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Debt Depression Made with love.
Being in debt is no fun. But you know what is? Consonant mutation! Join
us today as we pour radioactive waste all over some Turkish words and
watch them mutate.
Dialog
3 | Merve Kitabımı alıyorum, koltuğa oturuyorum. Sonra birden mutsuz hissediyorum. Ağlıyorum.
7 | Merve Ben biliyorum. Bankaya çok borcum var. Senedi ödemedim. Ve yakında hapse gireceğim,
biliyorum.
Dialog Translation
5 | Merve I already went to the doctor and I am also taking medicine. And it's still the same.
7 | Merve I know. I have a huge debt with the bank. I didn't pay the bill and soon I will go to jail, I
know it.
Language Points
Consonant Mutation
We already know that Turkish dynamically changes the vowels in suffixes to match sounds and give Turkish its
flowing, melifluent sound. We call this vowel harmony.
There are also situations in which Turkish changes consonants to avoid certain phonetic combinations that are
difficult to say. Here are a few quick examples:
Ağaç. Ağacım.
Tree. My tree.
When a word ends in certain consonants, adding a suffix that begins with a vowel forces it to mutate. How and
why? Read on!
p -> b
Kitap. Kitabım.
ç -> c
Ağaç. Ağacım.
t -> d
Kilit. Kilidim.
k -> ğ
Köpek. Köpeğim
These mutations occur when a word that ends with p, ç, t, or k takes a suffix that begins in a vowel (there are a lot
of suffixes that begin with a vowel: accusative, genitive, dative, personal, etc.). A suffix that does not begin with a
vowel does not force the mutation.
These rules don't just apply to nouns. In fact, you've probably already seen consonant mutation in action on two of
Turkish's most common verbs: gitmek and etmek.
Notice that the mutation only occurs when we add a suffix that begins with a vowel.
Finally, there are exceptions to these rules - that is, there are words that don't mutate as you would expect them
to. Don't worry about it - you'll learn these relatively few words as you spend more time listening to and reading
Turkish.
İp. İpim.
String. My string. (NOT ibim.)
İçmek. İçiyorum.
To drink. I am drinking. (NOT iciyorum.)
Atmak. Atıyorum.
To throw. I am throwing. (NOT adıyorum.)
In case you're interested, here's a bit more information about where these mutation rules come from.
P, ç, t, and k are all sounds that are classified as oral stops. That means that when you pronounce them, they
have a definitive ending to their sound. Compare that to the other unvoiced (whispered) consonants f, s, ş, h -
which are called fricatives and have no obvious termination when you prounounce them. So, Turkish doesn't like
putting vowels after oral stops. When you compare the words that undergo consonant mutation with their
unmutated forms, you can see that they are easier to say.
All of the oral stops are unvoiced (whispered). When they mutate, they change into their voiced equivalents. b is a
voiced p. d is a voiced t. c is a voiced ç. k doesn't have a voiced equivalent so just disappears entirely (and
becomes ğ).
Vocabulary
çoktan already
ilaç medicine
birden suddenly
hissetmek to feel
ihtiyaç need
aynı same
sebep reason
borç debt
senet bill
mutsuz unhappy
Review
1. Consonant mutation. . .
d. Both 2 and 3.
a. borcum
b. ağacı
c. içiyorsun
d. kilidin
e. adınız
f. dans edelim
Answer Key
1. a
2. d
3. a b d f
4. Bizim kitabımız , Kitabımız
5. Çiçeği aldım , Ben çiçeği aldım
More. . .