Turkish: the language with no genders
The Turkish language is one of the most widely used languages in the world. Turkish is spoken by more than 70 million people in more than 30 countries worldwide. Turkish belongs to the Turkic languages and is by far the most widely spoken. The language has a rich history spanning over 1,000 years.
3 interesting facts about the Turkish language
There are 29 letters in the alphabet, all of which have a distinct sound.
Verbs are traditionally used at the end of the sentence.
Turkish bears traces of other languages, such as Mongolian, Korean, and Japanese.
Origin of the language
The roots of Turkish began in modern Mongolia about 1,300 years ago. The spread of Turkish culture, accompanied by the language, began in the Early Middle Ages. From the 6th century AD, Turkic languages spread to East Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean.
History of the language
Learning the Turkish language is a challenging task. The origin and history of the language play an important role. Much has changed since the first Turkish dictionary was written in the 11th century. Ottoman Turkish spread rapidly throughout the Ottoman Empire, but the modern variant was not fully reformed until 1932. The Turkish alphabet has remained unaltered for many centuries. Turkish was first written in the Arabic script and later switched to the Latin alphabet.
Learning the language
It takes 1100 hours to learn Turkish as an English speaker.
How to say 10 popular words and phrases in the Turkish language
Turkish language for beginners
These are ten basic words to start learning Turkish
Hello= Selam
Mother= Anne
Sister= Kardeş
Good morning= Günaydın
Thank you= Teşekkür ederim
Bye= Hoşçakal
Come= Gel
Happy= Mutlu
Love= Aşk
Happy new year= Yeni yılın kutlu olsun
It’s not to be scared of the money that man earns, but the man who is earned by money.
Necip Fazıl Kısakürek
Turkish philosipher, poet, and Islamist thinker
It’s necessary to try the impossible, to see the limitations of the possibility.
Fatih Sultan Mehmet
Sultan of the Ottomans
Fun facts about the Turkish language
More Turkish speakers than Greek and Italian speakers combined
There are over 60 million native Turkish speakers in the world, and 15 million people speak Turkish as a second language.
The oldest traces on stone
The oldest written traces of Turkish are on stone monuments in Central Asia, on the borders of modern-day Mongolia.
Respective titles for people
In Turkey, it is considered disrespectful to address people by their first names, hence the regular use of titles such as “uncle” and “auntie.”
FAQ
The Arabic and Turkish languages do not have the same origins. Arabic belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family, while Turkish belongs to the Turkic language family. Nevertheless, there is some overlap between the two languages, mainly due to geopolitical, environmental, and cultural factors. It is interesting that Turkish used the Arabic alphabet from about 900 to 1928.
Turkish is one of the many Turkic languages which includes Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Kazakh. In this sense, Turkish is closest to the numerous Turkic languages spoken around the world. However, some claim that Turkish is actually an Altaic language, which includes Japanese, Mongolian, and Korean.
For English speakers, Turkish is certainly one of the most difficult languages to master. As an agglutinative language, Turkish differs significantly from English in both grammar and syntax. It uses morphology to compose new words by adding prefixes and suffixes, rather than single prepositions.
Turkish grammar is not as difficult as perceived. If looking at its components, it is easy to understand. The essentials of Turkish grammar are the basic Turkish rules, nouns, suffixes, verbs, sentence structures, and more.
