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About the Turkish Alphabet

The Turkish Alphabet was changed from Ottoman script to a Latin based script soon after the Turkish Republic was declared. Ottoman script was based on the Arabic alphabetic script but this did not adequately cover the phonetics of Turkish. Kemal Atatürk introduced the new Latin alphabet almost overnight.
Turkish does not as a rule allow two vowels to occur together - there are exceptions of course - but mostly in foreign imported words. Therefore as there are no diphthongs then whenever two vowels occur together, they are each pronounced as a separate sound.
The letter -Y- is considered as a consonant in Turkish, and it is widely used as a buffer consonant to keep vowels apart during word building.

The actual Law No:1353 dated 1st November 1928 which changed the Turkish Alphabet to Roman letters is shown (in Turkish) at the end of this page.

The Turkish Alphabet

The Turkish Alphabet consists of twenty-one consonants and eight vowels.
The alphabet is phonetic as each letter retains its individual pronunciation at all times. There are no diphthongs - except in a few foreign loan words, and no letters "W", "X" or "Q"

A B C Ç D E F G Ğ H I İ J K L M N O Ö P R S Ş T U Ü V Y Z

There are six pairs of two similar but different letters - each letter in these pairs are pronounced differently from each other.

C - Ç   G - Ğ   I - İ   O - Ö   S - Ş   U - Ü

Pronunciation Differences

The Eight Vowels are divided into two groups for Vowel Harmony purposes. All pronunciation examples shown are given in British English.

The Undotted-A Vowel Group
A - is as u in English lucky or mutter.
I - Undotted I - is the er sound in porter or water - without any r sound.
O - is as the o sound in lottery or bottom.
U - is as the oo sound in loot or boot

The Dotted-E Vowel Group
E - is as e in letter or set or met
İ - Dotted İ - is as ee in meet or ea in seat.
Ö - is as ir in bird or shirt - without any r sound.
Ü - is as ew sound few or stew

Consonant Differences

The Pronunciation of these Consonants differs from English Pronunciation:
C - is always a j sound as in jam jar.
Ç - is the ch sound as in church
G - is always hard as in gate. - It is never soft as in general.
Ğ (soft G) - lengthens the preceding vowel. It has no sound and never begins a word.
- The Turkish soft - ğ - can be likened to the silent gh sound in the English words such as - weight, light, fought - etc.
H - is always aspirated as in Henry. It is never silent as in Heir.
R - is always strongly rolled even on the end of words.
S - is always hissed as in safe. - It is never a z sound as in these or those.
Ş - is the sh sound as in sharp or bash.
Listen to Turkish Alphabet Sounds (MP3)  speaker icon

Alphabetical sound names

A - AdanaG - GiresunL - LüleburgasS - Sinop
B - BoluĞ - Yumuşak geM - MuşŞ - Şırnak
C - CeyhanH - HatayN - NiğdeT - Tokat
Ç - Çanakkaleİ - İzmirO - OrduU - Uşak
D - DenizliI - IspartaÖ - ÖdemişÜ - Ünye
E - EdirneJ - JandarmaP - PolatlıV - Van
F - FatsaK - KarsR - RizeY- Yozgat
   Z - Zonguldak

Turkish Characters

- Computers, Keyboards and the Internet

Turkish Q(werty)-Keyboard Layout Installation
To install multi language support for Windows. Open the Add/Remove Programs dialog box. At the Windows Setup tab, click Multi Language Support, and then click Details. Make sure a check mark appears beside the language or languages you want to use. Click OK, and then click OK again. The changes take effect after your computer restarts. You can use Windows to create documents in many different languages. However, to create documents in a Central European, Cyrillic, Baltic, Greek, or Turkish-based language, your must install multi language support.

Keyboard Layout

To change the keyboard layout for an installed keyboard language go to control panel and open the Keyboard Properties dialog box, click the Language tab,click the Add button to select the Turkish-Q keyboard layout you want to use, and then click OK. After closing the control panel and returning to Widows you will be able to select English or Turkish-Q keyboard usage from the taskbar. Once you have done this, when you switch to your Turkish keyboard layout the keys are set up basically the same but now the following exceptions apply

Turkish-Q Keyboard Layout Map
[ = ğ{ = Ğ ] = ü} = Ü ; = ş: = Ş
' = i" = İ , = ö< = Ö . = ç> = Ç
Turkish lower case Undotted ı is on the normal "i-key"
Keybord Layout jpg

Here is the resulting Q-Turkish Keyboard layout, you can stick small labels on these keys if you wish, to remind yourself of the positions of the Turkish letters.

