About Vowels and Vowel Harmony in Turkish

Here is a translation of Turkish Grammar Rules about Vowel Harmony (from TDK). Please note that this translation is not verbatim. - JG - March 2008

In Turkish voice sounds are separated into two main groups, consonants and vowels.
When there is no obstacle to a voice then the sound is called a vowel.
There are eight vowels in Turkish: a, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, ü.

Vowels are classified thus

(A) According to the position of tongue and exit.

1. Thick vowels: a, ı, o, u.
2. Thin vowels: e, i, ö, ü.

(B) According to the lips positioning.

1. Straight vowels: a, e, ı, i.
2. Rounded vowels: o, ö, u, ü.

(C) According to the mouth opening.

1. Wide Vowels: a, e, o, ö.
2. Narrow vowels: ı, i, u, ü.

Turkish Vowel Qualities

(A) Greater Vowel Harmony

1. If the first vowel of a word is found to be thick (a, ı, o, u) then the subsequent vowels in the word will also be thick: - adım, ağız, ayak, boyun, boyunduruk, burun, dalga, dudak, duvak, kırlangıç.

2. If the first vowel of a word is found to be thin (e, i, ö, ü) then the subsequent vowels in the word will also be thin: - beşik, bilezik, gelincik, gözlük, üzengi, vergi, yüzük.

Examples of Greater Vowel Harmony.
So, the suffix -di uses Vowel Harmony for the past tense in all persons and must be compatible with these rules, too:
Kalmak: kaldım, kaldın, kaldı, kaldık, kaldınız, kaldılar
Kılmak: kıldım, kıldın, kıldı, kıldık, kıldınız, kıldılar
Koşmak: koştum, koştun, koştu, koştuk, koştunuz, koştular
Vurmak: vurdum, vurdun, vurdu, vurduk, vurdunuz, vurdular

Some other conditions and exceptions to Greater Vowel harmony

1. However, there are some Turkish (root) word which do not follow Greater Vowel Harmony rules: anne, dahi, elma, hangi, hani, inanmak, kardeş, şişman.

2. Greater Vowel Harmony is not always found in imported words: ahenk, badem, ceylan, çiroz, dükkân, fidan, gazete, hamsi, kestane, limon, model, nişasta, pehlivan, selam, tiyatro, viraj, ziyaret.

3. Greater Vowel Harmony is not always found in Compound words: açıkgöz, bilgisayar, çekyat, hanımeli.

4. The suffixes -gil, -ken, -leyin, -mtırak, -yor are unchanging and do not follow Vowel Harmony Rules: akşam-leyin, bakla-gil-ler, çalışır-ken, ekşi-mtırak, yürü-yor.

5. The suffix -daş (-taş) is unchanging and does not follow Vowel Harmony Rules: din-daş, gönül-daş, meslek-taş, ülkü-daş.

6. The -ki suffix (when used for ownership) does not Follow Vowel Harmony Rules: akşamki, yarınki, duvardaki, yoldaki, ondaki, yazıdaki, onunki.

7. Added suffixes to word always mirror the final vowel in that word: : adalet-li, anne-si, kardeş-lik, meslektaş-ımız, şişman-lık.

8. Some imported words although consisting of or ending with a thick vowel (a, ı, o, u) will add suffixes from the thin vowel group (e, i, ö, ü) (therefore violating Greater Vowel harmony Rules): alkol / alkolü, hakikat / hakikati, helak / helakimiz, kabul / kabulü, kontrol / kontrolü, protokol / protokolü, saat / saate, sadakat / sadakatten.

(B) Lesser Vowel Harmony

Note that the reason for two states is the fact that the Turkish Alphabet contains two versions of the the letter -i-, -ı-, and two versions of the letter -u-, -ü-.

Lesser Vowel Harmony consists of two states
1. When the vowel in the first syllable in a word is straight (a, e, ı, i) , then the vowels in the following syllables will be straight: anlaşmak,yanaşmak, kayıkçı, ısırmak, ılıklaşmak, seslenmek, yelek, bilek, çilek.

