Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

When kendi kendi- is in the dative case, it expresses the performance of some action
alone or unaided:
(45) Ahmet kendi kendi-sin-e/kendin-e yurt dışına çıkamaz.
own self-3SG.POSS-DAT
‘Ahmet cannot go abroad on his own.’
(46) Bu ütüler bir süre sonra kendi kendi(leri)ne kapanıyor.
‘These irons switch themselves off after a while.’
As a result, there is a clear difference between a dative-marked kendi- and a dativemarked
kendi kendi-:
(47)
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 238
(a) Biz kendimize yemek pişiriyoruz.
‘We are cooking a meal for ourselves.’
(b) Biz kendi kendimize yemek pişiriyoruz.
‘We are cooking a meal by ourselves.’
18.1.4 THE RECIPROCAL PRONOUN birbir- ‘EACH OTHER’, ‘ONE
ANOTHER’
The pronoun birbir- is used in contexts where two parties act mutually (as is the case
with the reciprocal suffix, 8.2.1.4, 13.2.3.2). Birbir- is obligatorily inflected for person by
combining with the plural possessive suffixes (8.1.2) and with -(s)i(n) used as a 3rd
person plural suffix:
birbirimiz (1st person plural)
birbiriniz (2nd person plural)
birbiri/birbirleri (3rd person plural)
These forms can be further inflected for case, e.g. birbirinizi (2nd person plural
accusative), birbirimizden (1st person plural ablative), etc. As in the case of kendi-, an ‘n’
appears before case suffixes in the 3rd person forms, as in birbirinden, birbirlerine, etc.
(see 6.2).
birbiri and birbirleri are interchangeable when referring to two persons who are
involved in a mutual activity:
(48) Ayşe’yle Semra birbir-in-den/birbir-lerin-den hiç hoşlanmıyor(lar).
each other-3SG.POSS-ABL/each other-3PL.POSS-ABL
‘Ayşe and Semra don’t like each other at all.’
When referring to interacting groups, again both forms can be used, but here birbirleri is
the neutral form while birbiri is colloquial.
(49) Almanya ve Brezilya takımları birbirlerinden haklı olarak korkuyorlar.
‘The German and Brazilian teams are justifiably scared of each other.’