Note: The Turkish and English Undotted Capital Letter I is to be found at the normal letter I position on the English QWERTY keyboard layout.

Install Turkish in Windows

These notes are taken from Wikipedia Website

Turkish-Q is a more QWERTY-based layout, and therefore it is recommended that you use the QWERTY keyboard rather than Turkish-F, as it is more "foreigner friendly" and less keys are re-mapped.
You do not have to buy a new keyboard to be able to use these layouts. Below you can find instructions on how to implement these layouts on a PC. Unfortunately information on how to do this on a Mac, Linux, or any other computer system is currently unavailable.

(1) Click on Start
(2) When the Start menu opens up, click on Control Panel
(3)*If you are on Category View, click on Date, Time, Language and Regional Options, then Regional and Language Options.
* If you are on Classic View, click on Regional and Language Options.
(4) Click on the Languages tab.
(5) Under Text services and input languages, click on the Details button.
(6) Click on the Add button.
(7) Here you will find a large list of languages. Choose Turkish, then tick the Keyboard Layout/IME tick box. This will enable you to choose from a wide range of different keyboard layouts. Choose either Turkish-F or Turkish-Q (preferably the latter). Then click OK.
(8) The Turkish Language (and your chosen keyboard layout) has just been added to your list of Installed services. To easily switch between English and Turkish, click on the Language bar... button under Preferences.
(9) When that window pops up, tick the following tick boxes:
* Show the Language bar on the desktop.
* Show text labels on the Language bar.
Then click OK.
(10) Now that you've done that, click on the OK or Apply buttons to have your changes saved.

Turkish Qwerty Keyboard


Here another picture Q-Turkish Keyboard layout which shows all key re-mapping, you can stick small labels on these keys if you wish, to remind yourself of the positions of the Turkish letters.
Note: The Turkish Undotted letter I is to be found at the normal letter I position on the English QWERTY keyboard layout.

Turkish Language Encoding (HTML for Websites)

The Language encodings used for the Turkish Character set on computers, E-Mail programmes and web browsers are usually as follows:
Windows-1254
ISO-9959-9
Latin-9

Entity codes for Turkish alphabetical letters used in E-mail and HTML Pages.
â = &acirc; Â = &Acirc; ç = &ccedil; Ç =&Ccedil;
ğ = &#287; Ğ = &#286; ı = &#305; İ = &#304;
ö = &ouml; Ö = &Ouml; ş = &#351; Ş = &#350;
ü = &uuml; Ü =&Uuml;    
The following letters can also be found in older writings:
î = &icirc;Î = &Icirc;û = &ucirc;Û = &Ucirc;
Manisa Turkish web pages have been written using the entity codes as shown above.

Turkish from the Keyboard

Turkish Characters can also sometime be accessed directly from the keyboard if you computer has them installed. (Many modern computers have provision for this). You must have Turkish Language set up as Multi-Language support (see section above). but it is NOT necessary to have an actual Turkish keyboard installed. My own keyboard is New Zealand type and this method works correctly as long as Multi-Language Support is installed and loaded AND that the programme you are using will accept this input form. MS-Word for Windows will accept this method. Do not forget to switch NUM-LOCK to "ON" (on the Numerical key Pad..)

Instructions:

  1. Select Keyboard Language as Turkish
  2. Turn NUM-LOCK to ON
  3. Hold down ALT key and enter the numerical code as below with the NUMERICAL PAD KEYS
  4. Release the ALT key, and the chosen letter will be printed on the screen
ALT KEY - NUMBER PAD codes for Turkish alphabetical letters for screen and printer.
â = Alt 0226 Â = Alt 0194 ç = Alt 0231 Ç = Alt 0199
ğ = ALT 0240 Ğ = Alt 0208 ı = Alt 0253 İ = Alt 0221
ö = Alt 0246 Ö = Alt 0214 ş = Alt 0254 Ş = Alt 0222
ü = Alt 0252 Ü = Alt 0220    
The following letters can also be found in older writings:
î = ALT 0238Î = ALT 0206û = ALT 0251Û = ALT 0249
Thanks to Kim Sanders of Calgary, Canada for suggestions and corrections to this section - JG - July 2007

Latin Alphabet Law 1928

The law which changed Turkish Ottoman arabic script to the Latin alphabet overnight..

Türk harflerının kabul ve tatbıkı hakkinda kanun

Kanun Numarası : 1353
Kabul Tarihi : 1/11/1928
Yayımlandığı R.Gazete : Tarih : 3/11/1928 Sayı: 1030
Yayımlandığı Düstur : Tertip: 3 Cilt: 10 Sayfa: 3

Bu Kanun ile ilgili olarak Bakanlar Kurulu Kararı ile yürürlüğe giren yönetmelik için, "Yönetmelikler Külliyatı" nın kanunlara göre düzenlenen nümerik fihristine bakınız.

Madde 1 : Şimdiye kadar Türkçeyi yazmak için kullanılan Arap harfleri yerine Latin esasından alınan ve merbut cetvelde şekilleri gösterilen harfler (Türk harfleri) unvan ve hukuku ile kabul edilmiştir.
Madde 2 : Bu Kanunun neşri tarihinden itibaren Devletin bütün daire ve müesseselerinde ve bilcümle şirket, cemiyet ve hususi müesseselerde Türk harfleriyle yazılmış olan yazıların kabulü ve muameleye konulması mecburidir.
Madde 3 : Devlet dairelerinin her birinde Türk harflerinin Devlet muametına tatbiki tarihi 1929 Kanunusanisinin birinci gününü geçemez. Şu kadarki evrakı tahkikiye ve fezlekelerinin ve ilamların ve matbu muamelat cetvel ve defterlerinin 1929 Haziran iptidasına kadar eski usulde yazılması caizdir. Verilecek tapu kayıtları ve senetleri ve nüfus ve evlenme cüzdanları ve kayıtları ve askeri hüviyet ve terhis cüzdanları 1929 Haziranı iptidasından itibaren Türk harfleriyle yazılacaktır.
Madde 4 : Halk tarafından vakı müracaatlardan eski Arap harfleriyle yazılı olanlarının kabulü 1929 Haziranının birinci gününe kadar caizdir. 1928 senesi Kanunuevvelinin iptidasından itibaren Türkçe hususi veya resmi levha, tabela, ilan, reklam ve sinema yazıları ile kezalik Türkçe hususi, resmi bilcümle mevkut, gayrı mevkut gazete, risale ve mecmuaların Türk harfleriyle basılması ve yazılması mecburidir.
Madde 5 : 1929 Kanunusanisi iptidasından itibaren Türkçe basılacak kitapların Türk harfleriyle basılması mecburidir.
Madde 6 : Resmi ve hususi bütün zabıtlarda 1930 Haziranı iptidasına kadar eski Arap harflerinin stenografi makamında istimali caizdir. Devletin bütün daire müesseselerinde kullanılan kitap, kanun, talimatname, defter, cetvel kayıt ve sicil gibi matbuaların 1930 Haziranı iptidasına kadar kullanılması caizdir.
Madde 7 : Para ve hisse senetleri ve bonolar ve esham ve tahvilat ve pul ve sair kıymetli evrak ile hukuki mahiyeti haiz bilcümle eski vesikalar değiştirilmedikleri müddetçe muteberdirler.
Madde 8 : Bilümum bankalar, imtiyazlı ve imtiyazsız şirketler, cemiyetler ve müesseselerin bütün Türkçe muamelatına Türk harflerinin tatbikı 1929 Kanunusanisinin birinci gününü geçemez. Şukadar ki halk tarafından mezkür müesseselere 1929 Haziranı iptidasına kadar eski Arap harfleriyle müracaat vakı olduğu takdirde kabul olunur. Bu müesseselerin ellerinde mevcut eski Arap harfleriyle basılmış defter, cetvel, kataloğ, nizamname ve talimatname gibi matbuaların 1930 Haziranı iptidasına kadar kullanılması caizdir.
Madde 9 : Bütün mekteplerin Türkçe yapılan tedrisatında Türk harfleri kullanılır. Eski harflerle matbu kitaplarla tedrisat icrası memnudur.
Madde 10 : Bu Kanun neşri tarihinden muteberdir.
Madde 11 : Bu Kanunun ahkamını icraya İcra Vekilleri Heyeti memurdur.