Altaic languages which include Hungarian and Finnish.

Don’t be put of though, since a little perseverance will go a long way.  The Cypriots are not used to foreigners making the effort to speak Turkish and are delighted by the attempt to speak even a few  words.

Turkish is a phonetic language, so each letter of the alphabet represents one sound which means that it  is pronounced exactly as it is written.  The grammar is also logical - there is only one irregular verb - and the vocabulary is much more restricted than that of English. 

As a quick guide to pronunciation, some of the main differences between the Turkish and English alphabet are as follows:

‘c’ is pronounced as ‘j’ as in ‘jam’

‘ç’ is pronounced as ‘ch’ as in ‘church’

‘ş’   is pronounced as ‘sh’ as in ‘shut’

‘ğ’  with a hat on’ is not sounded but generally elongates to vowels on either side

One of the strangest aspects of the phonetic alphabet is that any foreign words which are adopted into the Turkish language are adapted to the Turkish spelling.  Hence ‘ketçap’ (ketchup); ‘çizburger’ (cheeseburger); ‘taksi’ (taxi); ‘biftek’ (beef steak)’ and in football not only ‘gol’ (goal) but examples such  as ‘haftaym’ and ‘ofsayd’ occur (…. say them out loud and work it out!).

Some useful phrases to start with are:

Merhaba                     hello                            mare-haa-baa

Evet                            yes                              e(as in egg)-vet

Hayir                           no                               higher

Tesekur ederim          thank you                    te(as in test)-she(as in shell)-cur-ed-e(as in egg)-rim                      If that’s too tricky:                                                                                          

Mersi                          thanks                        mare-si (this is a more colloquial version)

Lutfen                         please                         lute-fen

Su                               water                          sue

Bira                             beer                            beer-a

Şarap                          wine                            sharap

Ne kadar                     how much?                Ne (as in ne-st) kaddar (pron. the ‘r’)

Hesap lütfen               the bill please             Hesap (as it looks) lutfen as above

Numbers:

Bir                               one                             beer

iki                                two                              icky

Üç                               three                           ooch

Dört                            four                             dirt

Bes                             five                              besh

Alti                               six                               al-ter

Yedi                            seven                          yay-dee

Sekiz                          eight                            sekeez

Dokuz                         nine                             dockooz

On                              ten                              on