All about Vowel Harmony of Some Suffixes
More about Vowel Harmony
We saw in The Principle of Vowel Harmony - 1 that words with their last vowel in the A-Undotted Group take -lar as their plural. This rule applies for all suffixes which contain a and those words with an E-Dotted Group Vowel take -ler as their plural. This rule applies for all suffixes which contain e.
Let us look at some common but important words which are used all the time. These little words - in.., on.. at.. from.. to.. with.. etc. - are suffixes in Turkish and as such are affixed to the word they modify.
There are a number of Rules to take into account one of these being the Principle of Vowel Harmony.
Some of the Suffixes
The suffix -de or -da - in.. on.. at..
- adamda - adam-da - on the man
- adamlarda - adamlar-da - on the men
- kedide - kedi-de - on the cat
- kedilerde - kediler-de - on the cats
- evde - ev-de - at home
- evlerde - evler-de - at the houses
- kapıda - kapı-da - at the door
- kapılarda - kapılar-da - at/by the doors
- köprüde - köprü-de - on the bridge
- köprülerde - köprüler-de - on the bridges
- odada - oda-da - in the room
- odalarda - odalar-da - in the rooms
You can see that in the plural we have added two suffixes -ler and -de or - -lar and -da - and tagged them altogether to make one word in Turkish.
The Locative Suffix de or da - also... too..
Locative suffix is -de/-da and it shows concrete place (location):
- Odadayım oda-da-yım - I am in the room
- Ali bey, evdeymiş. ev-de-ymiş - Ali bey must be at home(-imiş inference)
In the sentence above we have put an English translation - "Ali bey must be at home" - and it should be noted by our turkish readers that this use of "must" shows doubt to English speakers, as it means - "Surely Ali bey must be at home". It does not equate to obligatiion as in the Turkish - "Ali bey evde olmali."
- Bahçedeki çocuklar top ile oynuyorlar - The children (who are) in the garden are playing with a ball.
With animate subjects the verb should be congruent with subject.
If the subject is singular, the verb should be singular, and if the subject is plural, the verb should be plural.
But for inanimate subjects, the verb should be always singular.
Çocuklar oynuyorlar. -
The childern are playing. -
(Subject Animate so verb is congruent)
Yapraklar düsüyor. -
Leaves are falling. -
(Subject Inanimate so verb is singular)
The Particle de or -da - also.. too..
This is not a Locative Suffix but written seperately and it is translated - too... also... and... both... . It is a word in its own right but it does follow Vowel Harmony rules - hence the choice of - de - or - da.
It is always written seperately as -de - and pronounced as - de or - da and does not show any Consonant Mutation to - te - or - ta.
The following examples show this clearly:
- Dolapta bir çanta var. - There is a bag in the cupboard.
- Bu dolap da küçükmüş. - This cupboard is small too.
A Note about Conversational Stress
And there is another distinction about the stress.
The locative suffix -de gets the stress on itself, but for the seperate particle - de - the stress is on the preceding syllable.
A sound example (MP3)
- Dolapta bir çanta var. - There is a bag in the cupboard.
- Bu dolap da küçükmüş. - This cupboard also seems (to be) small
Some Examples
Note that the translations between the Locative Case suffix
-de/-da and the particle
de have two very different meanings.
- Ali bey de odada - Ali bey is also in the room
- Benim de param yok - I also have no money - (As in - I have money - Benim param var.)
- Benim de param var - I have got money too.
- Bahçedeki çocuklar da top ile oynuyorlar - The children in the garden are playing with a ball too...
- Ali bey de ben de sigara içeriz - Both Ali bey and I smoke (cigarettes)
Note that the particle - de - also - is repeated after each individual subject
The suffix -den or -dan - from.. by.. via.. through..
- adamdan - adam-dan - from the man
- adamlardan - adamlar-da - from the men
- kediden - kedi-den - from the cat
- kedilerden - kediler-den - from the cats
- evden - ev-den - from home
- evlerden - evler-den - from the houses
- kapıdan - kapı-dan - from the door
- kapılardan - kapılar-dan - from the doors
- köprüden - köprü-den - from the bridge
- köprülerden - köprüler-den - from the bridges
- odadan - oda-dan - from the room
- odalardan - odalar-dan - from the rooms
You can see that in the plural we have added two suffixes -ler and -den or -lar and -dan and tagged them altogether to make one word in Turkish.
The suffix -e , -ye or -a, -ya - to.. towards..
- adama - adam-a - to the man
- adamlara - adamlar-a - to the men
- kediye - kedi-ye - to the cat
- kedi - cat ends in a vowel so kedi-y-e is used - kedi-e - would be incorrect.
- kedilere - kediler-e -to the cats
- eve - ev-e - to home
- evlere - evler-e - to the houses
- kapıya - kapı-ya - to the door
- kapı - door ends in a vowel so kapı-y-a is used - kapı-a - would be incorrect
- kapılara - kapılar-a - to the doors
Some more words which end in vowels
- köprüye - köprü-ye - to the bridge
- köprülere - köprü-ler-e - to the bridges
- odaya - oda-ya - to the room
- odalara - oda-lar-a - to the rooms
Note: That the Buffer Letter -y- is used when the word ends in a vowel. Turkish does not like two vowels to be together.
The Explanation and Grammar Rules in the panel on the right (in Turkish) about Vowel harmony is taken from the TDK (Turkish Language Association website which can be found at:
Manisa Turkish is publishing this in the interests of our Turkish Students and of course those students of other nationalities who may be interested in the underlying Turkish Grammar Rules regarding Vowel Harmony.
