About the Turkish Alphabet

The Turkish AlphabetLetter PairsPronunciation

DifferencesConsonant DifferencesAlphabetical sound
namesTurkish CharactersComputers, Keyboards and the
InternetKeyboard LayoutInstall Turkish in WindowsInstall Turkish
on a MacTurkish Language Encoding (HTML for Websites)Turkish
from the Keyboard
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 Atatrk
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
theright 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"
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPRSTUVYZ

Letter Pairs
There are six pairs of two similar but different letters - each letter
in these pairs are pronounced differently from each other.
C- G- I- O- S- U-

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
- Dotted - is as ee in meet or ea in seat.
- is as ir in bird or shirt - without any r sound.
- 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.
- is the ch sound as in church
G - is always hard as in gate. - It is never soft as in general.
(soft G) - lengthens the preceding vowel. It has no sound and
never begins a word.
- The Turkish soft - - 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.
- is the sh sound as in sharp or bash.

Alphabetical sound names

Sound Names used in Wireless and Telegraphy
A - Adana
G - Giresun
L - Lleburgas S - Sinop
B - Bolu
- Yumuak ge M - Mu
- rnak

C - Ceyhan
- anakkale
D - Denizli
E - Edirne
F - Fatsa

H - Hatay
- zmir
I - Isparta
J - Jandarma
K - Kars

N - Nide
O - Ordu
- demi
P - Polatl
R - Rize

T - Tokat
U - Uak
- nye
V - Van
Y- 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

. =

> =

[ =

{ =

; =

: =

' = i

" =

, =

< =

] =

} =

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. The Turkish and English
Undotted Capital Letter I is to be found at the normal letter I
position on the English QWERTY keyboard layout. Turkish Lower
case Undotted is the "i-key"

Install Turkish in Windows

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 remapped.
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.
(1) Click on

Start

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
(2) When the Start menu opens up, click on

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.

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. The
Turkish Undotted letter I is to be found at the normal letter I
position on the English QWERTY keyboard layout.

Install Turkish on a Mac

How to change the keyboard layout to Turkish Qwerty for a
Mac.

Systems Preferences.
2. Select International.
3. Select Input Menu.
4. Select Character Palette and Keyboard Viewer,
whilst still in Input Menu scroll down to Turkish - QWERTY PC
1. Go to

and select it, also at the bottom select Show input menu in menu
bar.
5. Close Systems Preferences.
6. At the top right hand of your screen will now be showing the
flag of the Country your keyboard is normally set to.
(a) Click on the flag and several options will appear including the
Turkish flag, when you want to change to using the Turkish
keyboard simply select this flag and your keyboard will change.
(b) At the same time select show Keyboard Viewer, this will enable
you to see where the different keys are placed.
7. When you want to go back to your original keyboard simply
reverse step 6.

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.
= &acirc;
= &Acirc;
= &ccedil;
=&Ccedil;
= &#287;
= &#286;
= &#305;
= &#304;
= &ouml;
= &Ouml;
= &#351;
= &#350;
= &uuml;
=&Uuml;
The following letters can also be found in older writings:
= &icirc;
= &Icirc;
= &ucirc;
= &Ucirc;

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.
= ALT 0226
= ALT 0194
= ALT 0231
= ALT 0199
= ALT 0240
= ALT 0208
= ALT 0253
= ALT 0221
= ALT 0246
= ALT 0214
= ALT 0254
= ALT 0222
= ALT 0252
= ALT 0220
The following letters can also be found in older writings:
= ALT 0238
= ALT 0206
= ALT 0251
= ALT 0249