2. When the the first syllable contains a rounded vowel (o, ö, u, ü) then the following syllable will contain narrow rounded (u, ü) or wide straight (a, e) vowels: boyunduruk, çocuk, odun, yorgunluk, yoklamak, vurmak, yumurta, özlemek, güreşmek, sürmek.

Examples of Lesser Vowel Harmony.
So, the suffix -di uses Vowel Harmony for the past tense in all persons and must be compatible with these rules, too:
Gelmek: geldim, geldin, geldi, geldik, geldiniz, geldiler
Bilmek : bildim, bildin, bildi, bildik, bildiniz, bildiler
Bölmek: böldüm, böldün, böldü, böldük, böldünüz, böldüler
Gülmek: güldüm, güldün, güldü, güldük, güldünüz, güldüler

Some other conditions and exceptions to Lesser Vowel harmony

1. However, there are some Turkish (root) word which do not follow Lesser Vowel Harmony rules: avuç, avurt, çamur, kabuk, kavuk, kavun, kavur-, kavuş-, savur-, yağmur.

2. Lesser Vowel Harmony is not always found in imported words: aktör, alkol, bandrol, daktilo, doktor, horoz, kabul, kitap, konsolos, muzır, mühim, mümin, müzik, profesör, radyo, vakur.

3. Added suffixes to word always mirror the final vowel in that word: kavun-u, konsolos-luğ-u, mümin-lik, müzik-çi, yağmur-luk.

4. Only the -ki suffix of ownership shows sme exceptions to the Lesser Vowel Harmony Rule: bugünkü, dünkü, öbürkü.

Harmony Narrowing - (a → ı, e → i)

1. In Turkish verbs in the Present Continuous Tense which terminate in the vowel -a- will change it to ı or u while verbs terminating in the vowel -e, -i will change to i or ü in both writing and pronounciation: başlıyor, kanıyor, oynuyor, doymuyor; izliyor, diyor, gelmiyor, gözlüyor.

2. Some multi syllable words and words that that end in a or e will narrow these vowel sounds to ı or i in speech when adding a further suffix which begins with a vowel (this vowel narrowing is not shown in writing): - başlayan, yaşayacak, atlayarak, saklayalı, atmayalım, gelmeyen, izlemeyecek, gitmeyerek, gizleyeli, besleyelim.

3. However when the word is single syllable it will show these changes in both speech and writing: diyen, diyerek, diyecek, diyelim, diye; yiyen, yiyerek, yiyecek, yiyelim, yiye, yiyince, yiyip. However there are even exceptions to this group as we say and write: deyince, deyip.

C. Long Vowels

1. There are no long vowels in native Turkish words

2. Long vowels can be found in imported word from Arabic or Farsi: şair (şa:ir), numune (numu:ne), iman (i:man). The full colon (:) in these examples shows the pronunciation of a long vowel.

3. But some words although pronounced with long vowels in their own language are pronounced with short sound in Turkish: beyaz, hiç, rahat, ruh.

4. Some of these (imported) words which are pronounced with a short vowel in Turkish, regain their long vowel sound when suffixed or when a verb ending is added; esas / esasen (esa:sen); hayat / hayatı (haya:tı); kanun / kanuni (ka:nu:ni); ruh / ruhum (ru:hum); usul / usulü (usu:lü); vicdan / vicdanen (vicda:nen); ahbap olmak (ahba:b olmak), hitap etmek (hita:b etmek).

5. However some of these imported words do not lengthen their vowel when suffixed in Turkish beyaz / beyazı, can / canım, kitap / kitaba, meydan / meydana.

6. Generally, pronounced long vowels are not shown when writing in Turkish. adalet (ada:let), badem (ba:dem), beraber (bera:ber), idare (ida:re), ifade (ifa:de), işaret (işa:ret), kaide (ka:ide), numune (numu:ne), rica (rica:), şair (şa:ir), şive (şi:ve), şube (şu:be), vali (va:li), vefa (vefa:).

7. However Interjections are written showing repeated vowels: ooh, aaah. These repeated vowels are not pronounced separately but signify a long vowel sound.