Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

S, s s as in ‘hiss’
Ş, ş sh as in ‘sheep’
T, t t as in ‘time’
U, u u as in ‘cute’ or put’
Ü, ü resembles the sound which is produced when i as in ‘bit’ is pronounced with the lips
rounded, as in the German sound ‘ü’
V, v v as in ‘very’
Y, y y as in ‘you’
Z, z z as in ‘zigzag’
CIRCUMFLEX
In the writing system, a circumflex ‘ ^ ’ is sometimes placed over a vowel to indicate that it
is long, e.g. kâtil [k h a:t h il] ‘murderer’, but this is neither regular nor a reliable means of
identifying a long vowel (see 1.1.2.2).
Again, in some words of Persian or Arabic origin, a circumflex may be placed on a
vowel to palatalize the previous consonant:
kâr ‘profit’
gâvur ‘foreigner’ (derogatory)
In words such as hâlâ ‘still’, the circumflex fulfils both functions by showing as long the
vowels (in both syllables) and palatalizing ‘l’.
In view of the functional ambiguity of the circumflex, and the fact that its use is
declining, it has been avoided altogether in this book except in the cases of hâlâ ‘still’,
kâr ‘profit’, kâh…kâh ‘now…now’, where its omission could lead to ambiguity.
APOSTROPHE
The apostrophe is used for separating a proper noun from its inflectional suffixes, as in:
Semra’dan ‘from Semra’
Hürriyet’te ‘in Hürriyet’ (a newspaper)
When a derivational suffix (Chapter 7) is attached to a proper name, the apostrophe can
be placed before or after it: